The 10 Tastings of Edinburgh With Locals: Private Food Tour

Food tour

The food and the bus were great. The host was very friendly and knowledgeable. The tour though the city was nice. Would recommend.

Gear walkling tour with food

Great walk with Michelle in Edinburg! Was a pleasure to meet her and get further information about the town and history. In the evening no dinner was necessary! Nice tasting were included!

Excellent tour. Alex convinced a vegetarian to eat haggis

Excellent introduction to Edinburgh with fabulous rendering of relevant history. Special treat to see the knights chapel st Giles and grey friars church. We loved every minute. Not sure why it was advertised as 10 food stops.

Amazing tour guide and tour

Alec proved to be truly outstanding. We had a remarkable time exploring Edinburgh, indulging in tastings while receiving an interactive history lesson of the city. He guided us to hidden gems we wouldn’t have discovered independently. Alec’s depth of knowledge and engaging manner made the experience thoroughly enjoyable for both adults and our two children. This tour is absolutely worth your while, it is a must!

Fantastic tour

Alec was fantastic. Fabulous mix of history and food. We had a great time. Alec found hidden gems. This tour is Highly recommend.

Friendly and knowledgeable

I recently experienced a delightful private food tour in Edinburgh, Scotland, and it exceeded my expectations. The knowledgeable guide led us through charming streets, introducing us to hidden culinary gems. From traditional haggis to artisanal Scotch whiskies, each tasting was a sensory delight. The personalized attention and insider stories made the tour truly memorable. Highly recommended for anyone seeking a unique and flavorful journey through Edinburgh's culinary landscape.

Engaging, Informative, and Delicious!

Alec is an engaging and knowledgeable guide. His historical & cultural stories make you eager to learn more! He customized our tour to accommodate a wheelchair and introduced us to some new and surprisingly delicious foods! We even had leftovers. Thanks, Alec, for a wonderful experience!

Edinburgh through the eyes of a local

We met Alec on the Royal Mile for a wonderful day of exploration and information gathering. Alec is a lovely soul, who has a great passion for Edinburgh and Scotland. He is charming, communicative and very easy to be with. We booked a food tasting tour, but experienced so much more. If we return to Edinburgh, we will definitely contact Alec. We highly recommend engaging Alec, if you want a real history of Edinburgh and Scotland

Great tour!

Alec was an amazing tour guide! He was very informative and took us to some of his favorite places to try some Edinburgh food staples. We had a great time touring this amazing city and trying some of the best food. Highly recommend!

Incredible Walking Tour of the City

WOW! This tour was worth every penny! Our tour guide, Alec, was incredibly knowledgeable and friendly. It felt like being walked around the city by an old friend. We visited many historical locations throughout the city and learned much about each of them. These visits were interspersed with three food stops. We tasted haggis with neeps and tatties, a variety of meat pies, and deep fried pizza. We were also able to get many suggestions for things to do on the remainder of our trip to Edinburgh. I can't speak highly enough about our time with Alec. The hours just flew by, and I highly recommend this tour to anyone looking to learn about the city.

Alec is a delightful person…….

First off, Alec is a great “Local” and he showed us St. Giles cathedral and some interesting facts and trivia in that area. At sundown he took us up Carlton Hill to see the City of Edinburgh, including the Castle, all up in lights. Absolutely beautiful and we were very happy to have seen the city this way against a gorgeous evening sky. We thank you, Alec, for that special moment. However……… this was supposed to be a 3 hour, 10 food and drink, eat and drink like a local foodie tour. This sadly did not happen. We stopped at 2 places and were given 2 items each place for food, The 3rd place was a pub that we were asked to choose our beverage of choice before Alec’s time with us was over and he said his good-byes. I would give Alec a 10 rating for who he is, his personality and his caring. I’d give the providing of the paid for Foodie experience a 4 because we did not get the described items we paid for. But because of the Carlton Hill experience which was extraordinary, I rated the whole experience an 8.

Glad I found WithLocals!

More reasonable than Tours By Locals & we had a fantastic experience with Alec and our Edinburgh/Foodie walking tour!

Learnt a lot about Edinburgh

Alec is a good guide. His knowledge of Edinburgh is excellent. He is a good communicator. We learned so much about the history, culture and architecture. However, this was a '10' tastings of Edinburgh tour. A significant aspect was to 'look through' the foodie lens. We were a little disappointed on the food aspect of the tour. Even though I am not a big whiskey fan, I was disappointed that we did not get to sample some of the Scottish treats or learn about this Scottish drink. Alec was really friendly, knowledgeable, informative and witty but not certain that the tour is doing full justice to the title of '10' tastings. The haggis was excellent but not sure that we actually received ten tastings.

