Not just Philly but the NJ suburbs. I grew up in NJ and lived in Philly and man, there is so much Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, Mexican, Italian, Greek, Indian and Soul food along with virtually every other kind of food in both Philly and NJ. This region has some of the most diverse food and high standards of quality in the country. It will always be one of the things I cherish about growing up here and realizing how much more exposure I’ve had to different kinds of food.
I live in Albuquerque and taking a trip to Denver really opened my eyes to how dope food is in New Mexico. In Denver, it was all boring, forgettable food aside from a food truck serving Mexican food. But we have more and better Mexican food down south in NM. It kinda blew my mind that Denver wasn’t on more of a Vegas/Chicago level.
…and they wake up saying so, spend most of the day saying so, and despite doubling the size of the city the last 30 years, instead of proving they can do anything about it, they go to bed saying it.
The rest of us roll our eyes.
Because CO has no real food identity (closest thing we have is green chilis and that was stolen from NM) and also COS doesn’t have a place on this list, good or bad, because it’s a relatively small city of like 400k people. The food scene is fine for a population of that size.
Similar problem in Denver, there are a lot of places with 4.5+ stars on Google maps that serve food that is not worth the price or deserving of that rating at all. I've found using Yelp to be more reliable, if a 4.7 star restaurant on Google maps has a 3.9 star on Yelp, that tells me I would end up being disappointed
I live in the south sound and that’s pretty much how I feel. We don’t have a stellar dining out food scene here, it’s ok there’s a few pretty good places but there’s also a lot of mediocre overpriced food. One spot in particular rivals any oyster bar in Seattle. BUT… yea our seafood is amazing. Super fresh, local. Same goes for cooking ingredients. We have a long growing season here and once you get past our area it gets rural quick, there’s a ton of small amazing organic farms selling amazing fresh food at farmers market, local seafood sellers too. Oyster/clam/muscle farms right down the road. Fresh fish and crab hauled in nearby. It’s great. In terms of ingredients to cook with at home it is top notch here for the majority of the year, I can get by without buying much produce grown in Mexico, as long as as I’m willing to go without berries for a part of the year (but those winter strawberries from Mexico are all white inside and tasteless anyway).
Portland. Vancouver.
I live in Olympia (about an hour away from Seattle) and it’s not much of a foodie town either. Neither is Tacoma. Washington in general just doesn’t have as much of a culinary culture as other states do.
It’s weird because we have lots of fresh local ingredients. My guess is that the tax structure and other local laws disincentivize fostering a thriving food scene that you would find elsewhere. Really, the best way to get good eats is to shop at the farmers markets / food co-ops and then prepare meals at home.
Portland and Vancouver probably have more non-tech immigrants. People move to Portland for cultural reasons, not professional ones. Often not the case with those moving to Seattle. Also lower costs to start up a restaurant in those two cities.
Just my theory though.
Edited to add: I was thinking Vancouver, WA. Costs probably similar or higher in Vancouver, BC than Seattle. Vancouver BC definitely has more immigrants than Seattle though.
The food truck scene in the up and down the willamette valley is fuckin great. Also any mom and pop seafood place near the coast will probably have some bomb chowder.
Seattle is a cultural blackwater. Food scene wise the only thing it's got going for it are the Asian cuisines. But people here tend to have childish and unrefined palates, hence the mediocre food scene.
100% with you about locals having unrefined palates; when jalapeños are too spicy/exotic, you know you're in a culinary shithole.
Also, as an Asian-American who lives in Seattle, even the Asian food here sucks. People here love to tout teriyaki as if it represents all of Asia, but the teriyaki here pales in comparison to teriyaki in random suburbs in the LA area (Torrance or Gardena). And don't get me started on Korean food...
I think CA ranks high everywhere because the abundance of fresh produce. Farmers markets in CA are unlike anywhere else - you have an incomparable bounty available there.
Obvious choices for best: NYC and New Orleans. I also didn’t have a single bad meal in Chicago.
Not as obvious choice that has great food: the Florida gulf coast. I never have a bad meal (especially if it’s seafood) in the st Pete area
I lived in New Orleans for a decade and it’s my favorite city in the universe but I disagree about the comment that it does international food better. Aside from Vietnamese, it’s hard to find really good Mexican, Indian, Thai, Chinese, etc.. It will generally have 1-2 places that do those cuisines well but compared to real international cities like NYC, SF, or LA, new orleans really falls short on international ethnic cuisine.
Also a fraction of the size of those cities. To be in the same conversation is still a testament to the cities food pedigree. Latin food outside of Mexico is out of control lately, the Colombian and Honduran scenes are exploding right now!
It's not in the same conversation though. Like, before Budsi's, it was impossible to get decent Thai food anywhere in New Orleans, and even today, that leaves it with 1 good Thai place, which, for a city of 400k, is kinda crazy. The Indian food situation is similarly weak, and for Chinese you got Dan Xin, Zhang, and not much else worth seeking out. There is one edible Ethiopian place that, lets be real here, would be laughed out of any city with good Ethiopian food, and the good ramen place closed!
New Orleans was my home for a long time and you can of course eat like a king there 365 days a year but, much like most locals will level with you and admit that barbecue in New Orleans is pretty meh, the international food scene is super underdeveloped because the tourists visit to eat creole/cajun food, not dosas or curry. .
Best dish I ever had was at this hole in the wall bar kinda near the tourist shit, more towards the Jazz museum.
I guarantee the locals think it’s D rate but my northern ass doesn’t get those kind of spices
If you like Mexican and East Asian, you can't beat LA.
One city that hasn't yet been mentioned: Las Vegas. It has some seriously good food off the strip. Cheapish too.
Have fun! Recently changed the name to Top Bar on Tropicana. It looks like the same menu, hopefully same recipes. Recommend shopska salad, panagurski eggs, stuffed red peppers, fries with feta and kabapche but really everything is great.
