This article is shared from Travel Pulse, FEATURES & ADVICE ROBIN AMSTER OCTOBER 11, 2017
PHOTO: Steamed crabs at San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf. (photo via Flickr/R.A. Kilmer)
Americans hungry for information on where to travel for great eats can check out WalletHub’s list of the nation’s top foodie cities.
Personal finance website WalletHub compared 182 U.S. cities—including the 150 most populated—on a range of key food-friendly indicators, including the cost of groceries, the affordability and accessibility of high-quality restaurants and the number of food festivals per capita.
The report comes a few days before World Food Day on Oct. 16, the date of the 1945 founding of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization.
The top ten cities out of twenty on the list of 2017’s Best Foodie Cities in America are:
—San Francisco
—Portland, OR
—New York City
—Los Angeles
—Miami
—Orlando
—Austin, TX
—Las Vegas
—San Diego
—Seattle
WalletHub’s list includes cities that cater to foodies who prefer to cook at home, explore the local gastronomy or both. It noted that the foodie culture isn’t limited to restaurant-goers.
The foodie lifestyle can also be very expensive, however, considering that restaurant prices have risen. In fact, Americans spent more money at food establishments than at grocery stores for the first time in 2015.
Yet eating at home can also be pricey depending on the local cost of living and the quality of homemade meals, according to WalletHub.
READ MORE: Underrated Foodie Cities in America
The same report also found that:
—New York has the most restaurants of the cities on its list, nearly 38 times more than Pearl City, Hawaii, which has the fewest.
—New York also has the most gourmet specialty food stores, 56 times more than West Valley, Utah with the fewest.
—San Francisco has the most cooking schools, close to 38 times more than Omaha, Nebraska, which has the fewest.
—Santa Rosa, California has the highest ratio of full-service restaurants to fast-food eateries, three times higher than Jackson, Mississippi, the city with the lowest ratio.