What is the best food city in the United States?

Some of these cities invented a cuisine; others simply cook everyone else's better than anyone. Both camps have loud defenders.

1

New York City

The deepest restaurant bench in the country, from dollar slices to three-star tasting menus.

2

Chicago

Deep dish and Italian beef at one end, a dense fine-dining scene at the other.

3

New Orleans

Creole and Cajun cooking found nowhere else in America, built on gumbo, po'boys and beignets.

4

Los Angeles

The country's broadest immigrant food map, from Koreatown to the taco trucks of Boyle Heights.

5

San Francisco

Sourdough, Dungeness crab and the Bay Area kitchens that invented California cuisine.

6

Houston

Texas barbecue alongside the largest Vietnamese and Nigerian food scenes in the country.

7

Austin

Brisket, breakfast tacos and a food-truck culture other cities copied.

8

Charleston

Lowcountry cooking — shrimp and grits, she-crab soup — in a city of small, serious kitchens.

9

Philadelphia

Cheesesteaks, roast pork, and the Reading Terminal Market at the centre of it all.

10

Portland

Oregon's cart pods, coffee roasters and a farm-to-table habit that predates the phrase.

11

Miami

Cuban, Haitian and Colombian cooking, plus the country's best croquetas and cortaditos.

12

Nashville

Hot chicken, meat-and-threes, and a Southern scene that grew up fast.

13

Seattle

Pike Place seafood, Pacific oysters and the city that made espresso an American habit.

14

Boston

Clam chowder, lobster rolls and the oldest restaurant traditions in the country.

15

Santa Fe

New Mexican cooking built on red and green chile, unlike anything else in the Southwest.

16

Providence

A small city with an outsized Italian-American scene on Federal Hill and a culinary school feeding it.