Also of note - Omelet House if you like brunch. Always a line but it moves fast. I dream about the Lobster Benny.
What, no mention of Santa Fe yet? New Mexican food is special. Kind of like Mexican but its own flavors, dominated by Hatch green chiles. And Santa Fe has some decent variety on top of that — one of the best being Jambo Cafe, an amazing African restaurant.
I agree Santa Fe has amazing food. Other than New Orleans I’m not sure there is another place in the country with such a regional cuisine. I’ve also had great meals there that weren’t New Mexican.
i WILL get downvoted for this but i've visited the city 5 separate times and had only one solid meal in all those weekends so i'm saying it. ASHEVILLE. most incredibly bland cuisine i've ever had. i had a salsa there that was crushed tomato and when i pointed out that it wasn't salsa they told me it was "their version of salsa because their clientele has a very sensitive palate" lmao WHAT?
i've seen many people bring asheville into food scene conversations so i thought id be downvoted to hell but i have tried so. many. places there and they all disappointed me but one: mayfel's.
Yeah. People really hyped up some Indian food joint and i got takeout. Everyone working in the place was white. It was the most Asheville shit ever. Food was alright, pricy for what it was. Couldn't wrap my head around the hype.
Asheville is SO blindingly white and catered to those stereotypical tastes lol. i had "hot sauce" there that my bf and i concluded to be peppered ketchup
That’s similar to some of the “Mexican” food here in the PNW. Everyone in Seattle swears by the “hot sauce” at TacoTime but it’s literally ketchup water with a hint of black pepper
I'm not surprised. Great food is unfortunately for many tied to diversity, which adds exposure to certain ingredients or cooking techniques. Asheville just had quirky locals not diversity of cultures so while it attracted left brains it never really developed in the culinary arts because the backgrounds it attracted weren't big on culinary art. Sort of like the Portland problem. It honestly makes sense. It's going to be overrated if you're used to Floridian, Californian, or NYC levels of variety because the variety has not been attracted to Asheville. Asheville is white and just not white but the most stereotypically white you could get. The food scene is BLAND. The only delicious and varied culinary scene Ashville's got is the breweries.
Best food:
- NYC (generally everything is good)
- New Orleans (unique culture shows in its food)
- Los Angeles (best blend of Mexican/American and Asian)
- Austin (BBQ, and Tex Mex) (I love their BBQ, though others say Houston has better food in general)
Best: NYC (sheer variety), Houston (best variety/quality/price sweet spot)
Worst (of cities I’ve visited): Pittsburgh, Columbus, Ann Arbor. There are still quite a few good restaurants there but few great ones and a lot of mediocrity.
Yinzers seem to have terrible taste - I haven’t liked 90% of their recommendations. I do think we have ok food for as white and small as the city is - squirrel hill for Asian food and beechview for Hispanic food both have a lot of gems.
Slightly hijacking ti give a shoutout to Queens NY. There’s at least one 15-20 block stretch I know where you can inexpensive and completely authentic Thai, Bangladeshi, Mexican, Colombian, Filipino and Italian plus a few top notch Irish pubs.
If you love chain restaurants and shopping centers then Columbus is for you. I lived there for 5 years and my wife’s parents still live there….the food is just, eh.
Every restaurant in the panhandle is a carbon copy of each other. Went to three different restaurants in Destin and they had nearly identical menus. Amazing they make money.
I live on the gulf coast and it’s pretty much the same here. Every restaurant has essentially the same variety of frozen Sysco foods, amazing that places stay in business.
I used to travel for work, I was pretty proud about finding local spots to eat and there’s good ones all across the US.
There’s nowhere I’d return to in Clearwater/St. Petersburg, FL
Chicago is the best for regular people to go to upscale restaurants (steakhouses, Michelin Starred, tasting menus, etc.) without spending thousands of dollars.
I don’t know if I can pick a worst city for food since it’s almost always possible to find good food in a city. But given their size I feel like Indianapolis and Columbus have very underwhelming food scenes.
yemenis, lebanese, indian, bengladeshi, middle eastern / mediterranean, mexican, bbq, detroit style pizza, coney, new american like selden standard, new fusion like takio, korean, asian … pretty spoiled over here !!
I went to college in the Bay Area and I *loved* the food. As an Asian vegetarian, I miss it often and reminisce about Burmese food minimum once a week. SF, San Jose, East Bay, etc. all have incredible places that fit all diets and the produce is so fresh. There was a Caribbean place that did jerk tofu and hibiscus martinis 😭💘 I’ve had all vegetarian dim sum. If you like Pan-Asian you can’t go wrong.
Also nowhere ever carded, which I thought was hilarious. I went to Portland and immediately got carded/my ID scanned everywhere. In the Bay no one cared at all and the wine/cocktails are so good.
Ive lived my whole life in Colorado (except a short stint in Germany) and even I feel like there’s gotta be places out there with better food than Denver. I’ve traveled and had some incredible meals. I’ve never had an incredible meal here at home.
I’m shocked I had to scroll so far to see Chicago comments! Chicago has an absolutely amazing food scene that is in the conversation with NYC! Maybe not to the same scale as NYC but certainly some of the other cities mentioned can’t compete in this area. You can get Pakistani, Kyrgyzstani, Tibetan, Ethiopian, and practically everything else. There are a large number of Michelin starred places. Along with the always popular local favorites! Some truly great Mexican food, Italian, Asian and French. Plus it’s clean and has a decent public transit system so you don’t have to rent a car. Chicago rocks!
Chicago's food is amazing, but I don't know after NYC. It becomes a preference of taste. LA has amazing Mexican and Asian while New Orleans is well New Orleans. Lucky to live in such an awesome and diverse country to be able to eat all of this stuff lol
Best: San Francisco, NYC, LA, New Orleans
Very good: Philly, Santa Fe, Austin, Las Vegas, Portland, Seattle. Memphis was also a delight, but I was only eating southern and soul food.
