Food gets taken seriously in the Triangle. Devoted foodies in the area will argue vociferously about which restaurant has the best use of kale while coffee purists debate where to find the best pour-over. You won’t usually hear them talking about where to find the best deal but WalletHub has weighed in on that.
Marking World Food Day, which was Oct. 16, personal finance website WalletHub analyzed the 150 most populated U.S. cities to find the most and least economical foodie scenes in the country. Their rankings factored in 18 key metrics, ranging from the cost of groceries to the number of restaurants per capita. Other considerations included the number of food trucks per capita, access to healthy food options, sales tax and the “prevalence of affordable restaurants with 4.5-plus stars.”
The Triangle did not fare well. Durham landed at number 94 on the overall list. Raleigh was 132. Durham was number 47 for “diversity, accessibility and quality rank” but well down the list at 132 in the affordability rankings. Raleigh did better in affordability, 114, but only garnered a 105 in the diversity, accessibility and quality scoring.
The highest-ranking North Carolina city was Greensboro at 74 (54 affordability, 73 diversity/etc.) Winston-Salem appears on the overall ranking at 81 (105 and 61). Charlotte landed at 112 (77 and 103) while Fayetteville squeezed in at 148 (146 and 109).
In comparison, the top 10 consisted of Orlando, Florida, at No. 1, followed in order by Grand Rapids, Michigan; Madison, Wisconsin; Boise City, Idaho; Cincinnati, Ohio; Reno, Nevada; New Orleans, Louisiana; Austin, Texas; Lexington-Fayette, Kentucky; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
