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I don't think they have shakes At least I don't remember seeing it.
Man, that looks good! Is that the one in Leimert Park? Sorta far (but so is Watts), but I'll give it a shot next time I'm in the area!
Why do I live in the Valley? Well, there's good burgers here too.
Ironically, there's a Five Guys burger restaurant next to an In-N-Out in Northridge, and the In-n-Out always looks considerably busier. I do like the free peanuts that Five Guys gives though
There's several of them, I only know of 3, leimert, Inglewood, and south central
I don't think they have shakes At least I don't remember seeing it.
Man, that looks good! Is that the one in Leimert Park? Sorta far (but so is Watts), but I'll give it a shot next time I'm in the area!
Why do I live in the Valley? Well, there's good burgers here too.
Ironically, there's a Five Guys burger restaurant next to an In-N-Out in Northridge, and the In-n-Out always looks considerably busier. I do like the free peanuts that Five Guys gives though
With good reason. A Five Guys just opened in WeHo and it's a ghost town compared to In-N-Out. If Five Guys or some other East Coast burger chain tried that INO prank in SoCal, the sound of complete indifference would be deafening.
Yea no kidding when I was in Boston fudruckers was considered good burgers LOL
By who? Until a few years ago, most people here didn't even know what a Fudruckers was. I've never heard anyone refer to Fudruckers as a "good" burger. Unfortunately, I HAVE heard Five Guys mentioned a few times, but generally by the same people who will tell you that the Olive Garden is good Italian food.
The primary difference I've noticed between East and West coast burgers is an emphasis on the burger (East) or toppings (West).
The "pub burger" still reigns supreme in Boston. There's an emphasis on a thick burger (preferably rolled ground beef- not patties), good bread and simple basic toppings (a good cheese, maybe bacon and ketchup). It's not uncommon for a burger to be advertise that it's made with a mix of "ground tenderloin, ribeye, and sirloin" (or some other combo).
While out West, it seems that the "best" burgers have smaller patties (still good beef) and a wider variety of toppings. I was amazed at how almost every good burger place I've been to in SF and LA has burgers that come with everything under the sun piled on top.
In Boston, most people like a burger that eats almost like a really tender steak. Char-Grilled, and absolutely 8 ounces or bigger. Many people would say that throwing avacado, peppers, sauteed mushrooms, salsa, etc. on a burger is nuts.
Having had both styles plenty, I like both. Which I choose depends on what mood I'm in. In the summer, I like a thinner burger topped with things like salsa and guacamole. It has a "fresh" taste that you just don't get with the pub burger. On the other hand, there's nothing like a thick burger cooked medium-rare topped with gourmet cheese and a fresh bun to warm you up in the winter.
Boston's also getting on board with more creative toppings. Still different from out West, though. The other day, I went to a burger joint and had a "Portagee" Burger. It was a 1/2 lb burger (cooked perfectly) topped with a Chourico patty, roasted red pepper, fresh mozzarella and a tomato and garlic aioli. Freaking awesome.
It's not a matter of "better" or "worse." It's simply a matter of different styles. Not far off from Deep Dish Pizza vs. NY Style.
I personally don't see any purpose in ranking cities with numbers, I mean how many people here have actually been to every single eatery in all these cities to even make a blanket statement as bold as saying NYC is #1 foodies city? For the purpose of this thread there are the single show in town cities like New Orleans and there are the diverse and varied cities like NYC, San Francisco, LA, DC, Chicago, Boston, Houston, Dallas, Miami, and Atlanta. I think any of these diverse cities could be the answer.
What I do know is that LA lacks nothing. Highend, mom and pops, chains, variety of the worlds cultures, and my favorite being food trucks. You can find a food truck in LA for any type of food, from deserts, to Chinese, to Sushi, Mexican, hoagies, anything you want and LA has a food truck scene that I haven't seen anywhere else rival.
Never really made the California/Cheeseburger connection but now that I think about it, the best I've had was in San Francisco. Russian dressing on a Cheeseburger is genius.
The Vietnamese community is located way out in New Orleans East around the intersection of Alcee Fortier Boulevard and Cher Mentuer Highway. There are also some communities on the Westbank as well. The communities have been around since the 1970's and New Orleans even had the first Vietnamese American to serve in congress with Joseph Cao. The Mexican population really started to increase in population after the hurricane and they have not really totally established themselves yet. I think the area you are talking about is near Canal and Carrollton in Mid City. But New Orleans does have a long established Central American population and I think the city ranks in the top 10 in Honduran and Nicaraguan populations (most of them seem to live in Kenner, Metairie, or some other suburbs). New Orleans of course does not have the ethnic variety of cities that are 10 times larger than it but for a city this size it does do very well. I just find it strange how some people are like "after Creole/Cajun/seafood/southern what else does the city offer?" First off it is just a regular city with a wide range of ethnic cuisines that most good sized cities will have (obviously not as much quantity and sometimes quality as cities that are much larger) but then the city is lucky enough to have a unique regional cuisine on top of that which for the most part cannot be found in the rest of the country. Even the foods that originated in the area fit into a wide range of categories from the Italian Muffuletta to Bananas Foster to the 50 different varieties of po-boys to Oysters Rockefeller to Beignets to King Cake to Gumbo to Crawfish to Yaka Mein to BBQ shrimp etc.. The city was also a major destination for European immigration back in the day, so it will have the established communities that come with that. But really I dont think any city is as obsessed and in love with food as people in New Orleans.
