~ Taste Buds: Chicago Food Tour ~

Did you know you have over 10,000 taste buds?  I didn't know either, but I found that out when I went on a food tour in Chicago through Taste Buds.  I love food tours!  You can to learn about the city and eat!!!  My friends and I went on the Gold Coast food tour.  Now, some of us are locals.  You don't need to be a tourist to enjoy these tours.  The Gold Coast tour has 6 stops:

• Pizano’s A family tradition, serving “World famous gourmet deep dish pizza” for over 60 years.
• Heaven on Seven The best Louisiana Cookin’ outside of New Orleans, serving Chicago for 30 years
• Purple Pig Cheese, Swine and Wine.  Featuring house made Charcuterie, cheeses and classic Mediterranean fare plus extensive yet accessible wine list.
• Downtown Dogs Chicago Style Hot dogs served 1 block off the Magnificent Mile.
• Billy Goat Tavern Grill World famous tavern is a historic Chicago landmark with the famous “Cheezeborger, Cheezeborger. Cheezeborger.,  Est 1934
• Sarah’s Pastries and candies.  Sarah’s Wedding cakes were featured in March 2010 Brides Magazine

Sarah's

My favorite was Sarah's Pastries... they have the best brownie I have ever had!  My husband who doesn't eat much sweets loved it too!  We even purchased other items for after dinner desserts.

Check out this brownie... it's a little bit crunchy on the outside and super moist and gooey on the issue. Tasted awesome and not too sweet!  I took so many pictures there that I am going to write a separate post about this place.

Pizano

Now I will go over the restaurants in the order that we visited.  First, yummy pizza at Pizano.  We had a slice of deep dish and a slice of thin crust, which was supposedly Oprah's favorite.  According to the tour guide, Pizano's pizza has the same origins as the famous Uno's pizza.  The crust is specially made unlike Uno though.  It was great pizza!!! The sausage was so good!!  I actually had an extra slice too 'cause they had extra.

Downtown Dogs

Next stop....Downtown Dogs for the famous Chicago hot dog.  I was so full by this point that I couldn't even eat my hot dog and just took it to go.  It looked good though.

Heaven on Seven

After walking for a lil bit to get some appetite back, we went to Heaven on Seven.  I took a lot of pictures here too because they have so many different kinds of hot sauces.  Just for that I need a separate post too.  Here's a picture of the food.  We got small portions of Jambalaya and gumbo , which was great.  Not spectacular though.  I expected more.... flavor from Cajun food I think.

Billy Goat's Tavern

Next, it was Billy Goat's Tavern.  Great history and stories for this place.  The burger was yummy too.  No fries though.  How can they not serve fries?  I love fries!

They gave me a hat to wear though so that's a bonus too I guess. :)

The Purple Pig

For our last stop, we headed over to the Purple Pig, named one of the best 10 new restaurants in America.   

We had the strawberry ice cream drizzled with balsamic vinegar.  What?  That sounds weird right?  But it was not bad.  The first bite was shocking.  Then, it just tasted like....refreshingly tarte and fresh strawberry ice cream.

The Purple Pig was a tiny little place, but looks very cozy.  They have outdoor seating too.  And...some interesting dishes like pig ears and pig tails. 

Tourists Stops

We stopped by Drake's hotel to use their bathroom and checked out the famous powder room. We got a piece of chocolate from Drake and a coupon for high tea. The chocolate was very good! It was a little bonus in the tour.

It is a Chicago tour after all so we got to stop by the John Hancock building and the Water Tower.

Overall, it was a great experience!  Most of the food was excellent and only some are mediocre.  The tour guide was great too.  He had many entertaining stories.  For a 3 hour tour and all that food, $44 was not bad at all.  We were all very full, even the big boys.  We were also allowed to buy products at every stop, which we weren't able to do on other tours.  Ordering the tickets online was very convenient too.  Just thinking about the tour is making me hungry!