Mission District Food Tour
A culturally-rich neighborhood transformed through culinary innovation, featuring Latin cuisine and hidden local gem restaurants with unique flavor combinations.
Our Mission District Food Tour Featured In
Discover Hidden Gems, Incredible Latin Flavors, & Innovative Restaurateurs
Our Mission District Food Tour showcases innovative and trendy restaurants, as well as the classic Latin cuisine this neighborhood is known for â the best in San Francisco! Stroll through this classic neighborhood learning about its culinary history as you hear the stories of chefs, restaurant owners and industry experts. Our progressive meal in San Franciscoâs Mission District concludes with mouthwatering desserts near Dolores Park.
How it Works
What’s Included
- 3-Hour Walking Tour (approximately 1 mile)
- Expertly Trained Avital Guide
- 4-Course Meal with Appetizers, Entree, and Dessert
- 3 Alcoholic Beverage Pairings (optional upgrade)
- Delightful Sprinkling of Culinary Stories and History
- Team Building Games (complimentary, optional upgrade)
Example Dishes & Drinks
Our Mission District Food Tour includes 4-courses â two appetizers, one entree, and one dessert â with a sprinkling of culinary history and stories in between. We focus on quality over quantity, but we promise you wonât leave hungry! Here are some possible tastings to satiate your curiosity!
Example Restaurants
During this Mission District Food Tour weâll visit 3-4 of the best restaurants in San Francisco, featuring hot spots (Avital guests skip the line) and hidden gems. All of our restaurants not only serve outstanding food and drinks, but they also have a rich story to discover.
â10/10 would definitely recommend!â
Fantastic tour of the Mission, with a great history of the area and each place we went to. Our guide Philip was exceptional in helping answer our questions, picking delicious dishes, and finding unique and amazing places for us to stop at. 10/10 would definitely recommend!
Kyle H. via Google
Mission District Food Tour
Where is the Mission District Food Tour?
Women's Building, 18th Street, San Francisco, CA, USA
Our start location varies but is always within a 3-block walk from the 16th Street Mission District BART Station (15 minutes from Downtown San Francisco). Youâll receive your exact meeting location after booking.Â
Run of Show
1: Meet Expert Avital Guide & Introduction
Guests meet Avital Guide at pre-determined location. Kick off the tour with fun introductions!
2: 1st Restaurant for Appetizer & Optional Beverage Pairing
Arrive at the first neighborhood restaurant and sink your teeth into a delicious appetizer with a carefully curated alcoholic (or non-alcoholic if you prefer) beverage pairing.
3: Visit Iconic Landmark
Head towards your next restaurant destination, but on the way discover unique murals, historic statues, or hidden curiosities with rich commentary from your Avital Guide.
4: 2nd Restaurant for Appetizer & Optional Beverage Pairing
Enjoy your second small plate appetizer with another delicious beverage pairing as you hear stories about the restaurant, culinary scene, and the people who make it all possible.
5: Discover Neighborhood Story
As you walk to your 3rd restaurant destination youâll continue your journey through the neighborhood with more awesome storytelling and fun facts.
6: 3rd (or 4th) Restaurant for Entree, Dessert & Optional Beverage Pairing
Indulge in your main entree course with another incredible beverage pairing as you chat, enjoy, and connect with your fellow diners.
Then enjoy a scrumptious sweet treat for your final tasting. Your Avital Guide will wrap up the tour, answer any final questions, and can recommend other awesome places to visit next time!
The Essentials
Availability
Public tours are available on Sundays from 12pm-3pm PT. Private tours are available any day of the week, at any time!
Distance
The Mission District Food Tour is a flat route, approximately 1 1/2 miles.
Group Size
Public tours have a 4-person minimum and a 12-person maximum. If the minimum number of guests is not reached, we will contact you to reschedule onto another time or date, or offer a refund. Private tours donât have a minimum or maximum number of people, but we do have a spend minimum.
