For my foodie friends, traveling is a never-ending delight of new and exotic tastes. If you’re in in the San Francisco area and hope to experience the international (as well as home-baked) tastes of the city, taking the Ferry Building Culinary Tour is a must.
What: A two-hour tour to a dozen delicious restaurants in the area. Perfect for cloudy or drizzly days.
Where: The Ferry Building
When: Tuesdays 10 a.m. to Noon and Saturdays 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.
Who: Anyone who eats! Even if you have dietary restrictions, the tour is still for you. The staff is accommodating and can help you find things to sample regardless of allergies and dietary preference.
Cost: $68
What you’ll do:
During your tour, you’ll visit at least ten of these delicious eateries:
Frog Hollow Farms
(415) 445-0990
Frog Hollow is known for its delicious fruit tartlets. I tried an apple tart, and I loved it! One family owns the whole farm and they do everything by themselves. Everything from this place is practically farm-fresh. You may not be able to resist buying a jar or two of fruit preserves!
Recchiuti Confections
(415) 834-9494
If I see the word “Confections,” then I already know I will love it. If you’re all about chocolate (and I know you are!), then you will delight in this stop. Their candies are not only delicious, but also very pretty. I loved the salted caramel one.
Prather Ranch/American Eatery
(415) 391-0420
You can eat meat here with a clean conscience, even if you’re an animal lover. Everything served in this all-American restaurant is humanely raised and supports sustainable and responsible small farms. The chuck wagon chili is amazing. Lisa claims it is the best chili she’s ever tried, and a lot of the people on the tour agreed with her. I have to agree, too. I love chili and this one is so good! The tastes are perfectly balanced.
Cowgirl Creamery
(415) 362-9350
Be sure to try the Mt. Tam and Red Hawk cheeses! Mt. Tam cheese is a regular cheese, but creamier and yummier. Red Hawk was actually created by accident, but it turned out to be a favorite. It has a lot of personality, but it is awesome for a cheese lover like me! I liked it a lot.
Boccalone Salumeria
(415) 433-6500
If you’re a bacon and ham person, you’ll love this place. The restaurant’s tagline says it all: “Tasty Salted Pig Parts.”
Miette
(415) 837-0300
Be sure to try the organic Parisian macaron when you visit here!
Out the Door
(415) 321-3740
You don’t have to travel to the far reaches of Vietnam in order to try authentic food. The chef and menu creator does that for you. Every item on the menu was researched in its location of origin and carefully recreated in San Francisco. Try their spring rolls—they are delicious!
Acme Bakery
(415) 288-2978
Acme Bakery was created forty years ago for one reason: to bake better bread. And they have certainly succeeded! My favorite? The Pan Epi loaf.
Sow: Healthy Juices
There is a new strip just outside the ferry building that not a lot of people know about. One of the establishments there is Sow. They sell refreshing drinks. I didn’t think I would like them based on the um…healthy…. ingredients, but they made it so well that I liked it all! Everything felt so healthy, light and refreshing.
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Lovely! The tour is a good idea for someone new to try out the different food. Immediately, from your photos, the ones that stood out for me were the bacons and the spring rolls!
Delish! I love food tours! My most recent one was in Rome (fitting, the food culture there) but I imagine that San Fran is a fantastic place to have one as well. It is certainly a city where you always leave feeling like you’ve barely scratched the surface. I’m hoping to be there again later in the year so will check this out!
Wow what a great tour of food. So many delicious looking things to eat. I agree with Robert the spring rolls caught my eye. Yum!
Oh! This is awesome! We love this kind of thing! When we are next in SF we are going to have to take part in this tour! Thanks for sharing this experience.
I love visiting San Francisco! And the Ferry Building Food Tour looks amazing. The Cowgirl Creamery cheese and Vietnamese spring rolls look especially tempting.
Mmm those rice paper rolls look delicious!
San Fransico always looks amazing weather it be its attractions, or food. Its the one place in USA i would really love to visit. The food you have pictured makes me want to visit and eat even more lol. Tasty salted pig parts bring that on for sure
Oh my! I wish I knew about this foodie tour when we visited San Francisco a couple of years ago. There are just so many good restaurants. This is a really great way to have a taste of what the city has to offer.
Wow great food tour! I think it is a great price for everything you get to do. Out the Door definitely had my mouth drooling.
Omg, all of these look so great!! I’d especially love to try the cheese at Cowgirl Creamery. I still haven’t been to San Francisco, and this is all the more reason to go! 😉
Oh wow, wish I knew about this when I visited San Fran. Think my faves would be the Cowgirl Creamery, the sourdough, and the salty pig parts. Loved reading about all these great places.
This is an awesome tour that one got to try so many food. I hope I’ll get to try a food tour next time. All the food you have featured here are mouthwatering. This food tour is indeed something worth the try!
I did not take the food tour but I had many things to eat at the Ferry Building. Including the Meat Cone. How awesome is that?
This is one tour that I would definitely take! That bacon whatever looks so yummy! I’d also love to sample the organic cheese! For $68, that is a steal!
Ooohhhh I’d be all over that Cowgirl Creamery place. I love unique food tours, this one looks fantastic. And good price too!
