[thesausageking]

I lost trust in the whole article when it came to the paragraph on food. LA has a great food scene, but I would put Tokyo, Bangkok, Barcelona, Chicago, and probably another 5-10 cities ahead of it. Saying "Los Angeles is the world’s best food city, and it’s not close" is myopic.

[yokaze]

I can't speak about Bangkok, or Chicago.

On Tokyo, Barcelona, and to a lesser extend LA, SF, I feel more confident to say something.

It is greatly a question what you are looking for, and the author quite apparently appreciates the variety.

And I have to give it to them, I do not think that Tokyo or Barcelona are in the same league there.

That is not to disparage the quality of the food. I hold Tokyo in high regard, and would say it is the place I would most likely feel confident to go to a blindly chosen random Japanese restaurant. In Barcelona, you already have to filter out the tourist traps. (Hint: Paella & Sangria)

But in both places, it felt to me more dicey if would like some non-local food. It always seemed to be heavily adopted to the local preferences. But maybe my experience is outdated.

My armchair theory is, that both cities "suffer" from the fact of having a great culture of own cuisine. Not sure, if their customers do not appreciate the otherness, or the cooks are preemptively trying to "fit in".

As the author writes, LA is a melting pot, and I have eaten there great food from all over the place, especially when the menu was only half-translated. But then, it may be a prejudice, I am less confident that I can pick a random place, and receive the same quality as in Tokyo.

[lhorie]

I thought it was interesting that the author specifically calls out Thai food. LA has a thai population of only about 27k (Chinese is about half a million, for comparison). The abundance of Thai restaurants in LA and other large cities is largely due to a Thai government culinary diplomacy initiative[0] to promote gastro-tourism.

I tend to find that Chinese food, for example, is more organically represented. In San Francisco, despite there being a Chinatown proper, and several other minor pockets (around Sunset for example), the quality of offerings is fairly mediocre, mirroring the americanization of its chinese population, compared to, say, Toronto, where you can find great a many restaurants with untranslated menus, catering to a large native chinese population.

> My armchair theory is, that both cities "suffer" from the fact of having a great culture of own cuisine. Not sure, if their customers do not appreciate the otherness, or the cooks are preemptively trying to "fit in"

I think this is a variation of the concept of "food grammar"[1]. I've noticed, for example, that in San Francisco, a lot of asian eats feature jalapeno peppers, and there's a number of mexican inspired fusion things (senor sisig, for example).

California rolls have quite a life of their own: they themselves are spin-offs of traditional sushi meant to cater to those who may be squeamish about raw fish, but I've seen restaurants in Toronto's Annex neighbourhood (an area w/ a lot of sushi restaurants) make some very flamboyant rolls that are completely detached from that rationale (mango sauce, anyone?)

The thing with a city developing its own food grammar is that it can be hit or miss. Personally, I'm not big on SF's jalapenos-everywhere thing. Sometimes, I just want a good traditional bahn-mi, not a San Francisco take on it.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culinary_diplomacy#Thailand

[1] https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/do-italians-eat-spaghe...

[enjo]

When I lived in LA I always felt like the variety argument was kind of nonsensical. It's not like the typical LA neighborhood has great reprsentation of a lot of different ethnic foods. The best korean is in korea twon, the best chinese in the SGV, etc... but day to day it doesn't matter that "LA" has it because theres nowhere you can live where you are even an hour drive to most of it.

Most peoples actual LA experience is that they stay mostly confined to one little part of LA because they have a two hour commute during the week. They never get to really dig into that food scene because it's just to big a hassle to be a part of it.

Hot take: I don't think the best food in southern california is even in Los Angeles it's in Baja Mexico to the south.

[secondaryacct]

I m not sure what level of pricee you expect, also. But LA is really far and hispano-american to be truly neutral culinarily.

