My favorite part of exploring a new city is trying the food. The local cuisines of each destination tell a story about the city’s culture and history. But we often have no idea where to go to get the real local experience. Furthermore, we may be short on time but want to try as many eats as possible. 

This is exactly why we were excited to give Bitemojo a try.

What is Bitemojo?

Bitemojo is an app that provides the traveler with self-guided culinary tours through a specific neighborhood in cities all over the world. The tourist goes on a walking route to six local eateries offering individual “bites:” snack-sized portions that allow one to taste their way around the neighborhood, learning about the area’s history along the way.

Currently, Bitemojo offers bite tours in Berlin, Rome, Barcelona, Tel-Aviv, and Jerusalem. For our Bitemojo tour, we chose the Food Tour of Trastevere, Rome.

Our Bitemojo Experience

Trastevere, Rome is a colorful and charming neighborhood across the Tiber River. It was early afternoon and we didn't eat yet that day, so our appetites were in full-force as we crossed the Ponte Rotto bridge into Trastevere. 

I pulled out my iPhone and tapped into the Bitemojo app to get the tour started. A map of the 2.4km long walking route appeared, marked with pins to six different eateries as well as some noteworthy sights to see along the way. Once we selected each bite on the map, and we were given a brief introduction of the restaurant you are about to visit and the delicacy you are about to experience.

The bites included in the Bitemojo Trastevere tour are a great combination of snacks, mini-meals, and desserts. Our absolute favorite bite was from Trattoria Da Enzo: a burrata on crispy Lariano bread with sliced tomatoes and a splash of extra virgin olive oil. This perfect symphony of pure Italian flavors coming together to leaving us wanting for more! We also loved the generous assortment of freshly baked Italian cookies from mom-and-pop bakery Biscottificio Artigiano Innocenti.

To redeem each bite, we simply walked up to the waitstaff or counter of each place and showed them the bite credit on the app. While we did have one misunderstanding due to a language barrier that was quickly cleared up, overall each destination seemed well-prepared for our arrival and welcomed us warmly - a surprisingly smooth transaction!

What we loved about Bitemojo

• Discovering new places: Trastevere is an absolutely adorable and authentic neighborhood in Rome we otherwise would have overlooked. Bitemojo took us there and gave us the opportunity to learn about the area through its local cuisine.
• Going at our own pace: I don’t know about you, but Jimmy and I tend to avoid guided group tours because we like to set our own schedule - not to mention, listening to somebody talk your ear off for hours gets a bit old. So being able to do a self-guided food tour with Bitemojo was a fun experience for us.
• Bite-sized eats: My favorite style of eating is small plates, tapas style. I love tasting different foods, so being able to try bites from 6 different places in one neighborhood was fabulous.

What we didn’t love

No additional options: While we understand that every Bitemojo tour is specially curated to take the user on a culinary journey of the neighborhood, options are always great - especially since one of the restaurants on our route was closed! We were notified of the closure via the Bitemojo app at the start of the tour and given a bite credit for future use. However, it’s safe to say that most people won’t have the opportunity to use their credit on another tour, especially given the limited number of options there are. This issue would be avoidable if there were additional alternatives in each tour to choose from.

The Verdict

Overall, our Bitemojo Food tour of Trastevere was a fun and tasty experience, and we would recommend it to friends and family looking for a unique way to explore a part of a city you otherwise might not have known! We’re looking forward to giving other Bitemojo tours a try in future destinations.

To book your next Bitemojo food tour, download the Bitemojo app or visit Bitemojo.com. 

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