Ahoy New York Tours & Tasting

Had a great time on this tour! Lots of good historical info and interesting stories along the way, and we definitely tried things that we otherwise would have missed. Come hungry because there was a lot of food!!!
Really nice to have such a small group and the food was all perfectly timed. Lots of opportunities for pictures, questions, and second tastes of things!

Did the Little Italy/​Chinatown food tour with Alana this past weekend. Great food at each stop, and a lot of fun information about the neighborhoods and their histories. She also was very knowledgeable about the specific restaurants and shops we ate in. Both my wife and I were full by the end of it, and at least one of the restaurants had a line out the door that we got to completely skip and go straight to a group-​reserved table.
Booked through Goldstar so got 20% off the normal price as well, but honestly this would have been easily worth full price. Recommended!

Every year around the holidays, I like to take my goddaughter and her family on a special outing in Manhattan, whether for a show, a special shopping trip, or some other interesting attraction. This year I decided a food tour would be fun, and I’m so glad I chose Ahoy’s Little Italy/​Chinatown Food tour, it was better than I could have hoped for. All of the food that we had at the tastings, including cheeses, desserts, pasta, noodles and dim sum was beyond delicious. Our tour guide, Alana, was enthusiastic, friendly and super knowledgeable about all of the whole area. She was also very patient, which was good for us because my group was running late at the start and lagged at a couple of places; Alana was super nice and didn’t give us a hard time about that. In addition to recounting the history of the 6 cafes/​shops/​restaurants we visited, she also had some great crime stories to share. We were lucky to have pleasant weather for the tour, which just made it even better. I would personally recommend not eating before the tour, because by the end of the three hours it feels like you’ve had a good brunch with a nice side of culture! Overall, a great tour and I highly recommend it for locals (I myself was born and raised in Brooklyn) as well as out-​of-​towners. My goddaughter and her sister both said it was their favorite day of the whole holiday season, so it makes a great gift for sure.

We recently took a tour for a team building event and loved it! We live in NYC but found out so many new things about the city that we had never heard before. Alana was a great tour guide. She was very accommodating to our groups many food restrictions (nut free, vegan, vegetarian & dairy free) and was informative and funny. Even though it rained all day we had a blast, highly recommended from a self confessed guided tour hater :)

I really enjoyed this tour and, Allana, our guide was very knowledgeable and friendly. The brochure with recommendations and coupons was also appreciated.

My daughter and i took the Chinatown/​Little Italy tour and learned quite a bit of history and ate some really delicious food. You not only sample food at various locations, but you learn about the history behind the restaurant or shop that you visit. Alana, our tour guide was great about telling stories about speak-​easys, (is that a word?) and murders that took place right where we were standing… etc. We went back to the deli shops in Little Italy and made purchases. We are quite familiar with Chinese dim sum and Chinese culture so we more interested in the Little Italy area. I’m not sure this tour is good for teens or younger kids unless they tend to be adventuresome in their food choices. One teen in our group didn’t want to even sample anything that looked weird and just played with the food or refused to take it. Potstickers and even egg rolls were out of her food range. We encountered good food and culture on this tour. 3 Cheers for Alana and for this memorable experience!

I wish I could do 3.5 stars. The chosen restaurants were great, the tour guide, Alana, was not… I bought these tickts for an xmas gift for my mother, sister and I, and at the last moment, my little sister brought her 13 year old friend along to the NYC trip. We arrive to meet for tour and Alana met us with quite the attitude about us asking about tacking on the 13 year old. It was January 10^th… ABOUT 0 DEGREES… and she didn’t explain the policy nicely, instead she rudely told us, we could have bought the tickets online 30 minutes beforehand (as if we knew and deliberately came there to irritate her) and then she proceeded to tell us all the work she has to do to call the restaurants and add one more person. Turns out, 2 people didn’t even show up, there was extra food anyways at every place we went to…
I felt so embarrassed that I had given my family these tour tickets and dragged them out in 0 degree weather (how was I to know, it was 50 degrees every single day prior) and was met by a rude, irritated tour guide. What a start!!! There are ways to talk to customers… especially ones that show up in 0 degree weather when there is only 2 other people total in the tour. We gave business to a company that requires us to be outside… you’d think they would be a bit kinder to us in the freezing cold. She rudely told us that we had to pay full price for the 13 year old ($ 50). After she had initially told us that we couldn’t have her along at all, I pleaded that she be able to just tag along and not eat… (as I had bought 3 tickets already and made A SPECIAL TRIP TO NYC FOR THIS TOUR), and Alana said, «No! I’m providing a service! Full price then!!»
I am extremely annoyed with Alana. When my mother with diabetes explained that her feet were cold during conversation, Alana replied, «Well you should dress for the weather.» My mom being the kind, sweet, loving person she is, felt pressure to give a tip, which she ended up giving… but I am disappointed in Alana and upset that our party gave her a tip after that treatment. How embarrassing.

