On the very first day of 2026, Sean Timberlake, The Sacramento Bee’s food reporter looked back on 2025 and called it the year that Sacramento’s food scene “went supernova.”
In 2025, publications around the country wrote enthusiastic round-ups of the city’s best places to eat, several local restaurants received Michelin accolades, and the personal finance website WalletHub named Sacramento the 9th-best city for “foodies” in the nation.
Once more WalletHub has published its list of “Best Foodie Cities in America,” and in 2026, Sacramento has retained its spot in the top 10.
WalletHub’s methodology
WalletHub assessed 182 cities in its list, and used 28 metrics. Their metrics were organized into two categories. The “Affordability” category included the cost of groceries, the accessibility and affordability of high-quality restaurants, restaurant meal cost, and more…