If you want dinner at a Michelin-related restaurant, or need that one special ingredient that only few specialty grocery stores have, D.C. isn’t a bad place to live.
While it’s not No. 1, D.C. ranks in the top 15 for WalletHub’s list of the Best Foodie Cities. The nation’s capital comes in at No. 13 overall.
The ranking looked at 182 cities, including the 150 most-populated cities in the U.S., and it scored cities based on the affordability of things such as dining out or buying groceries to cook at home.
It also looked at the diversity, accessibility and quality when it comes to access to restaurants, especially highly rated ones, and even the ability of residents to find gourmet grocers. In all, the cities were scored in 29 different areas.
Overall Rankings:
- Portland, Oregon
- Orlando, Florida
- Miami, Florida
- San Francisco, California
- Austin, Texas
- Sacramento, California
- Seattle, Washington
- Tampa, Florida
- Las Vegas, Nevada
- San Diego, California
- Denver, Colorado
- Chicago, Illinois
- Washington, D.C.
- Atlanta, Georgia
- Los Angeles, California
Portland, Oregon, led the overall ranking, followed by two Florida cities, Orlando and Miami. Baltimore came in at No. 85 and Columbia, Maryland, was No. 129.
Being a Foodie in 2022 isn’t cheap, with restaurant prices going up 8% over 2021 and grocery store prices up 8.3% in one year, according to WalletHub.
D.C. did rank No. 1 for “Affordability & Accessibility of Highly Rated Restaurants” and was No. 15 for the number of restaurants per capita.
The District also ranked in the top 40 for things such as gourmet specialty food stores per capita, coffee and tea shops per capita, the number of grocery stores per capita and for the percent of residents vaccinated against COVID.
DC ranked No. 84 for craft breweries and wineries per capita.