We live a stones throw from NYC. We thought it would be fun to actually learn the history and to find some of the really good places to eat. We were rested by our guide Liz who is absolutely amazing. She truly made this trip memorable! We had a history lesson, indulged in wonderful foods and have a much better sense of Little Italy and Chinatown. This actually reintroduced us to neighborhoods we frequented years and years ago and gave us much better insight which makes it very inviting to return. Thank you Liz! I hope this company will do more of these type of tours!

Took my parents and a few of their friends on this tour with Alana and it was definitely a crowd pleaser! The tour was perfectly paced, included some interesting history, great recommendations for future visits, and lots of delicious tastings! Would highly recommend this tour!

My husband booked this tour thru Goldstar prior to our visit to NYC. The tour was excellent. A great combination of history, food and interesting and fun stories. One of our first stops on the Little Italy portion was fresh (still warm) mozzarella and prosciutto from Parma. This was just one of the many excellent food items. I enjoyed the Italian portion more than the China Town portion. Although, both were good.
Show up hungry, because you will fill up on all kinds of food and wonderful tastes. You must try all the food choices. Alana was our guide, she was excellent!
The stories and the history of the areas that you visit is very interesting. I highly recommend this tour. I suggest doing this tour at the beginning of your visit to the city, so you have time to go back and enjoy more of the food that you enjoyed during the tour.

This was fun and our tour guide was awesome and we learned a lot!

I went on the Chinatown/​Little Italy tour with Kelsea and thought that there was way too much talking and not enough eating. The tour started out promising when she told us that she was a trained pastry chef, but after we made three stops without any food I began to feel something was wrong. We met up at King Mam supermarket, but we actually just left from there without discussing anything about the market itself. WTF? Then we stopped at 3 different corners where she began giving us a long history lesson about the roots of Little Italy dating back to the 1890s. Finally, we made our way to the first tasting which was pretty small portion but very good. I am disappointed that we were asked not to buy anything while we visited these places so that «there are no delays» but yet, we stood around for 3 hours listening to her talk. My cousin really wanted to sample the lobster tail pastry but we couldn’t do that because she didn’t give us any time. When we arrived in Chinatown, we stood around 2 more street corners before getting to our tasting. At one of them, we stood outside of a bakery while she described everything but we weren’t allowed to go inside or buy anything. Then at another corner, she described the durian fruit again without any ability to taste the fruit– she only pointed to it from a street corner. She then went on to bash the fruit like it owed her money which I couldn’t really understand since as an expert– shouldn’t you learn to respect foods that you may not enjoy yourself by now?
By the time we got to our first Asian tasting which was also the first time we were allowed to sit and use the restroom, our family was done. We tried the Thai dishes, which was terrible and decided to cut the tour short. We left the tour with 2 more tastings left, but god know how many more history lessons. I have been to one other food tour in LA, and this one was sub-​par in comparison. We went on an really empty stomach, and were not expecting to stand for an hour before the first tasting. Maybe if the history lesson itself was a more interesting then I would recommend it, but the truth is, there really isn’t that much interesting stuff that happened in these two small areas. If I had know that the tour was 80% standing and listening, I would have gone elsewhere.

Incredible! Tour guide Alana was awesome. She shared lots of historical information & stories in an interesting way. The food was excellent everywhere we went. Highly recommend to anyone!

This tour was a perfect way to spend 3 hours on a Sunday morning on my visit to the city from San Francisco. Alana was a very knowledgeable and professional guide that showed us some great local grub. Would do this tour again any time.