I'm french and therefore a bit food snob. I live in Hong Kong, a place where the local food is 3 USD a meal, and the meat dicey while most nationalities, French especially, are represented at all price levels. It's still going to be skewed toward Asian taste (where are the Camembert sushi, a staple of parisian cheap sushi restaurant!?)

I dont know american food scene but it's probably horrendous: a memory of a 2 week stay in NYC when I was 16 scarred me: people in the US call "fat" "food", they cant actually comprehend taste. Just like my indian friends are so burned by spice they cant see the difference between different types of steaks (and tbh, like I find all type of spice just tasteless fire and cant distinguish them).

It's not bias you have, it's complete ignorance, I humbly assert :D I hope at least you're not the kind of american who think fortune cookies are traditional chinese culinary culture (it s an american invention)...

But if you speak of ultra luxury chefs and their distribution vs Tokyo or Barcelona you may be right, but it hardly matters: that's not real food either.

[simonw]

The food scene in larger American cities like NY, LA and SF is fantastic - and I've spent a lot of time outside of the USA.

[carabiner]

What I've noticed about the French/Italian food snobs is that they seem to view American food culture as it was in 1990s suburbia. Back then, good olive oil or artisanal cheese was pretty hard to find outside of small "gourmet" food stores. It's very different today.

[finiteseries]

Purely outsider anecdotes:

Despite also using a similar (or even less!) amount of spice and largely enjoying the same “beige” palette and textures as the rest of the continent, I found Northern Europe’s cities so delightfully open to the rest of the world’s cuisine in contrast to my experiences in the south, I don’t think the other comment is completely off the mark in how immense “local pride” kind of definitely factors into a very certain way of doing things to the exclusion of others, even locally between eg Barcelona & Valencia.

It probably isn’t a coincidence how curry, and donër kebab are devoured left and right by rich-ish and poor in England and Germany to the point of entering the national identity after rocky starts in the middle of the last century while France and Italy’s right wings are still to this day thriving on specifically culinary othering, to the point of coining things like “kebabization” and trying to ban kebab stands in the city centers of Florence and Marseille.

I would also maybe be careful conflating simply being very French or very Italian, and being a food snob in food circles these days. Interest in French, and recently the Italian cuisines have absolutely plummeted globally and its over the top vocal adherents are often linked to some rather unpopular social attitudes (in food circles, anyways).

eg Indian and Thai are booming, though! https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=french%2...

[mylaaccount1]

I've been to 2/4 on your list (Tokyo + Barcelona) and the only conclusion I can come to is that it's hard to name a "best" food city because food preferences can be so personal.

With that being said, NY + LA are my personal two favorite cities because these two cities combined cover such a large swath of the globe. No, the food is not as good as the country of origin, but it can get pretty close. And then you have such a variety. Just this past weekend (in LA) I had Jamaican food on Friday, Israeli food on Saturday, and Thai food on Sunday. And they were all pretty top notch.

I've heard Houston also has quite a diversity of food, I've heard Chicago is pretty good as well. To me, to be a best food city it is imperative to cover a broad section of different cuisines. By that metric, LA is world class and (for my taste and the kinds of food I like), unbeatable.

EDIT: One other thing I forgot to add. LA has a great spirit of innovation when it comes to food. You see people selling food out of their house, on the sidewalk, in parking lots just to get their idea out into the world without a lot of overhead. There's this feeling that if you try something new and capture people's attention you can make something big out of your food. And I think that's amazing (also it helps keep the costs relatively low for the consumer which is a bit of a bonus).

[fiftyfifty]

Agreed, I've spent quite a bit of time in Bangkok and Tokyo and while the Thai and Japanese food is incredible in those two cities, the selection of other ethnic foods is pretty limited. You won't for example find Mexican, Brazilian or Moroccan food in these cities. When it comes to both quality and selection of ethnic food from around the world it's hard to beat the large US cities.

