Why these four South Florida cities top the ‘Best Foodie Cities in America 2024’

It’s a new month, which means another cringey ranking from companies trying to offer you lawn-care services or credit cards.

This time around it’s WalletHub’s Best Foodie Cities in America 2024, which has declared Miami the No. 1 “foodie city” in its tally of 182 places across the entire United States.

In its announcement this week the Miami-headquartered personal finance site shouted out four South Florida food towns without naming a single restaurant.

• Miami (No. 1)
• Fort Lauderdale (No. 19)
• Hialeah (No. 105)
• Pembroke Pines (No. 109)

Rounding out its Sunshine State rankings is Orlando (No. 3), Tampa (No. 5), St. Petersburg (No. 34), Jacksonville (No. 67), Tallahassee (No. 89), Cape Coral (No. 103) and Port St. Lucie (No. 168).

And what exactly is a “foodie,” we pretend to hear you asking? Is “foodie” a lifestyle choice or is it catch-all terminology for an epicure who appreciates the trendy and knows buzzwords like “sustainable,” “green” and “locavore?” Or does the word imply the simple pleasure of eating good food?

None of the above, WalletHub declares. A “foodie city” is defined by “the cost of groceries to the affordability and accessibility of high-quality restaurants to the number of food festivals per capita.”

Right on, WalletHub. That was our next guess.

Perhaps most telling are the sources of WalletHub’s data, which range from official (U.S. Census Bureau, the cost-of-living index) to head-scratching. The latter includes Wikipedia, TripAdvisor, Yelp’s “Top 100 Places to Eat in the U.S.” and the availability of Michelin restaurants. WalletHub graded its cities on two pieces of methodology — “affordability” and “diversity, accessibility and quality” — taking into account sales tax, meal costs and the number of restaurants, food trucks, butcher shops and even kitchen-supply stores in the area.

Sober government statistics are one thing. But Yelp and Tripadvisor use crowdsourced customer reviews that are highly subjective and circumstantial, and don’t apply to everyone. And Michelin, a French tire company, publishes annual guides for regions willing to pay them money for the privilege. For example Visit Florida, the state marketing and tourism arm, paid Michelin $150,000 in 2022 to publish guides covering the Miami, Orlando and Tampa metro areas. Behold: These regions now boast Michelin-starred restaurants .

Which may help explain why Miami, Orlando and Tampa are top five in these rankings while Pembroke Pines (womp-womp) is No. 109.

By now you’ve correctly guessed this article contains some opinions. Then again, so does WalletHub’s rankings. See how that works? So do yourselves a favor: The best restaurants in South Florida are the ones you like, so enjoy them responsibly, and disregard the data sets of a website hoping to offer you credit cards.

If you think The Katherine in Fort Lauderdale ranks best (or J&C Oyster in Hollywood or The Cook and the Cork in Coral Springs, for that matter), then it is, and don’t let an algorithm tell you otherwise.

For the full Best Foodie Cities in America 2024 rankings, go to WalletHub.com .