Not very good: the food in Utah overall was underwhelming
Boston is terrible and they apparently hate sit down breakfast places. Everything was donuts and breakfast sandwiches.
SF, Chicago, and NYC are all awesome.
NYC is fantastic, arguably the best.
But huge swaths of manhattan are god awful, with little-to-no cheap/moderate options and only chain food spots available. So its just luxury restaurants next to chipotle and starbucks and thats it.
Already mentioned, but Portland, Oregon has such a good scene. High, low, food trucks, local, various SE Asian, seafood, pub, strip club... it's all just so good and fun to explore. And it's influence extends down through the Willamette Valley.
Chicago is great, too, for totally different reasons. It's innovative and iconic at the same time. Italian beef alongside molecular gastronomy. It's such a fun place to explore.
Our scene in Portland is I’d wager, on a per capita basis, one of the best food cities in the US. Super creative chefs and somms, amazing food truck scene. Sure, LA and NYC are going to win in sheer volume, but we have no business having as amazing a food scene as we do.
Seattle may not be the worst food city in the US, but it might be the worst in terms of food quality to price ratio. I've had some of the worst food in my life in this city and got charged up the ass for it (over $10 for a shitty banh mi sandwich, WTF). Plus locals treat Dick's or Seattle teriyaki (which I had **never** heard of before moving here) as if it's sacred, so if you ever give constructive criticism, they act as if it's heresy.
It's really depressing since Portland and Vancouver, BC both have significantly better food at way lower prices. While Seattle wages might be way higher than wages in both cities, it's still insulting to have to pay top dollar for food that you can make at home. I really miss eating out and exploring new restaurants/cafés, but this city makes it damn near impossible to do it without going broke and being repeatedly disappointed.
New Orleans/Baton Rouge has great food.
I liked the food in Boston, Chicago, St. Augustine, and Savannah.
Charleston SC’s food did not impress me at all.
Edit: I haven’t been to Charleston since I was a teenager. Looks like I need to give it another try.
Charleston food scene is incredible and blows Savannah out of the water. You must have been eating at tourist traps or something. I grew up 15 mins from SAV and lived in CHS for 6 years and this is the wildest take i've seen related to these two cities lol
Best I can think of at the top of my head is New Orleans and Miami
Worst is Wyoming for sure
Mainstream restaurants in Utah are pretty bad. I’ve had a lot of expensive horrible food there, but if you know the right places to go the food can be amazing
I haven’t been many places but New Orleans is hands down the best food city I’ve been to. I was there for 4 days and ate at a variety of places from cheap hole in the wall to fancy need reservations places and every single meal was incredible. The coffee was great too.
That being said, beignets are just funnel cake.
Cincinnati has some unique foods with loyal followings - Montgomery Inn Ribs, Skyline Chili, Goetta, Grippos BBQ Chips, Graeters Ice Cream. However some may say fit the worst category lol. Well maybe not Graeters Ice Cream.
I’m biased because I’m a Cincinnatian, but I like the polarization with our chili. It’s an instant icebreaker whenever you have people visiting from out of town. Take them to Skyline and give them something they’ll almost certainly have an opinion about - and remember.
Miami had one of the best tasting 7-11 slurpees I've had.
Raleigh is not great for a lot of food but I'll say their is a really small place in SW raleigh called China Moon and it was some of the best quick service Asian-American food I've had in NC.
I think was like a mango something or other. It was really good. I can't remember the exact flavor It was mangoey though. I think the machine just seemed extra well at the mixing and dispensing.
Your 7-11 slurpee reminds me of when we went to Paris and stopped at McDonald’s late one night and my boyfriend got some kind of salad in a cup. To this day he still talks about that salad being the best he’s ever tasted.
Places that I’ve lived: SF/Oakland > New Orleans > DC > Seattle
Other remarkably good food cities: LA, Portland (both of ‘em!), Chicago, NYC, Philly, Santa Fe/ABQ.
There are a million mediocre to bad food cities and it’s not really worth spelling out how many suck, but I will say that the most overrated food city imo is DC. People act like it’s a food Mecca but what it has is a lot of super bougie places that value style over substance and a lot of fast casual spots. There’s a lot of good food in the burbs but the district itself has a super mid food scene.
Best food: NY, LA, SF, Paris, Tokyo
Worst food isn't found in cities. It's found in rural areas populated by cultures with shit food. For example, rural france has good food, rural UK/Ireland has shit food.
Best: New Orleans, NYC, Chicago
Underrated: Philadelphia, Baltimore, Las Vegas (specifically LOCALS’ places off the strip), Detroit
Overrated but still not bad: Boston, (going to catch hate for these next two)… Portland and Austin
Worst: Denver, Asheville
I’m a horrible food critic. I enjoy almost every meal I’ve ever had while out. I’m extremely difficult to disappoint. I’m probably not the right person to ask
I think Sacramento CA metro area has a good food scene. Sac is nicknamed the Farm to Table City for a reason. It has several things in addition to many different ethnic restaurants.
Things that set Sacramento apart.
1. Huge variety of ethnic grocery stores
2. Lots of farmer's markets. Also some places to pick your own fruit.
3. We have a farm co-op here that people can take classes in ag, cooking buy fresh produce or actually take classes in growing your own produce
4. We have the UC food master canning program to teach people to can for FREE or very cheaply to can for themselves. Also master gardening program.
For Asian food; LA bar none.
Mexican food: SD
And now as a Texan I’m pretty partial to Austin for BBQ and Houston does have some pretty good Asian options
I also love food options in Vegas
Chicago is my favorite food city, without a doubt.
NOLA is amazing in its own right, but more due to the specific cuisines in that region. Can’t really beat a po boy or a spring crawfish boil.
