Yeah, that’s kind of obliquely what I was getting at, though the food halls in the downtown area are quite nice places to sample a range of cuisines. Or cross over to Fulton Market area just west of the loop. A bit more hipster than I typically like, but lots of solid food there. With new visitors to the city, I almost always start them with some Mexican food in my neck of the woods (Midway area) or nearby (to me) Little Village or Pilsen.
My interest is piqued – what’s this like?
I was aware that Houston had a mature and diverse Indian food scene. I had’t heard about Indian-Texan fusion, though.
Chili naan? 
And by “chili” I don’t mean a capsicum pepper.
Naan is a great side to something like Texas chili**. I’d be down. Onion naan for the win!
I could also envision a dish of good ol’ chili con carne, but made with lentils and garam masala (et al) instead of kidney beans and traditional chili-spice mix. It would still have the ground beef so it would be VERY inauthentic viz a viz Indian cuisine. Doing the same with ground turkey (or ground lamb) would be good, too.
** Chunky chili, that is – not hot-dog chili.
I haven’t had it yet, but it’s basically exactly what it sounds like; a mash-up of Indian/Tex-Mex or Indian/Texas BBQ.
Texas-Indian Fusion Food Is on the Rise in Houston | Houstonia Magazine
For that matter, Houston’s got places like these:
How Pitmaster Don Nguyen Makes Vietnamese-Influenced Texas Barbecue - Eater
Food Mashups in H-Town
(did not know they have Persian/Greek, and the original Crawfish & Noodles is less than half a mile from my childhood home, FWIW)
Oh, contraire! We have a legion of restaurants with excellent food, and many of them are ethnically run. We have Chinatown, Greektown, the Italian Village, Russian restaurants, Middle Eastern restaurants, Japanese restaurants, steak houses, seafood restaurants, and so on and so forth.
That actually is a great pairing. I mean, Texas chili is like a less ornately spiced curry, after all. Now I wanna mix these two.
Cool. Like I said, this isn’t something I personally care much about, but I’m happy for those who do. I was born/raised in Chicago and have lived in the area all my life. I guess a recent visit to Manhattan kinda made our “second city” status - on so many fronts - pretty damned clear. So I was wondering if our dining could be better than NYC’s. Or - maybe - LA’s. Or possibly some international cities. (I don’t travel all that widely and when I do, dining is low on my interests.)
I noticed Denver has been omitted from this discussion. That is appropriate.
I’m going with Los Angeles because from top to bottom the food is far ahead of other cities I’ve been to.
I mean, that’s going to affect your perception and your ability to seek out places particularly known for their food. My first visits to Manhattan, I was also struck by the variety of cuisine and their denseness. It’s just such a crammed city, and I dislike visiting it for more than a week at a time for that reason. Chicago is much more my pace. But with Chicago, much of the great stuff is in the neighborhoods (though you do have pockets known for their dining, of course). Manhattan definitely felt like “walk in any direction and you’ll find the cuisine you desire”) whereas Chicago is more like, if you like Thai, go up towards Lincoln Square or Uptown; Vietnamese? Uptown. You want Mexican? Hit up Pilsen or Little Village. Georgian? Wheeling. Polish? Either Northwest Side or Southwest along Archer, to the suburbs (used to be a lot on Archer, but no longer as Poles have moved Southwest). Puerto Rican? It’s expanding around town, but Humboldt Park. Indian? Devon Ave or suburbs like Schaumburg. Chinese? Chinatown, of course, but also some gems scattered around the suburbs, like Katy’s Dumplings in Westmont. And so on and so forth.
I mean, the trendier neighborhoods like Lincoln Park/Bucktown/Wicker Park will have a reasonably wide variety of cuisines on offer, but I find myself 80% of the time going to specific neighborhoods if I’m looking for ethnic food. The more inventive, New American or whatever stuff is generally going to be in the trendy neighborhoods listed, or the now trendy Fulton Market area. Downtown, for my tastes at least, is not as interesting dining-wise. Lots of old-school places, but nothing I can think of that I point people to. Maybe The Gage. But I tend to be a low-brow diner and like cheap-to-midprice places more than fine dining.
One city is “Japan’s Kitchen”, and it ain’t Tokyo:
Yeah - I readily admit that my personal perspective towards food is highly unusual. For me, food is primarily fuel - nothing more. If I have food that is healthy and tasty, that is all I wish. If I could have healthy tasty people kibble, I’d eat that every day - and certainly wouldn’t bother fighting Chicago traffic and spending many times more to eat something else.
But none of that is to suggest that the vast majority of you ought not enjoy food in a way I do not appreciate. My curiosity solely concerned the accuracy of a comment I heard on the radio. Thanks all for the responses.
So far domestically it sounds like NYC/LA/Chicago are the big 3 vote getters. Just across the border, how is Toronto’s scene? And how about London?
Initially reading the title I was wondering which cities are best for chefs and owners to be part of … have a supportive community of chefs and owners and a customer base willing to give new places and foods a chance?
That’s what I was expecting too. A different and more interesting question, IMO.
There are some smaller towns in my area that punch way above their weight precisely because the local restauranteurs foster a strong sense of interdepence by hosting short and long term popups that give up-and-comers a chance to work on their concept before making the big investment in their own standalone place.
This might be a little local boosterism on my part, but I think Sacramento’s restaurant scene is chronically underrated, I’m sure in no small part because we constantly get overshadowed by San Francisco just down the road. Being right in the middle of California’s biggest agricultural region, Sacramento is really big into the farm-to-table movement, that is, focusing primarily on ingredients from local farms. It’s also a very ethnically diverse city for its size. The local public radio station once did a series called “Around the World in 40 Blocks” profiling all the ethnic restaurants along a 40 block stretch of on street. At the time there were Chinese (serving traditional Hong Kong style noodles), Balinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Ethiopian, Nepali, Mexican, traditional American greasy spoon restaurants. (Admittedly, that series is like 15 years old now, and some of those restaurants are now closed.)
I could say the same for Hudson County, NJ (Jersey City, Hoboken, Weehawken, etc), but for all intents and purposes, it’s basically a 6th borough of New York.
I recently read this article:
In the company of places like Mexico City, Vienna, Bangkok and Amsterdam, one UK spa town made the cut. As the city gears up to celebrate Jane Austen’s 250th birthday with a series of glamorous balls, Michelin says Bath is one of the top places in the world to visit this year.
The city is home to 13 Michelin Guide restaurants. Some of the best places to eat in the city include the Olive Tree, Time Out’s number one Bath pick and the only one in the city with a Michelin star and Beckford Bottle Shop and Chequers, which have both been awarded Michelin Bib Gourmand for offering amazing food at great value.