Seattle: Pike Place Market Chef-Guided Food Tour
About this activity
Highlights
- Explore Seattle's Pike Place Market with a chef
- Taste a variety of items from artisan market vendors
- Get chef market shopping tips
- Try local treats, including the famous Pike Place Chowder
- Benefit from a 10%-off discount card on market partners
Full description
Eat Seattle Tours’ chef guides lead two-hour food tours of Pike Place Market, with nine tastings from the small businesses that make the place work. Our guides are working Seattle chefs . You’re not getting a script, you’re getting someone who shops here. Forbes, and Food and Wine featured us as one of the best ways to experience the city.
Pike Place Market has over 450 businesses. Most visitors find five. You’ll eat at nine, chosen by someone who knows the owners, and hear why those nine are worth your time.
What you’ll taste
Nine stops from a roster of sixteen Market partners. Routes shift by day, time, and guide, so no two tours are identical — that’s deliberate, and it’s why our guides can take you somewhere they’re actually excited about that morning.Past routes have included Pike Place Chowder, Market Spice (the oldest spice shop in Seattle), Beecher’s, Chukar
Cherries, indi chocolate, Hellenika Cultured Creamery, and Maíz. You’ll get a mix of the places you came to Seattle for and several you’d have walked straight past.
Where chefs actually shop
Your guide wears a chef coat, and it isn’t costume. You’ll learn to pick produce and judge fish the way people who cook for a living do it, skip the lines that eat an hour of most visitors’ mornings, and hear the real stories of owner-operated businesses in a market running since 1907.
Good to know
Tour is two hours long, meeting at 1600 First Ave outside Simply Seattle. Wear comfortable shoes — stairs, cobblestones, and hills. This is a moving tour, not a leisurely restaurant crawl. You’ll leave with a 10% discount card for our Market partners.
Tell us about dietary needs when you book and we’ll do what we can. Vegetarians are straightforward with 24 hours’ notice, and our guides regularly work around allergies and preferences at most stops. Gluten-free and dairy-free are harder, not every tasting can be swapped, so you may sit out a stop or two. If that works for you, come along. If you’d rather not miss anything, get in touch and we’ll suggest a better fit.
Included / Excluded
- Chef Guide
- Samples at 9 different stops
- Discount card with 10% off at market partners
- Tips
- Hotel pickup or drop-off
Meeting point
Start Location
1600 1st Avenue, 1600 1st Ave, Seattle, US
Meet your chef outside of Simply Seattle located at 1600 1st Ave (the corner of 1st Ave and Pine St). Please arrive 5 minutes early. We can't catch you up after the tour has left. Summer is busy and there are several events daily making traffic & parking challenging. Please plan accordingly!
Important information
Know before you book
- This tour requires a medium level of physical fitness due to hills, stairs, and limited seating
- This tour is not ideal for a gluten free, vegan or dairy free diets
- The average group size is 12 people
- This tour will take place rain or shine
Know before you go
- Tasting stops may vary based on your booked date and time
- Best parking garage is located at 1531 Western Ave
- This is a fast paced market experience
Cancellation policy
Up to 24 hours before the beginning of the activity: full refund Less than 24 hours before the beginning of the activity or no-show: no refund
Reviews
This food tour was an amazing experience. Our guide Will was very knowledgeable about the stops and provided interesting culinary facts as we went along the route. He was also attentive to any food allergies present in the group. The food was delicious, and it was great to skip the lines. We would highly recommend this tour with Will!
Chef Sean was a wonderful guide, very friendly and knowledgeable! We loved not only getting to taste a bunch of local food, but learn about Pike’s Place’s history and the community! It was lots of fun, and of course all the food from all the places we visited was delicious! Highly recommend this experience, totally worth it and great value! A great way to learn about local shops and restaurants if you’re a tourist like we are.
Great tour with excellent food, skipping the line is very useful. I don’t recommend going to the market without a guided tour to help you get to know it.
