With Oct. 16 being World Food Day and restaurant prices rising 6.5% between August 2022 and August 2023, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2023's Best Foodie Cities in America, as well as expert commentary.
To determine the best and cheapest local foodie scenes, WalletHub compared more than 180 of the largest U.S. cities across 28 key metrics. The data set ranges from affordability and accessibility of high-quality restaurants to food festivals per capita to craft breweries and wineries per capita.
| Top 20 Foodie Cities in America | |
| 1. Orlando, FL | 11. Denver, CO |
| 2. Portland, OR | 12. Atlanta, GA |
| 3. Sacramento, CA | 13. Los Angeles, CA |
| 4. Miami, FL | 14. Chicago, IL |
| 5. San Francisco, CA | 15. Richmond, VA |
| 6. Tampa, FL | 16. Pittsburgh, PA |
| 7. San Diego, CA | 17. Washington, DC |
| 8. Las Vegas, NV | 18. St. Louis, MO |
| 9. Austin, TX | 19. Houston, TX |
| 10. Seattle, WA | 20. New York, NY |
Best vs. Worst
- St. Louis has the most gourmet specialty-food stores (per square root of population), 0.4362, which is 13.3 times more than in Pearl City, Hawaii, the city with the fewest at 0.0327.
- Miami has the most restaurants (per square root of population), 8.6485, which is 19.7 times more than in Pearl City, Hawaii, the city with the fewest at 0.4386.
- Cape Coral, Florida, has the highest ratio of full-service restaurants to fast-food establishments, 1.58, which is 2.9 times higher than in Jackson, Mississippi, the city with the lowest at 0.54.
- Orlando, Florida, has the most ice cream and frozen yogurt shops (per square root of population), 0.3761, which is 24 times more than in Lewiston, Maine, the city with the fewest at 0.0157.