We love food (who doesn’t?), and while traveling we always try some of the local specialties. Cooking classes and food tours are a great way to do so, and therefore they are two of our favourite ways to discover a new destination. It’s food and interaction with a local in one!
While planning our visit to Jerusalem for the TBEX travel blogging conference, we were looking for a unique food experience. A Bitemojo food tour was included in our TBEX package: perfect!
What is Bitemojo?
Never heard of Bitemojo before? No worries, we only discovered them through TBEX as well. Bitemojo is a fairly new app taking its users on a self-guided food tour in cities all over the world. We haven’t heard of a similar app, and welcomed Bitemojo enthusiastically. A food tour at your own time and pace? Sounds right up our alley!
Honestly, “cities all over the world” is a bit exaggerated at the moment. Bitemojo food tours are only available in Berlin, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Rome, and Barcelona for now, but they’re working hard on expanding their range. Stay tuned via the Bitemojo website!
How does a Bitemojo food tour work?
To do a Bitemojo food tour, you only need a smartphone and an internet connection. It’s fairly simple: just download the app, pick one of the food tours in your destination, and enjoy the food!
So, you’ve downloaded the Bitemojo app, and paid for a food tour. What now? Well, the app will show you a map with the locations of the bites (numbers) and some points of interest (stars) along the way. Head over to the starting point of the tour and let the app know when you’re there and ready to get started.
Each bite has a “Discover” button. Here you’ll find some information on the bite, the person or people behind the bite, and the place where you’ll get the bite. So you’ll not only get to taste the food, but also learn a thing or two about the dish and the people running the place. Or not, if you’re only interested in the food. It’s all up to you!
When you’ve arrived at a restaurant from the food tour, claim the bite by clicking the “Claim Bite” button and showing it to the restaurant owner. This voucher is your payment. Easy as pie!
After each bite, you’ll be asked to rate the bite, the service, and the location. Be honest and help keeping the tours up-to-date and interesting for all Bitemojo users. There’s something in it for you as well: earn biteCredits and get free bites. Who wouldn’t want that?!
They’ve even included a section in the Bitemojo app where you can suggest restaurants to be added to the Bitemojo tours. Earns you 300 biteCredits if it gets accepted!
What’s so great about a Bitemojo food tour?
The thing we loved the most about the Bitemojo food tour, except that it involves food, is the self-guided part. You can do the tour at your own pace, in your own time. No need to rush to the meeting point of a guided food tour, no depending on the guide, no waiting on the tour group. You can even start the food tour today and continue it tomorrow, change the order of the stops, or skip one. User independence is one of the core values of Bitemojo. This is your food experience.
Another great thing about the Bitemojo food tours is that they support small local businesses. They pride theirselves on offering authentic fresh food, coming from local producers and manufacturers. Chances are you’ll discover a spot you otherwise would have never found yourself and love it!
And last, but not least, a Bitemojo food tour will only cost you somewhere between €18 and €30. You can’t find a guided food tour for the same price if you ask me!
Our Bitemojo food tour in Jerusalem
The tour that was included in our TBEX package was more or less the Food Tour Between East and West Jerusalem, except we got a Belgian Waffle instead of Lahma Ba’Joon. We would have loved to try the Lahma Ba’Joon, as we can have Belgian Waffles all the time back home. Yup, we’re Belgians.
Anyway, we started the tour at the Damascus Gate at about 14:00 on a rather cloudy afternoon. Our first biteStop was Hummus Ikermawi, a small restaurant run by Muhammad. He’s widely known to serve the best hummus in Israel. We haven’t got much to compare with, but his hummus was absolutely delicious!
A little further down the same road we entered El'am'in Bakery for a sweet mint tea and some traditional tea cookies. There’s no room to sit in the bakery, so we drank our tea while walking over to the next stop: the Notre Dame Rooftop Restaurant. This spot is definitely worth a visit, the building is pretty impressive, but the view over Jerusalem is even more stunning. We really enjoyed this stop, sipping our wine and nibbling on some cheese and fruit while admiring the view.
At the next biteStop we suddenly found ourselves on a small plaza in Italy. At least that’s the feeling Luciana wants to create when you’re entering the restaurant, and it worked! The food is Italian with an Israeli influence, and it’s delicious! We had polenta with mushrooms and beet tortellini.
By now (almost 4 hours later) we were starting to feel quite full and we needed to get ready for the TBEX Opening Party. We decided to end this first part of our Bitemojo food tour at Biratenu, the next stop. Biratenu is a tiny beer shop with a wide range of Israeli boutique beers. They sell ingredients and material to brew your own beers too and of course have craft beers from all over the world (yes, Belgian beers too). The bartender was a very friendly guy and he gladly told us all about the Israeli microbrewery scene. We had some interesting beers and decided to take a few home with us too.
After the TBEX Opening Party we headed to Babeitcafe for half a Belgian Waffle each, with toppings of our choice. Delicious end to our Bitemojo food tour, but honestly, the Belgian Waffles are even better in Belgium!
Except for Muhammad from Hummus Ikermawi, we didn’t speak to any of the people that are presented in the Bitemojo app. Guess they can’t be in their restaurant all the time. Not everyone working in the restaurants seems to know about the Bitemojo app either, but there’s always at least someone who does, so we didn’t encounter any problems. We’re sure that when Bitemojo really hits, they’ll all be as enthusiastic hosts as Muhammad!
We love the concept of the Bitemojo app and we really enjoyed our Jerusalem food tour. Looking forward to doing Bitemojo food tours all around the world!
Do you love food tours too? Have you tried the Bitemojo app? We’d love to read about your experiences in the comments!
Like it? Pin it!
Did you find this post helpful? Help us spread the word by sharing this post or pinning the following image.
