Tastes of Pike Place Market Walking Tour – Traveling4Food

Just a couple of weeks ago I surprised the Mrs. with a weekend trip to one of my favorite food destinations, Seattle, WA. Only a short plane trip from central California, Seattle, WA makes for a great location to sneak away from it all. (You can read about our adventures there on my travel blog: Never too Old to Travel). One of the most famous attractions in downtown Seattle is the Pike Place Market, with it's fish stalls, craft merchants, food vendors, and flower shops located in a large three story sprawling wharf side building, plus several blocks of shops around the main market place, you can easily get lost wandering through the area. Besides surprising the Mrs with this trip, and with a focused determination to explore as many food adventures as our two short days allowed, I included a “Tastes of Pike Place Market Walking Tour” by Seattle Food Tours. After all, Cooking Outdoors requires inspiration and going on a food tour is a great way to learn about the culture, history and flavors of a location you are visiting.

Our tour was conducted by the Seattle Food Tours out of Seattle, WA.

Experience the Market with an insider!

Seattle Food Tours invites you to join us on an intimate guided food tour of the world famous Pike Place Market, as we explore the back alleys, narrow corridors, and tiny storefronts in search of our favorite places. Taste the best the market has to offer while a friendly local guide shares with you entertaining stories of the market’s checkered history, it’s legendary characters and one of kind small businesses.

 

For a $44.00, 2 1/2 hour trip, we covered a lot of ground, learned about the amazing historical background of Pike Place Market, and ate a surprising delicious amount of food! All done in the very typical and often ignored Seattle rain, nothing a rain hat and jacket couldn't overcome! We actually made over a dozen stops to various shops through out Pike Place Market area, I lost count at one point, talking – eating – smiling our way through the throngs of tourist.

In case you don't make it all the way to the bottom of this post, I want to let you know, the Seattle Food Tours delivered 110% on their offer! We had an amazing time, our tour hostess was generous, friendly and full of great information. Last but not least, we discovered so many new and interesting places to visit that we might have missed if we tried to explore all of Pike Place Market on our own.

Tastes of Pike Place Market Walking Food Tour by Seattle Food Tours

Our guide – Rebecca

Vital Tea Leaf

Let the food tour begin!

Our tour started promptly at 12 noon in front of the Vital Tea Leaf shop. From here the Mrs. and I, our tour guide and several more foodies, started walking, taking and eating!

But not before she reached into her bag and pulled out a mini doughnut for all of us to try.

Now, you might ask “why did she give you the doughnut in front of the tea shop?”

And I answer “Because the Daily Dozen Doughnut stand is insanely busy and you don't want to stand in line to get a mini doughnut, do you?”

Granted the doughnut was very good and the doughnut machine was kinda fun to watch for a few second – well, I guess that's a good enough reason.

If you do happen to go to Pike Place Market, take a minute to stand back and watch the cashier (Owner?), this business is a cash cow!

Several stalls onward we stopped at Saffron Spice, popular for their Indian Street Food Samosas.

The vegetable Samosa was superb!

Nestled somewhere amongst all of the layers that is called Pike Place Market is the Honest Biscuits, where we sampled their freshly baked biscuits and I secretly craved for their biscuits and gravy offering.

Those biscuits are quite tasty too!

Back to the sweets, we stopped at Bottega Italiana Gelato Caffe, a gelato shop I had previously visited and enjoyed.

I highly recommend the Strawberry Basil Gelato to freshen up your palate.

Caramel Vanilla Yogurt from Ellenos Greek Yogurt

Then we dashed across the street next to Ellenos Greek Yogurt partially hidden inside a fruit and vegetable stand, or was it the other way around?

We then ducked into the building enclosing the fruit and vegetable stand to discover Britt's Pickles.

Everything there is “Fermented”! Delicious “Hot n' Sour, Ginger & Pepper and a surprisingly delicious I.P.O Full Sour pickle” samples where in the offering.

I even took a shot of “Fermented Pickle Juice” – absolutely delicious (IMHO)

Pork Taco with Pineapple

Just a few zigzags away we found our next surprise waiting.

Don't blink or you could miss this hidden gem – Los Agaves Mexican Street Food where we sampled their excellent Pork Taco's with fresh pineapple!

Just outside the building we were in and up the alleyway …

Of course when in Seattle, do as you would in San Francisco, grab a bowl of hot Clam Chowder from Award winning Pike Place Chowder!

I am glad I don't have to vote on which city offers the best clam chowder, Pike Place Chowder is really good as the lines confirm.

Turning back around we stepped in to try some samples of spiced oils from Sotto Voce.

Just a few doors up, or was it down? Our next stop was at La Buona Tavola, where we were treated to delicious samples of Potato Leek Soup with White Truffle Oil, Raw Basil Pesto, Truffle salt, Balsamic vinegar's, and Sicilian Ash Tree Sap (Tastes like honey).

I am positive I could have spent a few hours in this store alone!

Once again we entered Pike Place Market and visited the Pure Food Fish Market to sample their amazing Smoked Salmon.

Nothing beats the taste of fresh smoked salmon!

Then once again we found ourselves outside, up the street to our final destination, Tom Douglas's Rub with Love Shack to sample these enormous Salmon Burgers.

I don't know how they do it but these burgers where just “To Die For!”

2 1/2 hours later, we were all stuffed, tired but smiling our asses off from having an amazing food tour adventure with of hostess Rebecca from Seattle Food Tours.

Let me finish by saying that I left a lot of stuff out of this post that made this tour what it is, a true treasure trove of history, trivia, special insider tips, and fun, not to mention again … a cornucopia of food adventures!

Thank you Seattle Food Tours for making our little escape to Seattle very special.

Full disclosure: Seattle Food Tours and locations visited during this tour provided no compensation for this review.Tickets where purchased with our own personal funds, All verbiage, reviews and opinions are my own.