Food Tour

I believe our tour guide’s name was Alex, a stellar old chap with a bright personality and brighter charisma. He made the tour very interesting and interactive, I highly recommend.

Learning History while we eat

Alec gave us an excellent guided tour of Edinburgh. We really enjoyed the personal experience that he shared. Even with the Fringe Festival going on he was able to guide right through. Would recommend this tour and Alec to any and all.

Fantastic

We Loved our Tour guide and I wish this wasn’t set up for a minimum character expectation. I’d be much more likly to leave more reviews

Fabulous Guide - Great Scottish "Fast Food" Experience

Alec was a delightful guide with an extensive amount of educational and entertaining stories about Scotland. He really did a fabulous job showing us the immediate area in and around the Royal Mile. If you are going to take this tour, please don't expect the food to be anything special. I think I would classify it as Scottish fast food instead of a taste of Edinburgh. There are so many beautiful foods in Scotland, but this tour mostly consisted of fried foods, a sugary drink, which we don't usually consume, and haggis. If you are prepared for that (don't expect any high-end food or drink), then you will be very happy with this experience.

Horrible Experience! Beware…

Beware!! Horrible experience! We booked the tour and it was unexpectedly canceled “due to personal reasons.” We wasted hours! We had worked our entire day’s schedule around this tour and ended up having to scramble to fill the void of time. They offered no other tour to replace. Although it was booked through TripAdvisor, the tour is handled by Tours with Locals. This was the second cancellation by this same company. Make sure you have alternative plans!!

Haggis is Great! (Must Try)

Our guide was exceptional! He adapted his tour based on the group that he had and we found that to be quite enjoyable. He also graciously extended the tour to point out other interesting information about Edinburgh and we thought that this was very gracious. All in all… He gave us a memorable experience and a comprehensive account. With some comedy in between!

Tasting Tour: Michelle was wonderful from the very start. Knowledgeable, fun, and made it so amazing and memorable!

10 out of 10! From the very start! Be brave! Try the World Famous Haggis!!! So good! Michelle was beyond amazing! Great guide. So glad we booked it. 💙🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿💙

Not a value for money food tour

This was not a value for money tour. Our guide Alec was fun, informative and showed us many parts of Edinburgh's Royal Mile. However, there was not much food involved in the experience yet it was priced like we were going to stop in excellent venues. We have had wonderful food tours in Amsterdam and Asheville, NC. We made 3 stops for food. The first was an excellent haggis experience. The second was takeaway pies we ate in a courtyard. The third was assorted fried food in a tiny deli. Alec then gave us a tiny, tiny shot of whisky. Total per person cost of the tour was US$90. I estimate the food costs to be US$15 per person. The difference seems like a very expensive way to have a private tour for 6 people.

Almost a great tour

This review was a bit hard to figure out how to do. On the one hand we got what we wanted a tour of Edinburgh with specialized food. On the other hand our guide was sick and we think got our entire group sick as well. Most of the tour was more a walking tour than tasting, which might have been our mistake, but the problem with this is the tour then duplicated other tours we were doing. We thought it would focus more on food. As for 10 tastings we are not sure we got 10 items (like did they count 2 types of haggis 2 tastings or 1?) and some of the items were just candy bars and a couple other premade things pulled out at the end. I think the guide did a great job showing us around and was very friendly. I just wish this had been a bit more about the food and more focus on tasting fresh made food.

Not a good experience

Michelle was VERY nice however it wasn't like any food tour I've ever done and not in a good way. The description doesn't say anything about walking the entire route. We only went inside a restaurant twice to sit down. My mother was with me and had a tough time keeping up. The only thing it says in her description is not wheelchair accessible. My mom was using walking stick’s because she’s had 2 knee replacements. I thought it would be like any other food tour where you walk then go in and sit down for a bit then continued. We had to eat our "tastings” standing up outside in the rain on the sidewalk! Don’t let the “10” tastings title fool you either. 3 of the “tastings” came out of her backpack in the form of a can of soda, a small chocolate bar and a package of cookies for all 4 of us to split. Not to mention one of the other tastings was a tiny deep fried mars bar and one was fudge so we only really had 4 legitimate tastings because the last stop the small glass of beer was considered a tasting. I’ve done at least 5 or 6 food tastings including one in Spain and I have never had to eat standing up on the sidewalk. It was very uncomfortable and awkward. It says in the description that it’s customizable and we could start anytime should we want to change the time but none of that is true as I never heard from Michelle. It was a generic text saying where to meet her. This was a private tour and so she should’ve texted me asking about like and dislikes, introducing herself and maybe changing the time to a little later as it wasn’t expected to stop raining until 1 pm and the tour was at 11:30. The value did not match what we paid which was a little over $100 per person. This tour guide needs to either step up her game or lower the price but please if you’re telling me 6 tastings are either coming out of your backpack, sweets which we don’t eat or a beverage we don’t like don’t bother doing them. If Michelle wasn’t such a nice person I’d have given 1 star!

