Queens Food Tours

As seen in the Wall Street Journal, Gothamist, the Star Tribune, and on NY1!

Looking for a unique food tour in NYC? In Jackson Heights, Queens, we offer “around the world” food tours for mixed or private groups, family food tours specifically for children, tours for school groups and companies, and birthday-party food tours for kids. Book a Queens food tour here, or request a date here. Gift certificates are available in the EYW Shop!

A small tray of Bengali fuchka.

For well over a decade, Laura has guided walking food tours of Jackson Heights, the incredibly diverse Queens neighborhood she’s called home since 2008. With stops that may include foods from India, Bangladesh, Tibet, Nepal, Mexico, Ecuador, and Colombia, these are truly world food tours right here in NYC, a perfect extension of this world food website. This is the only neighborhood we operate in, and we love to show it off to visitors and fellow New Yorkers alike. We work hard to make sure every guest walks away with a really memorable experience.

On any Eat Your World food tour, you will eat a lot. But it’s never just about the food. It’s about appreciating cultural diversity, learning about world cuisines, supporting local businesses, and eating with an open mind. It’s about understanding the neighborhood’s historical context, practicing sustainability (we provide and collect compostable plates and utensils), and giving back to the community (we donate ~5% of tour proceeds to local food pantries, nonprofits, and other worthy causes). And, essentially, it’s about the people making and serving the food—the restaurant owners and street vendors we’ve largely known for years, who invite us to their weddings, festivals, and home countries and with whom we share mutual appreciation and respect.

Available Tours

Our Queens food tours, at a glance. All tours run rain or shine and include a mix of indoor (sit-down) and outdoor (street vendors) dining. Click to read more about each tour, or click below to see available dates and book.

Jackson Heights Food Tour (the Original!)

  • 5-6 stops for food; $75-$80 per person (all ages welcome)
  • Weekday, weeknight + weekend tours offered
  • Av. group size: 3-8 for weekdays; 8-12 for weekends
  • Private tours available

Family Food Tours

  • 4-5 stops for food; $45 (kids), $55 (adults)
  • Offered on weekdays (4 person min.)
  • Best for kids age 5-11
  • Info and activity packet provided on “countries” visited and dishes tried; “scavenger hunt” with prizes
A university group poses for a picture outside a Colombian bakery on a food tour in Jackson Heights with Eat Your World.

Tours for Companies + Schools

  • 4-5 stops for food; discounts for groups of 10+
  • Offered weekdays + weeknights
  • Up to 20-25 guests
  • Ideal for any students (preschool to university level!) learning about immigration, food culture, etc.

Kids Birthday Party Tours

  • 4 semi-customizable stops for food
  • 2-to-3-hour runtime
  • For groups of 5-10 people (1 adult must be present)
  • Best for kids age 9-14
  • More details coming soon!

We hope you’re hungry!

A full table of people eating at a Nepali restaurant.
A few trays of momos.
A bowl of papri chaat
A table filled with Bangladeshi food
A container of birria tacos.
A plate of sel roti
What People Are Saying

AMAZING TOUR! LAURA IS A TRUE WORLD FOOD CONNOISSEUR, DELIGHTFUL AND KNOWS HER STUFF. STOPPED AT 5 DIFFERENT PLACES … EVERY PLACE KNEW HER AND SHE ORDERED LIKE A LOCAL FROM THE COUNTRY. BEST PART IS I TOOK MY 8-YEAR-OLD WHO SAID IT WAS THE HIGHLIGHT OF HER NYC EXPERIENCE!

Andres G.

We were looking for a small group tour that felt approachable but authentic and Laura did an incredible job. We learned so much about the history of Jackson Heights, and the food was delicious. You can tell how much she loves her neighborhood, and I appreciated her commitment to avoiding waste. I couldn’t recommend this food tour more!

Katie S.

Laura is such an engaged, charming, knowledgeable guide. Her background as a travel writer really shows. And what a memorable culinary experience! I’d rank it a top three in my 40 years in and around New York City.

Dale P.

Phenomenal experience with Laura! She was so knowledgeable about all the different dishes and restaurants and their stories. Knows the owners like her buddies. Would totally recommend to anyone, no matter if you live here or traveled from afar!

