We’re not sure how much weight we should give a listicle ranking the culinarily mighty New Orleans at just No. 42 among “foodie friendly” U.S. cities. (Also, at this point, the equally lame and tired term “foodie” needs to be taken out back and shot.) But a new “Best Foodie Cities in America” list from WalletHub.com doesn’t seem to think much about the food scenes in Alabama. Birmingham is the state’s highest-rated city at 131. Huntsville, Mobile and Montgomery clock in at 153, 177 and 178 respectively.

The list’s top 10, in descending order: Orlando, Portland, Sacramento, Miami, San Francisco, Tampa, San Diego, Las Vegas, Austin, Texas and Seattle. Atlanta, Los Angeles and Chicago come in at 12, 13 and 14, while New York lands at 20. The lowest-rated “foodie friendly” cities among the 182 cities ranked include, in ascending order: Pearl City, Hawaii; Shreveport, Louisiana; Nampa, Idaho; and West Valley City, Utah.

The methodology for this “foodie friendly” cities list? According to the site, “WalletHub compared 182 cities — including the 150 most populated U.S. cities, plus at least two of the most populated cities in each state — across two key dimensions, ‘Affordability’ and ‘Diversity, Accessibility & Quality.’”

Those two dimensions were evaluated using 28 relevant metrics. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the most favorable conditions and costs for foodies.

In Alabama’s case, Birmingham scored a 130 for affordability and 110 for diversity, accessibility and quality. Huntsville, 86 and 156. Mobile’s corresponding numbers were 170 and 158, while Montgomery’s were 126 and 181.

Launched in 2013 as CardHub.com and based in Miami, WalletHub describes itself as “an award-winning personal finance company that empowers consumers to lead financially healthy lives.” WalletHub’s social media following includes around 27,000 on Facebook, 9,000 on X/Twitter, and 2,400 or so on Instagram.

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