Culinary Secrets of the Centro Histórico

We did this tour on our first full day in Mexico City and it was the best introduction we could have asked for. We were lucky enough to be the only two people in the group and learned the lay of the Centro Histórico and visited markets we never would have found or ventured into on our own. We also got a crash course in the incredibly rich and diverse history of the city and got to support both small local businesses and our lightly knowledgeable, thoughtful and friendly local guide Nacho. It’s not cheap but worth every penny of the slightly higher price than larger group tours without feeling gouged and we could eat and drink as much as we wanted at every stop, but pace yourself!!

Really wonderful experience with a warm and knowledgeable guide. Our group truly felt like we got an insider’s peek into some local spots and Paco answered all our questions with deep expertise and warmth. Highly recommend this tour as a way to explore CDMX in an off-the-beaten-path way.

Ana was a wonderful guide through the historic center of the city. Excellent way to spend the day! Breakfast at La Parroquia was my favorite stop of the trip, but I love breakfast

Nacho was an amazing guide and we had such a great time! Would definitely recommend this as a great CDMX experience. Come very hungry

I don't like writing negative reviews but in the spirit of staying fair and honest, this particular food tour is just 'ok' when really compared to others. My big feedback is they should offer transparency in the tour description details/itinerary and focus, especially since this is the heftiest price tag ($135 USD!) compared to others. With food tours, I expect the group to be immersed, engaged, and on-the-go moving from spot to spot with active tastings...also, a solid level of positive energy to maximize our time together. Here were some not-so-great things of my experience here: --Max capacity should be 6ppl; we had 7 in our group. It's just +1 add, and exceptions happen BUT...when I was emailing about getting into other tours they offer as a solo traveler I was told they could not go over the max, period. Hmm, why the double standard? --Tour was supposed to run 9:45am-1:45pm. Looking at my photo time stamps we started our first tasting (coffee) at 10:30am, ending at 3:30pm. A group of guys in our group had to forfeit the entire last stop because of this delay, given their schedule. Also, for most food tours I'm used to all the food stops expecting the group's arrival but at most of ours, there was time spent just to arrange to accommodate us with seating, ordering food, waiting, more waiting, etc. --Odd behaviors like kicking off the tour sternly advising, if there is anything we cannot eat we need to let her know NOW to help facilitate the experience...but then not telling us exactly why she was asking in the first place. (No one knew how to answer this, anyway, ha.) Also, she said that she observes the group for our appetite size to help navigate the tour. Shouldn't all tastings be the same size? Certainly none of us want anything but the standard that I paid for, right? --To be clear, our tour guide was nice and I liked her; there were just times like that where she could not read a room well. Another example: we stood in the hot sun, stagnant at one point as she prattled on about history for 30+ minutes. Then moving to another non-food spot to talk for 10 minutes, and another...I tallied 1 hour of history lectures between 2 food stops. I like learning history and had scheduled other specific tours for just that but for a food tour it was just...a lot. People in our group were disassociating, liberally applying sunscreen, and I know many were thinking, "Ok, so what's the next food stop." So coming into this, just know there is a heavy focus on history in the first half. --Awkward logistics: A Jumbo XL cup of juice as our second stop that we had to balance with the 3rd stop of a street taco...where we circulated salsas, limes, etc. to each other STANDING UP, whilst fetching little things like napkins etc. Oh, and no free water bottle offered until the end of the tour when I finally asked (then everyone followed suit, relieved, probably...after being parched most of the tour but no notice was taken). --Navigation: A lot of bopping around tight spaces, following each other single file, trying to keep up with the leader. She warned us (sternly, again) in the beginning to stay close, listen to her, etc. but I found myself 1), wondering if the maze-like routes she was taking were really necessary or just to add to the 'commute' time under the guise of offering something experiential and 2) why she kept giving us these unnecessary "warnings" of crowds (we get it, we're in Centro Historico) which to me also contributed to overall delays. P.S. I was on other tours that navigated though 5x the chaos we actually saw with this one...but she made it seem like we about to walk through a war zone with the multiple warnings. Again, I really do hate complaining and do want to acknowledge that things did get better towards the end, where even our guide mentioned (once the guys in our group left,) that it's easier to manage a smaller group, but the call-outs above I've found to be all standard considerations for countless food tours I've been on, and ones much cheaper at that. So, just wish for the premium we paid it was a more premium experience.