Jordan P.

Want to be in the next #FoodTourSelfie?

Community Impact

As part of our Feed Your World initiative, and our desire to give back to our neighborhood and borough, we donate approximately 5% of each month’s food tour profits to a local food pantry (including Love Wins and the Lion’s Share) or a worthy nonprofit operating in our area (including Queens Together, which supports local restaurants and provides food relief borough-wide, the Street Vendor Project, and Make the Road New York, which works to protect the rights of immigrants and working-class families across NYC). See a more detailed breakdown in the FAQ, below.

2023-24 by the Numbers

$520

To local food pantries

$1026

To area nonprofits

$150

To other local orgs

$790

in donated food tours

Gift a Tour

Give the gift of an incredible food experience to someone you know. You can purchase these directly from our shop, and we’ll email it (or, if requested, print and mail) to you.

FAQ

We currently have two: Laura, the owner of this business, still runs the majority of food tours. Our second guide is Sonya Gropman, a Jackson Heights local of 20+ years. She’s an artist, a licensed sightseeing guide, and the author of The German-Jewish Cookbook: Recipes and History of a Cuisine. She’s fantastic and has some Google reviews to prove it! (Sonya leads 1-2 tours a month.)

Most dietary restrictions can be accommodated. We’ve worked with vegetarian, vegan, halal, gluten-free, and dairy-free guests, as well as celiac eaters, those with peanut allergies, and people who hate cilantro! We cannot guarantee against cross-contamination, of course, as none of the kitchens are necessarily gluten- or peanut-free, so please understand there is always a degree of risk assumed by the eater on a food tour. But we’ve never had an issue serving people with any allergy or restriction, so we are comfortable offering tours to everyone (we do ask for a liability waiver to be signed by all food tour guests when booking).

Children of all ages are welcome on the regular food tour, but some of the food is at least a little spicy. We can request some milder spicing, but there will be some dishes they may not be able to enjoy. We do offer discounts for younger kids on this tour, understanding that they do not eat as much as an adult. For larger, mixed-age groups, we have successfully run “hybrid” food tours combining some elements of the family tour (like the activity packets for kids) with the stops on the regular tour. Strollers are recommended for young kids; we walk down some crowded streets. Check out this post recommending our regular food tour as kid-friendly for toddlers!

We’ve had lots of repeat bookers on this tour, and while the second tour may not be drastically different from the first (for now), we will do our best to incorporate some new spots as well as new/different dishes. We are also open to requests if, say, more Latin American food is desired on tour 2! Repeat bookers will receive a 20% discount on their ticket price when booking directly through us.

You may get lucky with street parking in Jackson Heights, or you may be driving around in circles for a half-hour. Please allow extra time for parking if you plan to drive. Alternatively, there are two paid lots close to the tour’s route, on 75th St. between 37th Ave. and Roosevelt Ave. and on Roosevelt between 77th and 78th Sts. They make good plan Bs!

Alcohol is not usually a part of the tour (and it is not included in the tour price), but there is one restaurant we visit where wine ($7) and beer ($5-$8) is available to purchase. Guests are welcome to buy their own drinks on a separate bill. If you’re a private group and would like to incorporate an additional stop for cocktails/beer, we can do that too, but you will buy your own drinks and there will be an extra $5-per-person fee to account for the extra time. (We are also happy to point you to a bar for after the tour!)

Tips are 100% optional, of course, and they are much appreciated! If you enjoyed your food tour, please feel free to tip a little extra. We work hard to keep the tour price as low as we can while running a business, buying compostable materials, tipping well at each restaurant/vendor, and continuing to donate monthly to neighborhood causes. A lot of work goes into the planning and logistics of tours so we can accommodate big group sizes and dietary restrictions, and keep tours moving smoothly. It doesn’t end with the actual tour either: You will also receive a tour recap email detailing the stops made and foods eaten within a few days after the tour.

It’s a very manageable amount, often less than a mile. For the weekend tour, we may walk about 1-1.5 miles in total, while the weekday tour is generally less than a mile. Many of the food stops are in a compact area of Jackson Heights.

Yes, there are at least three bathrooms available along the tour, sometimes more. We will always let you know where they are!