[presentation]

Speaking as a Tokyoite, you absolutely can but you just won't see them if you're a tourist staying for a week in the most central parts of the city. All in all, it's true that there's more variety in US cities - but I guess I don't value variety as much as you do.

[bluGill]

People need to eat, most several times a day. As a result there is great food anywhere there are people because the people will be looking for places to eat. What is lacking is often variety. I know of many towns barely large enough to support one Cafe (some are good some bad). The bigger the town the more likely it is there is something good.

[Uhhrrr]

For some weighting of variety and quality it probably does very well. But yeah, this is best read as a love letter, where some qualities of the beloved are overlooked.

Similarly, "if you wake up at dawn in Los Angeles, and you have good time management skills, you can go for a walk on the beach, then go skiing in the afternoon, then fall asleep in the high desert at night" is probably true, but you'd better like the interior of your car, because that's where you'll be spending every other part of that day.

[majormajor]

Where I grew up, we would make a big deal out of the one-time-a-year we did ANY of those three things on an annual vacation. So while doing them in one day seems impractical, being able to do them without it being a fairly big trip is something decidedly different than north Texas or similar swathes of the middle of the country. It's nice that the author still appreciates the access to nature.

[rootusrootus]

I'd rather try the same trick in Portland than LA, though we may not be able to satisfy the high desert requirement. Still require some driving, but it wouldn't be as brutal.

[s0rce]

I think you could do it in 5-6hr of driving starting in Portland (drive to coast, drive to Mt Hood, and then drive east somewhere, maybe Shaniko). Without traffic (hah) its probably about 2hr less driving in LA (LA->Santa Monica->Big Bear(if there is snow)->Lucerne Valley)

[ytdytvhxgydvhh]

Of course thesausageking is hyping Chicago ;)

I think that’s a tough one to rank as not all great food cities are going to be great at all kinds of food. I’m not familiar with Tokyo for example, but I suspect the Mexican food scene there isn’t as impressive as in LA?

Proximity to fresh seafood and fresh produce as well as the strong immigrant communities mentioned in the blog do generally combine to make LA an excellent place to eat though.

[presentation]

I live in Tokyo, if you judge it on cultural variety it's a definite loser (although there is quite a bit of variety, just not comparable to a place like NYC or LA). The reason why I prefer the cuisine there has little to do with that, though. Rather, I've come to love the "taste" of the city, as in the general criteria by which people judge things as "delicious" is very different than what the average New Yorker or San Franciscan would land on.

The Japanese palette tends to favor much lighter flavors, less oily and rich foods than the American palette. People typically value the natural flavors of the ingredients, whereas when eating out in the USA you tend to get really sweet or fatty sauces that mask the flavor of the base ingredients, even at nice restaurants.

It's not that it's better or worse, it's just a different definition of what "delicious" is, and I happen to prefer the Japanese ideal.

[thesausageking]

That's my point. A lot of cities have great food scenes, so saying "LA is the world’s best food city, and it’s not close" says more about the author than LA.

[notreallyhere00]

If by best food scene, you were to take the top 20-25 cuisines of the world and look for good examples .. ?

Probably Melbourne, London and New York.

Have spent enough time in Los Angeles to know that it doesn’t reach the level of the above cities. It’s great at what it does - Mexican, Korean, Chinese, Salvadoran even, fusion - but the geography just doesn’t help it.

Barcelona is not a particularly great food City (sure, there are a few elite chefs but in general the food scene offers little of variety). Want good food in Spain, go to Basque Country.

Tokyo, San Sebastián, Lyon are cities which are insanely good at rocking their own cuisine which puts them in a different category of food cities. You might say ‘International’ v ‘Local’

International food cities -

Melbourne London New York

Sydney Los Angeles

(And probably Toronto Houston Vancouver but have never been)

The above cities are the great melting pots of the world

Something very special is happening in Melbourne’s food scene, especially in the last 10 years. Pick literally any Asian cuisine or food trend. you can name, even something super obscure, and you can find special examples.

