Yet again, WalletHub ranks the Inland Empire low for foodies

WalletHub is not our friend.

In conjunction with World Food Day (October 16), the personal finance website has once again ranked the Best Foodie Cities in America.

And once again, Inland Empire cities hover at the bottom of that list.

WalletHub ranked 182 cities on 29 different criteria, divided into two categories: Affordability; and Diversity, Accessibility and Quality.

The Affordability category is pretty simple to understand. It’s basically the cost of food.

It takes into consideration the cost of groceries, restaurant meals, beer and wine…those sorts of things. It also includes tax on food.

The Diversity, Accessibility and Quality category — we’ll use DAQ from here on out — is more about the number of things like restaurants, food trucks, coffee and tea shops, ice cream and frozen yogurt shops, and craft breweries and wine bars.

Oh, and herbs and spices stores. I believe in the Inland Empire, we call these places “grocery stores.”

So, yeah, some of the items in the DAQ category are more than a little specific.

There’s not only a count of those aforementioned herbs and spices stores, but general grocery stores as well, along with gourmet specialty-food stores (including chocolatiers, candy and cheese shops), butcher shops, and farmers markets.

The DAQ category also counts food activities, like food festivals, food and drink meetups, and food and wine tours.

Source: WalletHub

Of the six Inland Empire cities ranked, Riverside, coming in at number 87, is our clear winner. Hooray.

Much further down the list are San Bernardino, at number 155; Ontario, at 161; Rancho Cucamonga, at 163; Fontana, at 170; and Moreno Valley, at 175.

Oh, and to add insult to injury, Moreno Valley is also singled out as one of the five cities with the fewest coffee shops per capita.

But hey, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf is coming to town, so maybe next year they’ll be off that particular list.

Of course, it’s never all about crunching numbers.

Food here in the Inland Empire is generally pretty affordable, as far as both groceries and restaurants are concerned.

Plus, it’s fairly diverse as well.

We’ve got plenty of ethnic restaurants…everything from Indonesian to Peruvian; Cuban to Ethiopian; Thai to Salvadoran.

So, don’t just go by what WalletHub has to say. They’re not our friend.

Click here to check out the study.