Fantastic

Alec was very knowledgeable and accommodating! The local food was delicious and the view overlooking the tidal river was breathtaking!

Hidden gems in Edinburgh

We would like to thank Alec for a great tour around Old Town in Edinburgh where he showed us his hidden gems and gave us a taste of what a local would eat!

Great way to see and taste Edinburgh!

What a fantastic time we had on this tour! Alec was our guide and went above & beyond to give us the absolute best experience. Not only did we enjoy absolutely delicious & authentic Scottish food but he took us all around the city giving us awesome history, tips and information to make the most of our trip. 10/10 recommend!

Wonderful guide and tour

Michelle, our guide, was awesome. We toured the streets of Edinburgh in the pouring rain for hours, but it never deterred her sunny personality. This is a food tour, but was so much more. She gave us an historical tour as well with all the highs (and lows) of this amazing city. You will not be disappointed -highly recommend this tour!

Food Tours are the best!

I love to take a food tour when I travel, so it was great to get history with some of the most classic (fun or traditional) foods of Edinburgh! We had some mobility issues with folks on our tour and Michelle was great in accommodating everyone. I do wish that we'd not had to wait so long for our first tasting, we waited while our guide had to wait at the restaurant (that was busy) for us. All in all, we had a really great day and appreciated our guide very much!

A great first taste of Edinburgh.

What a great bit of luck it was to start off our stay in Edinburgh with a food & drink tour with Michelle. As we walked about town and tried the various tastings provided from local shops she did an awesome job of explaining the food/drink along with some very interesting history of the the area. She was friendly, very informative, energetic and totally engaging. Definitely would suggest this experience to everyone.

Fun, good experience, not worth price

The guide was very nice and knowledgeable. some of the food was something we would have never picked for our selves, however, the portions sizes and the food experience wasn't what we expected. Seemed a bit overpriced.

Debbie was such an amazing host for our family!

Our tour of Edinburgh with Debbie was our favorite afternoon of our trip. Our trip was just before Covid hit in Nov 2019, and our kids still talk about it. Debbie showed us her town, and gave us a great history tour as well as a food tour. We went back to a couple of the places that she showed us during our tour. We had such fun and would recommend her to anyone!

Don't sleep on Scottish food

The food tour makes for a lovely walk around Old town. Even if you know Edinburgh, this is a delicious few hours. Debbie was a very gracious host!

Food Tour with Xavier

So happy I booked this food tour. My family and I had a great time with Xavier. He was definitely knowledgeable and enjoyed our 3 hours or so with him.

Foodie Fabulousness!

Xavier was prompt and showed up at the agreed upon time. He was easy to speak with and understand both in English and Spanish. He was very knowledgeable about the history of the places we visited. He was very friendly, approachable and easy to talk to. The stops themselves were simply amazing and very well thought out! The food tastings were substantial and reflected the history and culture of the city. Definitely a 5 star experience!

Exciting foodtour

Xavier is a super enthusiastic tour guide who showed us around town. He combined a little bit of history with fun facts and very tasteful bites, snacks and drinks! I think this is the best way to get to know the city and the people who live there. I would highly recommend this tour :)

Great tour of Edinburgh

We had an amazing day with Debbie. Our food tour that was so much more than just food, Debbie have us a bit of a history tour as well. We would recommend Debbie to anyone who wants a tour of Edinburgh that feels like a friend is showing you around.

Great guide, but overpriced!

Our guide Bren was great, took us to some great food places even was very knowledgable as regarding food. The only catch is the price! Was too expensive from the viator website for simply having a taste!

Food

Enjoyed my food adventure.Although it rained the whole time we were touring, the scrumptuous foods made up for it.