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Old Beijing Dinner Tour: An exploration of traditional Hutong neighborhood cuisine
5.0
326 Ratings
Dongcheng
Experience the authentic flavors of Beijing’s traditional Hutong neighborhood cuisine on this small group food tour. Discover delicious dishes perfected over thousands of years and dine shoulder-to-shoulder with locals.
Experience the authentic flavors of Beijing’s traditional Hutong neighborhood cuisine on this small group food tour. Discover delicious dishes perfected over thousands of years and dine shoulder-to-shoulder with locals.
Duration:
3 hours
Cancellation:
24 hours
Highlights
-
UnTour Beijing Food Tours - Our walking culinary tours are designed to get visitors off the beaten path and into authentic local shops where they can eat shoulder to shoulder with locals. Since 2010, UnTour Food Tours has taken thousands of guests to our favorite mom-and-pop-owned shops.
Beijing’s dinnertime cuisine is so much more than the…
- UnTour Beijing Food Tours - Our walking culinary tours are designed to get visitors off the beaten path and into authentic local shops where they can eat shoulder to shoulder with locals. Since 2010, UnTour Food Tours has taken thousands of guests to our favorite mom-and-pop-owned shops.
Beijing’s dinnertime cuisine is so much more than the crowded tourist markets featuring bugs and mystery meat on sticks! Instead, join our small group food tour and explore delicious, local dishes shoulder-to-shoulder with Beijingers in a traditional Hutong neighborhood. You’ll try authentic dishes that Chinese chefs have been perfecting for thousands of years, and learn about the history and culture of Beijing along the way.
- Hutong Tour - Head deep into the hutongs with us as we explore some of the best food in the city. These wandering alleyways are bustling with local neighborhood life, and some of the best mom-and-pop shops are buried deep down the lanes.
- Nuoyan Rice Wine Shop - Historians believe rice wine (mijiu) was first brewed by the Chinese in 1,000 BC. The rice wine method then spread from China to other parts of East Asia; in Japan it was made into sake, in Korea, cheongju and makkoli. We’ll head to a modern, local boutique mijiu producer to try a six-cup sampler of their craft rice wine. The delightful flavors range from osmanthus to rose to the beguiling original flavor.
- Ghost Street (Gui Jie) - Meet your guide at the end of Guijie, or Ghost Street, and see why this is one of the most popular streets in the city to come to for snacks.
What's Included
- Expert guide leadership
- Comprehensive post-tour packet with local recommendations and tips
- Refreshments, including bottled water, soft drinks, and local alcohol
- Dinner featuring local cuisine
- Expert guide leadership
- Comprehensive post-tour packet with local recommendations and tips
- Refreshments, including bottled water, soft drinks, and local alcohol
- Dinner featuring local cuisine
What's Not Included
- Gratuities
- Hotel pickup and drop-off
- Gratuities
- Hotel pickup and drop-off
Additional Information
The evening meals in Beijing go beyond the busy tourist markets showcasing insects and unknown meat skewers! Participate in this intimate food excursion as you dig into appetizing, established food alongside the locals in a customary Hutong area. You’ll connect with your multilingual guide and small assembly at an easy-to-find spot, then set off to…
The evening meals in Beijing go beyond the busy tourist markets showcasing insects and unknown meat skewers! Participate in this intimate food excursion as you dig into appetizing, established food alongside the locals in a customary Hutong area. You’ll connect with your multilingual guide and small assembly at an easy-to-find spot, then set off to sample time-honored dishes which Chinese culinary experts have been fine-tuning for millennia.
- Please advise any specific dietary requirements at time of booking advanced notice is required to be able to cater to any dietary restrictions.
- Standard group size is 8, but in some cases groups can be up to 12 people with a second guide
Location
Beixinqiao station
Meeting Location: Beixinqiao Subway Station - Exit B. 北新桥地铁站-B东北口.
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Customer Ratings
5.0
(326 Ratings)
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1 star
Liensantens
Oct 10, 2025
Must do!! - We booked this tour on one of our first days in China, and I can honestly say this enhanced our whole trip so much! We would never have dared to walk into small restaurants and try all the different delicious meals we had, had we not been on this tour first. It gives you a fantastic insight in the culture and what's on offer, so I would highly recommend it to everyone travelling to China. We had too much to eat of course, but our guide Garth adapts quantities to his guests, so we still managed to try everything. And everything - even the raw garlic ;-) - was delicious! Our guide was absolutely amazing; we really felt like we were a group of friends exploring the city together, and that is thanks to him. He is extremely knowledgeable without making you feel like you're in a history or cooking class, he knows where all the nicer toilets are and is very attentive to everyone's needs, and he even brought stain remover - which we needed more than once :-). We did another food tour in another city later, but this one was far superior; you try so many different things and explore a very interesting part of the city at the same time. I cannot recommend this higher, thank you Garth for making this such a wonderful experience, and a memory of our trip that we will treasure!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Olga_lem
Sep 23, 2025
Old Beijing Dinner Tour - Garth was really amazing, and took us to places I wouldn’t have arrived by myself.
