Avital Tours

A group of 11 of us received a fantastic tour of North Beach/​Barbary Coast area. Margherita was AMAZING! So full of knowledge and spirit! My colleagues and I felt that Avital chose the best and most unique places to visit. We had drinks in an old prohibition tunnel (converted to a bar now). Visited an old brothel (now converted in to an arts & crafts store), ate the best eggplant parmesan I have ever tasted, and the cannolis from Cavlli Café were to die for! We are thoroughly impressed and I cannot wait to show my family and friends the new history we uncovered hat day with Margherita. We highly recommend Avital Tours!

Took the Union Square cocktail tour with their guide, Corinne, and it was great! We’re locals but this service seemed like it wouldn’t be too tourist-​y, and it lived up to that. The drinks were great, the service we got at each stop was awesome, and the good mix of teaching history + just having fun was perfect. Thanks guys!

Leila was an amazing tour guide. She’s clearly very connected to the city (5^th generation San Franciscan!) and knows all of its quirky history and anecdotes. She was very passionate and knowledgeable

I took the Mission Food tour (with alcohol pairing), and would highly recommend it.
We started the tour learning about some of the interesting murals and history of the Mission. Then we headed off to our first stop, West of Pecos, where we enjoyed a pork belly breakfast taco and the most incredible Rosemary bloody Maria I’ve ever tasted.
Next, we walked over to Mission Cheese for a beer and cheese pairing, which included an Edam from Salinas and a goat cheddar from Pasa Robles (paired with an American Red Ale from Altamant Brewery in Livermore). Carley, A cheese mongler, led us through the tasting, and even taught us a bit about buying cheese, storing it, and pairing it ourselves. Fun fact: you can eat most cheese rinds, and it actually will give you a good idea of the cheese terroir.
Our third stop was Gracias Madre, a vegan Mexican resturant. I probably would have never stumbled upon this place on my own, but the butternut squash quesadilla was amazing. They make fresh sodas in house, and the pineapple soda we enjoyed was exceptional.
We spent a few more minutes checking out some other murals and learning about the area before heading to the legendary Bi-​rite market. The manager, Jorge, gave us a sampling of local pink lady apples with Madagascar Crème Fraiche while he told us the history of the neighborhood and their storefront. It was really nice to chat with him, and I enjoyed shopping around the market before devouring a scoop of world famous salted caramel ice cream from Bi-​rite Creamery (without waiting in line, might I add).
Anna and BB were the guides for our group, and they are both so knowledgable and friendly. It was really cool to hear from resturant owners and chefs, and I especially enjoyed how organized each stop was. I wouldn’t so much call this a tour, as it’s much more than that… More like a progressive culinary experience.
Avital Tours offers North Beach and Haight Ashbury food tours, as well as a Union Square cocktail tour, all of which I hope to try. Whether you’re a local or visiting San Francisco, these tours have something for everyone.

We took North beach (Little Italy) food tour with Margherita. What a great way to discover a new neighborhood, meet new people of course try amazing and diverse food. Margherita was so fun and attentive to everyone, the selection of restaurants was very thoughtful and although I am usually pretty picky (and even more so now when I am pregnant) I enjoyed everything I tried. I also appreciated how they proactively took my dietary restrictions into account and offered delicious alternatives. One of the best things we have done in SF for sure!

I attended the mission food tour with some friends and Ida was our guide. We all really enjoyed it. She was great and we learned so much about the area and discovered great new places. I would definitely recommend this tour.

This was a great tour. Learned so much about the mission, it’s history and food. Anna was a excellent guide and all the spots we visited were top notch — West of Pecos, Mission Cheese, Gracias Madre, and Bi-​rite Market and Creamery (who knew? Not me, I would have strolled right by — a fascinating little Market packed full of all your food dreams). I always hesitate a bit before committing to organized tours but had no regrets. Avital does a great job.

If only a ⁶⁄₅ star rating was allowed. I had a wonderful time with Zev as the tour guide for both of my tours. The cocktail and mission tours offered wonderful food and drink, and a fresh perspective on the city! Outstanding!

Couldn’t have asked for a better day to spend with my family. We absolutely love food and love trying new restaurants in the city. I am so happy we booked and found this tour. Avital was our guide and she was awesome! She kept us informed and provided us with so much information throughout the entire evening. I was wondering if we would have enough food to try but by the end of the night I was absolutely satisfied. I can’t wait to book our next tour!

We had a company outing and decided to take the North Beach food tour. It was fantastic. Our guide, Margherita, was incredibly knowledgeable, friendly and brought us to some amazing spots that we will be heading back to soon. We all had a blast and will definitely be booking another tour!

We really enjoyed the mission district food tour with Eda… she was very energetic, funny, and had great stories… she had excellent knowledge of the area…
Food very good!

We did our Mission Food Tour yesterday and loved it! Keila is such a great guide — so enthusiastic, and had answers to every question. In our group there were some people who were visiting the city, and some who live in SF, and the information covered was interesting to both. We’re definitely considering trying out food tours in other districts! As well as coming back to Mission for more exploring, using Keila’s tips :)

We had the most incredible experience on this tour. My husband and I are big foodies and we like to eat our way around a city when we travel but this was a perfect introduction to the Mission District. So many places we would have missed or walked past just due to the sheer volume of places to eat here.
Our tour guide Kayla was so approachable, informative and fun! She was so good with balancing the knowledge of the area with the current pulse of what is happening now in the Mission District. Constantly entertaining, very energetic and passionate about what she does. Avital Tours should be proud to have her representing our company to food tourists!
This tour made us want to do ALL of the other tours you offer and also to come back and do this one again next time we are in the city!
The food was AMAZING! We will definitely recommend this to all of our friends who are traveling to the Bay Area.
Thanks!
Pam & Al

This was one of the best experiences I have ever had in the city. Somewhat of a foodie I appreciated hearing about the history and culture of the mission district, while eating some amazing food. Our tour guide Kelia made the entire trip. She was brilliant, funny, protective and everything we needed her to be. I will be recommending this experience to everyone I know and specifically Kelia.

