Ready to Nosh Food Tours

One word — NIGHTMARE! We bought an Amazon Local Deal and have had nothing but trouble getting the Portland Food Cart Tour booked. We showed up to find no tour guide, and when trying to re-​book on their website got an error saying the voucher was already used. Incommunicato from the administration at Ready to Nosh for more than a week. And what’s up with no telephone number to call on their website?! If they’re in business another month I’d be surprised! Word of advice… SKIP THEM and head for a reputable vendor who does amazing tours — Portland Walking Tour’s Epicurean Tour or Forktown Tours. The «discount» was not worth the trouble!

Beware the Ready to Nosh.
One of my friends came to visit from out of town, and we purchased a Livingsocial deal to do their progressive dinner in the Pearl. The deal details alluded to the type of cuisine we’d be having but didn’t name any specific restaurants. But we’re adventurous eaters, so we purchased the deal and signed up on their website.
The post-​signup instructions told us to meet at a certain street corner, which seemed like a bit of a red flag. Why wouldn’t we just meet at the first restaurant? But sure, we’ll meet you at a parking lot. We arrived 15 minutes prior to the tour start time, and two other ladies were waiting there for the same tour. We starting chatting with them, the start time came and went, and our tour guide never showed up.
Needless to say, I was furious. I’m trying to show a friend around town and get stood up on the corner of 13^th and Glisan? Well, we got to talking with our fellow diners-​to-​be, and this was the THIRD time they had been stood up in similar fashion. They did note that they had one successful Ready to Nosh tour –the first one they went on – so these tours do occasionally happen, and they’re fun when they do work out, but the success rate is absurd.
Since this is a multi-​city tour service, I can only hope that they contract to local guides, and that it’s the local guides who are total flakes. That would explain why many people have had no-​show guides while some people have actually had positive experiences. But nothing excuses the Ready to Nosh customer service. They don’t list a phone number on their website, and they conveniently forget how to answer emails when you have a complaint.
Fortunately, Livingsocial credited me for the deal (in Livingsocial bucks, which isn’t ideal — I’d much rather have the $ 64 back on my credit card — but is better than being out the money altogether). If you purchased this deal and have yet to redeem it, don’t bother; just request a refund on the deal and plan your own self-​guided food tour.

I was seriously bummed to hear about the experience of other people. We got the deal via Amazon Local and I didn’t have any difficulty booking a date, but I usually have to book things a couple of weeks in advance because of my schedule.
Scott, our tour guide, called me to confirm the time. That was a good thing because he & I had different times written down. Despite this tiny hiccup, the tour was fun. It was too loud downtown to hear everything he was saying, but I really enjoyed the carts we visited. I live in suburban SW PDX and don’t think about food carts, so it was nice to get an intro.
I would highly recommend this chicken cheddar bacon horseradish cole slaw on a bun action at Eurotrash on SW 10^th & Washington. Also, around the corner you can get an arugula, bacon, camembert waffle with fig sauce. How great is that? The cooking channel was filming at the dumpling place, but I didn’t love their dumplings. Finally, canoli overstuffed with amazingly delicious ricotta to top it off. I would recommend it for locals and tourists.

My food cart downtown Portland tour was scheduled on May 3^rd at 2 p.m. At about 11:30 a.m. they sent an e-​mail telling me that the tour was canceled. They provided a contact e-​mail address and web site that I could use to reschedule. During the next two weeks I sent FIVE messages without ever receiving a response.

Bryan’s sister-​in-​law bought us a Groupon for Christmas for a Pearl Distrct food tour. I have been really excited to check it out. We have been really busy this year, so I finally went to schedule a tour yesterday. Everything was book through our expiration date (May 16^th), with the next available tour on May 22^nd. They will not honor our groupon 6 days after it expires, with no exceptions. Since I didn’t purhcase it, I had NO idea that I needed to book a reservation months in advance. When I tried to explain this (via e-​mail because there is no contact phone number) Christian just sent me back their terms that start I should have booked in advance and there is no exception with Groupon.
I think it reflects poorling on a company when they cannot make 6 day exception a month in a half in advance. If I were a week away, I can completely understand… but I am over a month away. It is absolutely ridoiculous and I plan on making it my mission to spread the word.

Stay away, they are a scam. 8 of us waited for our guide who never showed up and phone calls and emails go into a blackhole. Reading other reviews for them looks like they do the same thing in every city. Now contacting credit card company for credit.

Our Pearl District food tour with Heather was so much fun! The people were really nice. Heather was friendly and interesting and the restaurants she chose were fabulous! It was fun to be able to share with our fellow tour goers, in order to get to try a wide variety. We even ordered all five desert types at our final destination to share. Kudos to Heather! We did have some trouble setting up our food tour for a friends birthday and the office was hard to get in touch with, but Jeff did get back with us and it was successful. Thanks Heather and Jeff.