Twelve Old Town Kitchens, Four or Five on Your Day
A three-hour guided lunch through Old Town Scottsdale, with signature tastings and two beverage pairings.
The walk begins in front of the Old Adobe Mission, the oldest standing church in Scottsdale and the town's first Catholic parish. From there the group turns into the blocks behind it, where Old Town's dining sits dense enough that a first visit is mostly guesswork.
Which stops you get is settled by availability in the week you travel, and Arizona Food Tours reshuffles the roster to match. Two people booking different weeks can walk the same streets and eat two different lunches. The company has been running food tours in Old Town since 2009.
Each stop serves signature items from its own kitchen, and two beverage pairings land along the way, one alcoholic and one coffee or tea. Ticket sales close two hours before departure.
Scottsdale's Original Food TourArizona Food Tours walks Old Town Scottsdale with tastings at four or five local stops and two beverage pairings.www.viator.comWho Is Actually on the Roster
The twelve names Arizona Food Tours publishes spread well past a single kitchen type. The Mission works modern Latin under chef Matt Carter. Evo runs Italian built on seasonal local sourcing. AZ88 has been pouring in Old Town since 1988, Frashers Tavern has been running its steaks and ribs for twenty-seven years, and Beginners Luck comes from chef Bernie Kantak with an all-day menu built around its Original Chopped Salad. Malee's Thai Bistro has been open for thirty-nine years.
Drinks and sweets hold their own slots. The Wine Collective pours from more than thirty Arizona wineries, Aridus Wine Company runs a Main Street tasting room, and Yellow Spruce Roasters has roasted in Scottsdale since 2020. Chin Up Donuts, Gelato Cimmino and Shakes and Cones cover the sweet end.
The operator states plainly that restaurant itineraries change regularly with availability, which makes any single name on that list a possibility and none of them a promise.
What Lands in Front of You
Arizona Food Tours describes the total as enough food to count as a full meal, and guests who have walked it back that up. One who ate lunch beforehand called it "a big fat mistake" in February 2023, writing that the group left food on the table. Another, in July 2021, had planned on dinner afterward and could not manage another bite. Come hungry. The food arrives in pieces across three hours, a signature item at a time, with the two beverage pairings dropped in along the route. The tour holds 4.97 from 370 reviews.
Dietary handling has hard edges worth knowing before tickets are bought. Vegetarian is accommodated. Gluten-free is accommodated too, though the operator states it cannot always avoid cross-contamination, which puts celiac guests outside what this walk can promise. Vegan is where the two sources part: the operator says vegan substitutions are not always available, and the booking listing puts vegan, halal and keto down as unavailable. Treat a vegan diet as unsupported here. Any restriction has to be flagged at the time of purchase.
Where It Starts and How to Arrive
The meeting point is in front of the Old Adobe Mission Church on North Brown Avenue in Old Town. Free parking sits in the structure behind the church and in the lot directly across the street, and on-street parking through the surrounding blocks is free as well. The operator asks guests to arrive ten to fifteen minutes ahead to park and check in.
Departures run at 11:00 AM and at 2:30 PM. Advance tickets are required and sales close two hours before departure, though popular dates fill long before that. A single reservation is capped at seven travelers. There is no waiting list for a sold-out slot; the operator asks to be emailed with the date of interest, and extra tours are sometimes added.
Heat, Rain and Getting Around
Tours run rain or shine, and the operator carries umbrellas for guests without one. Many of the stops sit indoors, which gives the route somewhere to duck when the weather turns. Summer heat is the thing to plan around, and those indoor stops carry most of that load. A group walking in September wrote that they had worried about the heat and then spent most of the tour in air conditioning. Every stop and stretch is wheelchair and scooter accessible, service animals are welcome, and restrooms are available at selected tasting stops.
Comfortable walking shoes, a refillable water bottle, sunscreen and lightweight sunglasses cover the packing list, with an extra layer in the cooler months. Ages 13 and up. The two published refund windows do not agree: the booking listing sets a full refund at twenty-four hours out and the operator's own policy page sets forty-eight. Work to forty-eight. Guides earn their living largely from gratuities.
The route ends a short walk from where it began, back by the Mission, with the rest of Old Town's galleries and shopfronts open around you.