17 Annoying Food Trends That Should’ve Ended Already
Food trends come and go, but some overstay their welcome like that one dinner guest who doesn’t get the hint when everyone else has left.
From restaurant gimmicks to social media crazes, certain culinary fads have gone from fresh to frustrating.
Ready for a serving of food trend reality? Here are 17 played-out food phenomena we need to finally put to rest.
1. Deconstructed Everything
Remember when ordering a dessert meant getting an actual assembled dish? Now chefs scatter ingredients across slate tiles and call it “deconstructed.” You’re basically paying premium prices to assemble your own meal.
I once ordered a deconstructed cheesecake and received what looked like a crime scene of graham cracker crumbs, cream cheese dollops, and berry sauce puddles. The server handed me a spoon with a straight face.
2. Avocado Toast Overload
Avocado toast began as a simple, tasty breakfast option but morphed into a cultural phenomenon with ridiculous price tags. Basic avocado smashed on bread shouldn’t cost $15, yet here we are.
Restaurants now compete to create the most photographable version, adding everything from edible flowers to gold flakes.
Meanwhile, the waiting staff hovers nearby, silently judging those who don’t immediately take pictures.
3. Unnecessary Food Rainbows
Rainbow bagels, unicorn frappuccinos, and multicolored grilled cheese sandwiches look magical but taste like food coloring and disappointment. The artificial dyes often overpower any actual flavor.
Last summer, I took my niece for a rainbow bagel she’d been begging to try. Her face after the first bite told the whole story – all that color delivered zero extra taste, just a tongue that remained suspiciously blue for hours afterward.
4. Oversized Milkshakes
Milkshakes topped with entire slices of cake, cookies, candy, and sometimes even savory foods have gone too far. These monstrosities cost upwards of $20 and contain enough calories for three days.
The reality of consuming one involves sticky hands, melting ice cream everywhere, and the awkward challenge of figuring out how to actually drink it.
Most people take photos, then barely make a dent in these sugar mountains.
5. Activated Charcoal Everything
Black ice cream, black lattes, black burger buns – activated charcoal turned food into gothic accessories. Beyond the questionable aesthetic, many people don’t realize that charcoal can interfere with medication absorption.
The irony of health-conscious cafes serving trendy charcoal lattes that might neutralize birth control or heart medication seems lost on everyone.
Plus, the chalky aftertaste hardly seems worth the Instagram moment.
6. Ridiculous Serving Vessels
Food served in shoes, miniature shopping carts, or on shovels belongs in a comedy sketch, not fine dining. These impractical vessels make eating difficult and often violate basic hygiene principles.
During a birthday dinner last year, my pasta arrived in a tiny wheelbarrow. The sauce kept spilling over the sides, and I couldn’t help wondering how thoroughly they could possibly clean between the wheel spokes after each use.
7. Excessive Food Mashups
Cronuts, sushi burritos, and ramen burgers were novel at first. Now, every food combination imaginable has been forced together, whether flavors complement each other or not.
The mashup trend has reached peak absurdity with items like mac-and-cheese-stuffed pizza wrapped in bacon inside a taco.
These creations prioritize shock value over taste, resulting in disjointed flavor experiences that leave your taste buds confused rather than satisfied.
8. Unnatural Food Coloring
Blue pasta, pink rice, and green bread might look striking on social media, but they add nothing to the flavor profile. Natural food colors exist for a reason – they signal ripeness and nutritional content.
Food shouldn’t resemble a chemistry experiment. The psychological disconnect between what our brains expect food to look like versus these neon creations often results in a less enjoyable eating experience.
9. Extreme Spicy Food Challenges
Restaurants serving wings with peppers so hot they require signed waivers have turned eating into a masochistic spectacle. These challenges prioritize pain over flavor and often result in genuine physical distress.
I watched my brother-in-law attempt one of these challenges on his birthday. What followed wasn’t entertainment but a grown man crying, sweating profusely, and ultimately spending half the celebration in the bathroom.
Nobody’s digestive system deserves that kind of punishment.
10. Overpriced Water
Restaurants charging premium prices for water “harvested” from exotic locations or “enhanced” with dubious minerals need to stop. Water is water, and charging $10 for a bottle is pure profit-seeking.
Some establishments even try to make tap water sound fancy with terms like “locally sourced hydration.” The environmental impact of shipping water bottles across the globe adds insult to injury, especially when perfectly good water flows from our taps.
11. Gold-Covered Food
Sprinkling edible gold on everything from ice cream to steaks doesn’t improve taste – it just jacks up the price. Gold has no flavor and passes through your system unchanged.
The trend peaked with a $2,000 gold-covered pizza in New York that went viral. People literally pay to turn their digestive output into a glittery affair.
The resources wasted on this vanity food could feed many hungry people instead.
12. Molecular Gastronomy Overreach
Turning food into foams, gels, and spheres was innovative fifteen years ago. Now it often feels like science experiments gone wrong, with flavors lost in the process of making food unrecognizable.
During an anniversary dinner, my wife and I received what was supposedly a deconstructed apple pie – apple foam, cinnamon air, and pastry soil. We stopped at a bakery on the way home for actual dessert.
The technique can be magical when used sparingly, but many chefs seem more focused on showing off laboratory skills than creating delicious food.
13. Excessive Bacon Worship
Bacon-flavored everything, from ice cream to toothpaste, has gone too far. The bacon craze transformed a breakfast meat into an entire personality trait for some food enthusiasts.
Food festivals dedicated solely to bacon still pop up nationwide. While good bacon is delicious, not everything benefits from its addition.
The trend has reached peak saturation when products like bacon-scented candles and bacon-flavored soda exist on store shelves.
14. Tiny Food Portions
Fine dining establishments serving microscopic portions artfully arranged with tweezers leave diners hungry and checking their watches for the next meal. Three peas and a quail tear don’t constitute dinner, regardless of the artistic presentation.
My worst experience involved paying $95 for a tasting menu where one course was literally a single ravioli. Not ravioli – a raviolo. Singular. The waiter described it as “intentionally minimal” while my stomach growled audibly.
15. Coffee Shop Confusion
Coffee menus have evolved into complicated linguistic puzzles. Ordering a simple cup requires navigating terms like “single-origin pour-over with notes of tobacco and grandfather’s tweed jacket.”
Baristas sometimes look physically pained when customers request regular coffee with cream. The pretentiousness reached new heights when my local shop started offering coffee flights – tiny cups of different brews for $15, none substantial enough to actually wake you up.
16. Unpractical Food Mashup Names
Cronut, brookie, cruffin – the portmanteau naming of hybrid foods has gotten out of hand. These cutesy names often mask mediocre creations that don’t improve upon their original components.
I recently encountered a menu offering a “scuffin” (scone-muffin), “doughkie” (doughnut-cookie), and “pizaffle” (pizza-waffle). The linguistic gymnastics required to order breakfast shouldn’t exceed the effort of actually making the food.
17. Over-the-Top Bloody Marys
Bloody Marys now frequently arrive with entire meals skewered on top – sliders, fried chicken, pizza slices, and sometimes whole lobsters. What began as a hangover cure has transformed into a ridiculous balancing act.
At a brunch spot in Chicago, I watched a server deliver what looked like a garden stake with an entire buffet impaled on it, precariously balanced in a glass of tomato juice.
The poor customer spent more time disassembling the contraption than enjoying the drink.