This looks fantastic! I LOVE chocolate (you had me at confections, too!) and smoothies! This sounds so fun!
Great food variety! Great way to make your Garry trip better 🙂
Now this is my kind of tour. It all looks so good, but I am a bit of a cheese fanatic, so Cowgirl Creamery would be my first stop I think.
Love the Ferry Building in S.F. Was there just a few weeks ago and had some amazing food as well. Blue coffee is also a great option if you are a coffee fan. Great selection of places you highlighted. Can’t go wrong at all.
This looks awesome! I wish I knew about it when I was up in SF. Definitely have to make it a stop the next time I’m nearby!
This looks like an amazing food tour!! SF has incredible food, and everything you tried looks delicious!
This is prefect for my upcoming visit to San Fran. I have marked all this as places to eat while there
I love a food tour! The best way to experience any culture is through their food!
Hey mags, I agree with you really. You learn a lot about their culture through their food.
I so want to visit! I’ve heard of FrogHollow (even from London UK!) and the rest of the food you got to try on the trip looks amazing too. Of course chocolate – but that cheese looks pretty good to me too.
I love cheese a lot so I was happy to be sampling cheese as well.
I’d love to take the Ferry Building Culinary Tour with my husband! It looks like a lot of fun and I would to experience all those amazing dishes! I’m a big cheese fan, so I’d love to try the Mt. Tam and Red Hawk cheeses!
This food tour sounds so fun. That salted caramel chocolate is mouth watering.
This sounds like a really great tour for foodies or for anyone eager to try some new and exciting eats. I love trying different types of cheese, so Cowgirl Creamery really intrigues me.
I could totally get into something like this! I’m not a foodie, but I bet I would quickly become one! The chocolate looks AMAZING!
This tour is right up my alley. I love sampling new foods, especially when I’m traveling.
This look and sounds like a great tour! I think you would have to bring your appetite along for the ride but it would be so yummy!
I wish I had known about this when we were visiting San Francisco. I would have loved this tour.
This sounds like such a fun tour. They really do take you to a nice variety of eateries!
This is definitely on my list of things to do in San Francisco. I love trying out food in different places, that’s one of the best ways to experience their culture. Thanks for sharing your experience on this tour, it’s fantastic!
What a great tour. I am a foodie and I love tasting different and new cuisine. I would love to go on a tour like this.
You had me at edible but you really won me over with Cheese. I could survive off cheese and bread.
What a nice tour, I want to try their food too, I wish I can do a food tour someday
What a great way to sample the city’s finest. My question is, how do you get it all in under 2 hours!! This is definitely going on my list when we visit.
Those food are looks so yummy! I would like to go in San Francisco one day.
All of that food looks so good! Sounds like an awesome place to be. I think this tour would be such a great experience. I’d love to do this someday.
Mmmm food tours are so dangerously good! I am gluten and soy free – curious to know how these tours work with people with food sensitivities!
The Ferry Building Culinary Tour sounds like a great way to spend a couple hours. I’ll have to plan a trip with my daughter this summer.
That sounds like the awesomest tour ever! I want to go!
I’m going to make it to San Fancisco someday. It sounds so great every time I read about it.
This is the kind of a post I shouldn’t be reading late in the evening – I’m getting really hungry.
I love all the culinary experiences during my travels – it’s one of the most important parts of my holiday!
Looks so fun!! when hubby and I can get away from the kids for a few days i would definitely love to check this out next time we are in SF (well apart from the 49ers!)
Looks like a lot of good eating. I would love a food tour.
i will check some of the suggestions once i move to the US <3
I love that all the meat is taken from sustainable farms, this is wonderful news.
really awesome pics! looks like you & your tummy had a blast! Are you based in San Fancisco?
Coz my next novel is based there & I would love some inside info from a local.
Oh my! This post made me hungry! All the food looks amazing!
Gotta love their foods. Looks really fantastic. A must try!
This tours looks amazing!
Haha I show this to my husband and he is now looking for tickets!
Great tour idea! My friend would love this, I am not a huge foodie but it would still be fun.
This food tour was sounds so fun. I want to go in a food tour someday
food and places really incorporates well. I love the bread photo 😀
that looks awesome. I love food, who doesn’t right? i will have to try this the next time we are near san fran
I love food tours! The samples on this one look really good, too bad it’s on the other side of the US for me.
This sounds like an interesting tasty time indeed. I would love to do this some day and going to ten different eateries is an amazing task for one day. Thanks for sharing the tour.
A good ferry ride is a great way to see an area. We have alot of boat tours here and love them.
Wow, sounds like a luxurious place to eat! I’d love to try it when we vacation out that way.
Oh, I’m so jealous! I wish we lived in San Francisco! The food tour looks incredible!
Yay for food tours 🙂 You’re lucky for this! Graving salted caramel chocolate ^ ^
So nice! For sure you had fun :)It’s been a while since my last Ferry ride hihi Now I know what to do next week in my free time.
Foods-Places = AWESOME!
What more will you look for hihi ^ ^
Glad to know you had fun here.
Good to know there are a lot of food options in San Francisco! I hope you’re having a blast on your trip, Karla!