As part of our Feed Your World initiative, about 5% of each month’s food tour profits is donated to a local food pantry (including Love Wins and the Lion’s Share) or other local cause, including nonprofit Queens Together, which supports our borough’s restaurant community while fighting food insecurity among residents, Street Vendor Project, and Make the Road New York, a nonprofit org with local offices that works to protect the rights of immigrants and working-class families here and across NYC, including in the areas of: workplace justice, tenants’ rights, immigrant civil rights, language access, LGBTQ justice, public education, health care access, and immigration reform. We also often donate food tour gift certificates to local schools (and nonprofits) as auction items or raffle prizes, to help them raise funds.

Here are some donation figures since resuming food tours in 2021:

June 2021: $100 to Love Wins Food Pantry
July 2021: $175 to Lion’s Share Food Pantry
August 2021: $136 to Make the Road NY
Sept. 2021: $90 to Love Wins Food Pantry
Oct. 2021: $145 to Lion’s Share Food Pantry
Nov. 2021: $100 to Urban Justice Center/Street Vendor Project
Dec. 2021, Jan. 2022 + Feb. 2022 combined: $220 to Lion’s Share Food Pantry
March 2022: $50 to Louie’s Pizza (post-stabbing) + $25 to Elmhurst’s community fridge
April 2022: $80 to GrowNYC
May 2022: $200 to Make the Road NY (toward new community center!)
June 2022: $100 to Trinity Place Shelter (for LGBTQ+ youth) + $28.75 to Napoli Pizza in Astoria (post-fire), plus a gift certificate donation to Trinity Place Shelter’s gala ($150 value)
July 2022: $90 to Lion’s Share Food Pantry
August 2022: $110 to Queens Together (toward Thanksgiving turkey giveaway; donated in Oct.)
Sept. 2022: $100 to Urban Justice Center/Street Vendor Project, plus a gift certificate donation to SVP’s gala ($150 value)
Oct. 2022: $150 to Make the Road NY
Nov. 2022: $200 to Love Wins Food Pantry
Dec. 2022: $200 to Lion’s Share Food Pantry

Jan. 2023: $150 to Queens Together (Restaurant Month); $100 to Make the Road NY
Feb. 2023: $90 to Astoria Halal Fridge
March 2023: $276 to Urban Justice Center/Street Vendor Project (Scavenger Hunt fundraiser!)
April 2023: $150 to Make the Road NY (toward new community center!)
May 2023: $150 to Make the Road NY (new community center) + gift certificate for 2 donated to PS 222Q (value: $150)
June 2023: $150 to Love Wins Food Pantry
July 2023: $120 to Lion’s Share Food Pantry, $50 to Astoria Food Pantry
August 2023: $100 to Commonpoint Queens
September 2023: gift certificate for 2 donated to The Queensboro’s Maui fire relief fundraiser (value: $160)
October 2023: $100 to Queens Together (Thanksgiving food relief)
November 2023: $110 to Lion’s Share Food Pantry
December 2023: $100 to Queens Together

January + February 2024: 3 gift certificates for 2 donated to the NYC Museum School, PS166Q, and Eleanor Roosevelt HS ($480 value); $25 to Queens Together
March 2024: $35 to Queens Together; $115 to Lion’s Share Food Pantry; $100 to Rethink Food; $50 to Flavors of NY GoFundMe
April 2024: $77.25 to Street Vendor Project; gift certificate for 2 donated to Queens Together’s Restaurant Month fundraiser ($160 value)
May 2024: $61.80 to Street Vendor Project; $154.79 to Astoria Food Pantry
June 2024: $262.50 to Make the Road NY
July 2024: $157.65 to Love Wins Food Pantry
August + September 2024: $310 to Street Vendor Project; gift certificate for 2 donated to Street Vendor Project ($160 value); gift certificate for 2 donated to Brooklyn Technical High School ($160 value)
October 2024: $65 to Gothamist/WNYC and $103.30 to Epicenter NYC (to support independent local journalism); $54.44 to The Queensboro (Thanksgiving turkey donation)
November 2024: gift certificate for 2 donated to Our World Neighborhood school ($160 value); more to come