Philly Ranked 14th Best City For Foodies, WalletHub Says

PHILADELPHIA – The folks at WalletHub have looked at the best U.S. cities for foodies and Philadelphia made the top 20, though we think it should be ranked higher.

According to WalletHub, Philadelphia is ranked as the 14th best foodie city.

How did it earn that rank?

Analysts with WalletHub examined 182 cities — including the 150 most populated U.S. cities, plus at least two of the most populated cities in each state. Those cities were judged on the various aspects of "affordability" and "diversity, accessibility, and quality."

The group pulled data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Council for Community and Economic Research, Federation of Tax Administrators, Tax Foundation, County Health Rankings, Sale-Tax.com, Numbeo and Yelp.

"We evaluated those dimensions using 24 relevant metrics," WalletHub said. "Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the most favorable conditions and costs for foodies."

WalletHub then determined each city’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its total score and used the resulting scores to rank-order the cities in our sample. In determining the sample, analysts considered only the "city proper" in each case and excluded surrounding cities in the metro area.

You can see the full methodology and the full results here.

Philly earned an affordability score of 86 and a 15 for diversity, accessibility and quality. Overall, it earned a score of 56.62, enough to beat out Pittsburgh (No. 21).

The top rated cities? San Francisco (No. 1), Portland, Oregon (No. 2), New York City (No. 3), Los Angeles (No. 4), and Miami (No. 5).

And the worst were Pearl City, Hawaii (No. 182), Juneau, Alaska (No. 181), West Valley City, Utah (No. 180), Gulfport, Mississippi (No. 179), and Nampa, Idaho (No. 178).

What are some of your favorite spots to eat in Philly? Let us know in the comments.

Image via Michael Righi, Flickr Commons