Last Updated on April 16, 2026 by Adrienne
One of my favorite ways to get to know a new city is with a food tour, so I was really excited when Ahoy New York Food Tours offered to give me the opportunity to join one of their New York City food tours on my recent trip. I opted to join the Chinatown and Little Italy tour, which lasts about 3 hours and delves deep into the history and cuisine of two of Manhattan’s most famous foodie neighborhoods.
I loved my experience on this tour, which featured 8 excellent tastings. Ahoy has offered a discount code to my readers, and you can find that info at the bottom of the post. Onto the food!
We started our tour by meeting up in Chinatown at Silk Road Cafe for a cup of jasmine tea, which aids in digestion and was a great way to start on the tour on a chilly late November morning. They give you a nice booklet to take home that includes details about all the places you stopped, as well as some fun facts about the neighborhoods and recommendations for other places to eat. While we were drinking the tea, our guide Lily handed out pork buns from nearby Fay Da Bakery, which were delicious.
From there we continued just down the street to Noodle Village, a Hong Kong-style dumpling restaurant, where we got to sit down and eat some pork and vegetable dumplings with their signature sauce. These dumplings were so good, some of the best I’ve ever had, and seriously had me looking up flights to Hong Kong.
Our next stop was at Hay Hay Roasted for their signature honey-roasted duck, which was also phenomenal.
We wrapped up the Chinatown portion of the tour with pandan sponge cakes from Kam Hing Bakery which we enjoyed while hanging out in bustling Columbus Park. (If you’re wondering why there’s a park named after Columbus in Chinatown, our guide explained that the boundaries of Little Italy and Chinatown were historically in flux and the neighborhoods regularly swapped territory.) The bright green color of the cake is all natural from the pandan – no food coloring! The cake was light and sweet and I really enjoyed it.
I have to confess I don’t consider myself that big a fan of Chinese food in general but this tour has changed my mind, because everything we ate was absolutely amazing and I would have happily gone back to any of the restaurants for a full meal. I also really appreciated all the details Lily shared about the neighborhood’s history because some food tours tend to gloss over the local history and culture.
We started the Italian portion of our tour with some excellent gnocchi and homemade marinara sauce at Piemonte Ravioli Co., which has been in the neighborhood for over 100 years.
From there we went to Di Palo’s Fine Foods, another longtime neighborhood institution, where we tried two hard cheeses (a cow’s milk and a sheep’s milk) and some olives. I could eat my weight in cheese and this was really good.
From there we went to the restaurant Benito One for a sit-down tasting of eggplant rollatini, a dish I had never tried before which is basically a breaded eggplant slice rolled around a ball of ricotta cheese and topped with marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese. We were also able to order a beer, wine or soft drink at this stop.
Our final stop of the tour was for a mini cannoli from Ferrara Bakery, a famous maker of cannolis and other Italian pastries. It hit the spot and was the perfect last bite.
What should you know before you go on a food tour with Ahoy? Wear comfortable shoes, and come with an empty belly — you get a lot of really tasty food, and I didn’t really eat for the rest of the day. I don’t have any allergies or dietary restrictions, but if you do, Ahoy is great about accommodating them; just make sure you disclose any special dietary needs up front. Beverages were included at several stops, but you may want to bring a water bottle with you, especially in hot, sunny weather.
If you’re interested in booking an Ahoy food tour, you can use the code AHNYRV for 20% off.
Disclosure: I was a guest of Ahoy on this tour. All opinions are my own and I only blog about experiences I can enthusiastically recommend to my readers. Thank you for inviting me, Ahoy!
