Chicago Deep Dish Pizza Self-Guided Tour

I recently had an extremely disappointing experience with Finger Licking Foodie Tours. I was gifted a Groupon voucher for their services and made the mistake of waiting too long to book the tour. Due to family/work complications, I attempted to book the tour about 4 days after it had expired, totally my fault. However, when I tried to contact them to book directly through them, as Groupon advised would be the resolution, the company flat-out refused to accept the voucher. I was faced with the run around between Finger Licking Foodie Tours and Groupon. Groupon attempted to reach out them to have the issue resolved and again was flat out denied the opportunity to use the voucher that has already been paid for. To make matters worse, when I reached out for assistance in resolving this issue, the response was shockingly rude and unprofessional. The customer service representative I spoke to was uncommunicative and dismissive, showing no interest in helping me find a solution. Instead of addressing my concerns, they treated me with disdain and ignorance. They kept the money that was paid for the tour and refused to provide a refund or alternative resolution. This level of service is unacceptable, and it's clear that Finger Licking Foodie Tours has no regard for their customers or their satisfaction. I would strongly advise against using this company, as their lack of professionalism and respect for customers is appalling. Save yourself the hassle and frustration and take your business elsewhere.

RUN DONT WALK to book this tour as a tourist! It is a fantastic way to experience 3 of the most famous deep dish pizza restaurants. I know some reviews shared bad experience w/ organization, but mine couldn’t have been more opposite. EXTREMELY organized and seamless process. No lines, NO 45 MIN wait times. You literally skip the wait and your pizza is already made. The tour did EXACTLY as it described. You’ll pay close to $50 for only one spot visiting on your own. SIDE NOTE: my favorite was GINOS EAST hands down! 🍕

I'll start by saying that the food, drink, and restaurants themselves were awesome - delicious pizza, great staff, and a good experience visiting three classic Chicago establishments. The tour itself, however, was chaotic and stressful. The premise of the tour was a VIP experience, where you had a table reserved for you, pizza would come in 10 minutes, and you would have a brief time to enjoy a slice at each place before moving on - the itinerary made clear that you could not be late and must stick to the schedule. We had also signed up for the optional beer package and looked forward to trying local beer with our pizza. In the first restaurant, no one seemed to have any idea we were coming. Several staff had no idea who we were or why we were there. We were told when we signed up that our food would come in 10 minutes and that we had to be on our way to the next step promptly, but it took 30 minutes for the restaurant to even figure out why we were there, so we were already running late. Eventually, a manager came out and brought us a fresh pizza that he had apparently taken from another order (it was not the sausage pizza we were supposed to get). We appreciated his efforts. The staff was very apologetic and did everything they could to make it right - they were amazing. The pizza was out of this world. But, we were now way behind schedule and rushing to eat and make our next stop. We arrived late to our next stop, and they, too, seemed confused by who we were and why we were there. Eventually, we were told that they had us in the system but that the meal hadn't been paid for (even though we had prepaid). They also told us that they had no record that we had also signed up for the beer package. In the end, we got our pizza 30 minutes later (not in 10 minutes as promised) and our beer. We rushed through our food again, now crazy behind the schedule. We were then presented with a bill for the whole affair. We told them we had prepaid, and they seemed confused but said OK. We then left to run to our next stop - not a lot of fun to rush when you are getting full of beer and pizza! Our last stop, thankfully, was expecting us! They had our order written down already - but then presented us a bill, like the last place. We again informed them that we prepaid, and it became "a thing" until they finally figured things out and brought us our food - again, 30 minutes later, although the stress was gone since this was our last stop. All in all - the food was amazing, the staff at each place was great, the experience of walking through River North and visiting classic historic restaurants was awesome, and we ultimately got what we paid for. However, the disorganization made it all stressful - some places not knowing we were coming, food not being ready on time, running late the whole time and rushing the food and travel time, the constant confusion about everything - it took a lot of the fun out of the evening. Having done it, I would now just choose one of the restaurants (Gino's East for us!) and enjoy a leisurely meal without the stress.

I had a nice chat with Luka Joy and Claudine about this tour. The former set up a pay later arrangement but my reservation was not found even with Viator agent. I did not want a self guided tour but Claudine claimed that there is a guide. We found out otherwise. The tour was NO MORE than if you wandered into any pizza restaurant and ordered. You had no selection to get different ingredients as all 3 establishments served you the same pie of sausage and cheese. I would recommend a guide. Upon calling the Viator the agent was all too glad to rid of me and just send an email. On the other hand I had a great time with Chicago Architecture River tour