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Chicago Food Planet Best In Chow Food Tour – Best Things To Do In Chicago

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I received complimentary admission to this food tour. All opinions are my own.

When you visit a new city, it’s always good to know a little bit about the famous foods that are available. Until this trip to Chicago, I never knew that there was a Food Tour! We had the opportunity to go on a Best In Chow Food Tour during our visit, and it was the perfect way to start our vacation.

We had a chance to get to know the city a little better on foot and eat amazing foods that we knew we needed to go back and eat. Here’s a quick look into all the DELICIOUS foods we enjoyed on our Chicago Food Planet – Best In Chow Food Tour.

 

All my blog posts about our trip to Chicago:

  • SafeHouse This is a food and fun spy experience! It’s a really cool restaurant that you must visit. Be sure to make reservations. 
  • Chicago White Sox Game – Very cool ballpark for the whole family. You must see a game if they are in town.
  • Shakespeare’s Peter Pan at Navy Pier – A really fun experience for the whole family. I dont think there is a bad seat in this theater!
  • Here is a full recap of all the places we visited in Chicago and where we stayed. 

Learn the meaning of “Chicago-Style” as you experience 5 iconic dishes from the famous restaurants that perfected them in downtown Chicago.

Our tour started at 11am, so we ate a very light breakfast. These are the places we enjoyed during our tour:

Lou Malnati’s

Considered the oldest family name in Chicago pizza, Lou Malnati’s iconic Chicago-Style Deep Dish pizza is regarded as the best in the city. Taste it for yourself!

It was as delicious as everyone said it would be. I will need to order some frozen pies to be shipped to my house!

Al’s Beef

The history of Al’s #1 Italian Beef Restaurants dates back to 1938. Al’s founder Chris Pacelli, started a neighborhood beef stand in Chicago’s “Little Italy” neighborhood.

This is a great place to visit for a quick meal. It’s a really small restaurant and they also have outdoor seating. Don’t forget to add the pepper mixture they have available.

Portillo’s Hot Dogs

The famed Portillo’s was founded in 1963 by Dick Portillo. After returning from serving in the Marines, Dick (with help from his brother Frank) opened a humble hot dog stand.

Did you know a famous Chicago hot dog has 7 toppings! It’s definitely a mouthful – and it’s delicious! This was a really cool restaurant.

Garrett Popcorn

Savor the popcorn recipes that were born out of a family competition and carried over from the Garrett’s Milwaukee home to their first Chicago shop in 1949.

The popcorn is a mix of caramel and cheddar popcorn and it was my daughter’s favorite stop. It’s a small sample so make plans to go back and get a big bag of this yummy popcorn mix.

Copper Fox

From Florence to Chicago, Chef Courtney’s passion for food is contagious as he serves up delicious comfort foods with a creative twist in this modern American Gastropub.

This was the last stop and it was the perfect place for dessert. They served us a Nutella Brownie. It didn’t have any chocolate in the brownie – the chef created it with Nutella. I also hear their #16 biscuits are amazing!

We didn’t just get to experience the food we learned about the history of the food and the city. Our tour guide, Luke was incredibly knowledgeable and we learned so much about Chicago during our 3-hour tour.

We did this tour with 3 kids (ages 13,9 and 7 years old) and they didn’t complain about anything. They loved the food and the experience. The walk was about 1.4 miles and it wasn’t too much for the kids. It was nice because you would eat and then walk a little bit through the city. We saw parts of the city we would not have seen if we didn’t go on this tour.

Each stop had water to drink and a few stops had a place to use the bathroom. (Our guide let us know in advance how long we would have to wait until our next bathroom stop.)

The Chicago Food Planet Best in Chow Food Tour is something you must do if you visit Chicago. You will not be disappointed. And ask for Luke as your tour guide – you will learn so much and have a great time!

The Chicago Food Plant has a few different tours available so if this one is too long or if you are not interested in these restaurants, check out their website for more details.

Our family took a trip to Paris and we had so much fun! Check out this blog post – I hate selfies but I took a ton of them with my family in famous locations!

 

 

If you are planning a family vacation to Chicago. These are some of the best place to visit. Add this to your list of things to do when you travel to Chicago. So much good food at these restaurants! #Chicago #Food #ThingsToDo #vacation

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