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Los Angeles
San Francisco
New Orleans
Las Vegas
Santa Fe
Phoenix
Honolulu (best Asian cuisine of all 50 states)
New York
San Antonio
Houston
Anything north of SF isn't worth mentioning except NY. The food gets more bland as you go north in any region and becomes more creamier. For example Its the same thing in Europe. Northern European(Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany) food sucks and Southern European(Spain, France, Italy, Greece) food is amazing.
Yeah, the chain food restaurants in Phoenix probably blow away Boston, Chicago, and Seattle(not to mention Vancouver BC and Montreal)...
Also the best places to eat Italian and Greek food in the US are in the Northeastern cities. Some of the best Asian food is in the Northwestern US. There are Mexican populations and good Mexican cooking about everywhere in the West, not just the border states. It's not as everyone north of the Mason Dixon line or California just eats steak and potatoes for every meal.
Each coast is lucky to have one or the other. How's that for diplomacy ;-) I do tend to promote the Hudson Valley, partly because I grew up in the area and partly because I think it is the lesser-known underdog of the culinary/local agriculture world.
Santa Fe gets accolades on the list but I think Albuquerque not far away has a better food scene than Santa Fe. Of course New Mexico is so small (population wise) that both cities could easily be lumped together.
Its the same thing in Europe. Northern European(Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany) food sucks and Southern European(Spain, France, Italy, Greece) food is amazing.
Exactly. The most unpolluted waters and land in Europe which produces some of the freshest fish and game in the world along with amazing dairy sucks.
There is a nice show on Norwegian cooking on PBS these days that is finally shedding light on the virtues of Nordic cuisine.
Yeah, the chain food restaurants in Phoenix probably blow away Boston, Chicago, and Seattle(not to mention Vancouver BC and Montreal)...
Well considering I'm originally from Seattle I would say you don't know what your talking about. If you think the food in Chicago, Seattle, and Boston is somehow special then you need to eat our more often. Every type of food you can get in those 3 cities you can get elsewhere. Why dine in Chicago or Boston when you can go to NY and have 100x the options. Considering most of the produce in Seattle comes from CA its not very fresh.
Phoenix might have chain restaurants(but so do all the other cities you listed) but they have some amazing Mexican food and southwestern food.
As for Vancouver BC and Montreal, well this thread is about America's best food cities not Canada's. And while I've never been to Montreal I can tell you that Vancouver is most known for its Chinese food(its very good) but besides that nothing really else stands out.
Exactly. The most unpolluted waters and land in Europe which produces some of the freshest fish and game in the world along with amazing dairy sucks.
There is a nice show on Norwegian cooking on PBS these days that is finally shedding light on the virtues of Nordic cuisine.
Im glad a PBS has a show on nordic cuisine but unfortunately you can't actually taste the food, just look at it.
Go eat the food in Denmark or Sweden. Its very bland, reminds me of food served at retirement homes. Even the Danes joke about how terrible most the food is. They aren't able to grow spices like they are in the south so the food has less flavor. I will admit the dairy is amazing though.
Well considering I'm originally from Seattle I would say you don't know what your talking about. If you think the food in Chicago, Seattle, and Boston is somehow special then you need to eat our more often. Every type of food you can get in those 3 cities you can get elsewhere. Why dine in Chicago or Boston when you can go to NY and have 100x the options. Considering most of the produce in Seattle comes from CA its not very fresh.
Phoenix might have chain restaurants(but so do all the other cities you listed) but they have some amazing Mexican food and southwestern food.
So? According to you logic why would anyone dine in Phoenix since you could go to LA and have 100x the options? You can get Mexican/Southwestern food from California to Texas, so what's special about Phoenix...San Diego has better Mexican food and has fresh seafood. Las Vegas has some famous high end restaurants on the Strip but once you get to the rest of town there's absolutely nothing there either that you can't get in other big cities. What's special about Houston that I can't get somewhere else?