[travel193]

Agree with Melbourne. The bar for good food is set so high in Melbourne and when you combine that with the incredibly diverse population, you have the best most impressive international food scene I have ever encountered. London and New York definitely give it a run for its money, but I'd argue the standard in Melbourne is still higher.

Heading to LA in a few months for the first time so keen to compare.

[tinyhouse]

I can confirm about the Chinese food in Melbourne. It's better than everywhere in the US. Which makes sense given the population there.

[carabiner]

Jonathan Gold was food critic for the LA Times, and is the only critic to win a Pulitzer. Michelin doesn't rate in LA any more though, then again Michelin has always been biased towards Western European high-end cuisine which is not really were LA shines.

[acwan93]

Michelin is back in LA after Jonathan Gold's passing:

https://guide.michelin.com/us/en/california/us-los-angeles/r...

Lots of overlap between Jonathan Gold's 101 list and the Michelin star list.

[presentation]

Yeah, I live in Tokyo and think that the Michelin Guide has no idea what good Japanese food is and should be disregarded there lol. I only really trust it for expensive European fare.

[er4hn]

As a Bay Area transplant to LA I would say that Los Angeles has a large and diverse food scene. There are lots of places to get good food, and because there are so many places it never felt that hard to get reservations. Even a place as famous as Bestia I was able to get same day reservations twice.

Contrast that with lines around the block to get good, but not life changing Ramen (Orenchi, South Bay Area). Or a near-mandatory hour wait for great Ramen (Ramen Shop, Oakland). Or giving up and never going because bots took all the reservations* (State Bird Provisions, SF).

* this is not fully accurate. A friends bot once went haywire and got too many reservations. I was able to attend on a spare reservation.

[presentation]

Bay Area is very overrated for food.

[nomrom]

An article about "Living in Los Angeles" without mentioning how stupid expensive it is, it's hard to trust :)

[tinyhouse]

I disagree about Chicago. Good food in America is only where there are many foreigners, esp from Asia. Los Angeles and NYC have the best food (personally I prefer NYC). Outside of the US there are much better cities but if you're into diversity of different foods, then LA and NYC are excellent. Tokyo for example has way better Japanese food than LA but not so good Middle Eastern food for example.

LA also has the better access to a variety of fresh fruits and veggies because of its weather. That also influences the food scene.

[CalChris]

When I worked in Italy, I learned that Italy is pretty much the best place in the world to eat Italian food. The variety there was amazing too. On the other hand, they were crap at Chinese food and couldn't figure out the humble hamburger to save their lives.

[simonw]

Chicago has a very diverse population.

[chews]

As an angelino I disagree, and I say so because of logistics. LA has access to the world's nexus of food.

Almost every sprig of lettuce you eat comes from California, we get the food that travels the least and access to the best foods that have to travel the most, I say this because my brother is a food importer at LAX. I get to eat mangos from Pakistan, starfruit from Indonesia, and steak from Japan with ton's of frequency.

My point is, we serve as a nexus for food delivery and with choice of ingredients the best foods are made.

[MrGando]

Manhattan is also better by the way. The sole fact that they have the way more interesting wine lists everywhere is already half of the battle won.

[in3d]

I wish people would specify how many restaurants they visited in each city they judge. I think 50 is the minimum before we can judge any city as a whole. NYC > Chicago > SF > LA > Miami.

[MrGando]

I think LA is still deeper and more interesting foodwise than SF. NYC is above all by a good margin though

[in3d]

LA and SF were close for me but in very different ways. Agree about NYC, easy #1.

[jdavis703]

Some of this depends on what you eat. I’m vegetarian, and yes I know Catalan food is supposed to be excellent, but I would just never personally put Barcelona in my top-10 for food.

[dry_soup]

I'd rather eat Japanese food in LA than American food in Tokyo, and it's not even close. But the average restaurant is probably better in Tokyo than in LA.