Sydney’s Chinatown Street Food and Stories Walking Tour
Recommended by 98% of travelers
Badge of Excellence
Sydney, Australia
- 2 hours (approx.)
- Mobile ticket
- Offered in: English
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Overview
Sydney’s Chinatown is full of excellent restaurants, and this small-group tour showcases locally loved hot spots you might miss if exploring independently. Sample a range of street foods and snacks from some of Chinatown’s best restaurants, and explore Sydney’s long connection with China. At the end of the tour, get a souvenir and a guide to Chinatown, covering all the best restaurants and what to order.
- Learn about the history of Chinese-Australians in Sydney's Chinatown
- Enjoy the relaxed and intimate feel of a small-group tour
- Sample plenty of foods—including those you might otherwise miss
- Leave with the confidence to order food on your own
What's Included
- Snacks4 to 5 Chinese regional street food snacks (route dependant)
- Photos shared after the tour
- A guide to Chinatown’s best restaurants
- Gratuities
Meeting and Pickup
Meeting point
- 17 Hay St, Haymarket NSW 2000, Australia
We meet outside Paddy's Markets, directly across from the southern end of Dixon St mall. If you're looking across the light rail tracks and you can see Emperor's Garden restaurant, Covent Garden hotel and the Chinatown red gates, you're in the right spot.
End point
This activity ends back at the meeting point.Itinerary
1
Paddy's Market
15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
2
Chinatown
1 hour 30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
Darling Harbour (Pass By)
3
Darling Square
15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Wheelchair accessible
- Stroller accessible
- Service animals allowed
- Near public transportation
- Transportation is wheelchair accessible
- Surfaces are wheelchair accessible
- Most travelers can participate
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 12 travelers
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Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Traveler Photos
Reviews
4.9
based on 157 reviews
Leanne_S, Apr 2026
The tour guides where passionate and extrememly knowlegeable. The food was amazing. The tour was beyond my expectations. Highly recommend it. Esp because I am not a very adventourous eater but the food was amazing. I have a whole new undersatanding of Chinatown now, past and present. Roger was so animated and invested. Great time
Diana_H, Feb 2026
We had a wonderful tour of Chinatown with Bruce. His knowledge of the food was fabulous. Bruce was very kind and we thoroughly enjoyed the food selections. We went back the next day to get more dumplings at Najing .
Nigasan_R, Jan 2026
Justin was an amazing guide around Chinatown. I appreciated learning about the history of Chinatown just as much as the foods we were able to sample.
Lorna_N, Jan 2026
We had a great time with Chinatown Food Tours and Stories. The walk was very well paced and the guide, Bruce shared really interesting insights about the history of Chinese communities in Australia and Sydney, which added a lot of depth to the experience.
The food was tasty and thoughtfully chosen, showcasing flavours from different regions of China. It’s worth noting that the tour focuses more on snack-style tastings rather than full meals — but for me, it was more than enough and felt just right.
A really enjoyable and informative experience that I’d happily recommend.
Paul_L, Jan 2026
Being a Sydneysider I’ve never really experienced China town before. Justin was an amazing guide with the history and also very yummy food to sample, I would highly recommend this tour to anyone.
And doing it with people from all around the world made it even better…
Mike_B, Dec 2025
Justin was amazing. The food was great, but the history of Chinatown and the immigrant experience in Australia made the tour most memorable. Highly recommend.
Patty_W, Aug 2025
This Chinatown walking tour was fantastic. Our guide, Justin shared his knowledge of the area and his love for the food. We loved that he encourages supporting the small family owned businesses. The food we tried was all tasty and we had a great group of people.
MaryAnn_V, Aug 2025
After some confusion on the exact meeting spot, the tour went well.
It's a walking tour through Chinatown with some easy hills, but plenty of stops and opportunities to sit for a few minutes.
The foods offered were an interesting assortment and Justin was an excellent guide.
Response from Host, Aug 2025
Hi Mary Ann, thanks for joining and glad you enjoyed all the food and my guidance. Just a note on the meeting point, this is why I say in the welcome email to use WhatsApp while in Australia, as everyone else in the group received a photo of the meeting spot in a reminder message. Paddy's Markets occupies a large block, so you may end up in the wrong place if you only aim for the address Viator provides (another reason to book direct!). Luckily, I always give a 10-minute buffer, so you found us just in time & didn't miss anything. I'm sorry this caused you some confusion. Cheers, Justin
Natalie_M, Aug 2025
I’ve been to Chinatown many times before but never knew any of the history or places to find great food!!! I loved this tour and can’t wait to revisit and try all the extra recommended places!
Margaret_G, May 2025
Great trip! Loved the places visited and the food tried. Bunny did a great job as our guide. Would totally suggest this activity.
