Food Tour recommendations: Athens and Thessaloniki

I've never taken a food tour because I don't know what they're for (I know how to taste, eat, and walk on my own).

But food tours in Athens, and probably like everywhere, can be useful if you don't have time to learn about local specialties and where to find them.

The food tours I see in Athens always seem to go to the same places, some of which they probably have partnerships with. And they allways go to the Varvakios Agora municipal market.

These are all places of daily Greek life open to everyone, not just food tour operators. Perhaps there are tours that have special sessions and pre-arranged appointments with food or drink establishments, but I don't know what those would be.

JoLui, yes, all the same reasons we've never done one. The one time we hired a guide was in Grenada, Spain, to see the Alhambra. It wasn't much more to add in a few more hours. It was a private guide, not a company, and we had tapas together for lunch. She recommended a couple of places that she goes to for tapas, ones we might have skipped, thinking they were touristy, and she was spot on with her advice.

We’ve done many food tours and we love them. Your group is usually less than 10, sometimes as few as 4-6 depending on the time of year. You get to sample foods in places that most tourists won’t know of. We’ve enjoyed them all! Go hungry! The company’s we have used are Culinary Backstreets and Eating Europe. Another fine company is Devour but I do not see that they offer tours in Athens. Book early!

So you can do as Alan did.

You can also book with a local company; in my opinion, there's no need to go through a global third-party service that, in any case, won't do anything more than book for you and charge a commission.

Just one example:

https://www.greekality.com/

If that doesn't appeal to you, you can go into food shops and ask about the specialties, but it might be a bit more complicated if you want to taste olive oils (although it should be possible at the municipal market). And they'll be hoping you'll buy something. With a food tour, everything is already included.

Thanks Alan and JoLui. I'd already found a couple of local companies in my initial research, agreeing with JoLui about preferring not to go with international companies. Part of my hesitation (my nephew & his wife love food tours that include cooking, which is what got me thinking) is we're pretty good at finding places off the beaten track. It's not unusual for the staff to be surprised we, clearly English speaking tourists, found them. But maybe we will try one this trip!

You can also book with a local company; in my opinion, there's no need to go through a global third-party service that, in any case, won't do anything more than book for you and charge a commission.

The companies I mentioned are not global third party services. They are all established companies that manage their own employees, design and curate the tours. Don’t critique unless you know what you are talking about, with all due respect.