Cuenca Table Food Tour with 15+ Tastings

Highlights

Inclusions

Itinerary

1. Nestled high in Ecuador's Andean highlands, it's a place where indigenous traditions, Spanish influences, and generations of market cooks have combined to create one of the country's most distinctive food cultures. Your feasting tour of 15+ tastings explores three of Cuenca's most beloved mercados, alongside street vendors, bakeries, and local institutions. We'll uncover the flavours, stories, and traditions that most tourists never encounter. Before we get started, your tour reflects the local cuisine and the limitations of market vendors means we unfortunately cannot cater for every dietary restriction. Here's an honest appraisal for the tour so no-one is disappointed: - Possible for mild peanut / tree nut and no seafood diets, though guests will have 2-3 fewer tastings due to limited alternatives at some stops. - Unsuitable for vegetarians, vegans, pescatarians, no pork and halal diets, celiac disease, lactose intolerance, and severe allergies.

   15 min

2. We waste no time diving into the culinary action at Mercado 9 de Octubre, one of Cuenca's most cherished food markets. Here, breakfast and lunch traditions collide in a symphony of sizzling griddles and steaming pots. Fresh tortillas de trigo con queso emerge golden from hot pans, while sweetcorn is transformed into delicate tortillas de choclo, a dish with roots stretching back to the Andean civilizations that cultivated maize thousands of years ago. Alongside buttery cream biscuits known as galletas de manteca con nata, we'll sip morocho, a thick spiced drink made from cracked corn, milk, and cinnamon that has warmed Ecuadorians for generations.

   1 h

3. Next, we board Cuenca's modern tram and glide through a city where centuries-old churches stand alongside contemporary life. It's a reminder that Cuenca has always balanced tradition with change. Back on the streets, we stop at a local vendor where some of Ecuador's greatest comfort foods await. Papas con cuero combines potatoes, pork skin, and a rich peanut sauce into a dish that's far more delicious than it has any right to be. Nearby, bolón de queso transforms green plantains into a dense, cheese-filled ball that's become a staple breakfast throughout coastal Ecuador. We also sample corviche, a crisp cassava fritter stuffed with seasoned fish, whose origins trace back to Ecuador's Pacific coast.

   45 min

4. At Mercado 3 de Noviembre, the aromas become impossible to ignore. This market is famed throughout the city for dishes that have achieved near legendary status among locals. We'll sample encebollado, Ecuador's beloved tuna soup, often described as the country's unofficial national dish. Originally a fisherman's breakfast from the coast, it's now eaten at every hour of the day. Alongside it comes succulent hornado, slow-roasted pork cooked until the meat becomes impossibly tender beneath crackling skin. A freshly fried empanada de viento, so named because it's mostly air when it leaves the fryer, arrives dusted with sugar and provides one of Ecuador's most beloved snacks.

   45 min

5. Our final market stop is Mercado 10 de Agosto, a place where traditional Cuencano cooking continues much as it has for generations. Corn is king here. We'll try mote pillo, a comforting combination of hominy corn and scrambled eggs that has become one of Cuenca's signature dishes. Nearby, mote sucio combines hominy with pork fat, proving once again that simple ingredients often produce the most memorable flavours. These dishes tell the story of the Andes, where maize has been a dietary cornerstone for thousands of years.

   45 min

6. As the afternoon winds down, we make a few final stops that perfectly capture Cuenca's sweeter side. We'll sip refreshing agua de pitima, a traditional herbal drink long valued for its aromatic qualities, before sampling baked coconut sweets and flaky quince-filled empanadas that have graced local bakery counters for generations. There's more to this Cuenca food tour than the dishes themselves. It's a discovery and understanding of the markets, traditions, and everyday food culture that define life in the Ecuadorian Andes. Whilst it's possible to wander these markets alone, you'd be hard-pushed to uncover these stories, flavours, and local favourites without your tastemaker guides.

   30 min

Cancellation

Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the experience starts, for a full refund.

Reviews

Ratings come from 3 reviews collected by our booking partner. They are travellers' own words, in the order they were written — never reordered to flatter the experience.

Know before you go

How it compares in Cuenca

• Its from-price is 35% below the median of the 123 experiences we list in Cuenca.
• It is shorter than most of them.
• By number of reviews it ranks 68 of 123.
• The operator lists free cancellation on it.

About Cuenca

Cuenca is a high Andean city in southern Ecuador, a UNESCO-listed colonial centre with a blue-domed cathedral, flower markets and four rivers.

Cuenca sits at about 2,500 metres in a basin of the southern Andes, and its historic centre is listed by UNESCO. The Tomebamba River runs beside the old quarter, with colonial houses overlooking its banks. The New Cathedral, with its three blue domes, faces Parque Calderón, and the nearby flower market sells roses and orchids. Spanish settlers founded the city in 1557 close to the Inca city of Tomebamba.

Top-ranked sights in Cuenca: Mirador de Turi.

See all 123 experiences in Cuenca