8. Houston

Population: 2,099,451

Houston has never been hotter, and that is NOT a commentary on their famously muggy weather. The food scene in The City With An Airport Named After President Bush Elder is finally getting the recognition it deserves, as this has always been a good town to eat in, though in the past it was primarily recognized for its steak and BBQ acumen. Now though, thanks to the ascendancy of some notable chefs (Underbelly’s Chris Shepherd, Reef’s Bryan Caswell, etc.), a national audience recognizing its incredible Filipino, Vietnamese, and Chinese cuisine, and the city's historically delicious Czech kolache culture (spread it #kolacheculture), more and more people are flocking to Houston just to eat and soak through a couple T-shirts in the process.



7. Seattle

Population: 608,660

As a geeky teenager, you probably spent a lot of time alone, creating an imaginary world for yourself, complete with a super-hot girlfriend who no one knew 'cause she was from, like, Canada, or something. Well, Seattle is the culinary equivalent of that teenager after he grows up. It's geeky (maybe you've heard of Microsoft, Amazon, etc.); all alone in the corner of the country (the closest major city is Portla... oops, San Francisco); and creative (just look at how Starbucks and Redhook revolutionized two entire beverage industries).

When you combine those traits with the fact that Seattle's geography and climate provide it with a greater variety of regional produce and protein than any other city, you get places like the iconic Canlis, or the dozen or so restaurants owned by super-chef Tom Douglas, reinventing traditional dishes with local ingredients like salmon, shellfish, and other fresh seafood. But it's not just big-name chefs (Ethan Stowell, Maria Hines, and Renee Erickson among them) doing it: Seattle's best "neighborhood" restaurants (Lloyd Martin, Tanglewood Supreme) serve the kind of food reserved for destination dining in other cities, and there's a ton of these smaller spots opening all the time -- The Town has more restaurants per capita than anywhere but New York and San Francisco.

Oh, and as for the part about being grown-up, Seattle's fully embraced food from around the world: there are more teriyaki and pho restaurants here than any place outside Asia; the Seafood-heavy Jalisco-style Mexican food is a staple; and one of the best new(-ish) restaurants in Seattle is Shanik, an Indian place run by famed Vancouver chef Meeru Dhalwala. See, told you we had a Canadian girlfriend.



6. Austin

Population: 790,390

Austin knows its BBQ. That's a given. The meat-hungry masses form lines in front of spots like Franklin BBQ until they're out -- usually by 1:30pm. But this is not a one-dimensional food city. There're James Beard Award-winning sushi chefs. A food-truck scene that gives chefs the chance to flex their culinary muscles before moving on to bigger things (there's a reason the movie Chef filmed a ton there). And you can't forget the Mexican food. If you want a taco for every meal, Austin will gladly accommodate. There's so many places to score even just fantastic breakfast tacos, that you could eat them from 8am-8pm and go home happy. Here, we'll prove it.



5. Portland

Population: 583,776

Portland’s like a food-lover’s fantasy land. It’s loaded with high-profile, nationally relevant restaurants ranging from Pok Pok to Toro Bravo, Beast, Paley’s Place, and Le Pigeon. 700+ food carts serve up (often upscale) restaurant-quality food on the cheap and sit in gigantic clusters with their own bars in the middle. Tourists and locals commingle in long lines not just for brunch, but for donuts and ice cream. The sandwich shops and pizza joints are lorded over by top chefs, some with James Beard cred. Oh, and James Beard is from the City of Roses. He was into onion sandwiches. You can get those here too.

It’s a city that takes great pride in its food: most can tell you exactly where every menu item -- from meat to salt to herbs -- comes from. Some even hunt the animals themselves or raise the herbs. And because it’s a city of transplants, it’s a melting pot of influences. Sure, Portland lacks a style that can be applied outside of the city -- you’re not gonna order anything “Portland-style,” even in Portland -- but no other place boasts such a variety of collaboration between chefs and styles. Want a Sephardic Jewish/French/Middle Eastern entrée? Not a problem. Want a rare Thai street food? Name your part of town and your price point. Want a great cocktail and a great meal? You can’t serve booze in Portland if you don’t have a working kitchen. And if you’ve got a working kitchen in this city, you damn well better be putting it to good use, because in Stumptown, there are too many affordable options to settle for mediocrity.



4. San Francisco

Population: 4,335,391 (MSA)

Doesn’t it just kind of feel like SF thinks they should be in the pole position in this thing? Without even knowing anything about the city, people reflexively pick the City That Started Uber as the hottest eating city in the country, and for good reason: few other places pack such diverse culinary chops -- we’re talking amazing ramen, Mission burritos, Cali Neapolitan-style pizzas, etc -- into such a small space (it's 7 miles by 7 miles). Danny Bowien’s Mission Chinese created the appetite for neo-Chinese American cuisine, first here, and then as an even bigger deal in NY; Thomas McNaughton’s Flour + Water showed people that you don’t have to spend an entire paycheck to get fine-dining pasta; over in Berkeley, Alice Waters created an entire new way to consider sourcing and serving our food; and then, farther out, Thomas Keller may have done some stuff too. Also, Oakland has some of the best pizza in the entire state, plus, over the Golden Gate Bridge, amidst the redwoods and people in biker spandex, Marin has some pretty damn good food, too.

It’s a city where people know and appreciate new food styles and ideas, but its embrace of that to such an extent that people wait hours in line just to see if they might get into the new-new thing, coupled with the flush of new tech money and the changing financial landscape of Northern California, can also be why it has more than its share of detractors. But haters gonna hate, and if you have to put up with a little bit of backlash to eat as well as you do in the city by the Bay, well, keep it coming.