Older Adults Are Sharing The "Trendy Dishes" That Have Completely Disappeared From Restaurant Menus In 2024
By Claudia Santos,
28 days ago
Nothing makes me more nostalgic than recalling the days of "fancy" dinners at the local chop house in my town, fully equipped with a smoking section and salad bar. So, I was very intrigued when redditor u/igotplans2 asked folks of the r/AskOldPeople community to share the dishes that were once popular in restaurants but then disappeared. Here are some of the "trendy" menu items that older generations recalled from way back when.
1. "Nobody serves beef stroganoff anymore."
2. "Blackened everything. It seemed like chefs were working overtime to figure out what they could make in a Cajun blackened version."
"I credit the original Cajun gourmet, Justin Wilson , for this. In the late '80s/early '90s, when more and more people were getting cable TV, he had a few different shows that reached coast to coast. He was maybe not iconic, but he was pretty popular and inspired people to have a taste of the culture and cuisine he fondly promoted."
5. "Quiche in the late '70s and the '80s. Every fern bar restaurant like TGI Fridays featured quiches, and people were cooking quiches. The popularity of quiche even inspired the title of the book Real Men Don't Eat Quiche . That book inspired the humorous meme of 'Real Men Don't (fill in the blank).'"
6. "Steak Diane. Particularly, made the correct old-school way: flambéed tableside."
11. "Bananas Foster and the whole tableside performance flambé craze from the '70s. Maybe some places still offer that? I haven't seen it on a menu in forever."
"The first restaurant I remember going to as a kid with exotic-looking houseplants everywhere was a '70s creperie. I didn't see another place that did crepes primarily for over 40 years."
19. "I will submit Swedish meatballs, which I actually just got done making for dinner. I don't know if it died out, but I never see it on the menu anywhere."
20. "Please travel back in time with me to the '60s, and let's talk about baked potato 'fixings' being brought to your table in that thing with a connected metal bowl. Sour cream? Coming up! And it was spun around that bowl so the server could spoon it into your potato. Cheese, bacon bits, and salad dressings were served the same way, including the rarely-seen (but then popular) Thousand Island and Roquefort dressings."
21. "Chocolate mousse in a stem goblet. It was my favorite thing about eating out as a kid in the '80s. Then at some point, it was all crappy frozen chocolate cake."
22. "Around 1980, it seemed like every restaurant had fried zucchini and fried mozzarella sticks as appetizers."
"This, but with a pineapple ring instead of the peaches, is like a nostalgic meal that reminds me of my grandmother. It was years before I realized she was always on a diet."
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