He was also very helpful in the days after the tour and recommended on restaurants.
And of course the food was amazing!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Summax
Sep 21, 2025
Interesting and good fun: Must Do - I've been to China many, many times and Beijing a few times. Mostly for work but also as a tourist. This time around I had a couple of days off and caught the train to Beijing from Tianjin to play tourist for the weekend.
Tour guide Garth was waiting at the appointed spot and off we went. Absolutely brilliant evening. Garth provides a history lesson while you walk around and brings the various locations and dishes to life. The food is really appetising and anyone will find an experience or two here that they weren't expecting (nothing weird - don't worry). There was only one dish I was not keen on, but that was a personal thing (no spoiler). What I can say is you must listen to your guide and pace yourself...there is more food here than anyone can reasonably eat over one evening. I was done before the last dish (but managed to fit a bit in anyway). But don't whatever you do leave any of the dumplings - they are well worth the indigestion!
5-Stars. 10/10. Gold medal. Do this, it's fun.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jcsg2017
Sep 17, 2025
It would be hard to find a better genuine local dinner experience than this one. Fantastic. - We had a fantastic time on the dinner tour and HIGHLY recommend it. Our guide, Jesus, was really friendly, knowledgeable, enthusiastic and very relaxed. Near the end we also met Garth, the Beijing UnTour head guide and he was terrific too. The pace of the tour was perfect. If you want some tasty, authentic hutong food combined with some interesting local history and a lot of fun, then take this tour, you won’t regret it!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Kennyv442
Sep 15, 2025
Amazing Foodtour with Garth - Highly recommended food tour with plenty to eat, Garth was very knowledgeable and brought us to amazing places with lots of food to eat (he warned us beforehand to be hungry), the tour was a good mix of food but also history of the old city. Garth was also helpful beyond the tour and gave us lots of visiting tips and other restaurants to try, we did three names from local restaurants to Fancy, everything is highly recommended. He also gave us the name of a nice tailor. Definitely book this tour on your first day to Beijing
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Feriepleuschler
Sep 15, 2025
Do it, it‘s amazing! - The food walking tour with Garth was absolutely fantastic! He took us to around seven of his favorite spots, all small, local restaurants with a great variety of dishes (noodles, chicken wings, dumplings, a type of crepe, etc.). Since everything we tried was incredibly delicious, it’s honestly hard to pick a favorite.
Garth happily accommodates special requests, whether it’s vegetarian options or avoiding ingredients like cilantro.
I can’t recommend this tour enough – it’s truly one of the best food walking tours I’ve ever experienced.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
471jennye
Sep 14, 2025
Interesting History & Delicious Food - We enjoyed an exceptional food tour with Garth as our guide. Garth stood out as a passionate historian and compelling storyteller. His love for his adopted home is evident. Garth is clear in his communication style (including tour logistics, expectation setting, as well as commentary/narration). He’s highly personable and engaging. Each story he tells leads seamlessly into the next restaurant or dish, creating a narrative thread that follows the tour. The short walks between stops help to modulate your appetite and Garth also helps by communicating what’s next and providing pacing tips so you can enjoy each stop. One of the best food tours we’ve joined.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Kit_y
Aug 15, 2025
Fantastic Food Tour Not To Be Missed - Easily the best food tour I’ve done having done so many in several countries! Great tour, great host, great company and of course great food with a wealth of historical background about each food. Starting with a sumptuous hotpot, we than ate yoghurt introduced to China by the invading Manchurians during the late Qing Dynasty, then onto some wine tasting which were the best wines I have ever tasted, some fermented for as long as 365 days. Onto some noodles with vinegar and chilli and eaten with raw garlic, then perhaps the strangest, most exotic of all dishes, donkey wraps with real donkey meat! Really tender and juicier than beef. Garth explained that while those in heaven ate dragon meat, the next best thing for earthlings was the meat of donkeys. We then went onto savour the popular jinbiangs where historically troops on the battlefield would cook these on their shields over an open flame. And lastly we visited the home of a local citizen where we were surprised with the sight and sounds of little crickets in small lantern shaped cages and the last item, chicken wings marinated in Szechuan sauce. Our host, Garth was an encyclopaedia of knowledge providing the most fascinating stories behind each of the food items, and a fun and pleasant person to talk to. And there was also so much camaraderie amongst the fellow travellers also joining the tour. Overall a fantastic tour and one not to be missed for those visiting Beijing. Thanks Garth for a great time!
Review provided by Viator
Kristi
Aug 13, 2025
Such a fun night! - This was so much fun! Garth did an excellent job and all the food was delicious. There were a total of 7 stops, we were full after about the third one. Excellent tour!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Laratl
Aug 8, 2025
Great authentic tours - I did both the Beijing diner tour and the Shanghai breakfast tour with Un Tour Food Tour company and both were absolutely great ! The guides are passionates and they know so much. They make you discover the cities in a very authentic and local manner. Food was great and I tried so many different dishes. I also learned so much about each cities. I spent a very nice time with travelers in each cities. I highly recommand those tours, the quality is amazing !
Review provided by Tripadvisor
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