There’s simply no city in the world like New Orleans: packed full of vibrant culture, interesting history, and an incomparable culinary scene that I was frankly surprised by!

If you’re going to choose one way to try and understand it, going on a food tour is your best bet. From the iconic gumbo bubbling about in legendary Creole kitchens to the mouthwatering beignets dusted with powdered sugar at the local cafes, there’s something for everyone here.

As you can imagine, there are a ton of different tours out there, but I’m here to bring you the absolute top New Orleans food tours out there today. Let’s jump right in!

Be sure to see our reviews of Swamp Tours, Plantation Tours and River Boat Dinner Cruises.

Best Food Tours in New Orleans

	New Orleans Combo Cocktail and Food History Tour	New Orleans Private Food Tour - Historic Culinary & Kitchen Adventure	New Orleans Food and History Walking Tour
	Best Food & Cocktails Tour	Best Private Tour	Best Food & History Tour
Departure:	115 Bourbon Street, New Orleans	455 N Cityfront Plaza Dr, Chicago	316 Chartres St, New Orleans
Start:	2:00 PM	12:30 PM	1:00 PM
Duration:	4 hours	2 hours	3 hours
Includes:	Local guide, 4 cocktails, 8 samples, water, server/bar staff tips	Private guided tour, food tastings	Lunch, gratuities
	Tour Information & Booking	Tour Information & Booking	Tour Information & Booking

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Quick Answer: The 7 Best Rated New Orleans Walking Food Tours

1. New Orleans Combo Cocktail and Food History Tour
2. Private Food Tour – New Orleans Historic Culinary, Cocktail & Kitchen Adventure
3. New Orleans Food and History Walking Tour
4. New Orleans Food Walking Tour of the French Quarter with Small-Group Option
5. Small-Group French Quarter Cocktail and Foodie Crawl
6. New Orleans French Quarter Food Tour
7. New Orleans Original Seafood Walking Tour of the French Quarter

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New Orleans Food Tour Reviews

1. New Orleans Combo Cocktail and Food History Tour

Let’s start things off on the right foot, with one of the most exciting and educational tours of its kind. If you are the kind of person who really appreciates good cocktails and how they are paired with food, then this is the perfect tour for you.

The New Orleans: Combo Cocktail and Food History Tour is sure to ignite your taste buds and immerse you in the culinary treasures of past and present in this legendary city.

You’ll start out by meeting your guide and the rest of your group at Red Fish Grill, located in the popular French Quarter neighborhood. Take a seat and brace yourself for some alligator sausage (it’s surprisingly good and chicken-y) and the classic seafood gumbo the area is known for.

As you savor each bite, your guide will tell you all about the city’s rich colonial history that shaped the state’s gastronomic heritage.

I hope you like spicy, because you’re going to head over to Pepper Palace and learn about the fiery depths of Cajun influence in Louisiana. Sample an array of different hot sauces, BBQ sauces, and dry rubs that will open your eyes to new flavors.

If you find one that you particularly like, they even gift you a bottle of authentic sauce which is a pretty cool souvenir.

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Other New Orleans Activities You May Enjoy

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2. New Orleans Private Food Tour – Historic Culinary, Cocktail & Kitchen Adventure

If it’s your first time in New Orleans, this is one of the best ways to get the lay of the land. With the Private Food Tour – New Orleans Historic Culinary, Cocktail & Kitchen Adventure, you’ll get thrown into not only the most well-known, but the most authentic parts of the city.

If you’re looking for a fun environment with a unique experience, this has to be on your list! I loved that this was a very small group tour, meaning that we had full access to ask our guide any questions we may have had.

Not only that, but it felt like more of a genuine friend group that we could just have fun and enjoy everything with.

Start out by arriving at Omni Royal Orleans to meet your guide, who is incredibly personable and grew up in the French Quarter hospitality business with connections to various owners of these restaurants.

While the exact restaurants may not be the same every single time, this tour consistently offers a great way for newbies to learn about the best New Orleans has to offer. You’ll start out on a rooftop bar where you’ll get to try some local cocktails and enjoy a lively view of the city.

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3. New Orleans Food and History Walking Tour

Sure, you could do it yourself and just look up the best restaurants in New Orleans on Yelp or something. However, in my experience, if you really want to venture through the city’s vibrant culinary scene and history, you have to go on one of these tours.

The New Orleans Food and History Walking Tour seamlessly encapsulates both, allowing you to learn about the special culture and events which brings us to the iconic cuisine it boasts today.

If you’re planning on going out to lunch, why not instead take this lunchtime tour that will leave you much more satisfied and excited to be there? Start out in the French Quarter where you’ll meet your guide and set off over to the exciting Vieux Carre (Old Square).

The first stop of the day is at the 3rd Block Depot/SoBou, which is known for being one of the Commander’s Palace family restaurants.

As you chow down on some Chicken & Andouille Sausage Gumbo, your guide will tell you and your group all about the varied history of the state’s local cuisine.

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4. New Orleans Food Walking Tour of the French Quarter with Small-Group Option

Perhaps you’re loving what you’ve been seeing from the other tours so far, but you’d like the ability to select an upgrade. If you’d like to upgrade to a small-group tour where you have a more personalized experience, this next tour is for you.