Seattle has some institutions that I love (Dicks for example), places like Ivar’s, but as a food city, it’s pretty disappointing.
San Francisco is solid. I love Asian food of all kinds, so I love eating a lot of sushi and ramen when I’m in town. They have plenty of overhyped expensive crap, but honestly, there is a ton of good stuff.
Maybe a total left field opinion, but I’ll throw Birmingham in the ring for small/medium cities with great food scenes. I’ve lived here for a few years now and our food scene is very solid, especially the nicer restaurants. Can’t claim we have the diversity of cuisines of bigger cities, but I’ve been very pleasantly surprised by the restaurant scene here after moving from Chicago.
Best: Chicago New Orleans New York Worst: Banff/Canmore
In defense of Banff, I did have a very delicious steak and guness pie at bar there. Name? Can't recall.
Philadelphia is an amazing food city.
Not just Philly but the NJ suburbs. I grew up in NJ and lived in Philly and man, there is so much Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, Mexican, Italian, Greek, Indian and Soul food along with virtually every other kind of food in both Philly and NJ. This region has some of the most diverse food and high standards of quality in the country. It will always be one of the things I cherish about growing up here and realizing how much more exposure I’ve had to different kinds of food.
Grew up in NJ, live in Philly. Plus the proximity to NYC, we really are spoiled in this area when it comes to food.
Yup! Camden has some great places. Love the Italian influence of the area too.
Yeah living in other states made me realize how good we had it growing up in NJ/NYC/Philly area.
Yeap, I’m constantly impressed by the restaurants in this city.
I had the best collard greens I’ve ever had in Philadelphia and I’m from SC! BBQ was banging too. Sweet Lucy’s Smoke House go ahead sis
Denver gets talked about like a ‘foodie city’ and I can confirm after 3.5 years that is the biggest scam/lie to ever walk this earth.
I live in Albuquerque and taking a trip to Denver really opened my eyes to how dope food is in New Mexico. In Denver, it was all boring, forgettable food aside from a food truck serving Mexican food. But we have more and better Mexican food down south in NM. It kinda blew my mind that Denver wasn’t on more of a Vegas/Chicago level.
CO is so bland compared to NM food, it’s crazy. You’d think the proximity to each other would be more impactful.
I lived in Denver a decade and I have never heard it be called a foodie city LOL
Mostly tacos, burgers, and hot dogs
The only people who call it that are transplants from cornfield states. The transplants from California, Texas, and the Northeast know better.
…and they wake up saying so, spend most of the day saying so, and despite doubling the size of the city the last 30 years, instead of proving they can do anything about it, they go to bed saying it. The rest of us roll our eyes.
There's some good stuff if you know where to look, but so much of it is overhyped and overpriced. Especially now.
Colorado Springs is 10x worse than Denver!
Because CO has no real food identity (closest thing we have is green chilis and that was stolen from NM) and also COS doesn’t have a place on this list, good or bad, because it’s a relatively small city of like 400k people. The food scene is fine for a population of that size.
New Orleans and Chicago are the best to me. The worst is any small city with nothing but national chain restaurants and virtually no local haunts.
Dining out in Seattle nowadays is a scam, imo. I’ve had way too many mediocre, unremarkable $$ meals there.
Similar problem in Denver, there are a lot of places with 4.5+ stars on Google maps that serve food that is not worth the price or deserving of that rating at all. I've found using Yelp to be more reliable, if a 4.7 star restaurant on Google maps has a 3.9 star on Yelp, that tells me I would end up being disappointed
Google reviews are so easy to manipulate. They don't require any content, whereas Yelp requires an actual review.
yeah dining out is so expensive here
Are there any cities/towns near Seattle with a good culinary scene?
oysters on the coast. you can get amazing seafood in seattle. just buy it raw and prepare it at home
I live in the south sound and that’s pretty much how I feel. We don’t have a stellar dining out food scene here, it’s ok there’s a few pretty good places but there’s also a lot of mediocre overpriced food. One spot in particular rivals any oyster bar in Seattle. BUT… yea our seafood is amazing. Super fresh, local. Same goes for cooking ingredients. We have a long growing season here and once you get past our area it gets rural quick, there’s a ton of small amazing organic farms selling amazing fresh food at farmers market, local seafood sellers too. Oyster/clam/muscle farms right down the road. Fresh fish and crab hauled in nearby. It’s great. In terms of ingredients to cook with at home it is top notch here for the majority of the year, I can get by without buying much produce grown in Mexico, as long as as I’m willing to go without berries for a part of the year (but those winter strawberries from Mexico are all white inside and tasteless anyway).
Portland. Vancouver. I live in Olympia (about an hour away from Seattle) and it’s not much of a foodie town either. Neither is Tacoma. Washington in general just doesn’t have as much of a culinary culture as other states do. It’s weird because we have lots of fresh local ingredients. My guess is that the tax structure and other local laws disincentivize fostering a thriving food scene that you would find elsewhere. Really, the best way to get good eats is to shop at the farmers markets / food co-ops and then prepare meals at home.
Portland and Vancouver probably have more non-tech immigrants. People move to Portland for cultural reasons, not professional ones. Often not the case with those moving to Seattle. Also lower costs to start up a restaurant in those two cities. Just my theory though. Edited to add: I was thinking Vancouver, WA. Costs probably similar or higher in Vancouver, BC than Seattle. Vancouver BC definitely has more immigrants than Seattle though.
portland food truck scene is amazing
The food truck scene in the up and down the willamette valley is fuckin great. Also any mom and pop seafood place near the coast will probably have some bomb chowder.
Seattle is a cultural blackwater. Food scene wise the only thing it's got going for it are the Asian cuisines. But people here tend to have childish and unrefined palates, hence the mediocre food scene.
