Jackson Heights Food Tour

This is the original Eat Your World food tour, as featured in the Wall Street Journal, on NY1, and in Gothamist!

Who’s it for: Curious, adventurous food lovers who want to get off the beaten path, learn something new, and experience a truly local perspective of a non-trendy, super diverse part of Queens (a slice of real NYC, if you ask us). This Jackson Heights tour is a fantastic way to explore foods from various countries in a neighborhood that’s always eye-opening for both tourists and fellow New Yorkers (and we’ve had plenty of local Queens guests who love this tour!). We take all the stress out of planning a Jackson Heights food adventure, because we do the work for you. We can accommodate vegetarians, pescatarians, vegans, the gluten-free, the dairy-free—just ask. All ages are welcome (kids under 5 are free), but you might also consider our Family Food Tour for young ones.

What is it: Indoor/outdoor food tours of Jackson Heights, Queens, which sometimes dip a bit into nearby Elmhurst. During the tour we’ll hit up about 5-6 of our favorite local spots, depending on which tour you book, that best represent the neighborhood’s unique diversity. Think papri chaat and aloo tikki chaat (India), pan de bono and arepas (Colombia), momos and sel roti (Tibet and Nepal), Ecuadorian soups, Mexican seafood or tacos, and much more.

Where: Jackson Heights is easy to get to from midtown Manhattan via the E, F, 7, R, or M train (stop is 74th St./Roosevelt Ave.). It’s about a 15-minute ride from midtown, and our meeting spot is just off 37th Ave., a 5-minute walk from the subway. Parking is a little tricky but doable. Detailed directions will be provided if needed.

When: We have several tour options. Please click this booking link to book your food tour online now!

Why an Eat Your World tour? This Jackson Heights food tour is the only one we give. It’s our specialty. It’s our home neighborhood, where we live, work, and raise our children. We know it very well! We are not a big corporate tour company spread out across the city. We’re (literally) a mom-and-pop shop, and we visit eateries we love and wish to support, run by vendors we know. Laura, a travel-food writer by trade who is well-known within the Queens food community, personally still leads the majority of these tours, and takes care to put every dish tasted in the context of the neighborhood’s history, the people making it, and the origin countries, many of which she’s traveled to.

Moreover, we are different from every other tour operator we know in two other ways: We always donate a portion of our tour proceeds back to the neighborhood (via a local food pantry, local immigrant-rights nonprofit Make the Road NY or restaurant-food relief nonprofit Queens Together, or another worthy cause), and we make efforts to “green” the tour via things like compostable utensils and plates, and reusable containers where possible. (And we do actually collect and compost the biodegradable things we use!)