I'll make sure to look out for them next I'm there.
I'm not bhasing NOLA, I'm not even saying it's overrated. I'm basically discussing if NOLA deserves the #5 or #6 spot. Consider the size of the metros I gave in my list:
1)18 million
2)/3)12 million/8million (tied)
4) 9 million
And NOLA has a little over 1 million in the metro And we're discussing if it deserves to beat Houston (6 million). So it's no wonder NOLA doesn't have the variety but what's clear is that no city packs the punch with food given size like NOLA. NOLA is definitely a top 10 city when it comes to food (maybe not top 5 ) but only a top 50 city by population.
Have you ever lived in Chicago? Not to sound like an arse, but I don't think a few visits to the city warrants you having all the knowledge about the Latin food scene in Chicago. I am just saying.
The food in LA is good but I am also not going to downplay it in certain areas because I can admit that I haven't been there enough to really say. Does LA have better Mexican food? That's probably a known fact, but Chicago does not have bad Mexican food. Ever try Mexican food in places like Indianapolis or Seattle?
Is LA leaps and bound ahead of Chicago in certain areas? I am not going to pretend that I know, all I know is both cities have good food and do it well regardless what ethnic food it is. From my experience the quality and diversity of food in Chicago is on par with SF and LA.
no, i haven't. I lived in detroit and milwaukee and maybe been to chicago dozens of time. I'm not as experienced with it as los angeles. but i think i've eaten enough to judge.
And what's this about Indianapolis or Seattle? This discussion is between Chicago and LA Of course Chicago has far better Mexican than both. Indianapolis doesn't deserve to be mentioned even as a top 30 food city and Seattle pulls on seafood and asian (it's latin food is very lacking, and imo Chicago's is better). I ranked Chicago as number 4 afterall Almost matching it's rank in size (3). The only city to over perform above Chicago is the San Francisco area, and really it's hard to beat San Francisco/Bay area. They have access to some of the best wine, beer, produce in the USA and have a strong food tradition. And anyways, the difference between Chicago and Bay area metro populations isn't great, but the Bay Area is far more diverse.
NYC has the best Mexican cuisine? Not even close.
Best Chinese? Nope.
Best Japanese? No.
Korean? Yikes.
Vietnamese, Thai? Meh
Burger joints? No.
Is it in an agriculturally rich region with year round fresh produce at its feet? No, it's not.
Other than that, yeah NYC is "way above" other cities. Hand dooowwwn!
NYC as #1 because while many cities are better in certain categories NYC is always consistently #2 or #3 and all confined in a very walkable accessible area.
Want hole in the wall italian? Good luck finding that in LA or the bay (you'll get some ok sit down places, but nothing "hole in the wall" that is good at all). Indian food is also dramatically richer and better in NYC (hole in the wall) than LA. I dunno about the bay though. and NYC isn't that bad in any other asian category you want to mention. Chinese? #3.
Now add to the fact that all of this is in the city limits of NYC whereas you got a wider area to cover both for LA and the bay to stack it all up against NYC.
With good reason. A Five Guys just opened in WeHo and it's a ghost town compared to In-N-Out. If Five Guys or some other East Coast burger chain tried that INO prank in SoCal, the sound of complete indifference would be deafening.
Well, when Five Guys first opened around here, it was pretty busy due to curiosity. However, as time went on, the crowds tapered off. The food isn't bad though. Definitely better than the Burger King/McDonald's Class, but still a little below INO.
However, across the street, there's a Chick-Fil-A, and that's always busy. Pretty tasty sandwiches, though a bit pricey for what you get.
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At least I don't remember seeing it. 
And we're discussing if it deserves to beat Houston (6 million). So it's no wonder NOLA doesn't have the variety but what's clear is that no city packs the punch with food given size like NOLA. NOLA is definitely a top 10 city when it comes to food (maybe not top 5 ) but only a top 50 city by population.
Of course Chicago has far better Mexican than both. Indianapolis doesn't deserve to be mentioned even as a top 30 food city and Seattle pulls on seafood and asian (it's latin food is very lacking, and imo Chicago's is better). I ranked Chicago as number 4 afterall 
