Austin is number one on yet another national list -- but it's not good news for restaurant patrons.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a privately funded consumer advocacy group, put out the ranking.

They claim Austin restaurants are dirty, with the most inspection violations in the country.

"It doesn't persuade me not to eat here at all," says John Perez, visiting from San Antonio.

The Perezes say Austin's known for its wide range of dining, and cleanliness hasn't been a problem.

As part of the Texas Restaurant Association, Glen Garey says local restaurants meet very rigorous inspections.

"Frankly, if I were one of those restaurants, doing well with my inspections, i'd be pretty upset to be on that list," says Garey, referring to the 30 restaurants surveyed to land Austin in the top spot.

CSPI took the 20 top dining cities as stated by Cooking Light magazine in 2007. From there they took the inspections of 30 random restaurants and averaged out the number of violations.

Travis County Health and Human Services performs the restaurant inspections in Austin. Officials say they are not afraid to issue violations, and that's why Austin had the most on CSPI's list.

CSPI did not look at restaurant inspections for every city in the country - just those 20 highlighted by Cooking Light magazine, a healthy eating publication.