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How would you group these cities by the quality of food, restaurants, dining experience, etc. You have four categories for these cities:
EXCEPTIONAL: Cities where the food is among the best and quality is high in all calibers (meaning hole in the wall is just as good as its most expensive). These cities you are guaranteed in 85% of the places you choose to eat the food will be good to exceptional. Has lots of independent restaurants and variety. Basically the food alone makes this city a destination.
ABOVE AVERAGE: Cities where the food is pretty evenly split amongst good to exceptional and pretty average food. In these cities you are guaranteed that about 60% of the places you eat at will be above average to exceptional. The food alone doesn't make this place a destination, however, it is indeed an important part of the city's culture.
AVERAGE: Cities where the food is good but not standout either, but certainly has it's bright spots. In these cities you are guaranteed that in about 40% of the places you eat you will have a good to exceptional meal, but overall most of the places you come across to eat are more average or just good enough, but nothing to write home about.
BELOW AVERAGE: Cities where the food is just not that great as a whole. Only about 20% of the places you eat here will be average or above. Most food is subpar or heavily oriented to national chains.
You need to seriously rethink these percentages across the board, or your bar for quality food is set very low? Sorry, but you’re not guaranteed to have an exceptional meal 85% of the time in places like NYC, Chicago, SF, LA, etc. It’s nowhere near close to that?
With the exception of things like ethnic diversity, local cuisine, innovation, and sheer volume, most food scenes across the country have become homogenized with the rise of TV shows, the internet, and social media. I owned two restaurants in San Diego for years and was always on the lookout for inspiration/new ideas when traveling. In the last 5-10+ years it seems to be a whole lot of the same in the hip/trendy restaurants.
Las Vegas is probably the most underrated food city in America. A lot of people probably still think of it as buffets, and maybe celebrity chefs and fine dining. The reality is a lot of aspiring chefs learn at these places and strike out on their own in strip malls to really hone in their craft before returning home, or to other major cities. I’ve had a lot of friends and old employees over the years move to (or back home ) Vegas. Some of the best meals I’ve had have been in nondescript strip malls well off the Strip.
You need to seriously rethink these percentages across the board, or your bar for quality food is set very low? Sorry, but you’re not guaranteed to have an exceptional meal 85% of the time in places like NYC, Chicago, SF, LA, etc. It’s nowhere near close to that?
With the exception of things like ethnic diversity, local cuisine, innovation, and sheer volume, most food scenes across the country have become homogenized with the rise of TV shows, the internet, and social media. I owned two restaurants in San Diego for years and was always on the lookout for inspiration/new ideas when traveling. In the last 5-10+ years it seems to be a whole lot of the same in the hip/trendy restaurants.
Las Vegas is probably the most underrated food city in America. A lot of people probably still think of it as buffets, and maybe celebrity chefs and fine dining. The reality is a lot of aspiring chefs learn at these places and strike out on their own in strip malls to really hone in their craft before returning home, or to other major cities. I’ve had a lot of friends and old employees over the years move to (or back home ) Vegas. Some of the best meals I’ve had have been in nondescript strip malls well off the Strip.
Vegas is generally rated high. That’s why I would say Dallas or Phoenix are the most underrated. You rarely hear people mention them as good food cities but they pack quite a punch.
Here is my ranking. Im factoring in the city's size and how good the food should be based on that. Im basing this on
Ethnic Diverse Offerings
Innovation
Local Cuisine
Fine Dining
Cheap Eats
Exceptional: NYC, Chicago, LA
Above Average: San Francisco, Houston, Las Vegas, Boston, Philadelphia, San Diego, and Seattle
Average: Dallas, Washington DC, Austin, Baltimore, Miami, Atlanta, Phoenix, Charlotte, Tampa, Detroit, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, San Jose, Orlando, and Cleveland
Below Average: Minneapolis, Denver, Indianapolis, Columbus, Jacksonville, and Nashville
Cities I did not rank: New Orleans, Charleston, Memphis, and Portland, OR. To me these cities absolutely excel in one or two categories and fall flat in others. I didnt know how to place them. I also only ranked cities Ive extensively eaten in.
Last edited by As Above So Below...; 07-14-2021 at 11:48 AM..
Indy and Jacksonville consistently ranked in the bottom lol. Why am I not surprised.
I don't agree with Jacksonville's placement in this grouping I think it's unfair. As I said before food scenes can almost exclusively be correlated to metro size. There are a handful of exceptions but it largely tracks with metro pop. Jacksonville's food/restaurant offerings for its metro size is on par or perhaps even a little higher than it's metro peers. I would rank it as average, not below average. I think it was included because the OP based their list off of City population which I feel is a poor comparison metric. I can't speak for Indy since I've not actually spent much time there other than passing through on a freeway.