The New Orleans Food Walking Tour of the French Quarter with Small-Group Option is a 3-hour excursion that you can opt to have a personalized itinerary to venture through today!

Much like with the others, you’ll meet your guide in the very center of the legendary French Quarter and get ready to set off on a walking tour of some of the most renowned restaurants in the world, along with some hidden gems you may not otherwise have heard of.

When you start out, simply let your guide know any bits of history or dishes you’re particularly interested in and they’ll design your itinerary based around them!

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5. Small-Group French Quarter Cocktail and Foodie Crawl

Next up, we have the perfect small-group tour for those who really appreciate good food and good drinks.

There’s plenty of both with the Small-Group French Quarter Cocktail and Foodie Crawl, which will take you through centuries of architectural and culinary history in one of the most exciting ways possible.

Better yet, you get to create a customized itinerary with the help of your local, knowledgeable guide to ensure the perfect tour each time!

Meet your guide in the French Quarter and get ready to embark on a whirlwind adventure filled with cocktails and food that offer a crash course in the vibrant history of this legendary city.

Your guide will ask you and your private group questions to ensure everyone gets to experience a tour designed around them, before setting off through some hotspots and hidden gems that have only cemented New Orleans’ reputation as one of the most impressive foodie cities in the country.

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6. New Orleans French Quarter Food Tour

Whether you consider yourself a foodie or the nerdiest history buff out there, you’re sure to love the next tour we have for you.

The New Orleans French Quarter Food Tour will take you on a journey through the charming streets of the city for a culinary expedition you and the rest of your group are sure to love. A true homage to the foods that have made New Orleans come alive, you’ll feel like a local in no time!

Start off by meeting with your guide at Felix’s Oyster House where you’ll venture through the postcard-perfect Vieux Carre neighborhood, sure to captivate you by varied the aromas and flavors that define the city’s culinary scene.

Today, we’re going to be exploring 6 different New Orleans-style food establishments which I felt were very representative of its rich past and food scene unlike any other in the world.

Between each of these 6 stops, your local guide will regale you with tales of this neighborhood’s background, along with plenty of personal anecdotes that kept me laughing and captivated the entire time.

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7. New Orleans Original Seafood Walking Tour of the French Quarter

I know that not everyone likes seafood, but that just means that there’s more for the rest of us! If you’re a seafood lover, look no further because you have to go on this next adventure.

The New Orleans Original Seafood Walking Tour of the French Quarter takes advantage of Louisiana’s proximity to the water, offering you an incredible experience that hits some of the most famous restaurants and some local gems that most visitors don’t get to see.

This is yet another small-group tour which I think is almost essential if you are going on an intimate food tour through a neighborhood.

Start off by meeting your guide in the French Quarter, where you’ll make your first stop at The Court of Two Sisters.

This place is the only one in the entire city that offers daily jazz brunch, and is known for its absolutely gorgeous southern-style courtyard complete with beautiful fountain, Wisteria trees, and an interesting history of its own.

After enjoying a rich Creole seafood gumbo in the local tavern (as well as some local beers, if you wish), you’ll stroll over to the well-known NOLA Poboys.

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New Orleans Food Tours, and How to Actually Understand What You Are Eating

Gumbo is the dish that starts every argument in this city, and that argument is exactly why you want a guide.

Ask five New Orleanians whether gumbo belongs with rice or without, and you will get five confident, contradictory answers. That kind of dish, the one locals fight about, is what a good food tour is built to explain rather than just serve.

I have eaten my way through this city’s food tour scene twice, once in the French Quarter and once on a smaller Garden District route. The Quarter tour taught me more, and here is why that distinction matters when you book.

Why New Orleans Cuisine Needs a Translator

This city’s food did not come from one place, and a plate here is usually a small history lesson whether the menu says so or not. Creole cooking layers French, Spanish, African, and Caribbean technique into dishes that look simple and are not.

Cajun cooking, which most visitors confuse with Creole, actually comes from rural Acadiana further west and runs rustic where Creole runs refined. A good guide will draw that line clearly, since conflating the two is the single most common mistake in visitor food writing about this city.

Gumbo itself carries a name most people never think to question. The word likely traces back to a West African term for okra, one of several possible thickeners along with filé powder and the dark roux that gives the dish its color.

That single dish encodes the collision of cultures that built this city’s food, and a guide walking you through it stop by stop turns a bowl of soup into an actual story. Eating it blind off a laminated tourist menu gets you the flavor without any of that context.

What You Will Actually Taste

Beignets show up on nearly every tour, the fried French style doughnut buried under a genuinely absurd amount of powdered sugar. Skip judging it by Café du Monde alone, since several tours specifically route you to a smaller shop making them fresh to order rather than the tourist landmark everyone photographs.

Po-boys are the sandwich the city built its lunch culture around, traditionally stuffed with fried seafood, roast beef debris, or hot sausage on French bread with a distinct crackling crust. A guide worth their fee will tell you the difference between a properly dressed po-boy and one made for tourists who do not know to ask for it dressed.

