New Orleans food tour: tastings, cocktails and cooking classes

The two classic walks differ mainly in length. The Taste & Stories walk is 2.5 hours at $67 with a local guide: you sample iconic dishes and hear how the city’s cultures shaped its flavors, 4.8 on 316 reviews. The French Quarter Food History walk is three hours at $85 and spells out its itinerary: five distinct eateries and up to nine food samples. With 4.9 on 888 reviews, it is the best food tour in New Orleans on this site by reviews and rating together.

The longest New Orleans food tour here is the Food Walking Tour & Cooking Demonstration Class: 5.5 hours at $127, a walk through the French Quarter on local cuisine, culture and history, then a cooking demonstration. It is rated 5.0, on 13 reviews so far.

If you wanted a downtown New Orleans food tour outside the Quarter, the food walks here do not name another neighborhood: they are set in, or start from, the French Quarter. The French Quarter guide sets them next to the storytelling and ghost walks.

The food and cocktail tour New Orleans visitors rate 4.9 on 198 reviews is the Combo Cocktail and Food History Tour: $160, four hours, four cocktails and six food samples, at stops from a seafood grill in the French Quarter to a family-owned candy store.

It costs nearly twice the Food History walk for one more hour, and what the difference buys is the four cocktails. If you want a food and drink tour New Orleans listings price lower, the demonstration cooking class at $43 includes a local brew with the meal.

A cooking class is not a New Orleans food tour in the walking sense, but it answers the same wish to eat Cajun and Creole food with someone explaining it. The demonstration class is $43 for 2 to 2.5 hours: the dishes are made in front of you, then you eat a three- or four-course Creole and Cajun meal, with copies of the recipes and a local brew. It is rated 4.9 on 850 reviews.

Two classes are hands-on, both $158 for three hours. The Cajun & Creole Traditions class teaches professional techniques and you eat what you make, 5.0 on 23 reviews. The Hands-on Cajun Roux class names its dishes: gumbo, etouffee and bananas foster, 4.9 on 13 reviews.

Per hour, the demonstration class is $17.20 to $21.50; the hands-on classes are $52.67, and you do the cooking.

$85 for up to nine samples at five eateries works out at about $9.44 a sample, with three hours of guiding on top. The cocktail combo at $160 is $16 per item across four cocktails and six samples. The demonstration class at $43 includes a full three- or four-course meal, the lowest price on this page.

New Orleans food tour reviews on this site back that up: the seven listings on this page carry 2,301 reviews, with a weighted rating of 4.89, and none is rated below 4.8.

Where the case is thinner: the two hands-on classes and the 5.5-hour walk have 13 to 23 reviews each. Their 4.9 and 5.0 ratings are real, but they rest on few bookings, so weigh them against the 888 and 850 reviews behind the Food History walk and the demonstration class.