Alcohol
Guests over 21 years can add the alcohol pairing upgrade which includes 3 carefully curated drinks.
Gratuity
Gratuities not included for public tours. 15%-20% is customary in the tourism industry. Thatâs about $20 per person. For private events, gratuity is included in your package price!
Lead Time
Our public tours sell out fast so we recommend purchasing your tickets at least 2 weeks in advance. For private tours, we can accommodate advance as well as rush bookings, please submit a booking request and we’ll get right back to you.
Private or Public Tour
You can experience the Mission District Food Tour via a public food tour or you can book a private experience just for your group.
Private Tour
A private experience, just for your group. Great for team building, client entertainment, birthday parties, and large groups.
- Request Your Preferred Day & Time
- Any Group Size, Best for 5+ People
- Private Avital Guide For Your Group
- Customize Your Package
Public Tour
Join other foodies on this regularly-scheduled experience open to the public. Great for couples, solo travelers, and small groups.
- Pre-Scheduled Tours
- Purchase 1-4 Tickets
- Join Other Foodies (Capped at 12 Guests)
- Prix Fixe Menu with Optional Alcohol Pairing Upgrade
âDefinitely recommended.â
We did the food tour for a company offsite. It was an enjoyable tour of some of the Mission’s best places to eat at. And the stories about the murals, art, chefs and restaurants’ origins were fascinating. Definitely recommended.
Yan M. via Google
Mission District Food Tour
Upgrades & Add-ons
Add 3 Alcoholic Beverages
Curated cocktails, beer, or wine pairings to enhance your dining experience.
Add More Food
Perfect for dinner-time tours. Available on private tours only.
Add Bubbly Toast
Perfect for celebratory occasions. Available on private tours only.
Team Building Games
Booking this tour for a team building activity? Add 1-2 of our quirky-and-classy games for added fun and connection. In between courses, your Avital Guide will lead your team through fun and interactive team building games. Games last about 10-15 minutes each.
Dietary Restrictions for Mission District Food Tour
One of our core values is #BreatheCuriosity. We enjoy introducing you to new foods and old favorites in new ways. We very much encourage guests to be adventurous and try something new â weâve even had an 80-year old man try his first oyster with us! Thus, while we love the diverse ways our guests choose to eat, we can accommodate some restrictions on public tours and many restrictions and preferences on private tours. You will be asked for your dietary restrictions during your booking process.
If you are unsure if we can accommodate your restriction, please email us at [email protected]. Please note that this tour may include nuts, dairy, seafood, spicy food, and pork. For private tours, we can accommodate all dietary restrictions with advance notice. On public tours, we can only accommodate the following:
- Vegetarian
- Pescatarian
- Gluten-free
- Pregnant Guests
- No Pork
- No Seafood
Why Choose Avital for Your Mission District Food Tour?
- Expertly Guided: Our Mission District Food Tour is led by a trained, expert Avital Guide. You can sit back and enjoy as your host takes care of all the logistics with rich storytelling and group engagement along the way.
- VIP Experience: No waiting in lines and each course is served seated at a reserved table. Tours can be an intimate, small-group experience yet still have that same VIP feeling for large groups.
- Professional & Reliable: A full support team to ensure a turnkey booking and seamless experience from start to finish.
- Taste the Best: Instead of visiting a whole bunch of average places with tiny toothpick bites, we visit 3-4 incredible restaurants that not only serve steller food and drinks, but are passionate about storytelling and the guest experience.
- Dietary Restriction Friendly: We understand dietary restrictions and want everyone to leave feeling cared for and full! We’ll ask for your restrictions after booking.
All tickets are nonrefundable. Consider it like buying a concert ticket â that seat is reserved for you and we will be unable to resell it. As a small business with only 12 tickets per tour, itâs important that you purchase tickets when youâre sure you can go. If you canât make it to the tour you purchased, the tickets are transferable.
Gratuity is not included. 15%-20% is customary in the tourism industry.
