Food by Foot

The worst ever. I appreciate local stories, urban legends, a little tasting. I am not looking for professionals like Guy Fieri with lots of food of 3D quality. Just help me like you.
But NO. They are a complete waste of time, money and worst ever, mood.

Not even worth the Groupon price I paid for the tour. I really enjoy the food tour concept and have tried them in other cities like Seattle, NYC, DC, etc. This one was terrible. They gave us a beer at 11:30 a.m. to start the tour. Then we went to Fire and Ice which is one of the worst restaurants ever and proceeded to do a sauce tasting?!? Then we got free samples at Berry Line. There are so many ethnic restaurants in the Cambridge area that I was hoping to try or find out about. This tour was amateurish and cheaply run.

This is my first Unilocal review. I am not the kind of person that usually complains or criticizes; for example, I tip 20% for standard restaurant service (meaning no stellar performance needed — as long as there are no major problems, you’ll get 20% from me). But I felt compelled to join Unilocal today just to share this information about Food by Foot…
Food by Foot’s website advertises this tour as a «1.5-hour entertaining culinary adventure around Harvard Square with 3 remarkable tastings included» where you will «Learn what ancient students ate 500, 300 and 100 year ago based on Harvard and Cambridge as an example» and «Learn the difference in ‘food around the campus organization’ in different countries and what students value around the Globe in their college selections.» It also claims you will «Receive an outside expert opinion in certain cross-​sections of ever existing question: What is better: Harvard or MIT?» and «Find the best spots in Harvard Square for entertainment, live music, drinks, books and amazing food.»
Sadly, none of this happened. It wasn’t entertaining. The tastings weren’t remarkable. And we learned learned nothing about nothing. I understand that the tour was supposed to be about student life and student eats, and how students and their food relate, but we didn’t even get that much. In truth, we got pretty much nothing at all.
I agree wholeheartedly with everything the previous reviewers have said. The Harvard Square Cambridge Food Tour was terrible at best — and that’s being kind. Don’t get me wrong — the tour guide was a nice girl and I am sure she meant well, but all we did was follow her around Harvard Square for over an hour and a half, making three stops for «tastings» at restaurants that most people already know about (beer at John Harvard’s, sauces at Fire & Ice, and frozen yogurt at BerryLine). The participants on the tour found ourselves telling each other about restaurants and sharing pieces of information about sites in Harvard Square. Not once did the guide give us any information about anything (most notably any of the other restaurants) that we walked past. We just followed her, and followed her, and followed her, while she remained silent (us quietly laughing amongst ourselves about how pathetic it all was yet no one having the nerve to just «fall off» the tour) until we got to each of the three stops. Oh yeah, she also took us on campus and told us all about the Freshman dining hall, how beautiful it is, a little bit of history, etc… but did she take us inside to see it? No. Is that even a place I could eat at? No.
After the tour, as we were walking back to our car, I jokingly said to my husband: «Here we have Hong Kong, one of the oldest Chinese restaurants in Boston. They also have a comedy club on the 3^rd floor if that interests you. Down the street is Au Bön Pain, where a scene from Good Will Hunting was filmed…» Then I laughed about these common-​knowledge bits of information, the type which the guide could have given us about a few/​any of the area restaurants as we walked by during the tour. We both laughed because we realized how easy it would have been for her to give us a useful tour, and realized that all of us on the tour knew much more than the guide did about the entire area. You would think that after a restaurant tour of an area, the participants might have an idea of where to then go for lunch/​dinner, right? Not even close to true here. Complete fail. I felt especially bad for the two people on our tour who were actually from out of town and wasted their precious vacation time. Luckily, they were utterly nice people and just happy to have learned the things that the other tour participants were telling them about the area.
Had I not received this tour as a gift (which I very much appreciate the sentiment of), I would certainly be asking for my money back. I know the gift giver would never have purchased this for me had they known what the tour would actually be like, and they would be furious if they knew what their hard-​earned money ended-​up paying for. This tour (or maybe this particular tour guide?) needs very serious improvement and I will certainly not be booking any other events with this company, based on my experience today.

I have to agree with everything the previous posters have said. I got a groupon for this tour and was looking forward to trying some new places in Harvard Square, but both the food stops and the information along with it was a complete disappointment. In terms of the food stops: the beer tasting was ok, but the tour was definitely not advertised as 21+. It so happened that everybody on the tour was over 21, but I could easily imagine this not being the case on all tours. The stop to Fire and Ice included sampling sauces and at the stop for Berry Line we got the free samples anybody off the street could get. With so many interesting eats in Harvard, I was surprised that 2 of the 3 picks were chain restaurants. The accompanying information we received throughout the tour didn’t really tie together and was based on generalizations.
Based on this tour, I would not be interested in trying any of their full priced eating tours.

What a disappointment. I was so excited for this tour, but as one of the other reviewers said, this tour was a waste of my money and of an hour and a half in my life. We met our guide by somehow finding «food tour» etched in pen on half a piece of scrap paper. She was nice, yet kept saying generic terms like «college students like beer (duh!) and college students like to eat ice cream». Um yes, they do, but I was hoping for some specific information when I go on a tour– thats what people pay for. There were three stops she took us to on the tour, one to John Harvard’s for a small sample of beer (about ¹⁄₃ of a glass), Fire and Ice for some chips and gross dipping sauce, and Berry Line for three sample cups (yes, SAMPLES– the same you would get if you just walked up off the street) of frozen yogurt. This was supposed to be a food tour, yet we didn’t really go to any of the awesome restaurants in the area, nor did we really learn anything that had anything to do with Harvard Square or the restaurants, just again, generalizations about all students. I have gotten more to eat and better food samples on an afternoon trip to Costco. Sad. We ended up leaving the tour to go to get some lunch after the tour because we were so hungry from not being fed anything. Again, I was so excited to go on this tour but my husband and I left feeling as if we wasted our time on a tour that was unprofessional and haphazardly thrown together by the tour company. Food by Foot, if you want to have a successful business please take the reviews of the last two people and myself to heart and make some serious adjustments to your programming.

Took their tour out of Harvard Square. Not the best use of 1 ½hours of my time. Disappointing to say the least. I think I knew more than the guide. We visited only three establishments which were hardly inspiring. A beer sampling at John Harvard where I felt bad for the under aged tour participants who just sat there. Then on to Fire and Ice where we had a small sampling of greasy Chinese noodle-​like snacks to dip into their uneventful sauces — kinda’ gross. Lastly we went to Berry Line yogurt and had what amounts to a couple of their free samples.
Given all the unique possibilities in and around Harvard Square — this tour should have been a lot better. Thank goodness we had discount coupons. I could organize a much more inventive excursion myself. Suggestion: if you are a tourist just read up on various establishments and give yourself your own tour.