In Charlotte, there are a lot of fantastic restaurants. However, which city of the South has the best of the best? Food is something we all enjoy, so Remitly wanted to determine which city offers the most diverse food options when it comes to the number of restaurants that serve food that is outside the city’s own cuisine (e.g. non-American cuisine).
TripAdvisor data was used to analyze almost one million restaurants worldwide and rank the total number of foreign food options in each city. Data were compared to the city’s total population.
With the top 10 cities in the USA (Las Vegas, Atlanta, Portland, and San Francisco), but with 2,739 restaurants serving non-Belgian cuisine, Brussels ranks top of the worldwide list as the city with the greatest variety of restaurants. The foodie capital of the world, Paris, ranked 7th. Surprisingly, New York is ranked 163rd. You can see more on the full study here.
The 10 Most Gastronomically Diverse Cities in the World
Rank |
City |
Country |
Total number of restaurants |
Total number of international restaurants |
Number of international restaurants (per 1,000 people) |
1 |
Brussels |
Belgium |
3,687 |
2,739 |
14.65 |
2 |
Osaka |
Japan |
35,638 |
20,695 |
7.51 |
3 |
Geneva |
Switzerland |
1,644 |
1,399 |
6.86 |
4 |
Las Vegas |
USA |
4,511 |
3,526 |
5.49 |
5 |
Bordeaux |
France |
2,519 |
1,374 |
5.34 |
6 |
Atlanta |
USA |
3,396 |
2,528 |
5.06 |
7 |
Paris |
France |
17,503 |
10,633 |
4.88 |
8 |
Nagoya |
Japan |
18,668 |
11,255 |
4.82 |
9 |
Portland |
USA |
3,774 |
3,106 |
4.76 |
10 |
San Francisco |
USA |
4,924 |
4,053 |
4.63 |
The research also crowned which cities are best for particular cuisines outside of the countries they hail from, finding that Brussels topped the list for Thai, French, American, and Italian food options. Valencia is best for Indian food (marginally above Leicester in the UK) and Kuala Lumpur is particularly good if you like Chinese cuisine. Be sure to check them out if you want some good eating.