We booked the food tour in an effort to learn about the history of the local cuisine, while getting a walking tour of the neighborhood. Our guide had a wonderful knowledge of the local street art and neighborhood and was very willing to answer questions. She lacked the food knowledge and was not very seasoned as a guide. That said, the 6 hour tour was a very good value and we would recommend it. Especially exciting was a digital photo album of 126 photos taken by the guide along the way. It was nice not to have to take our own photos so we could be present for our day. A nice bonus!
I'm so glad that you found the tour to be a very good value and that your tour guide had wonderful knowledge of the local street art and the neighborhood. But I'm also sorry and surprised to hear that you thought she lacked food knowledge and that she wasn't very seasoned.
We picked the restaurants to visit to give a varied exposure to local foods and try to explain them all. It's not just about how yummy they are, but the why behind some of them. I'm also surprised because she also happens to be one of our most popular guides.
I will go over the information with our guides again to make sure that we are all up on the same page with our food information. But I am glad that you liked your experience enough to leave a nice review and to actually recommend this to others.
Thank you for taking the time to share this and for actually taking the tour and spending the day with us.
We've taken food tours around the world, and definitely rate this experience with Frank as one of the very best. Given the choice of rescheduling/cancelling due to constant rain, we opted to go ahead with our scheduled tour and are glad we did. Frank's knowledge and enthusiasm resulted in an enjoyable adventure that was both enriching and delicious.
I'm so glad to hear that you enjoyed the tour. This tour is so much fun that not even rain can ruin it. Thank you so much for spending the day with me!
This was my favorite activity we did in BA! Felt like such an organic, non-touristy experience. We were welcomed into Franky's super cool home in Palermo (awesome neighborhood!) where he sat with us for a bit and explained how we would spend the day. We learned about his background and then began some prep for the meal we would be having later. He led us around his neighborhood, explained the impressive street art, shared some history about Argentina and BA, and then took us to his local market to pick out the meat for the asado. We also went to a wine shop and had a glass of Malbec and learned about the wine industry in Argentina. Then we headed back to his house to enjoy the food in his courtyard! The grillmaster cooked up some incredible meat, and we got to try interesting food that I hadn't eaten before. We also enjoyed fernet and coca-cola, two kinds of wine, and we learned about (and drank) mate. Frank is informative, helpful, and fun, and this just felt like such a personal experience, to be invited into someone's home and see how the locals live. My advice...book it!!
I had a great time hosting you in my home and I'm so glad that you felt like it was non-touristy, that is exactly what I always try to make everyone feel like. I want everyone to feel like they are just visiting a friend and hopefully learning about a new culture over some great food and wine.
Thank you for spending the day with me!
Today we met Frank at his lovely home in Palermo from where, after learning to make carmelized pecans and chimichurri, we launched into a street art/food shopping tour of Palermo Viejo. Frank was wonderful at explaining the history of the neighbourhood, the street art with its meaning and importance and many little quirks of Buenos Aires that make it such a facinating city. After the tour which included wine tasting at a beautfiul wine shop and restaurant, we returned to Frank's home to eat what the grillmaster had prepared. Lunch was fabulous - all Argentine classics explained by Frank and devoured by us,.
Frank has very thoughtfully put this tour together. He does many small things which make the tour special e.g. taking pictures during the walking part of the tour and slightly modifying some of the offering to suit non-Argentine tastes. If you have time in the city, you should really join Frank for lunch!
Thank you so much for sharing with everyone your experience with our tour! I couldn't have described it better myself.
We had a great day out with Delfina. She helped us with pronunciation of all the foods we enjoyed, tricky since we speak no Spanish at all. And we thought the selection of restaurants was a good overview of choices in Palermo - in fact, the overview of places along the way was informative. We found a little more information about other items on the menu would have been helpful during our stay in Buenos Aires and found the picture taking at all the venues a little distracting. All and all a very good food tour and Delfina was delightful.
I'm glad to hear that you had a great day with Delfina! She is one of our most popular guides. I'm also glad that you enjoyed the restaurants that we have picked out. We pick those restaurants to make sure that you get a varied choice of traditional local foods that are also high in quality.
I'm sorry that you found the picture taking distracting. It is something that we do that most people actually end up loving that they have a photo album of the day. I'm sure that if you would have brought it up to her attention she probably would have eased up and not taken so many. We mainly do this for our guests so that they have pictures to look back on and remember as much of the day as possible. We also do generally try to talk about the food as much as possible. I will revisit some of those food choices and the reasons why as well as descriptions with the guides to make sure that all of us are up to date on the backstory to some of the foods.
