5 of the Best Food Cities in the World

“Where do you want to eat?” is a common question for date night, but it can also help when determining where you take your next vacation. All over the world there are delicious dishes to be tasted and entirely new types of cuisine to explore. With all of the options, how does a world traveler decide? To help you find your next food adventure, we have listed 5 of the best food cities in the world.

5 of the Best Food Cities in the World

Bridgetown, Barbados

Find restaurants and street vendors with Bajan dishes comprised of fresh fish, grass-fed beef, plantains, rice, peas. The national dish is cou-cou and flying fish. Cou-cou is made of cornmeal and okra, and the flying fish is flavored with a special Bajan seasoning. For a great take on the dish, and other gourmet Caribbean fare, visit the Waterfront Cafe.

To experience a variety authentic Bajan cuisine, you can take a walking food tour. Lickrish Food Tours provides daily, 3-hour tours Monday through Friday. The tour is ranked #1 by TripAdvisor and boasts off-the-beaten-path experience with 8+ authentic tastings for only $59 USD. Not only will you learn about the food of Bridgetown, but you’ll also get a taste of the history and culture.

Rome, Italy

Some of the more obvious selections are the authentic pizza and pasta you’ll be able to find. However, the street food in Rome is some of the best in the world. Among the best foods to try include supplì classico, a ball of rice laced with ragù and stuffed with mozzarella, or get a trappizino, pizza dough stuffed with your choice of fillings, from Trappizino. Some of these delicious food items can be tasted if you opt to take a food tour. The Secret Food Tour offers daytime, evening, and Sunday tours and takes you on a journey of the history and culture of Rome while you eat your way through the city. On the tour, taste authentic Italian espresso, supplì, pizza, gelato and more.

Cape Town, South Africa

Cape Town has a wide variety of foods that include indigenous cuisine, and colonial and global influences. Find fish and chips from the country’s British influence, and bobotie, an Indonesian creation comprised of minced beef, custard spices, and dried fruit.

You can learn to make bobotie and other South African dishes like Cape Malay curry while you tour the Bo-Kaap through the Bo-Kaap Cooking Tour with Zainie Misbach. This tour allows you to learn South African cooking techniques, while also seeing historic and religious Islamic sites and exploring one of the oldest urban residential areas in Cape Town.  

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

This Mexican destination is a treasure trove of gourmet cuisine and hole-in-the-wall taquerias. Try the octopus tacos at Los Claros, or los mejores tacos from Tacos Marissa. Beyond an abundance of excellent options for taquerias, visitors should try chocolate clams, an array of seafood and the traditional Tamales Fadados (chicken tamales).

For a more hands-on experience, take a traditional Mexican cooking class at Casa de Colores with Donna Somerlott in either a small group or private setting. To get a big bite of Cabo San Lucas, purchase your tickets to Sabor a Cabo and sample from 50 Cabo San Lucas restaurants at Los Cabos International Food & Wine.

Ocho Rios, Jamaica

Find authentic Jamaican cuisine in Ocho Rios, such as the typical breakfast and national dish of ackee and saltfish. The dish is salt fish, or salt cod, sauteed with onion and the local fruit, ackee. Other popular dishes include jerk chicken, corned beef and curry goat.

Boasting “a taste of history” visitors can take the Nyam An Guh Weh Tour (eat and leave) from Falmouth the Ocho Rios. The five and a half hour tour has five tastings from streetside eats to elegant cuisine and takes participants on a cultural, architectural, and historical journey.