Six Downtown Las Vegas Bites, and a Seventh Kept Secret
A guided walk through old downtown Las Vegas, built around six named tastings and one the guide reveals on the day.
Secret Food Tours runs two walks in Las Vegas. This is the downtown one. It forms up at the Plaza Hotel and Casino at 1 Main Street, at the western end of Fremont Street, and moves east from there.
The group is capped at twelve, and the walk runs three to three and a half hours on flat sidewalk. One stop sits on the site where the city was founded in 1905. Another is a casino floor the operator calls a living museum of antiques.
Six tastings are named before you book. The seventh is handed over at the last stop.
Three departures run every day, at 12:00 PM, 2:00 PM, and 4:00 PM. The last of them finishes somewhere between 7:00 and 7:30 PM.
Booking closes two hours before the start time, and confirmations are handled manually. The listing holds 4.9 from more than 650 reviews.
The same route sells two ways: a small-group ticket, or a private upgrade for your own party.
Downtown Las Vegas Food Tour of 6 Iconic Dishes & Hidden GemsSecret Food Tours · Downtown Las Vegas on foot · Six named tastings plus one secretwww.viator.comWhat You Actually Eat
The named list is short and specific. A lobster montadito, an elote dog, a Hawaiian musubi with teriyaki, a shrimp cocktail, a chocolate bite, and what the operator lists as its monthly charity pizza.
The shrimp cocktail comes from Saginaw's Delicatessen, the one stop the operator names outright. The rest are described by theme. A 1970s New York style pizzeria at one, a chocolatier the operator calls a local legend at another, and at a third what the operator files under East meets West, which arrives as a bacon-wrapped hot dog dressed the way Mexican street corn is dressed: corn, lime mayo, cotija, chili powder.
The charity pizza has a real mechanism behind it. Each month the pizzeria builds a pie with a named local organisation and sends a dollar from every slice sold to that group.
Water is included. A margarita comes with one casino stop. Anything else in a glass is a separate three-drink pairing, sold to guests 21 and over with valid ID.
Portions are tasting size, and there are seven of them. Come hungry and plan the walk as the meal.
Eight Stops, Heading East
The walk doubles as a downtown history tour. It passes under the LED canopy on Fremont Street, stops at a casino billed as the first anywhere to give its guests free drinks, and takes in a piece of the Berlin Wall among the antiques on another casino floor.
The shrimp cocktail is the oldest idea on the menu. The Golden Gate began selling one for fifty cents in 1959 and drew a crowd, and ninety-nine-cent versions stayed as common downtown as buffets until the late 1990s. The deli on this walk re-creates that original.
The Hawaiian stop answers a question the operator only poses. About one in ten residents of Hawaii visit Las Vegas in a given year, many of them two or three times, and the city picked up the nickname the ninth island.
Near the eastern end it reaches Downtown Container Park, whose entrance is guarded by a giant metal praying mantis.
Both the menu and the itinerary are listed as subject to change, based on venue availability and weather. Treat eight stops as the shape of the afternoon.
Who This Walk Fits
The operator lists all areas and surfaces as wheelchair accessible, and the walk as suitable for all physical fitness levels. Service animals are allowed. Pets are not accommodated. Infants ride in a pram or on an adult's lap.
There is still a fair amount of walking, and comfortable shoes are the one thing the operator singles out.
Dietary requirements have to be raised in advance, by contacting the operator before the tour. Gratuities and transportation are excluded from the ticket. Public transport runs nearby.
Where the Group Forms
The meeting point is the Plaza Hotel and Casino at 1 Main Street, Las Vegas, Nevada 89101. Your guide waits with an orange umbrella, which is the operator's own answer to how you find the group.
Departures run daily at 12:00 PM, 2:00 PM and 4:00 PM, and the tour is guided in English. Tickets are mobile or paper, one per booking.
Cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time for a full refund.
The walk finishes near the El Cortez at 600 East Fremont Street, at the top of the Fremont East blocks, with the evening still open.
Three and a half hours after the umbrella, you are back on a downtown sidewalk having eaten seven things. Six of them you could have read about first.