Where do the locals actually eat?
Every restaurant Seemor has analyzed carries a reading of the crowd it draws, from firmly local to firmly tourist. Pick up to five cities. Below, in turn: what the local-leaning places serve, what kind of places they are, what they charge and how they score, next to the mixed-appeal places and the tourist-leaning ones.
Cuisine
The most local places lean furthest into the home cuisine in 1 of 3 cities. Chicago: American is 29% of local-leaning restaurants, 29% of mixed-appeal ones and 45% of tourist-leaning ones.
What this measures
What each restaurant serves, grouped into cuisines. Cuisines under 15 restaurants in a city are pooled as Other. Under each city: the home cuisine opened up by kind of place (pizzeria, trattoria, pub, diner and so on), read from how each restaurant describes itself.
Chicago
4,016 restaurants · 1,390 local-leaning, 2,363 mixed appeal, 263 tourist-leaning- American29% · 29% · 45%
- Mexican23% · 16% · 11%
- Italian13% · 12% · 10%
- Japanese3% · 7% · 7%
Inside the American places
30% of Chicago · 1,200 restaurants · 399 local-leaning, 684 mixed appeal, 117 tourist-leaningBar / tavern leads every row of American places, 31% of local-leaning, 24% of mixed-appeal ones and 28% of tourist-leaning.
- Bar / tavern31% · 24% · 28%
- Diner19% · 13% · 5%
- Burgers / fast food19% · 22% · 10%
- Southern / soul / barbecue / Cajun7% · 12% · 9%
London
17,322 restaurants · 5,829 local-leaning, 9,960 mixed appeal, 1,533 tourist-leaning- British29% · 21% · 27%
- Italian12% · 12% · 14%
- Indian9% · 8% · 5%
- Chinese5% · 4% · 4%
Inside the British places
25% of London · 4,238 restaurants · 1,704 local-leaning, 2,118 mixed appeal, 416 tourist-leaningPub leads every row of British places, 40% of local-leaning, 44% of mixed-appeal ones and 35% of tourist-leaning.
- Pub40% · 44% · 35%
- Cafe24% · 16% · 18%
- Fish & chips20% · 8% · 3%
- Gastropub4% · 8% · 1%
New York
13,966 restaurants · 4,732 local-leaning, 8,067 mixed appeal, 1,167 tourist-leaning- American17% · 20% · 26%
- Italian19% · 15% · 21%
- Chinese12% · 7% · 7%
- Mexican9% · 8% · 6%
Inside the American places
20% of New York · 2,743 restaurants · 797 local-leaning, 1,648 mixed appeal, 298 tourist-leaningBar / tavern leads every row of American places, 25% of local-leaning, 21% of mixed-appeal ones and 24% of tourist-leaning.
- Bar / tavern25% · 21% · 24%
- Diner18% · 7% · 7%
- Burgers / chicken13% · 21% · 16%
- New American10% · 13% · 21%
Get the next question before anyone else
Each question arrives with a post from Ryan Fuller. One email when it lands, with the chart and the link. Ask for a city while you are at it.
Cities shown: 35,304 restaurants with a crowd reading (12,105 from full analyses, 23,199 from lighter ones), data from October 2026. Each restaurant carries Seemor's reading of the crowd it draws. The most local places count as local-leaning, the most tourist-drawn as tourist-leaning, and the rest, where most of a city eats, as mixed appeal. Readings come from analysing public reviews and menus; they describe who a place tends to draw, not who is welcome. Shares of restaurants in a band, never individual scores.
Cities with fewer than 100 tourist-leaning restaurants are left out; the kind-of-place split of the home cuisine also needs 50 tourist-leaning places in that cuisine, which 3 of 44 cities do not have yet. Every city has its own page: see the list.