Response from Host, May 2025
Thanks for the 5-star review Margaret, glad you enjoyed the food and Bunny's guiding. Also, lucky we could reschedule you due to wet weather earlier in the week - we always try to do our best to make things work for our guests. Justin
Terry_P, May 2025
A food tourn but no beverages were offered. Need to add at least water. Should put sticks in the rice cakes so everyone isn’t picking through food before you. Should offer alternatives to lamb as not everyone likes lamb! Hubby enjoyed the lamb kabob! chicken, pork or beef option would have been nice!
Eric was very knowledgeable and offered soup as it was freezing the day of our tour - nice touch! The pork and lamb buns were delicious!
Response from Host, May 2025
Thanks for joining the tour and sharing your thoughts, Terry. We're glad you enjoyed the buns and that Eddie’s gesture of offering soup on a cold day was appreciated.
We encourage guests to bring water in the confirmation notes & include a drink stop halfway through the tour. I'm sorry to hear the lamb dish wasn't to your taste. We aim to showcase a variety of authentic Chinese street food, so for that stop, lamb is the default choice, but we also ask about dietary requirements or preferences in advance so we can make adjustments if needed. It looks like we didn’t receive any preferences from you.
Our tours do involve some shared elements, as that’s often how street food is enjoyed, but individual sticks are provided for the rice rolls.
As a small operator, we appreciate direct feedback and wish we’d had the chance to hear from you. We’re very responsive and could have offered a partial refund if we knew you weren’t fully satisfied. For future guests, the best way to get all the details and ensure the tour matches your expectations is by booking directly through the Local Sauce Tours site. Cheers, Justin
SUSAN_B, May 2025
Nice gentle walk pace, great food and knowledgeable host Justin. Tried new food at 5 different vendors
and learnt some new information about my home town Sydney.
Mark_F, Apr 2025
This excursion was outstanding!! So much fun 😁. Bunny our host was tremendous and gave a very detailed history of the Asian people here in Sydney. Food stops were very good also.
Response from Host, Apr 2025
Hi Mark, thanks for your lovely review, glad you enjoyed all the food and the stories told by Bunny - she always makes it a really fun tour! Cheers, Justin
Debbie_P, Mar 2025
Fabulous walking tour of Chinatown with our local guide, Justin, who shared amazing history and stories, and included sampling of Chinese street foods. A MUST DO experience for locals and visitors to Sydney, highly recommended.
April_T, Jun 2024
Fantastic tour. I really liked the history of how the Chinese came to Australia and the hard times they experienced. As an African American I truly understand the history and I would like to believe the Civil rights movement in
America may have had a small influence in a small way on other countries around the world to grant their citizens the freedoms they so willingly give to others citizens. I could not tour Chinatown without knowing the history of the people and the history of the food. They both are so intertwined. Thank you for the history lesson and the delicious food tour
wendy_B, Apr 2024
Eddie was great sharing his knowledge and some history of Chinatown , food was delicious, very informative
Hannah_B, Aug 2023
I gave this review 3 stars because I enjoyed walking around the entirety of chinatown and the tour guide was super nice and friendly.
One Issue:
The overview says "This small-group tour will guide you through the history of Sydney’s Chinese population at Paddy’s Market, the Chinese Garden of Friendship, and more." -- I should have looked at fine print but we actually didn't go to the Chinese Garden of Friendship which was a bummer.
Second Issue:
I also wasn't contacted until late the night before about food preferences, and I am a picky eater and didn't like most of the food we ate. I wish we had been contacted earlier in the week to discuss.
Third Issue:
This is probably the main issue of why I didn't like the tour. The entirety of the tour was focused on racism. I understand that it was clearly a very important part of the chinatown history and why a lot of places came to be, but I'm sure there were other history elements that could have been shared or brought up during the tour that would have been interesting to learn about.
Response from Host, Sep 2023
Hi Hannah, thanks for leaving a review and joining our tour. As we discussed with you via email, Viator's copywriters updated our description to misleadingly infer that we visit the Chinese Garden of Friendship, which we do not visit and never have. This is a great example of why we always encourage guests to book directly with an operator - you will get the most accurate information on what the tour covers. On your second point, Viator does not pass on any information about dietary requirements, so unless you provide this to us directly, we won't know this in advance. On your final point, the tour has a strong focus on telling the stories of Chinese Australians. We do this in a sensitive way but also focus on other elements of Chinatown, such as public art, restaurants and how the area has transformed. I'm sorry you were not made aware of this focus of the tour - again, Viator omitted to mention this in their description, but we've now reached out to them to fix this. I would disagree with your assessment that "the entirety of the tour was focused on racism" as that is not our intention nor the impression of almost all of our guests. Future guests - please know we also gave this guest a full refund as we never like to see guests not having an amazing experience with us, but Viator would not remove their review despite several of the issues being their fault. Always book direct if you can - look for Local Sauce Tours! Cheers, Justin
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