I attended this tour for my blog, NYC Style and a little Cannoli. It was really an amazing tour which was a perfect mix of walking, history lessons and food. I would refer anyone to take this tour, be a local or someone visiting the first time. The tour guide is very knowledgeable and personable and the size of the tour is great too. The price is perfect for the amount of food you receive, as well as maps of where you are walking if you wish to go back on your own. If you want to try a food tour, this one will not disappoint!

As a New York resident, I’m a snob about local food, but stil like finding new places. The Chinatown/​Little Italy food tour introduced me to multiple amazing restaurants I’ll be going back to in the future. Our tour guide Alana was also knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and helpful (making special arrangements for me since I have food allergies). The history lessons were fun, and the food was great. I’d recommend the tour to a tourist or a local.

I did the NYC Chinatown, Little Italy Food Tasting Tour with Alana. The tour was very interesting and the food was AMAZING! The guide was knowledgeable, helpful, and entertaining. Her genuine passion for the history, culture, and food makes the tour exciting and entertaining. This was a great way to spend the afternoon for both visitors or New Yorkers (like me) who want to know more about their city and all the wonderful culinary treats it has to offer. The tour also makes you look at food in a different way. It puts food in both a historical and cultural context. The treats that we tried were delicious. Alana was also very helpful in being conscious of and accommodating my fiancé’s peanut allergies. We really appreciated that. I highly recommend this tour!

The tour of Chinatown & Little Italy was both informative & tasty. The walk through both of these history-​rich neighborhoods offers insight into the significance of the areas and highlights some of the best places to sample local flavors. Alana, our tour guide, was knowledgable, personable, & a great resource.

As visitors of NY, there were soooooo many tours to choose from but I am extremely pleased my bf and I chose Ahoy while snagging ourselves a deal (Goldstar). I am also glad that we were joined by mostly natives who didn’t need to take pictures of everything and everywhere we went (unlike my bf and I — but we were quick!!!) which made the entire tour so much more enjoyable!
We took the Chinatown/​Little Italy tour and learned quite a bit of history and ate/​sampled really delicious food. In LA, we’ve been on a few food tours and either they lacked the history aspect or the food places weren’t very good. With Alana, our Chinatown/​Little Italy guide, she gave insightful history without being overwhelming and we stayed long enough at each stop to sample (and eat at a sit-​down stop) and everything just seemed perfectly timed. 5 stops for samples, 1 stop for sit down.
The other thing that really stood out to me was the non-​pushy, non-​persistent, non-​obligatory way Alana asked for gratuity. She mentioned it at the very beginning of the tour with just a simple, «if you enjoy this tour, gratuity is greatly appreciated» and just like that, she never mentioned it again.
Because I have been to other food tours (though not in NY), which before, I had thought were okay to good, after doing this one with Alana, I think I know more of what every food tour should be like — some history, good food selections, and good pacing. I really would highly recommend this tour. I wanted to see if she did any other tours but as of right now, the Chinatown/​Little Italy is the only one they offer. I should also add that the native New Yorkers in my group really enjoyed this tour.

This tour is for natives and visitors alike! We took the Chinatown/​Little Italy tour and Alana brought history and the food together for a great day. Alana lead us to a fantastic variety of places «hidden in plain sight.» I have been to Little Italy and Chinatown many times before, but now I feel like truly know my way around! Go for it!

One of my friends took me on Ahoy’s Sweet Sights tour. After I recovered from sugar shock, I realized how much I had learned about the area of town. Even though I live in New York City myself, I knew I had to try one of Alana’s downtown tours.
Several weeks later, I took my boyfriend on the Chinatown/​Little Italy tour. I could not believe how full I was or how much Alana knew about the area — and I only live a ten minute walk away! I loved the Chinese candy store and the dumplings, but really enjoyed learning about the history and development of NYC through the eyes of families and cultures that moved to the city.
I would highly recommend the tour to friends and family visiting the city. As I said, I live in NYC myself, but could not believe how much I learned about areas I pass by all the time. Definitely book a tour with Alana — you’ll be well-​fed and well-​educated by the end!