The 16 Greatest Street Food Cities In The World (And Exactly What You Should Eat There)

Traveling to Mexico City is an exercise in stamina for your stomach. Everywhere you go, the city wafts with the smells of flame-grilled meats and blue corn masa tortillas sizzling on the griddle, and just about every other block is lined with street carts and vendors dishing out everything from tlacoyos and tacos to tamales.

While you're in CDMX, make sure to sample al pastor tacos, thinly sliced marinated pork shaved from a spit and served with white onion, pineapple, and cilantro. While it's hard to go wrong at any taqueira, El Vilsito (Colonia Narvarte), Taqueria el Greco (Condesa), and El Turix (Polanco) are three top spots for pork-filled tacos.

Singapore is like two sides of a coin: on the one hand it's glitzy and pristine. but on the other it's chaotic and dazzling — just look at the busy night markets filled with hawker stalls like the Chinatown Street Market. Singaporean cuisine is a blend of flavors and dishes from other countries: China, India, Malaysia, even Europe.

At first glance, Paris might not be an obvious top street food city, but if you know where to look, the city offers everything from crêpe stands to open air markets like the Marché des Enfants Rouges. In the heart of the old Jewish Quarter, L’As du Falafel doles out pita sandwiches stuffed to the brim with crispy falafel, fried eggplant and pickled vegetables, all smothered in tahini and spicy sauce.

Over in the 11th arrondissement, Chez Aline is home to some of the best sandwiches in the city — simple combinations like jambon, feta, and pesto on freshly baked baguette. And in the Latin Quarter, you'll find life-changing savory and sweet crepes (around $5 a piece) from the tiny shop, Au P'tit Grec. And of course, a flaky croissant or freshly baked baguette from one of the city's many boulangeries is just as delicious as any fancy meal on earth, but if there's one spot to seek out it's Du Pain et des Idées located by Canal St Martin.

If you walk through Djema al Fna, Marrakesh's main square, around sundown, you'll be intoxicated by sights, sounds, and smells. There are snake charmers and monkeys, henna tattoo artists, storytellers, and stalls upon stalls of food selling fragrant spices, bowls of snail soup, fresh squeezed orange juice, and pyramids of sweet nuts coated in honey.

Taiwan is often overlooked, but it's an incredible destination with a sprawling urban city (Taipei) and lots of natural beauty (beaches, hot springs, and mountains, for starters). But if you visit Taiwan for one thing, it should be the food. Eating is a national past time, and you'll see that first hand if you visit one of the 30 night markets in Taipei alone.

If there's one city that could be crowned street food capital of the world, it might just be Bangkok. There's perhaps no other city where you could eat as well on a tight budget — where tiny hawker stalls deserve Michelin stars (and in fact, many have them). But in a city that is home to over half a million street food stalls, it can be tough to choose where to eat.

As soon as you touch town in Rio, you'll notice a different kind of energy, and this vibrance also manifests itself in the street food. The cuisine is a blend of African, European, and indigenous cultures, and you can find the iconic dishes at the Sunday markets, hole-in-the-wall shops, and carts along the busy streets to Ipanema and Copacabana.

It's easy to associate Berlin street food with döner kebabs and currywurst, but there's so much more to it. An extremely international city, Berlin's cheap eats are inspired by global cuisines and flavors all around the world. Just about every week, you'll find some new pop-up like Bite Club at Badeschiff and Street Food Thursday in Markthalle Neun, where eclectic vendors come together to sell drool-worthy dishes like gourmet burgers, tacos, tapas, and craft beer.

When you think of Tokyo, you might be inclined to think of fine dining and expensive restaurants. And while you can easily blow a whole paycheck on an omakase meal, Tokyo is also heaven on earth for affordable, street food. The maze of streets and buildings that make up Tsukiji Market is a feast for all the senses, especially the stomach.

As you get lost in the alleys you'll pass ramen stalls (a heaping bowl will set you back about $5), shelves of fresh onigiri, vendors grilling skewers of chicken yakitori and thinly sliced wagyu beef over a flame, and tiny sushi bars where hungry locals sling back pieces of fatty tuna nigiri for breakfast. This is a microcosm for the whole city. Incredible food is everywhere you look. In fact, 7-Elevens on every street corner serve the best $2 egg salad sandwich you'll ever eat.

Make your way to Khau Galli, Mumbai's biggest and best neighborhood for street food, where every street offers something a bit different. On the block named Mahim Khau Galli there are rows of vendors grilling things like rotis with lamb and chicken tandoori. Nearby, Mohammed Ali Road is known for kebabs and biryani. Along Tardeo Khau Galli you'll find samosas, vada pav (fried potato dumplings on a bun) and pav bhaji (mashed vegetable stew served on a bun). 

Once you've tried a plate of the creamy hummus topped with whole chickpeas and paprika ($6) from Hummus Abu Hassan, you'll never be able to eat the store bought stuff again. At Levinsky Burekas try one of the famous Middle Eastern pastries plucked right from the oven, and of course, you'll want to get a falafel sandwich from HaKosem. Biting into one of the fluffy pitas filled with fried chickpea balls, chopped Israeli salad, and tahini is the true definition of a religious experience.

You can avoid high end restaurants entirely and still eat like a king in Shanghai, China's most populated city. The food stalls along Xiangyang Road are great for a quick breakfast of jianbing (egg crêpes filled with veggies) and on South Yunnan Road Food Street you'll find tons of hot pot and noodles.

The island of Oahu, home to the capital city of Honolulu, is the cultural hub of Hawaii. The cuisine is influenced by Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Portuguese, and Hawaiian culture, and that's most obvious when you look at the affordable eats and snack foods served at roadside shacks and food trucks all across the island. Fuel up for the day on loco moco from Rainbow Drive-In.

You can't talk about Seoul without mentioning street food. A huge part of the culture in this culinary-minded city is the cheap food sold by tiny stalls on busy city streets and in crowded subway stations. The most famous spot for street food is Gwangjang Market, a traditional market where seemingly endless rows of carts sell everything from bindaetteok (mung bean cakes) to pajeon (savory vegetable pancakes) and kimbap (the Korean take on sushi rolls).

In a country known for delicious food, Ho Chi Minh City (commonly known as Saigon) is Vietnam's culinary jewel. In this wonderfully chaotic city where cooking and eating is a way of communicating and connecting, you can never be far from authentic, cheap, and most importantly, spectacular food.