Downtown LA food tour

Over the holiday weekend, I took the opportunity to explore my new area with a Six Taste Food Tour of Downtown LA and the Financial District. The tour lasted over 3.5 hours and consisted of five food stops with other historic highlights pointed out along the way. I was already full by stop three and could have gone on walking longer to help burn it all off, but overall the tour did a good job of mixing up the sweet and savory bites and pacing out the different resting points. Tickets for the tour cost $60 per person (although I had purchased my tickets through Groupon for 50% off) and came with all the food included, a tour guide, plus a Six Taste map and tote bag.

We met in Pershing Square, which was right next to my apartment and then we headed to our first stop, Pie Boy Pizzeria on 5th and Hill Street. The Executive Chef at Pie Boy Pizzeria is Brian Kiepler, who is the former Executive Chef of Nick + Stef's Steakhouse. We sampled two amazing pressed "pie-ninis," on crispy and warm Pie Boy Pizza bread with blended fontina and mozzarella cheeses. We had one pie-nini with red sauce and another with a white garlic sauce, both were fantastic, that I was sorry to have to leave and go to the next stop.

The next stop took our group of 10 down an alley in the Old Bank District to the hidden Lost Souls Cafe where we sipped on a creamy ube (purple yam) Philippine milkshake and tasted their sweet bread.

Then we moved on to some Sweet Grilled Cheeses at Syrup Desserts accompanied with a strawberry jasmine iced tea, which was very refreshing.

Four our fourth stop we visited Soi. 7 a pretty thai restaurant for a spicy cucumber salad (too spicy for me though), plus vegetable Pad Thai and an amazingly crispy calamari appetizer that tasted so good on it's own I didn't even try the dipping sauce. I'm looking forward to coming back here as they have an extensive tea and sake menu that Raphael and I want to try.

Lastly, we had cerviche and empanadas at the modern Latin cuisine restaurant Ciudad.

Overall, my favorites were definitely Pie Boy Pizzeria and Soi 7 and had a lovely time exploring the area more and of course eating our way around it.

Six Taste also offers food tours in Arcadia, Little Tokyo, San Gabriel Valley, Thai Town and Santa Monica and range between $55-$65 per person depending on the particular tour. We hope go on their Little Tokyo tour next since it's also nearby us. Which tour do you want to do?