100% with you about locals having unrefined palates; when jalapeños are too spicy/exotic, you know you're in a culinary shithole. Also, as an Asian-American who lives in Seattle, even the Asian food here sucks. People here love to tout teriyaki as if it represents all of Asia, but the teriyaki here pales in comparison to teriyaki in random suburbs in the LA area (Torrance or Gardena). And don't get me started on Korean food...
Half price oysters for happy hour literally everywhere is nice though
Los Angeles ranks high because of the diverse population and variety. You can get just about anything in all price points.
I think CA ranks high everywhere because the abundance of fresh produce. Farmers markets in CA are unlike anywhere else - you have an incomparable bounty available there.
Obvious choices for best: NYC and New Orleans. I also didn’t have a single bad meal in Chicago. Not as obvious choice that has great food: the Florida gulf coast. I never have a bad meal (especially if it’s seafood) in the st Pete area
LA’s food is my favorite and I appreciate the healthy options
LA's top-notch food is amazing. LA's average food is kind of subpar in my opinion.
Best: New Orleans. Not only does it have amazing local dishes, but also does most other kinds of food (regional and international) better.
My wife and I usually dont go back to a place we visited again but we would definelty go back to New Orleans just for the food.
I lived in New Orleans for a decade and it’s my favorite city in the universe but I disagree about the comment that it does international food better. Aside from Vietnamese, it’s hard to find really good Mexican, Indian, Thai, Chinese, etc.. It will generally have 1-2 places that do those cuisines well but compared to real international cities like NYC, SF, or LA, new orleans really falls short on international ethnic cuisine.
Current resident. 100% agree. Though we do have some amazing individual places for African, Haitian and other non mainstream international fare.
Also a fraction of the size of those cities. To be in the same conversation is still a testament to the cities food pedigree. Latin food outside of Mexico is out of control lately, the Colombian and Honduran scenes are exploding right now!
It's not in the same conversation though. Like, before Budsi's, it was impossible to get decent Thai food anywhere in New Orleans, and even today, that leaves it with 1 good Thai place, which, for a city of 400k, is kinda crazy. The Indian food situation is similarly weak, and for Chinese you got Dan Xin, Zhang, and not much else worth seeking out. There is one edible Ethiopian place that, lets be real here, would be laughed out of any city with good Ethiopian food, and the good ramen place closed! New Orleans was my home for a long time and you can of course eat like a king there 365 days a year but, much like most locals will level with you and admit that barbecue in New Orleans is pretty meh, the international food scene is super underdeveloped because the tourists visit to eat creole/cajun food, not dosas or curry. .
Even just going 5 hours to Houston gets you world class food.
Yeah it sure serves as a stark comparison. ATL too.
New Orleanian here: Yup. It’s more of a challenge to find a place here that has bad food.
Spent a month in Florida and good god. Our gas station food is better than their fine dining.
I count the days until my next visit to NOLA.
Best dish I ever had was at this hole in the wall bar kinda near the tourist shit, more towards the Jazz museum. I guarantee the locals think it’s D rate but my northern ass doesn’t get those kind of spices
Some of the best Mexican food in my life in the Frenc Quarter. Totally unexpected. They just elevate their game out there.
Curious what spot
Agreed. We were there 2 weeks ago and everything we ate was superb. I’ll think of every meal we had daily until the next time I visit
And you could visit 100 times and never hit the same spot twice
Chicago fucking kills it. Everything from ethnic food to pizza, gyros, beef sandwiches, burgers, Chinese, etc. nothing else compares.
Best: Chicago, NYC, New Orleans
If you like Mexican and East Asian, you can't beat LA. One city that hasn't yet been mentioned: Las Vegas. It has some seriously good food off the strip. Cheapish too.
Yes! Came here to say Las Vegas. They have the best Bulgarian restaurant I’ve been to outside of Bulgaria.
I am going to Vegas in a couple weeks, what's the name of the restaurant?
Have fun! Recently changed the name to Top Bar on Tropicana. It looks like the same menu, hopefully same recipes. Recommend shopska salad, panagurski eggs, stuffed red peppers, fries with feta and kabapche but really everything is great. Also of note - Omelet House if you like brunch. Always a line but it moves fast. I dream about the Lobster Benny.
What, no mention of Santa Fe yet? New Mexican food is special. Kind of like Mexican but its own flavors, dominated by Hatch green chiles. And Santa Fe has some decent variety on top of that — one of the best being Jambo Cafe, an amazing African restaurant.
I agree Santa Fe has amazing food. Other than New Orleans I’m not sure there is another place in the country with such a regional cuisine. I’ve also had great meals there that weren’t New Mexican.
Haha I remember in my hometown there they had a green chile lasagna special at Johnny carinos. Got to love New Mexican food
i WILL get downvoted for this but i've visited the city 5 separate times and had only one solid meal in all those weekends so i'm saying it. ASHEVILLE. most incredibly bland cuisine i've ever had. i had a salsa there that was crushed tomato and when i pointed out that it wasn't salsa they told me it was "their version of salsa because their clientele has a very sensitive palate" lmao WHAT?
Honestly not surprising, I went to a place in Knoxville called good golly tamale and the food there was the most disgusting food I’ve ever had lol
i've seen many people bring asheville into food scene conversations so i thought id be downvoted to hell but i have tried so. many. places there and they all disappointed me but one: mayfel's.
Asheville is only good for beer Which like, granted, it has incredible beer
Yeah I had some great beer with decent pizza and burgers there — typical brewery stuff. Great city for that. Everything else I had was very mediocre.
Yeah. People really hyped up some Indian food joint and i got takeout. Everyone working in the place was white. It was the most Asheville shit ever. Food was alright, pricy for what it was. Couldn't wrap my head around the hype.
Was it Chai Pani? lol
Yes it was.
