Objective: To examine the influence of individual- and area-level socioeconomic characteristics on food choice behaviour and dietary intake. Setting: The city of Eindhoven in the south-eastern Netherlands. Design: 1339 men and women aged 25-79 years were sampled from 85 areas (mean number of participants per area n = 18.4, range 2-49). Information on socioeconomic position (SEP) and diet was collected by structured face-to-face interviews (response rate 79.3%). Individual-level SEP was measured by education and household income, and area-level deprivation was measured using a composite index that included residents' education, occupation and employment status. Diet was measured on the basis of (i) a grocery food index that captured compliance with dietary guidelines, (ii) breakfast consumption, and (iii) intakes of fruit, total fat and saturated fat. Multi-level analyses were performed to examine the independent effects of individual and area-level socioeconomic characteristics on the dietary outcome variables. Main results: After adjusting for individual-level SEP, few trends or significant effects of area deprivation were found for the dietary outcomes. Significant associations were found between individual-level SEP and food choice, breakfast consumption and fruit intake, with participants from disadvantaged backgrounds being less likely to report food behaviours or nutrient intakes consistent with dietary recommendations. Conclusions: The findings suggest that an individual's socioeconomic characteristics play a more important role in shaping diet than the socioeconomic characteristics of the area in which they live. In this Dutch study, no independent influence of area-level socioeconomic characteristics on diet was detected, which contrasts with findings from the USA, the UK and Finland.