Food is something you can get creative with while also getting ample nourishment from. Although it’s such a magical creation, different dishes still go in and out of style for a variety of reasons. Even if they’re not made or ordered as much anymore, we bet they’re just as tasty as always.
So, we decided to explore the most popular meals of the past. Who better to recall them than older folks who witnessed these trends come and go? Get ready to lick your lips as you explore dishes that used to be all the rage but aren’t now.
More info: Reddit
#1
French onion soup with a big piece of toast and melted cheese on top. ‘70s.
Image source: mbw70, chandlervid85
#2
Potato skins were pretty big in the 80s.
#3
Chocolate mousse in a stem goblet. It was my favorite thing about eating out as a kid in the 80’s . 🥲
Then at some point it was all crappy frozen chocolate cake.
Image source: Organic_Bookkeeper32, Ella Olsson
#4
Fondue.
Image source: sretep66, Michael Pointner
#5
Nobody serves beef stroganoff anymore.
Image source: mynameisranger1, Nano Erdozain
#6
Crepes as an entree were popular in the 70s, filled with chicken or crabmeat in a sauce.
#7
Quiche, In the late 70s and the 80s. Every fern bar restaurant like TGI Fridays featured quiche, and people were cooking quiche. 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)”
Salad bars. In the 80s every restaurant had one, even some fast food burger places like Wendy’s.
Image source: MarshmallowSoul, Mike Bird
#8
Bananas Foster and the whole tableside performance flambé craze I remember from the 70s. Maybe some places still offer that? I’ve not seen it on a menu in forever.
Image source: Careless_Ocelot_4485, vxla
#9
Around 1980, seems like every restaurant had fried zucchini and fried mozzarella sticks as appetizers.
Image source: Intelligent-Rip-2270, Shameel mukkath
#10
Prawn cocktail.
Image source: Fast-typist, chandlervid85
#11
Beef Wellington, at pricier restaurants. Hard to find now, but not too hard to make at home for the right occasion.
Image source: newleaf9110, Nadin Sh
#12
Please travel back in time with me, to the SIXTIES, and let’s talk about baked potato “fixins” being brought to your table in that thing with connected metal bowl. Sour cream? Coming up! And it was spun around to that bowl so the server could spoon it into your potato. Ditto cheese and bacon bits.
And ditto salad dressings, served the same way, including the rarely-seen (but then popular) Thousand Island and Roquefort dressings.
Image source: ronmimid, KamranAydinov
#13
Tiramisu was the go-to fancy dessert at every possible restaurant for a while.
Image source: GraceStrangerThanYou, Melanie Dompierre
#14
I can’t think of a specific dish but there was a period in the 90s when pesto was EVERYWHERE and so were roasted red peppers. 🤷🏻♀️.
Image source: Professor-genXer, Thiea Alhoz
#15
Prime rib was huge back in the day.
Image source: IGotRoks, azerbaijan_stockers
#16
No one has mentioned bread being served before meals, always. Or a basket of crackers at family restaurants.
Salad bars were all the craze. Nice restaurants to Wendy’s. Salad bars everywhere!
Image source: eastcoastme, Vidal Balielo Jr.
#17
Oysters Rockefeller. Cherries Jubilee. Meatloaf. Chicken Cordon Bleu.
Image source: not-your-mom-123, Rachel Claire
#18
Monte Cristo Sandwiches? Reuben Sandwiches? Are they still a big deal?
Image source: Lelabear, freepik
#19
I will submit Swedish meatballs, which I actually just got done making for dinner. Idk if it died out, but I never see it on the menu anywhere.
Image source: dimestoredavinci, Rachel Claire
#20
Baked Alaska.
Image source: SirWarm6963
#21
For a while, there was a massive advertising effort for Bacon. People started talking about their love of bacon like it was a unique personality trait. Restaurants were serving everything with bacon, chicken wrapped in bacon, bacon ice cream, bacon doughnuts, bbb— bacon bacon and bacon sandwich.
At a business dinner, someone would order something with bacon, and everyone would just go on about bacon.
It was strange to me because I’ve always thought bacon was pretty good, but not something I really needed to share with others. Like many foods- ice cream, hamburgers… bacon has always seemed to be an American staple that most people enjoyed. I didn’t understand why people were suddenly acting like it was a new product.
Bacon has now seemed to move back to where it had been.
Image source: airckarc, Nicolas Postiglioni
#22
Steak Diane
Particularly, made the correct old school way, flambéed tableside.
Image source: MooPig48, Gonzalo Guzman
#23
Orange Roughy the fish……It turned out that the fish were incredibly old-up to 200 years old-and they are almost fished to extinction.
[A great Reddit link to it…](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskCulinary/s/xK7ddCHgff).
Image source: Gl3g, Jan Dvorak
#24
This is an ice cream flavor but man I miss a good Rocky Road Ice Cream. 🍦.
Image source: Superb-Fail-9937, stu_spivack
#25
Blackened everything. It seemed like chefs were working overtime to figure out what they could make in a Cajun blackened version.
Image source: igotplans2, Engin Akyurt
#26
Chateau Briand.
Image source: 79-Hunter, Valeria Boltneva
#27
Liver and onions.
Image source: 300-02_F41-1, KamranAydinov
#28
I’ve enjoyed a lot of these comments and I will add one more: the ubiquitous spiced apple ring on a kale leaf garnish on nearly every plate at SO many restaurants.
Image source: RevDknitsinMD, azerbaijan_stockers
#29
Duck a l’orange, in the 1970s.
Parsley as a garnish. 1970s and well into the 1980s.
Image source: SGSTHB
#30
A hot open faced roast beef sandwich also known as a beef hot shot.
Image source: Eogh21, azerbaijan_stockers
#31
Trout Amandine. I miss it. I’m a terrible cook, so can’t make it myself.
Image source: sillyconfused, Karen
#32
Turkey Tetrazzini.
Image source: robotlasagna
#33
Diet plate that had a hamburger patty, a lump of cottage cheese, and canned peaches.
Image source: splattermatters, Jonathan Borba
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