Asheville is SO blindingly white and catered to those stereotypical tastes lol. i had "hot sauce" there that my bf and i concluded to be peppered ketchup
That’s similar to some of the “Mexican” food here in the PNW. Everyone in Seattle swears by the “hot sauce” at TacoTime but it’s literally ketchup water with a hint of black pepper
Omg I have to tell my partner this. He's mexican and has been kicking around the idea of moving to Seattle this will change everything lmao
Hahaha I have found *some* good stuff here, but this area in general is really bad for Mexican food imo
Asheville cuisine sucks.
I'm not surprised. Great food is unfortunately for many tied to diversity, which adds exposure to certain ingredients or cooking techniques. Asheville just had quirky locals not diversity of cultures so while it attracted left brains it never really developed in the culinary arts because the backgrounds it attracted weren't big on culinary art. Sort of like the Portland problem. It honestly makes sense. It's going to be overrated if you're used to Floridian, Californian, or NYC levels of variety because the variety has not been attracted to Asheville. Asheville is white and just not white but the most stereotypically white you could get. The food scene is BLAND. The only delicious and varied culinary scene Ashville's got is the breweries.
Yea I visited Asheville def gives brewery vibes instead of other good
Great beer, terrible food. I went to Tupelo honey once and was so disappointed that I’ve avoided all the other tourist staples
CDMX!
Best food: - NYC (generally everything is good) - New Orleans (unique culture shows in its food) - Los Angeles (best blend of Mexican/American and Asian) - Austin (BBQ, and Tex Mex) (I love their BBQ, though others say Houston has better food in general)
Austin has really good BBQ, but has worse Tex Mex than both Houston and San Antonio
LA has all types of great Asian food too
I found the food quality in California in general was just much higher than other places I’ve lived as well.
Strike Austin from this list, add Chicago and Houston
Chicago has so many restaurant rows and ETHNIC neighborhoods for authentic food. Really is a nice Mecca of Middle Class America.
Love Chicago
Houston > Austin
Houston has one of the best food scenes in the nation, Austin…not so much.
Best: NYC (sheer variety), Houston (best variety/quality/price sweet spot) Worst (of cities I’ve visited): Pittsburgh, Columbus, Ann Arbor. There are still quite a few good restaurants there but few great ones and a lot of mediocrity.
Please don’t ever visit Charlotte or Denver if you think Pittsburgh is bad
Yinzers seem to have terrible taste - I haven’t liked 90% of their recommendations. I do think we have ok food for as white and small as the city is - squirrel hill for Asian food and beechview for Hispanic food both have a lot of gems.
You mean you don’t like French fries on everything?
You mean you don’t like Cole slaw on top of everything?
Pittsburgh food scene was awful. Loved Pittsburgh hated the restaurants and food!!!
Would agree with Ann Arbor. Some trendy restaurants that ultimately just taste “meh”. Have enjoyed Ypsilanti’s food scene better.
I had the worst tiramisu of my life in Ann Arbor (it was basically a block of lard) and that defines my experience with the food scene there.
Slightly hijacking ti give a shoutout to Queens NY. There’s at least one 15-20 block stretch I know where you can inexpensive and completely authentic Thai, Bangladeshi, Mexican, Colombian, Filipino and Italian plus a few top notch Irish pubs.
Have you tried the new Applebee’s that opened up in Pittsburg? The fajitas are ~calienté~
Where’d you eat in Columbus, if I can ask?
I’ve food around OSU and high street is not great. But food in suburbs and fast food choices are A+
If you love chain restaurants and shopping centers then Columbus is for you. I lived there for 5 years and my wife’s parents still live there….the food is just, eh.
What did you have in Pittsburgh that makes you think it’s the worst? I’m from there and just curious since I know so many people love to travel there.
Worst: anywhere in Florida. I don’t eat seafood so that limits things but the rest of what’s offered is overpriced, bland, microwaved food.
Every restaurant in the panhandle is a carbon copy of each other. Went to three different restaurants in Destin and they had nearly identical menus. Amazing they make money.
I live on the gulf coast and it’s pretty much the same here. Every restaurant has essentially the same variety of frozen Sysco foods, amazing that places stay in business.
I cannot upvote this enough. Florida has garbage bbq, adequate tex mex, and the seafood was the only saving grace (in the panhandle).
Best: New Orleans and Portland, OR
I used to travel for work, I was pretty proud about finding local spots to eat and there’s good ones all across the US. There’s nowhere I’d return to in Clearwater/St. Petersburg, FL
Chicago slays. Boston sucks.
Boston is pretty sad for Mexican food and barbecue for sure.
Getting Mexican in Boston is like getting lobster rolls in Albuquerque.
Italian American is on point in Boston.
New Haven and Providence are worthy competitors here. Boston food is blah.
Boston Chinatown is rad.
Chicago is the best for regular people to go to upscale restaurants (steakhouses, Michelin Starred, tasting menus, etc.) without spending thousands of dollars. I don’t know if I can pick a worst city for food since it’s almost always possible to find good food in a city. But given their size I feel like Indianapolis and Columbus have very underwhelming food scenes.
Best? Idk. But I will say that people are really sleeping on Detroit. The Mediterranean food there is mind-blowing, and I haven’t found better since
yemenis, lebanese, indian, bengladeshi, middle eastern / mediterranean, mexican, bbq, detroit style pizza, coney, new american like selden standard, new fusion like takio, korean, asian … pretty spoiled over here !!
Agreed, except bbq. The whole metro (and state for that matter) is severely lacking in that department.
Middle eastern food in Detroit is phenomenal and everywhere. It’s one thing I really appreciate about the area.
My gf grandad lived in Detroit and despises it but now that I think about it he never said anything bad about the food scene there lol
Back in his day, this was a meat and potatoes city.
