Hype On The Plate
A dish doesn't need to taste good to gain attention. Some foods ride waves of popularity without offering much on the plate. They survive on tradition, hype, or how they look on camera, and people claim to like them, but usually don't. Here, we expose 20 of those familiar names.
1. Truffle Oil
Synthetic truffle oil hijacks your senses before you've taken a bite. Made from lab-engineered chemicals like 2,4-dithiapentane, it barely resembles real truffles. Once a novelty in fine dining, now it lingers on fries and risotto. Flavor shouldn't feel like artificial perfume.
2. Edible Gold
A flake here, a sheet there—edible gold dazzles without delivering flavor. Restaurants wrap burgers or desserts in it, hoping the shimmer masks simplicity. It dates back to medieval medicinal rituals, not Michelin stars. Gold may catch the eye, but it never pleases the tongue.
3. Avocado Toast
Avocados mashed on artisan bread might look gourmet, but the trend outpaces the taste. It started in Australian cafés, but social media turned it into brunch royalty. Toppings pile high, and prices rise higher. However, strip away the hype, and what's left is just breakfast.
4. Foie Gras
Luxurious on the menu and polarizing on the palate, foie gras divides diners fast. This delicacy, crafted from force-fed duck or goose liver, traces its history to ancient Egypt. Rich, fatty, and unmistakably heavy, it's banned in several regions for good reason.
5. Lobster
A culinary status symbol today, lobster was once so plentiful that it fed colonial prisoners. Its journey from bottom-feeder to fine dining centerpiece says more about marketing than merit. Strip off the butter, and you'll find a meat that's surprisingly mild and often rubbery.
6. Tall Cupcakes
Towering frosting, tiny cake, and no balance. These over-decorated treats turn dessert into a structural hazard. One bite floods your mouth with sugar; the rest smears on your nose. Cupcakes used to be simple. Now, they're auditioning for skyscraper status and losing the flavor game.
7. Quinoa Salads
Praised by wellness blogs, quinoa salads show up everywhere, from cafés to Tupperware. However, earthy grains mixed with limp veggies and lemon dressing isn't all it's hyped up to be. The texture's odd and the flavor tends to be forgettable. Just because it's ancient doesn't mean it deserves eternal worship.
Geoff Peters from Vancouver, BC, Canada on Wikimedia
8. Macarons
Macarons are considered luxury baked goods that originated from Italian monks and were then perfected by French pâtissiers. While they're certainly delicious, their price tags are insane! These may line every fancy boutique bakery window you walk past, but their small bite-sized nature hardly justifies their expensive cost.
9. Chipotle Burritos
These big burritos are everywhere and aim to please, but often collapse under their own weight. Customizable doesn't always mean balanced. Rice-heavy fillings dull the flavor, and structural integrity is a gamble. And let's be honest, these burritos aren't as big as they once were, making their value questioned more and more often.
samuelfernandezrivera on Wikimedia
10. Cronuts
Half croissant, half donut, all spectacle. When Dominique Ansel introduced them in 2013, lines wrapped around New York bakeries. But novelty fades. The flaky-fried hybrid often turns greasy fast, losing its charm by the third bite. Innovation's fun until it needs a napkin for every bite.
11. Tomahawk Steaks
More weapon than a meal, this steak flaunts a long rib bone and a hefty price tag. Sure, it looks epic on Instagram, but the bone adds bulk, not taste. When you're paying hundreds for the handle, you're feasting more on spectacle, not substance.
12. Wedge Salads
A giant hunk of iceberg lettuce with dressing drizzle doesn't earn fine-dining status. These retro throwbacks appeared in steakhouses in the mid-20th century but never evolved. You'll fight for flavor in each bland bite. For real salad satisfaction, shave the lettuce and skip the theatrics.
Liz Mc from Tampa, Florida on Wikimedia
13. Oversized Burgers
Stacked sky-high with bacon, rings, and mystery sauces, these burgers dare you to finish—but rarely reward you for trying. Tall doesn't mean tasty. Patties slip, buns split, and dignity disappears. Gourmet doesn't have a point if half ends up on your shirt.
14. Raw Oysters
Slurped in silence, oysters stir instant love-hate reactions. Coastal cultures have prized them for centuries, yet many diners chase them with lemon and hot sauce just to cope. That slippery texture is not everyone's fantasy, and sometimes "an acquired taste" is code for polite pretending.
15. Fondant-Covered Cakes
Fondant turns cakes into masterpieces—smooth and sculptable—but at a cost. Peel it off, and you'll find most guests do, too. Its plastic-like chew overshadows moist layers beneath. Bakers may love it for its looks, however, your mouth will ask if the frosting wasn't already enough.
16. Matcha Lattes
The grassy, vibrant matcha is beloved by wellness cafés and has outgrown its roots. Once part of Japanese tea ceremonies, it now mingles with steamed milk and sweeteners. The antioxidants are real, but so is the bitterness. That vanilla syrup is there for a reason.
17. Kale
With tough leaves and a bitter bite, kale wasn't always a health darling. In fact, grocery stores barely stocked it before the 2010s. Then came the green smoothie craze and suddenly everyone "fell in love" with this leafy green.
Antoni Shkraba Studio on Pexels
18. Sushi Burritos
It may sound good in theory, but these fusion rolls often ditch precision for bulk, stuffing raw fish and rice into seaweed wraps too thick to bite cleanly. Traditional sushi masters value balance; here, it's rice overload and soggy nori.
19. Acai Bowls
Topped with fruit and granola, these bowls scream "clean eating"—but often whisper “sugar overload.” Acai berries hail from the Amazon, yet what you spoon up usually comes from a frozen purée, heavily sweetened. It’s dessert disguised as breakfast, and your metabolism knows it.
Ella Olsson from Stockholm, Sweden on Wikimedia
20. Charcoal Ice Cream
This goth-looking dessert exploded onto menus for social media. Activated charcoal may look edgy, but it doesn't actually change the flavor. Instead, it leaves behind a sort of gritty texture that not everyone is a fan of.
