With Oct. 16 being World Food Day and Americans spending more money at food establishments than at grocery stores in 2015, the personal-finance website WalletHub took a close look at 2016’s Best & Worst Foodie Cities.
To find the best and cheapest foodie scenes in the U.S., WalletHub compared the 150 most populated cities across 21 key metrics, ranging from “cost of groceries” to “affordability and accessibility of high-quality restaurants” to “number of food festivals per capita.”
| Best Foodie Cities | Worst Foodie Cities | ||||
| 1 | Orlando, FL | 141 | Garland, TX | ||
| 2 | Portland, OR | 142 | Fayetteville, NC | ||
| 3 | Miami, FL | 143 | Jackson, MS | ||
| 4 | Tampa, FL | 144 | San Bernardino, CA | ||
| 5 | San Francisco, CA | 145 | Aurora, IL | ||
| 6 | Cincinnati, OH | 146 | Fontana, CA | ||
| 7 | St. Louis, MO | 147 | Montgomery, AL | ||
| 8 | Salt Lake City, UT | 148 | Grand Prairie, TX | ||
| 9 | Richmond, VA | 149 | Moreno Valley, CA | ||
| 10 | Seattle, WA | 150 | North Las Vegas, NV | ||
Best vs. Worst
- Laredo, Texas, has the lowest grocery cost index, 79, which is two times lower than in Honolulu, the city with the highest, 158.9.
- Orlando, Fla., has the most restaurants per 100,000 residents, 1,176.38, which is 9.8 times more than in Santa Clarita, Calif., the city with the fewest, 120.09.
- Santa Rosa, Calif., has the highest ratio of full-service restaurants to fast-food establishments, 1.74, which is 3.1 times higher than in Jackson, Miss., the city with the lowest, 0.57.
- Portland, Ore., has the most coffee and tea shops per 100,000 residents, 103.92, which is 29.5 times more than in Laredo, Texas, the city with the fewest, 3.52.
- Miami has the most gourmet specialty-food stores per 100,000 residents, 117.46, which is 14.5 times more than in Gilbert, Ariz., the city with the fewest, 8.08.
- Cincinnati has the most grocery stores per 100,000 residents, 128.29, which is 13.8 times more than in Santa Clarita, Calif., the city with the fewest, 9.32.
- San Francisco has the most cooking schools per 100,000 residents, 6.36, which is 28 times more than in Raleigh, N.C., the city with the fewest, 0.22.