I think another factor is that it's very unlikely that most people contributing have been to all of these places to have a true understanding of their food/restaurant offerings. My guess is that more than a few of these rankings are just defaulting to the common city-data opinions and preconceptions which are usually used these types of threads in lieu of actual experience.
I for one am not educated enough on good/bad/awful restaurant scenes to really place these cities. I'm well aware of the reputation for places like New Orleans and Vegas, I think other cities that have a large visitor draw would probably perform similar. What I have found in my travels is that I typically find similar offerings depending on the size of the markets I go to. Since this is not scientific I suppose it doesn't matter. I've seen the back and forth on Boston. I think Boston has a great restaurant/dining scene but in my experience it was not below or above metro's of similar size. I would expect it to be the case with most of these places.
I found Louisville to have a surprisingly good food scene, above it's metro weight but it's not listed. I think a more interesting thread might be along the lines of cities that punch above their weight and why.
This topic could probably use weight classes. Portland and Austin punch above it's weight. Also, what are we looking for here? Diversity, variety, number of michelin stars?
For my money, Houston is hard to beat. It does everything well and has the one thing the other greats don't have: BBQ.
Portland, Maine, has very ethnic diversity in its cuisine... It's basically northern New England fare, east Asian and a bit of European-inspired food. Maybe a few of the Somalis have opened a spot? But I would compare it to more like Worcester, not Boston...
Providence, not New Haven, outshines Boston, and that only from a proportional standpoint. New Haven has the best pizza, though.
The marquee restaurants/dining experiences and major ethnic cuisine are found in Boston and its immediate environs. The diversity of the cuisine and the dining experiences push it way past providence overall.
Portland?? Blown away by that statement.
Quote:
Originally Posted by edwardsyzzurphands
lol is right.
Don't get me wrong, I love going to Portland to eat, they have an excellent food scene for a city its size. Variety is not its strong point though.
Boston, you can find basically any type of food, with a few exceptions. Name a type of food and chances are someone is making it in the area.
I would put Boston in the above-average section, not exceptional.
I like how both defenses of Boston's food scene begin and end with "variety and diversity". We're talking about a 5 million person metro anchored by one of the most well known cities in North America. Variety is like the absolute bare minimum, especially when grouped with culinary powerhouses like New York and New Orleans. It's like boasting about how Boston has a selection of great breweries; it's just something that every large city is expected to have.
Per the original post in this thread, proportionality is what matters here. Sure, Boston has a much larger quantity of great restaurants than Portland, ME just by sheer size alone, but if that were the criteria in this thread, then everything would just be ranked by metro size. It's not inconceivable that a city like Portland, which has a reputation for having an exquisite restaurant scene, could have a higher percentage of excellent restaurants compared to Boston.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kluch
Indy and Jacksonville consistently ranked in the bottom lol. Why am I not surprised.
It's about par for the course here. Large, popular coastal cities like DC and Boston get a reserved spot in the top of most lists just by virtue of being large coastal cities while more medium sized cities get the shaft.
Overall, I find SF's food scene a bit bland (used to live in Nob Hill for a couple of years) - the real action is in the East Bay (Gourmet Ghetto, diverse ethnic enclaves, affordability, etc.).
New Haven and Providence pound for pound can compete with the larger cities sans New York (which NH is part of the larger NYC CSA) and Chicago. These cities also tend to emphasize their cultural sector compared to a limited corporate presence so no surprise here. I'll also add Charleston, SC and maybe Birmingham or Savannah to that list as well.
Per the original post in this thread, proportionality is what matters here. Sure, Boston has a much larger quantity of great restaurants than Portland, ME just by sheer size alone, but if that were the criteria in this thread, then everything would just be ranked by metro size. It's not inconceivable that a city like Portland, which has a reputation for having an exquisite restaurant scene, could have a higher percentage of excellent restaurants compared to Boston.
sure its not inconceivable.... but I think your the only one I've ever heard say anything like that. It could have a higher proportion, but does it? Yea I don't know about that. Pretty much everyoneputs it in Above average.
Boston started Legal Seafoods for one-excellent. But also Regina's Pizzeria and then it attracted the second Eataly in the country, as well as one of few Gordon Ramsay restaurants, and 'Salt Bae' restaurants. I dont know why or how your even mentioning Portland tbh. I've been. I would compare it more to a Worcester or New haven but below Providence.
The food you'll find in East Boston, Dorchester, North End and then into neighboring communities like Cambridge Brookline and Quincy it just pulverizes tiny Portland. Lots of good food.
I acknowledge proportinoanilty here:
"Providence, not New Haven, outshines Boston, and that only from a proportional standpoint. " Its just not applicable to Portland.
Your mentioning New Orleans and variety as though it matches Boston in that respect. AFAIK it doesn't. New Orleans is more of a food city because Food is more central to the culture and probably of a more consistent quality, and relies heavily on fats and sugars.
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