Just got done with a group tour of North Beach with our guide Margherita. We had amazing food tour, complete with fresh cannoli, the best eggplant parmesan I’ve ever had in my life, and cocktails. Would recommend anyone who loves Italian. Not overly strenuous, so most people can handle it as a walking tour.

The Mission Tour with Keila — she was fabulous, really great fun to spend the afternoon with! We were a mixed bunch, a group of friends from the South Bay, many of whom know the city and its food scene well but some who know nothing at all. Keila was able to engage with all of us, she was very entertaining and informative, as well as being lovely & bubbly.
This was a specially designed tour for us, and was just the right amount of food and drink. Amazing how much food history is packed into such a small area of the Mission. I definitely recommend this tour for visitors to the city, they will get a fast track into San Francisco’s famous food scene and get great recommendations for where to go for the rest of their stay. And if you can, ask for Keila, you won’t be disappointed!

I thoroughly enjoyed the Mission Food Tour! I went with my colleagues as a team outing and we ended up having a great time. Our tour guide was Keila– she was super energetic, funny, really nice and very knowledgable in the history of SF as well as the history of food in SF! She really made the whole experience super fun!
The places we hopped to were really good as well. We were so stuffed by the end but it was well worth the food coma.

We had a really enjoyable time on our recent Mission food tour. The food was excellent and the tour guide did a great job. We enjoyed getting to learn about some great new restaurants and the neighborhood.
However, I wouldn’t recommend this business for anyone with food allergies or restrictions.
Avital’s website has a form to fill out for food restrictions during the reservation process, but since I had trouble getting the page to load, I emailed after making our reservation to confirm that they had the information attached to our reservation for the member of our party who is required to eat a low-​cholesterol diet. In further emails, the representative I communicated with was unsure of whether the restaurants we would be visiting could accommodate his restrictions and offered that he (only, of our party of 4) could be dropped from the tour if he couldn’t be served food within his dietary restrictions.
Since the business wasn’t willing to refund our entire party (just the one member), I asked whether he could be served vegetarian food (if possible), or given a discounted rate to accompany the tour on the walk but not be served food. No one responded to that inquiry and the follow up I made, by phone or email.
Our guide that day had not been informed about the food restrictions, and none of the restaurants had been prepared to make accommodations, nor were we given a discount on the tour. We did tell the tour guide about the situation at the beginning of the tour, and she said something to the effect that she didn’t know what he’d be able to eat, as no substitutions would be made. At 3 of the 5 stops, the food served was outside his dietary guidelines, so when it was served, our tour guide ate his serving. Since we paid for that serving, I was a little appalled that it wasn’t served to another member of our party.
I know I could have pushed this issue more, but didn’t want to cause a scene and ruin the tour for everyone else. I was very disappointed that the communications pre-​tour fell apart and that they stopped responding to me when they ran into a situation they couldn’t handle. It might be better if they just stated on their website flat-​out that they can’t accommodate food allergies or restricted diets.
Edited to add:
I returned to their website and they have re-​vamped the checkout process so that it now makes very clear which food restrictions they can and cannot accommodate. This is a big improvement. The options listed are:
Vegetarian
Pescatarian
Pregnant
Gluten-​Free
and they clearly state that they can’t accommodate any others. This will be a big help to others who are in a similar situation.

We had a great time Sunday on the Haight Ashbury food tour. Well there were definitely some adult beverages along the way so let’s call it the food and booze tour.
Even thought I don’t live far from the Haight I never spend time in the neighborhood. Once in a while I drive through to check out the activity on the street but that’s about it. After Sunday’s tour I definitely will be back to visit the Alembic, Second Act, Bacon Bacon and the Ice Cream Bar.
Our tour guide Leila was full of infectious enthusiasm for the neighborhood and it’s history, so we learned a lot without feeling like we had a history lesson. I look forward to doing the North Beach tour with Avital Tours sometime soon.

Why not 5 stars? A bit pricey IMHO. I would skip the alcohol pairing – not worth your dough.
This is a guided foodie tour around specific neighborhoods in SF. We went with the Mission District with alcohol pairing. The restaurants we visited were pretty tasty, but I was disappointed with one of them.
Overall, not bad if you’re a true tourist who is visiting SF for the first time and want to do some sampling in a short period of time and learn some history along the way (3 hours guided tour). The Mission is a great area to familiarize oneself since there are beautiful murals throughout the neighborhood with lots of character and culture.

Moi et mon copain avons fait The North Beach Tour la première soirée de notre séjour à San Francisco le 23 août 2014. Notre guide, Leila — une san franciscaine pure race ;) 5e génération -, a fait de ce tour, déjà intéressant à lui seul, une activité formidable et enrichissante. En plus de goûter des mets excellents et de rencontrer des personnes intéressantes, cela nous a permis d’avoir plein d’adresses où manger et prendre un verre!