Which Bergen Food Tour to Book
Why this one
Bergen is a small city and its food-tour shelf is short. Of the six things you can book, one is a walk built entirely around eating, with a published list of what you will be given. Everything else is a tasting, a meal at somebody’s table, a private walk, or not really a food tour.
Thirteen tastings is a lot for three and a half hours, and the list is specific rather than vague: fresh seasonal seafood, three cider tastings, traditional sardines, award-winning local chocolate, brown-cheese cheesecake, seasonal meat and fish at the top of the hill, a local meat and cheese platter, and local apple cider. The brown-cheese cheesecake is the one worth arriving curious about, because brown cheese is not cheese at all — it is boiled-down whey, invented in a valley about 400 km away in 1863 — and a cheesecake made from it is the sort of thing a guide can explain while you eat it.
What the day looks like
Five cafés and restaurants over three and a half hours, with the guide explaining each thing as it lands in front of you. You meet at the entrance to the tourist office, at the bottom of the stairs, and you finish at Fløirestauranten on Mount Fløyen with seasonal meat and fish and the city below. Return funicular tickets are included; gratuities are not. The group caps at eight, which is small enough that a question gets an answer. A closer look has the rest.
Who should book something else
If you are vegan or vegetarian and cannot give a day’s notice, this is the wrong booking. The listing says plainly that it is not suitable for vegans or vegetarians, and the workaround is 24 hours’ notice for an adjusted offering. The aperitivo tour is worse on this point: no vegan or vegetarian option at all, and ages 20 and over because alcohol is served. Dietary requirements sets out all six.
If you have ninety minutes and want to sit down, take the cider tasting, which is step-free and built around Hardanger cider with the history and the producers. It is not a substitute for a meal. Drink tours covers it.
If what you actually want is the fjord, take the waterfalls day trip, and take it as a day out. Six hours, a bus, Steinsdalsfossen to walk behind — and one waffle with a small tasting of a local drink as the entire food content. It does not allow non-folding wheelchairs or strollers. Day trips with food is the page for that decision.
If you want a conversation more than a restaurant, the home lunch caps at four and puts you at a family table for about 105 minutes with pickup and drop-off either side. There is a small dog in the house, so it is out if anyone is allergic.
| The pickBergen: A Taste of Bergen Food Tour with Fløibanen Funicular | Bergen: Old Town and Waterfalls Guided Tour with Waffles | Bergen: Home-Hosted Lunch with a Local | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Length | 3.5 hours | 6 hours | 2.5 hours |
| Food content | 13 tastings — 11 food, 2 drink | One waffle and a small tasting of a local drink | A home-cooked lunch, about 105 minutes at the table |
| Rating | 4.9 from 47 reviews | 4.8 from 320 reviews | 4.8 from 8 reviews |
| Group | Max 8 | Not stated | Max 4 |
| Language | English | English and German | English |
| Access | Wheelchair accessible | No non-folding wheelchairs or strollers | Not stated |
| Dietary | Not suitable for vegans or vegetarians without 24 hours’ notice | Not stated | A small dog in the house |
| What it is really for | Eating, with somebody explaining it | The Hardangerfjord and a waterfall you walk behind | Talking to somebody who lives here |
| Book this | Book this | Book this |
What works
- Thirteen tastings across five venues in three and a half hours
- The only listing in the city built entirely around eating
- Return funicular tickets included, and a finish with the city below you
- Capped at eight, so the guide can answer a question
- Wheelchair accessible, which only one other listing here states
Worth knowing
- Not suitable for vegans or vegetarians without 24 hours’ notice
- Gratuities are not included, though Norway expects far less of you than you think
- Three and a half hours is a long walk if the weather is doing what Bergen weather does
- Thirteen tastings is a lot of food if you were planning dinner afterwards too
- If you want the fjord rather than the food, this is not the booking
If the weather forecast is grim, the food walk still works — five of its stops are indoors and the last one is a restaurant — but bring the shell jacket rather than the umbrella. Bergen gets rain on about 200 days a year and the wind takes umbrellas apart. What to wear has the rest.
Can’t make these dates?
Browse more available Bergen food tours and find one that fits your schedule — all with instant confirmation and free cancellation.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best food tour in Bergen?
The food walk. It is the only listing in the city built entirely around eating: three and a half hours, thirteen tastings across five cafés and restaurants, return Fløibanen funicular tickets included, capped at eight and wheelchair accessible. It is not suitable for vegans or vegetarians unless you give 24 hours’ notice for an adjusted offering.
Is the shortest Bergen tasting enough on its own?
No. The cider tasting runs ninety minutes at Bergen’s first dedicated cider bar and pours craft ciders from Hardanger with the history and the producers explained — it is a tasting, not a meal, and you will want dinner afterwards. The food walk is three and a half hours and thirteen tastings across five cafés and restaurants, which is the only listing here that stands in for a meal. See the comparison table.
Is a Bergen food tour worth booking at all?
It is if what you want is somebody to translate the food for you — that the brown cheese is not cheese, that the fish soup is meant to taste faintly sweet-and-sour, that nobody is waiting for your tip. Thirteen tastings also stand in for a meal, which changes the arithmetic of a day in Norway. Is it worth it argues both sides.