The answer, as it almost always is, is that it depends. Are you at a place that is notable for the street food? What is your risk tolerance for cleanliness? How much of a premium are you placing on comfort – maybe it’s 38C and humid, so that air conditioning would be so welcoming!

Pros for street food:

• Likely genuine local cuisine
• See the what the dish looks like and how it is cooked, exactly
• Can be atmospheric
• Cheap

Cons:

• Limited menu at each place 
• Usually harder to come across reviews from the Internet
• Less comfortable
• Variable cleanliness 

A few of my top meals were (merely) cheap street eats. In Penang, Malaysia, I wondered around a small market, trusting my nose to a noodle soup (duck koay teow) that costs just ~$1 USD. The dish sounds straight forward and indeed is offered pretty much all over town. If a place specializes in just a couple of dishes, they ought to be good or they will soon go out of business. This cart didn’t have a line (nor did any other stalls in that market at that hour) but I saw a steady stream of motorbikes and scooters come by for to-go orders. Since those people could easily go to a number of other places, this stall must have been compelling in some way. As suspected, the dish won me over with its deceptive simplicity – the dish looked like many other soup noodles but the flavors were so harmonious. When I went back the very next night, the smiling proprietor gave me the honor of sitting at the cart’s lone stool.

Penang’s hawker street food scene is well-developed and generally food cleanliness isn’t much of a concern but a dish like a steaming hot bowl of soup noodles that is cooked at/near boiling temperature has an additional safety margin. 

I ate at bigger and more famous hawker centers but no dish impressed me more than this one. Serendipity and a lack of high expectations probably helped the enjoyment factor.

Another time, my dad and I had reservations at reputedly the best seafood restaurant in Ensenada, Mexico. While strolling towards the restaurant, we walked past an indentation in the wall making tortas (sandwiches). We watched them grill meat which sizzled so much that the purpose of the aluminum foil covering nearby surfaces was apparent. We continued on our way. However, the heavenly smell wafted down the street and we didn’t go more than a ½ block before we looked at each other and decided to ditch the restaurant (cancelling the reservation in time of course). We ordered a couple of flavor-packed dripping tortas and ate sitting on the street curb. Many years later, we still talk about that meal.

Of course, great food exists in restaurants too! I don’t think I need to illustrate this point but I do want to highlight that in addition to the food itself, some restaurants provide memorable sense-of-place experiences. At the small counter watching the master and the apprentice expertly fry tempura in Nara in a serene yet focused fashion drives home the Japanese pride of refining one’s craft. No scrambling around, no hurried words, just deliberate precision. And yes, the tempura was divine.

A Michelin-starred restaurant at Dubrovnik, Croatia has outdoor tables right on the famous old fortress walls. With views of the old town on one side and a harbor of boats on the other while the sun sets – what a glorious place for a meal! Yes, the food was good but the memorable part is the setting as there can be no doubt on where we were. We debated on whether to splurge on this restaurant when there were many other tempting options in town but I’m glad we took the plunge. 

Lastly on the merits of restaurants, if you are traveling in locales where you can’t drink the tap water directly, eating at restaurants doesn’t guarantee safety. The only time I got stomach problems in Peru was when I let my guard down and ate some salad at a very nice restaurant that mostly caters to tourists. 

Recommendation: When in doubt, go for the street eats – take a look at numerous articles on the Internet on how to choose one.