[netllama]

"close to top end restaurant" is purely subjective, and meaningless. Sorry, but Chicago doesn't have the diversity, quality or quantity of restuarants that NYC has. Not even remotely close. Chicago has certainly come a long way from the days of meat & potatoes, but its no where in the same league as NYC. And the fact that its easy to get reservations only further underscores how non-competitive Chicago is in that regard.

[giaour]

NYC's food scene is great, but when I lived there (circa 2015) the only Mexican food available was confined to a few blocks of 116th ST in East Harlem, whereas Chicago had Rick Bayless.

[ctvo]

It’s not just staples like Mexican food: there isn’t great Vietnamese, Thai, and options for other cultures too. There’s barely passable Korean food in Korea town. It’s commercialized tourist goop. I’m talking Manhattan, gentrified Brooklyn, and LIC here.

Having Japanese and a handful of decent Chinese places != diverse.

I’ve lived in NYC for 10 years. I’ve looked.

Here’s the breakdown of where to go to get authentic, good non-tourist food:

An hour+ to get to different parts of Queens for decent Korean, Chinese, Mexican options.

Three hours to get to Northern VA for Vietnamese food (or 2 for Philly).

1-2 hours to get to New Jersey to get decent Indian food.

Yes, NYC has great sushi that costs 500 per person. Again, that doesn’t make it the #1 food city in America.

[giaour]

> Three hours to get to Northern VA for Vietnamese food (or 2 for Philly).

That's where I live now, and while I love the ready access to great banh mi, I do have to go to NYC to get a good babka. No place is perfect, I guess

[Spooky23]

Nailed it.

Whenever someone goes on about Manhattan food that isn’t a food truck, i eye-roll. The good stuff is indeed in Queens or even Jersey.