Gumbo appears constantly, usually seafood or chicken and andouille, and this is the dish where the guide’s commentary earns the ticket price. Ask about the roux at every stop, since the color and depth of that base tells you more about a kitchen’s skill than almost anything else on the plate.

Jambalaya rounds out the classic trio alongside gumbo and po-boys, a rice dish that runs Creole with tomato or Cajun without it depending on which side of the state’s cooking traditions the kitchen leans toward. Muffuletta, the round Italian sesame loaf stuffed with cured meats, cheese, and olive salad, reflects the city’s Sicilian immigrant history and rarely gets the attention it deserves next to flashier dishes.

Pralines close out most tours, a sugary pecan candy that traces back to French confectionery reworked with local ingredients. Alligator sausage and boudin balls turn up on several itineraries too, genuinely local specialties that most visitors would never order on their own without a guide steering them there.

Group Tour or Small Group Upgrade

Standard group tours run larger, often capping around fifteen to twenty travelers moving together between four to six stops. They cost less per person and the pace still works fine if the guide keeps the group moving efficiently between restaurants.

Small group upgrades cap out considerably lower, often around thirteen people or fewer, and the difference shows up in how much personal attention and storytelling the guide can actually deliver. If a tour offers this upgrade, it is usually worth the extra cost, since New Orleans food deserves a guide who is not shouting over twenty strangers to be heard.

My honest read. Book the small group option whenever it exists as a choice on the same tour, since the format change matters more here than which specific operator you pick.

Fully private tours exist too, built around one group’s schedule and dietary needs from the start. They run considerably higher in price and make the most sense for special occasions rather than a standard visit.

What a Tour Actually Costs

Most standard walking food tours in the French Quarter run around seventy to eighty dollars per person for roughly three hours, food included across four to six tastings. That band covers the majority of first time visitors, and the tastings alone typically add up to a full meal’s worth of food.

Some tours build in a sit-down course at one stop rather than just walking tastings, and those tend to price toward the higher end of that range. A handful of premium or cocktail-focused tours run higher still, since New Orleans invented several classic cocktails and some operators built entire tours around that history alongside the food.

Given how affordable eating well is in this city on your own, a chunk of that fee buys curation and history rather than the food itself. That trade is worth it here specifically because the culinary history is dense enough that eating blind genuinely means missing half the meaning behind what you are tasting.

When to Book It

Book a food tour toward the start of your trip rather than the end. Once a guide has pointed you toward the good, unglamorous spots, you can return to your favorites on your own for the rest of the stay.

Afternoon and early evening tours tend to dodge the worst of the daytime Quarter crowds while still landing you at restaurants during their normal service hours. Confirm the exact start time works with your other plans, since a three hour tasting tour effectively replaces lunch or dinner.

Mardi Gras season and major festival weekends see tours sell out further ahead than usual, sometimes weeks out. Outside those peak windows, booking a few days ahead is usually enough to secure your preferred time slot.

The Coffee Detail Most People Miss

Café au lait here almost always means coffee cut with chicory root, a habit that traces back to French colonists stretching scarce coffee supplies during a historic shortage. Most visitors drink it without ever asking why it tastes slightly different from coffee back home.

A good guide will point this out at whichever stop includes coffee, since it is one more small piece of the layered history running through the entire menu. Skipping that context means drinking the same cup and walking away without the story behind it.

The Dietary Question

New Orleans cuisine leans heavily on shellfish, pork, and rich sauces built on butter and roux, and that creates real friction for travelers with allergies or dietary restrictions. Several reviews across multiple operators note that shellfish and other allergy substitutions are not guaranteed in advance, so flag any restriction directly with the operator at booking rather than assuming a fix on the day.

Vegetarian accommodation exists on some tours but varies significantly by operator and by which restaurants sit on that day’s route. Message the company ahead of time if this matters to you, since the itinerary can shift day to day based on vendor availability.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does a typical tour run?

Most run about three hours, covering four to six stops on foot. That pace includes real walking between restaurants, not just standing and eating. A few of the food tours also combine other activities like a swamp boat tour or a plantation tour.

Is the food included, or do I pay separately at each stop?

Nearly every reputable operator includes all tastings in the upfront price. Confirm this before booking, since a few cocktail add-ons or optional drink purchases sit outside the base tour fee.

Should I skip a meal before the tour?

Yes, generally. Four to six tastings across three hours regularly adds up to a full meal’s worth of food, and most people finish satisfied rather than hungry for more.

Do these tours work for kids?

Most walking tours involve real distance on foot and rich, sometimes spicy food, which suits older kids better than toddlers. Ask the operator directly about kid-friendly substitutions if traveling with young children.

What is the difference between Cajun and Creole food, really?

Creole cooking developed in the city itself and blends French, Spanish, African, and Caribbean technique into refined dishes. Cajun cooking comes from rural Acadiana further west and runs rustic, built around what was available on the land rather than in a city market.

What is the one dish I should not leave without trying?

Gumbo, and specifically a version where you can actually taste the roux doing its work. It is the dish that best explains this city’s whole culinary history in a single bowl, and it rarely gets served with real care on the tourist menus lining Bourbon Street.