I'll take the efficiency hit for better light; the most common measure used, printed on the packaging of some bulbs is CRI (color rendering index). It's based on blackbody radiation, so incandescent bulbs and sunlight both have the maximum score of 100. The average unspecified LED is in the 60s and sodium vapor lamps are negative. 90 is good for an LED, and 97 is the highest I've heard of someone testing in an LED[0].
CRI isn't the whole story on color quality, and it's possible to have high CRI with off tints or even a peaky spectrum outside of the specific colors the CRI standard tests, though the latter doesn't happen in practice. Several newer standards for measuring color quality exist, but are unlikely to be listed on a light bulb label.
[0] http://budgetlightforum.com/comment/1096106#comment-1096106