Queens Food Tours
Family Food Tour
A unique world food tour designed to engage, educate, and encourage kids to try different foods from various cultures, featured in NY Metro Parents and various family blogs.
If you are looking for an interesting, off-the-beaten-path, unique thing to do with kids in NYC, look no further!
What: This is a world food tour for kids (and their parents) right here in NYC. In this 2.5-hour-long tour, we will travel through 4 or 5 countries via food: Nepal, Tibet, Colombia, Mexico, India. Tastings from each place will be enough for both parents and children to have lunch. There is some walking in between stops, but it’s pretty minimal, and we’ll be able to sit down (and use a bathroom) at two or three of the stops. Aside from the tastings, the kids receive an activity packet with country information, maps, and room for tasting notes. They will learn some words in the native language, be encouraged to taste everything (at least once!), and play a little game (with a prize) along the way.
**Please be very clear about any dietary restrictions or food allergies your child may have.
Who’s it for: Kids and their parents! (Or students and their teachers, but see our school-specific tours too.) Everyone eats, and it’s definitely enough for lunch. All ages are welcome, but this tour will be best appreciated by children age 5-11. Younger kids won’t get as much out of it, but can certainly still participate (kids under 2 are free). Strollers are recommended for little ones; the streets we walk get a bit crowded.
Picky eater? Don’t worry about it. Unless requested otherwise (we can accommodate more adventurous eaters), most of the dishes on this tour are like new spins on familiar foods for many children, and nothing is spicy. Plus kids are given an incentive to at least TRY everything once.
Where: Jackson Heights is easy to get to from midtown Manhattan via the E, F, 7, R, or M train (stop is 74th St./Roosevelt Ave.). It’s about a 15-minute ride from midtown, and our meeting spot is just off 37th Ave., a 5-minute walk from the subway. Parking is a little tricky but doable. Detailed directions will be provided if needed.
When: We have several tour options. Please click this booking link to book your food tour online now!
Why this Eat Your World tour? Laura has long loved showing people around her incredibly multicultural NYC neighborhood of Jackson Heights, Queens, where she’s lived for 15 years and has led food tours for more than a decade. She’s also a mom to two boys, and growing up here, they’ve developed adventurous palates and a curiosity about the world. With this tour, she hopes to share that with other families wishing to expose their children to new cultures and foods from around the world, in a fascinating off-the-beaten-path NYC neighborhood.
As with other EYW tours, we donate a portion of our tour proceeds back to the neighborhood (via a local food pantry, local immigrant-rights nonprofit Make the Road NY or restaurant-food relief nonprofit Queens Together, or another worthy cause), and we make efforts to “green” this tour via things like compostable utensils and plates, and reusable containers where possible. (And we do actually collect and compost the biodegradable things we use!)
What People Are Saying About This Tour
We had a blast on the family tour! We tasted an amazing variety of colors, flavors, textures, and spices. Laura took us to restaurants we never would have found, and knew exactly what to order. All the restaurant staff knew her and were extremely friendly to our group. It was such a special experience to chat with them and hear about the food traditions from their countries. My favorite part was later hearing my kids excitedly recap the experience to their dad. They remembered so many details about each of the countries and foods. The tour is a NYC gem. I highly recommend it!
Margaret
This was a wonderful experience for our family! We love to eat and are adventurous eaters, but Laura introduced us to dishes and cuisines we’d never had before. Her hole-in-the-wall spots were terrific, she was patient and warm with our kids, and the whole experience was a memorable highlight of our trip. (Plus, it’s an easy subway ride from Manhattan.). Try this!
Krista J.
We experienced the Jackson Heights food tour with our 2 kids and had an amazing time with Laura showing our little ones the way to enjoy the diversity of this fantastic neighborhood. 100% recommended!
Jeremy L.
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.