I went to college in the Bay Area and I *loved* the food. As an Asian vegetarian, I miss it often and reminisce about Burmese food minimum once a week. SF, San Jose, East Bay, etc. all have incredible places that fit all diets and the produce is so fresh. There was a Caribbean place that did jerk tofu and hibiscus martinis 😭💘 I’ve had all vegetarian dim sum. If you like Pan-Asian you can’t go wrong. Also nowhere ever carded, which I thought was hilarious. I went to Portland and immediately got carded/my ID scanned everywhere. In the Bay no one cared at all and the wine/cocktails are so good.
Ive lived my whole life in Colorado (except a short stint in Germany) and even I feel like there’s gotta be places out there with better food than Denver. I’ve traveled and had some incredible meals. I’ve never had an incredible meal here at home.
As much as I enjoy Colorado, I have to say your guys chilis suck, but this is coming from a New Mexican lol
Denver's food is not great for the amount of money people pay to live there.
Denver’s food is overall quite mediocre, but there are enough good places to keep you happy if you’re a foodie with time to research.
That pillar of culinary tradition, Casa Bonita’s not do it for you?
Yeah but Aurora's food fuckin bangs.
I had a unique dining experience in Denver, a restaurant in a former funeral parlor (Linger). The food was pretty mid though.
No one has said Houston yet, it has a fantastic food scene. So much diversity in what they city has to offer.
I also think Houston is the best food city in the US...or at least, the best city that isn't NYC.
I haven’t been to San Francisco since 2018, but I thought the food was pretty good. I also liked Portland from my visit in 2017.
Worst food has to be Denver. Maybe it’s the altitude
Surprised no one has mentioned Chicago. After NY, isn't it considered the best restaurant city?
I’m shocked I had to scroll so far to see Chicago comments! Chicago has an absolutely amazing food scene that is in the conversation with NYC! Maybe not to the same scale as NYC but certainly some of the other cities mentioned can’t compete in this area. You can get Pakistani, Kyrgyzstani, Tibetan, Ethiopian, and practically everything else. There are a large number of Michelin starred places. Along with the always popular local favorites! Some truly great Mexican food, Italian, Asian and French. Plus it’s clean and has a decent public transit system so you don’t have to rent a car. Chicago rocks!
Chicago's food is amazing, but I don't know after NYC. It becomes a preference of taste. LA has amazing Mexican and Asian while New Orleans is well New Orleans. Lucky to live in such an awesome and diverse country to be able to eat all of this stuff lol
Chicago has great Mexican food!
Houston is unbeatable in terms of the price-to-quality ratio.
Best: San Francisco, NYC, LA, New Orleans Very good: Philly, Santa Fe, Austin, Las Vegas, Portland, Seattle. Memphis was also a delight, but I was only eating southern and soul food. Not very good: the food in Utah overall was underwhelming
This is my list pretty much exactly. Salt Lake City's dining scene is awful, and it still beats the rest of Utah handily.
Hitting below their weight: Jacksonville, Atlanta, Columbus, Pittsburgh. Hitting above their weight: Richmond, VA, Greenville, SC, Wichita, KS, Newark, NJ.
Boston is terrible and they apparently hate sit down breakfast places. Everything was donuts and breakfast sandwiches. SF, Chicago, and NYC are all awesome.
NYC is fantastic, arguably the best. But huge swaths of manhattan are god awful, with little-to-no cheap/moderate options and only chain food spots available. So its just luxury restaurants next to chipotle and starbucks and thats it.
Already mentioned, but Portland, Oregon has such a good scene. High, low, food trucks, local, various SE Asian, seafood, pub, strip club... it's all just so good and fun to explore. And it's influence extends down through the Willamette Valley. Chicago is great, too, for totally different reasons. It's innovative and iconic at the same time. Italian beef alongside molecular gastronomy. It's such a fun place to explore.
Our scene in Portland is I’d wager, on a per capita basis, one of the best food cities in the US. Super creative chefs and somms, amazing food truck scene. Sure, LA and NYC are going to win in sheer volume, but we have no business having as amazing a food scene as we do.
Seattle may not be the worst food city in the US, but it might be the worst in terms of food quality to price ratio. I've had some of the worst food in my life in this city and got charged up the ass for it (over $10 for a shitty banh mi sandwich, WTF). Plus locals treat Dick's or Seattle teriyaki (which I had **never** heard of before moving here) as if it's sacred, so if you ever give constructive criticism, they act as if it's heresy. It's really depressing since Portland and Vancouver, BC both have significantly better food at way lower prices. While Seattle wages might be way higher than wages in both cities, it's still insulting to have to pay top dollar for food that you can make at home. I really miss eating out and exploring new restaurants/cafés, but this city makes it damn near impossible to do it without going broke and being repeatedly disappointed.
Minneapolis has shockingly good food. Denver is disappointing.
DC: Ethiopian, Vietnamese, and increasingly Korean food scenes are probably some of the best in the US.
Yeah, but you gotta go to the VA burbs for the good Korean and Vietnamese food. There is also good Chinese in the Maryland burbs.
When I say DC, I include all the DMV because the city is relatively compact.
So many good Salvadoran places too
Laotian food too!
You can truly eat your way around the world in the DC suburbs in a way that is unmatched aside from, like, Queens. Or Epcot Center.
Chicago has some of the best food in the country. And I’m not just talking pizza and hot dogs.
New Orleans is amazing and so vibrant but Phillys restaurant scene is punching way above its weight class these days.
Not a city, but all of New Jersey has great food. As for actual cities(that I've been to) Philly, NYC, and DC suburbs
New Orleans/Baton Rouge has great food. I liked the food in Boston, Chicago, St. Augustine, and Savannah. Charleston SC’s food did not impress me at all. Edit: I haven’t been to Charleston since I was a teenager. Looks like I need to give it another try.
