For those who plan their traveling around food, there’s a new gastronomic ranking that puts Bay Area cities way up there.
The readers of Conde Nast Traveler have weighed in for its annual travel awards, and in the category of food cities, Oakland takes first place while San Francisco scores fifth.
Also placing in the top 15 cities are (to no surprise) New Orleans and Chicago, and (perhaps to slight surprise) burgs in Ohio and Hawaii.
Chiming in with more than 750,000 votes, the readers praised Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood, specifically for the restaurants Burdell and Pizzaiolo, and the Fruitvale District for its taco trucks and the “best birria in the country.”
San Francisco ranked for its farm-to-table cuisine and Pacific seafood, as well as the offerings from the oldest Chinatown in America. Also in California, San Diego came in 10th place for its Filipino food, fish tacos and craft-brew industry. Here are the first 10 on the list; for the full accounting check out the readers’ awards.
The best U.S. food cities in 2025, from CN Traveler Readers’ Choice Awards
1 Oakland
2 New Orleans
3 Milwaukee
4 Chicago
5 San Francisco
6 Lexington, Ky.
7 Columbus, Ohio
8 Santa Fe, N.M.
9 New York City
10 San Diego
Source: https://www.cntraveler.com/gallery/best-food-cities-in-the-us-readers-choice-awards