Eating East London & Tips for Food Tours

The culture experience, paired with the food, made our Eating East London food tour a deliciously wonderful trip.

One of my favorite ways to explore a city is through a walking food tour.  You get to see the city, experience the culture, and you get insight into the unique parts of a city’s history that are typically glossed over during school.

For our latest trip to London, I wanted a food tour that would give <3M and I a taste of everything London had to offer.  London really is a melting pot of culture and although London has a reputation for not being much of a food city, it really is rich in food history!

When I think of England, there are a few food items that come to mind fish & chips, curries, bread pudding, English tea, and ales.  My goal with our food tour was to get a taste of each of these items all in one blow and the East London Food Tour by Eating Europe gave me just that!

Our food tour began at Spitalfield’s Market and ventured through the old Jewish community, down Brick Lane, and ended in the more hipster area of East London.  We learned the history of Spitalfields, wandered down hidden alleyways that were saved from WWII bombings, saw the home of Game of Thrones Star Jonathan Pryce, learned about the Bangladesh community in London, and experienced a bit of street art from graffiti to metal mushrooms, to miniature bronze statues hidden along our path.

It really was a wonderful way to explore the culture, food, and history of London.

If you’re ever interested in doing a food tour while visiting a city, here’s a few tips! 

• Take the morning tour and skip breakfast
  • Skip breakfast completely or having something light like coffee & a piece of fruit
  • You will eat a bunch and it’s best to be a little hungry at the start of your tour
  • Choosing the morning tour will allow you enough time to digest throughout the day that way you don’t spoil any evening plans you may have

• Wear comfortable shoes and bring layers
  • This goes without saying but obviously, these are walking tours and you do quite a bit of standing and walking.  I believe we covered a little over 3 miles on our London tour
  • On our tour day in London the weather was quite chilly with lots of sun. When we walked through a few of the alleyways, it got even colder and I was thankful to have my scarf and hat to throw on. Other times, while standing on the sidewalk learning about the history of the area, I felt really warm and was happy to remove items to stay cool along our tour.

• Bring a bottle of water
  • Although it’s likely you’ll be given water at every stop along your tour, I suggest carrying a bottle with you anyways
  • Sometimes there may be long stretches of time between restaurants as your guide stops to talk about the city or the buildings you’re passing
  • I also liked having water in between to ‘cleanse my palette’ and prepare for the next tasting

• Taste everything but don’t feel like you have to finish it all
  • Portions on a food tour are bigger than you’d expect. You’re not getting samples but neither a full meal either at each restaurant.
  • My advice is to absolutely taste everything on the tour but only finish those items you feel are seriously delicious.  For me, that meant finishing the Millionaire’s Shortbread but leaving bread behind from the bacon sandwich and salt beef beigel.  It also meant having a bite of the bread & butter pudding before deciding this just wasn’t for me!

• Ask for recommendations 
  • You’re guide has a wealth of knowledge and is definitely a foodie if they’re leading a food tour! Ask your guide for dinner recommendations, for the one restaurant they bring visitors to, and where their favorite bar or cafe is in the city.  It will help you get out of the tourist rut!
  • And if think your guide is stellar, obviously tip them!

Have you ever done a food tour?  We’ve explored food tours in Greece, China, and Germany!