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D.C, Austin, Nashville (plus a few other up and comers) (Honorable Mentions)
New Orleans, Charleston (Regional Haven)
This is terrible! Austin?? Looks like you just picked a few "cool" hipster cities (Portland too, really??).
For variety and best cuisines after NYC, it's easily LA, DC, Houston, SF, New Orleans, and Chicago (in order). Places like Austin, Portland, and Nashville don't come close. Before someone snaps that I have Houston above SF... I'll say that Houston has some comparable East Asian food, plus much better Latin American and African food. Not to mention the regional stuff there like Cajun, BBQ, and Creole.
This is terrible! Austin?? Looks like you just picked a few "cool" hipster cities (Portland too, really??).
For variety and best cuisines after NYC, it's easily LA, DC, Houston, SF, New Orleans, and Chicago (in order). Places like Austin, Portland, and Nashville don't come close. Before someone snaps that I have Houston above SF... I'll say that Houston has some comparable East Asian food, plus much better Latin American and African food. Not to mention the regional stuff there like Cajun, BBQ, and Creole.
Good grief. It's his opinion and his list is pretty good. At least the top four are accurate. (I would not include Houston, they might be in the 5-10 range.)
While I doubt I'd put Austin or Portland in the top 10, they are both up-and-coming restaurant cities. Portand gets points merely because of its broad and inventive craft brew culture which adds to the eclecticity of the dining scene.
Good grief. It's his opinion and his list is pretty good. At least the top four are accurate. (I would not include Houston, they might be in the 5-10 range.)
While I doubt I'd put Austin or Portland in the top 10, they are both up-and-coming restaurant cities. Portand gets points merely because of its broad and inventive craft brew culture which adds to the eclecticity of the dining scene.
Hey well not all opinions are good ones. It was a bad list. And Portland's breweries can't overcome all else. I wouldn't put either in the Top 10. Dallas, Philly, and Atlanta/Miami round out the top 10. Then outside the top 10, you still have places like Orlando (tourists really help its food scene), Boston, Seattle, etc. New Orleans is the only outlier, being a small metro of around 1M people and still having a strong food scene. The others are metros of over 5.5M people so of course more people would mean a better food scene, especially if they are diverse populations like DC and Houston.
I'd put Houston above Philly and Chicago. It has a more diverse food scene plus great local cuisine too. I'd say Houston is a comfortable #5 for US food cities.
Hey well not all opinions are good ones. It was a bad list. And Portland's breweries can't overcome all else. I wouldn't put either in the Top 10. Dallas, Philly, and Atlanta/Miami round out the top 10. Then outside the top 10, you still have places like Orlando (tourists really help its food scene), Boston, Seattle, etc. New Orleans is the only outlier, being a small metro of around 1M people and still having a strong food scene. The others are metros of over 5.5M people so of course more people would mean a better food scene, especially if they are diverse populations like DC and Houston.
I'd put Houston above Philly and Chicago. It has a more diverse food scene plus great local cuisine too. I'd say Houston is a comfortable #5 for US food cities.
Houston is an exceptional food city, but I cant imagine putting it over Chicago. Ironically enough, one of Houston's weaknesses is one of Chicago's strengths: fine dining. Chicago doesnt really have any weaknesses in the spectrum of food. It really excels at just about everything. I actually place Chicago ahead of LA, but that one is more open for debate.
This is terrible! Austin?? Looks like you just picked a few "cool" hipster cities (Portland too, really??).
For variety and best cuisines after NYC, it's easily LA, DC, Houston, SF, New Orleans, and Chicago (in order). Places like Austin, Portland, and Nashville don't come close. Before someone snaps that I have Houston above SF... I'll say that Houston has some comparable East Asian food, plus much better Latin American and African food. Not to mention the regional stuff there like Cajun, BBQ, and Creole.
To each his/her own., but LA is very overrated IMHO. I resided there long enough to see that there;s great food when your spending budget is $$$-$$$$, but $-$$ is either mediocre or worst. Cheap eats are usually regulated to taco trucks, and greasy burger stands and of course fast food chains. Late night (after 10 in LA)is much more of the same..., if there's anything that's still open. I really like the higher fare restaurants in town but when I'm not eating like that on an average week then I just may want some decent neighborhood food that's not Burger King or a burrito from a truck. I recall a guy from Boston seeing me in a Reggie White jersey and asking me how'd I like LA. Then said "You're out here loving the weather and hating the food?"
This is terrible! Austin?? Looks like you just picked a few "cool" hipster cities (Portland too, really??).
For variety and best cuisines after NYC, it's easily LA, DC, Houston, SF, New Orleans, and Chicago (in order). Places like Austin, Portland, and Nashville don't come close. Before someone snaps that I have Houston above SF... I'll say that Houston has some comparable East Asian food, plus much better Latin American and African food. Not to mention the regional stuff there like Cajun, BBQ, and Creole.
(emphasis added)
DC for variety?
You've got to be kidding.
It has the best collection of Ethiopian restaurants in the country, and a large Vietnamese restaurant contingent too, but once you get past those noteworthy categories and a smaller Chinese contingent, not much of the rest of the United Nations is present beyond examples of the standard categories (indian, Korean, Japanese).
And I'm sure now that you haven't been to Philadelphia. I can point you to not only Vietnamese, Ethiopian, Japanese, Korean, Indian and Chinese, but also West African, Lebanese, Israeli, Jewish diaspora, Brazilian, Jamaican, Colombian, Cuban, Dominican, Mexican (cucina frontera and southern Mexican), Mongolian, Moroccan, Russian, Greek, Turkish and Malaysian restaurants, and I'm pretty sure I've left out a few nationalities. We used to have a Polish one here too, but it went away.
The Israeli restaurant has gotten wide acclaim in a number of food publications as one of the best new(er) restaurants in the country.
This is terrible! Austin?? Looks like you just picked a few "cool" hipster cities (Portland too, really??).
For variety and best cuisines after NYC, it's easily LA, DC, Houston, SF, New Orleans, and Chicago (in order). Places like Austin, Portland, and Nashville don't come close. Before someone snaps that I have Houston above SF... I'll say that Houston has some comparable East Asian food, plus much better Latin American and African food. Not to mention the regional stuff there like Cajun, BBQ, and Creole.
It has the best collection of Ethiopian restaurants in the country, and a large Vietnamese restaurant contingent too, but once you get past those noteworthy categories and a smaller Chinese contingent, not much of the rest of the United Nations is present beyond examples of the standard categories (indian, Korean, Japanese).
And I'm sure now that you haven't been to Philadelphia. I can point you to not only Vietnamese, Ethiopian, Japanese, Korean, Indian and Chinese, but also West African, Lebanese, Israeli, Jewish diaspora, Brazilian, Jamaican, Colombian, Cuban, Dominican, Mexican (cucina frontera and southern Mexican), Mongolian, Moroccan, Russian, Greek, Turkish and Malaysian restaurants, and I'm pretty sure I've left out a few nationalities. We used to have a Polish one here too, but it went away.
The Israeli restaurant has gotten wide acclaim in a number of food publications as one of the best new(er) restaurants in the country.
DC is a much more diverse metro area than Philly. You seem to be selling it short.
I do think Philly is a better food city overall but not in ethnic variety.
L.A is America's 2nd Largest U.S City and it does rival NYC...It's just that L.A has grown outwards for years,while NYC has grown upwards,but recently L.A has been constructing more new high rises,but I see it following more of Tokyo's High Rise Construction Pattern.
When it comes to food...These are my rankings.
1) NYC
2) L.A
3) San Francisco
4) Chicago
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