Yes! Our Progressive Meal is a full meal! The base package features appetizers, entree, and dessert (~3-5 dishes) and is great for lunch or dinner. For private tours, you can also choose the âadd more foodâ upgrade for an even more luxurious and robust menu (~5-7 dishes) great for a heavy lunch or solid dinner.
Our pricing already includes applicable taxes! For private events, there is a standard $25 per person private event service charge noted. This helps ensure we can tip your guide and restaurant servers for larger/private groups. No surprise âbooking feesâ or hidden extras.
Itâs okay! We can accommodate dietary restrictions and requests for non-alcoholic substitute beverages. Weâll ask for your requests and restrictions during booking.
We strongly discourage it. Everything in your pre-booked tour is ordered and prepared in advance to be ready on arrival at each restaurant. Orders placed after arrival take much longer, and come out with little time to spare before we head off to the next course. Guests end up disappointed, leaving cocktails behind or feeling pressure to drink up. Not a good experience.
Yes and no. Our experience takes the best elements of seated dining, prix-fixe chefâs tasting menus, blended with the best elements of a classic food tour, to create an entirely unique dining experience: the Avital Progressive Meal.
Thatâs okay! You can still book to reserve your date/time with an estimate and adjust later. We accommodate changes of +/- 20% from your original number. Ask your curator if you need special arrangements for larger changes.
Thatâs our job! Weâve spent years testing out all of the cityâs awesome restaurants, finding those quirky characters, and building a culinary experience with story and purpose (thatâs also delicious!) Trust us, thatâs why you came here.
Weâll send your confirmed meeting address prior to your tour date. The menu itself, and featured restaurants, follow a prix fixe tasting menu style and are revealed as part of the experience itself as it unfolds. You can explore our example featured dishes to understand the caliber and style of dishes and cocktails we highlight.
Our North Beach food tour is a flat route with 2 slight hills, about 1 mile of walking.
Our Mission District food tour is a flat route with about 1 Â―Â miles of walking.
Our public tours sell out fast so we recommend purchasing your tickets at least 2 weeks in advance. For private tours, we also require a 2 week lead time. Private bookings made with less than two weeks notice will come with a nominal rush charge of $150, and deadlines for dietary restrictions info and final guest count are extended to 3 days prior to the event date. Inquiries less than 3 days in advance require all guest info upon booking.
In between delicious courses, your Avital Guide will lead your team through a fun and interactive team building game. Games last about 10-15 minutes each.
Tonight’s Special: Designed in-house by Avital curators who specialize in foodie fun and corporate team building. This creative card game gets players thinking like chefs as they navigate trendy ingredients to create mouthwatering menus. Collaborative and competitive, Tonight’s Special will get your team hungry for more fun!
Embrace Quirky: Our original, and all-time favorite Avital game, Embrace Quirky is inspired by our core values. This simple but effective get-to-know-you game challenges your team to find and embrace their own quirky histories, meanwhile sleuthing out who’s who among their quirky team! Someone here used to be hairdresser to the Queen, someone else drank rum with real pirates, and someone else always ties their left shoe first. Who can it be?
Note: Adding the team building upgrade does not reduce or impact the number of restaurants you’ll visit nor the number of dishes you’ll enjoy. However, adding the team building upgrade does cut in on your “mingling” time during the tour – the in-between moments where you might otherwise enjoy organic conversation time will instead be spent playing these fun and engaging games!
How to Book Your Private Tour
1: Explore Packages
Download the PDF proposal to view packages and pricing for each experience. Still have questions? Schedule a call with your Culinary Curator.
2: Start Your Booking
Submit your event details to get started. Upon submission, you’ll also have the option to make an initial, refundable deposit to reserve your date right away.
3: Finalize Details
A real human will be in touch to finalize your event details, like confirming your package, how to submit request for dietary or alcohol accommodations, and when your final headcount is due.
Psst! Looking to join a public tour? You can buy tickets here!
Start Your Private Booking