You can get spicy ethnic food in most major cities in the US, it isn't something unique to the Sun Belt.
Seattle's got great seafood, Pike's market, lots of good restaurants, local microbrews, and yes there is plenty of locally grown produce from Washington State and Oregon. That's why it ranked high on the original list. I don't care if you say you're from there, I'm just sharing my own opinion. No one ever said it had the unique regional cuisine...That'd be New Orleans.
The original survey quoted for this thread was judging cities on locally grown produce, independent restaurants, microbreweries, local wine, etc. as being measurements of foodie culture what ever you want to define that is. It wasn't judging who has the best Mexican food, which is basically what half your list seems to be...
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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Originally Posted by HeyHolliday!
Well considering I'm originally from Seattle I would say you don't know what your talking about. If you think the food in Chicago, Seattle, and Boston is somehow special then you need to eat our more often. Every type of food you can get in those 3 cities you can get elsewhere. Why dine in Chicago or Boston when you can go to NY and have 100x the options. Considering most of the produce in Seattle comes from CA its not very fresh.
Phoenix might have chain restaurants(but so do all the other cities you listed) but they have some amazing Mexican food and southwestern food.
As for Vancouver BC and Montreal, well this thread is about America's best food cities not Canada's. And while I've never been to Montreal I can tell you that Vancouver is most known for its Chinese food(its very good) but besides that nothing really else stands out.
Oh you are wrong here on many counts. While it's pretty well known the point you make that Thai food, Italian, Steakhouses etc. can be found in just about any college town or major city, some do it better than others. And if you think that all the produce in Seattle comes from California then I'm going to have to call ignorant BS on you. Central and Eastern WA are very agricultural and Pike Market was established for WA farmers to market their products. Are there imports there? Sure, but you'll find WA apples, Rainier cherries, several different kinds of vegetables grown in the Yakima Valley. There is local seafood like Dungeness crab, oysters from Whidbey Island, and a butcher with locally raised meats. I think you get the picture by now. Seattle gets the spotlight fairly frequently on the Food Network and has some well known and very successful chefs making headlines.
Boston does Italian exceptionally well as it has one of the best Little Italy neighborhoods in the country so the selection is pretty tough to match elsewhere. Not to mention New England seafood like Maine lobsters, Ipswich clams, Wellfleet oysters. New England coastal cities also have Portuguese/Azorean restaurants which can be a rare find in other cities.
And nobody made strict rules about mentioning Canadian cities here. If there is good food to be had up there, why not mention it? Vancouver also has exceptional seafood and South Asian food. Not just Chinese. Montreal is famous for smoked meat and bagels and also has many international ethnic enclave neighborhood, as does Toronto
So pot meets kettle here on your judgment. Please do tell on how good Mexican may in Phoenix or other exceptional restaurants there, but not at the expense of saying Boston, Seattle, and Chicago are run of the mill restaurant cities. If that's what you think, then you really don't know what you’re talking about.
Last edited by Champ le monstre du lac; 05-07-2011 at 07:28 PM..
I'll go with SF and Chicago, in that order. NYC, however, is without question in my experience THE most overrated restaurant place in the country. Like Boston, it is literally crawling with overly priced crap in the name of Epicurean delight.
I speak from much experience with respect to both of those cities. And, New York (unlike Boston) has the added benefit of that certain je ne sais quoi of the smell of roach spray in most bathrooms (irrespective of the neighborhood or price range). It's a real capper to any culinary evening
I'm not saying, BTW, that NYC and Boston don't have many fine restaurants; they do. But you have to sift through a lot of junk before you find "keepers" and, by that time, you're broke.
SF, OTOH, is the kind of city, in my experience, where you can go to just about any reasonably priced restaurant and get a really good meal. I'm sure there are exceptions, but not in my experience. Likewise, I've had many very good meals in Chicago.
Just adding some perspective here, from much personal experience.
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