Chinatown and Little Italy Food Tour: 10 NYC Tours Compared (2026)

Our pick: Ahoy New York Food Tours' Original NYC Food Tour of Chinatown & Little Italy, eight tastings including two or three seated stops at family-owned shops, rated 5.0 from 2,338 reviews, $110.50 until November 22, 2026, then $130. Jump to the comparison table to see all ten tours side by side.

Quick answer: which Chinatown and Little Italy food tour to book

• Best overall: Ahoy New York Food Tours, the original Chinatown and Little Italy food tour, eight tastings in three hours.
• Best value: City Tours New York, $59 for two hours ($49 for children 3 to 12), currently rated 5.0 from 136 reviews.
• Most tastings for the price: Tasty Tours NYC, seven tastings for $85.
• Most-reviewed: Secret Food Tours, from $79.20 (usually $99), 3,522 reviews.
• Best small group: Tom's New York Mom and Pop Food Tour, groups of up to 10 with a guide who grew up in the area's Italian-American community.
• Best with the Lower East Side: Unscripted Tours or Like A Local, adding bagels, pickles and old delis.

A Chinatown and Little Italy food tour works because the two neighborhoods sit side by side across Canal Street. Most tours start in Chinatown with dumplings, roast pork buns, Hong Kong sponge cake and tea, often stopping at Columbus Park, Mott Street and Doyers Street, then cross into Little Italy for pizza, ravioli, cheese from century-old shops and cannoli on Mulberry and Grand Streets. Several continue into Nolita. The differences are how many tastings you get, how many of them are seated, how big the group is, and how much history the guide adds.

This guide compares ten of the best-reviewed Chinatown and Little Italy food tours, every one with guest reviews posted between September 19 and November 5, 2026, on price, tastings, length, group size and dietary options. It also covers the two Secret Food Tours NYC Chinatown and Little Italy listings, and the SoHo, Little Italy and Chinatown walking tours, which do not include food. For other neighborhoods, see our NYC food tours comparison and our Greenwich Village food tours guide; the 9/11 Memorial is about 20 minutes away on foot, and for more of the city, see our New York City travel guides.

All ten cross Canal Street between the two neighborhoods, and all have guest reviews from the past seven weeks. Here is who we think each one suits.

Searching for the Secret Food Tour of Chinatown and Little Italy brings up two listings, one from Secret Food Tours and one from Ultimate Food Tours, that are strikingly similar. Here is what we can and cannot say:

• Verified from the listings: the same meeting point (opposite Tasty Dumpling at Columbus Park), a guide holding an orange umbrella, the same six-dish format including a "secret dish", and the same three-hour length.
• Observed in reviews: a June 2026 review on the Ultimate Food Tours listing is addressed to Secret Food Tours.
• Our inference, not confirmed: the two listings may be connected operationally. We have not verified common ownership, and neither listing says so.

How they compare:

• Price: Secret Food Tours prices by date and start time, $79.20 to $118.80 and usually $99; Ultimate Food Tours charges a flat $99 ($94 for 13 to 17s, $89 for children).
• Reviews: Secret Food Tours has 3,522 reviews and a 4.9 rating, but its 15 most recent reviews of three stars or lower were all posted between July and October 2026. Ultimate Food Tours has 100 reviews, 98 of them five stars, and none below four stars.
• What to expect: on both, guests describe dumplings, buns and noodles in Chinatown, then arancini, pizza and dessert in Little Italy, partly eaten standing.

Our take: If you want this menu, check both listings for your date and book whichever is cheaper. If you want more food and seated stops for a little more money, Ahoy's original tour is the better fit.

The tours that cover SoHo, Little Italy and Chinatown together are walking tours, not food tours: food is not included. We found no SoHo, Little Italy and Chinatown food tour with recent reviews; the one listing that combined all three had no reviews in more than a year.

• ExperienceFirst's SoHo, Little Italy and Chinatown Walking Tour: two hours from Spring Street Park, $25 to $39 by date, 4.9 from 3,351 reviews. Guests describe a 15 to 20-minute break for pizza or gelato that you pay for yourself, and in 2025 and 2026 a few tours were cancelled at short notice or the guide did not show up.
• Experience NYC's SoHo, Little Italy and Chinatown Guided Walking Tour: two hours from City Hall subway, $36, 4.9 from 531 reviews, with optional food stops at your own cost.

If eating is the point, book a Chinatown and Little Italy food tour above and walk SoHo afterwards: West Broadway and Prince Street are a 10 to 15-minute walk from Mulberry Street.

This table shows only what each listing states as policy, not one-off accommodations mentioned in reviews. "Not stated" means the listing says nothing either way, so ask the operator before booking.

Secret Food Tours and Ultimate Food Tours ask you to contact them in advance without saying which diets they can meet, and City Tours New York and Tom's New York state no dietary policy. Reviews show some guides going further than their listing (a Tasty Tours guide handled a nut allergy in October 2026), but we would not rely on that for a serious allergy.

A Chinatown and Little Italy food tour costs $59 to $130 per adult with the food included. Two-hour tours cost $59 to $99 and three-hour tours $60.16 to $130, depending mostly on how many tastings and seated stops you get. Drinks beyond water or tea and tips are extra on every tour.

• Book a late-morning start. Chinatown shops are calmer before the lunch rush, and the tour becomes your lunch.
• Tell the operator about diets ahead of time. Ahoy needs 48 hours' notice for gluten-free and vegetarian swaps; Tasty Tours NYC's listing rules out vegan, gluten-free and nut-allergy guests. On the Secret Food Tours menu, ask about spice.
• Bring cash for extras and the tip. Drinks beyond water or tea are extra, and many small Chinatown shops are cash-friendly.
• Find the exact door. Several tours meet at the same corner of Columbus Park; check your confirmation for the shop name and the guide's sign or umbrella.
• Leave the stroller at the hotel if you can. Guests say some stops are too small for strollers and toddlers.
• Small turnouts still run. In October 2026 Ahoy and Tom's New York each ran a tour for a single couple, and City Tours New York ran one in the rain for the only couple who had not cancelled, so booking alone or in a quiet week is fine.
• Save room for Little Italy. The Chinatown stops come first and are filling; the cannoli is usually last.
• Walk SoHo afterwards. Most tours end within a 10 to 15-minute walk of SoHo's shopping streets.
• Pair it with a morning in Lower Manhattan. The late-morning and afternoon starts fit after an early Statue of Liberty tour from Battery Park, about 10 minutes away by subway, or end the day walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, which starts a few blocks away (see our Brooklyn Bridge tours comparison).

We searched available New York City listings for Chinatown and Little Italy food tours and selected those that met our criteria: new guest reviews in the past six months and ratings of 4.8 or higher, taking no more than one listing per operator. All ten here had reviews posted between September 19 and November 5, 2026. We checked each listing on November 5, 2026 for price by date and age, tastings, length, group size, start times, diets and cancellation terms, and read 682 reviews: 319 for our top pick and 30 to 40 for each of the others, including every recent review of three stars or lower.

Review samples vary by tour because we read more for our top pick and the most-booked tours, so they are not directly comparable. Ratings, review counts and five-star shares are those displayed on each listing on November 5, 2026; lower-rated reviews means three stars or below.

We left out Chinatown-only tours (covered in our NYC food tours comparison), a SoHo, Little Italy and Chinatown food tour with no reviews in more than a year, and listings with fewer than 25 reviews.