A financial website recently ranked Orlando as the second best Foodie City in the nation.
WalletHub, which specializes in personal finance tools, issued the rankings earlier this month. The company used over 30 data points from 182 cities to rank them on things like the cost of groceries, affordability and accessibility of high-quality restaurants, and the presence of food festivals.
According to the company, the cities on the list cater to “diners who prefer to cook at home, explore the local flavors, or both.”
Orlando was only edged out by one other city, Portland (Oregon), and finished ahead of two other Florida cities ranked in the top ten: Miami (3) and Tampa (8).
Among other factors, the City Beautiful ranked at the top for the amount of restaurants it has per capita, as well as its gourmet specialty-food stores per capita. The city also ranked number 1 or number 2 for ice cream shops and coffee shops per capita.
Although the city ranked 101st in affordability, it ranked 5th for diversity, accessibility, and quality, according to the report.
The WalletHub report also made note of the presence of Michelin-starred restaurants and the average ranking of city restaurants on Yelp’s Top 100 places to eat in the United States.
In June, four Orlando-area restaurants earned the region’s first individual Michelin stars.
Additionally, multiple restaurants from the area ranked in Yelp’s Top 100 Best Restaurants in Florida.
In total, the state of Florida was represented by 11 cities on the list, including Port St. Lucie and Tallahassee, which ranked 133 and 134, respectively.
For more details on the rankings, including the complete list of cities and the methodology used to rank them, visit the WalletHub 2022 Best Foodie Cities in America webpage.