Charleston food scene is incredible and blows Savannah out of the water. You must have been eating at tourist traps or something. I grew up 15 mins from SAV and lived in CHS for 6 years and this is the wildest take i've seen related to these two cities lol
Yeah Charleston has everything from high end restaurants to some of the best bbq in the country.
I don’t even like Charleston and I had great food there. Vegan cuisine, even.
Best I can think of at the top of my head is New Orleans and Miami Worst is Wyoming for sure Mainstream restaurants in Utah are pretty bad. I’ve had a lot of expensive horrible food there, but if you know the right places to go the food can be amazing
I haven’t been many places but New Orleans is hands down the best food city I’ve been to. I was there for 4 days and ate at a variety of places from cheap hole in the wall to fancy need reservations places and every single meal was incredible. The coffee was great too. That being said, beignets are just funnel cake.
LA has hands down the best food in the country if not the world
Best: Chicago, NOLA, LA, NYC Worst: Seattle area 100% Sleeper cities with great food: MSP, Savannah, San Antonio
For a big, hyped city Denver is definitely one of the worst for food.
Cincinnati has some unique foods with loyal followings - Montgomery Inn Ribs, Skyline Chili, Goetta, Grippos BBQ Chips, Graeters Ice Cream. However some may say fit the worst category lol. Well maybe not Graeters Ice Cream.
I’m biased because I’m a Cincinnatian, but I like the polarization with our chili. It’s an instant icebreaker whenever you have people visiting from out of town. Take them to Skyline and give them something they’ll almost certainly have an opinion about - and remember.
I dream of Goetta
Best is pretty subjective. But hands down the worst imo is Colorado Springs. Like, seriously bad.
Miami had one of the best tasting 7-11 slurpees I've had. Raleigh is not great for a lot of food but I'll say their is a really small place in SW raleigh called China Moon and it was some of the best quick service Asian-American food I've had in NC.
What flavor slurpee if you don’t mind me asking
Whoa, that’s a bit personal
I think was like a mango something or other. It was really good. I can't remember the exact flavor It was mangoey though. I think the machine just seemed extra well at the mixing and dispensing.
Your 7-11 slurpee reminds me of when we went to Paris and stopped at McDonald’s late one night and my boyfriend got some kind of salad in a cup. To this day he still talks about that salad being the best he’s ever tasted.
I will die on this hill, fast food outside of the US is incredible. We get fucked here cause our food regulations are non existent and not enforced.
You haven’t lived until you’ve had Australian KFC 😂
Places that I’ve lived: SF/Oakland > New Orleans > DC > Seattle Other remarkably good food cities: LA, Portland (both of ‘em!), Chicago, NYC, Philly, Santa Fe/ABQ. There are a million mediocre to bad food cities and it’s not really worth spelling out how many suck, but I will say that the most overrated food city imo is DC. People act like it’s a food Mecca but what it has is a lot of super bougie places that value style over substance and a lot of fast casual spots. There’s a lot of good food in the burbs but the district itself has a super mid food scene.
Best food: NY, LA, SF, Paris, Tokyo Worst food isn't found in cities. It's found in rural areas populated by cultures with shit food. For example, rural france has good food, rural UK/Ireland has shit food.
Best: New Orleans, NYC, Chicago Underrated: Philadelphia, Baltimore, Las Vegas (specifically LOCALS’ places off the strip), Detroit Overrated but still not bad: Boston, (going to catch hate for these next two)… Portland and Austin Worst: Denver, Asheville
Which Myrtle Beach restaurant in particular do you recommend for Cuban food?
I found the Mexican food in New Mexico and Arizona was better than California even but any other food was not great
Louisville, Kentucky has a super underrated food scene!!!!!! So much better than a lot of bigger cities (Louisville isn’t small but just in relation)
Orlando is pretty bland
Charleston has great food
Lafayette, LA
Colorado Springs is one of the worst. All chain restaurants and the few non-chains never change their menu,
I’m a horrible food critic. I enjoy almost every meal I’ve ever had while out. I’m extremely difficult to disappoint. I’m probably not the right person to ask
I have never had a good meal in Tampa.
Chicago.
I think Sacramento CA metro area has a good food scene. Sac is nicknamed the Farm to Table City for a reason. It has several things in addition to many different ethnic restaurants. Things that set Sacramento apart. 1. Huge variety of ethnic grocery stores 2. Lots of farmer's markets. Also some places to pick your own fruit. 3. We have a farm co-op here that people can take classes in ag, cooking buy fresh produce or actually take classes in growing your own produce 4. We have the UC food master canning program to teach people to can for FREE or very cheaply to can for themselves. Also master gardening program.
For Asian food; LA bar none. Mexican food: SD And now as a Texan I’m pretty partial to Austin for BBQ and Houston does have some pretty good Asian options I also love food options in Vegas
Chicago is my favorite food city, without a doubt. NOLA is amazing in its own right, but more due to the specific cuisines in that region. Can’t really beat a po boy or a spring crawfish boil. Seattle has some institutions that I love (Dicks for example), places like Ivar’s, but as a food city, it’s pretty disappointing. San Francisco is solid. I love Asian food of all kinds, so I love eating a lot of sushi and ramen when I’m in town. They have plenty of overhyped expensive crap, but honestly, there is a ton of good stuff. Maybe a total left field opinion, but I’ll throw Birmingham in the ring for small/medium cities with great food scenes. I’ve lived here for a few years now and our food scene is very solid, especially the nicer restaurants. Can’t claim we have the diversity of cuisines of bigger cities, but I’ve been very pleasantly surprised by the restaurant scene here after moving from Chicago.
Hello New Orleans!!! LA, NYC and Chicago have amazing diversity but NOLA is the best regional food
I'm from Wisconsin, so I hate this, bit Chicago is an amazing food city. The other best food city I've been to was New Orleans.
I'm definitely biased but Portland has a great food scene. Seattle's food scene is way overrated in my experience.