We may be entering a new year, but one thing remains the same: we’re all still looking to get our favorite meals delivered for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Wondering what foods we were craving most this past year? We’ve got the inside scoop on the top food trends of 2021 from leading meal ordering platforms and industry experts nationwide.
Craving Cuisines from Around the World
According to the Uber Eats Cravings Report, these were the most popular cuisines ordered this past year:
- Mexican
- Burgers & Sandwiches
- Chinese
- Indian
- Pizza
- Sushi
- Thai
- Mediterranean
- Breakfast (Bagels & Donuts)
- Vietnamese
Most Ordered Foods Overall
According to DoorDash, there were two major trends in the food delivery industry this past year: the French Fry Frenzy and BYO Everything. French fries came in first on the top ordered foods list with an increase in flavor variations such as cilantro lime fries and garlic fries. Additionally, customers were taking an interest in personalizing orders with BYO pizzas, salads, and everything in between. Wondering what else thrived on the menu last year?
Here are the top 20 ordered items:
- French Fries
- Chicken Nuggets
- Gyro Bowl
- Create Your Own Pizza
- Cheesesteak
- Acai Bowl
- Avocado Eggroll
- Mac & Cheese
- Red Velvet Cheesecake
- Carne Asada Tacos
- Calzone
- Build Your Own Salad
- Spicy Fusilli Pasta
- Tomato Soup
- Brisket
- New England Clam Chowder
- Churro
- Brown Sugar Tater Tots
- Soup Dumplings
- Poke Bowl
Mealtime Cravings Enter the Chat
According to Grubhub, 2020 was the year of comfort food and 2019 was the year of vegetarian-friendly options; so, naturally, 2021 brought us a mix of both! Here were the top orders by mealtime according to their end-of-year report:
Breakfast
- Sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich
- Long john donut
- Chorizo breakfast burrito
Lunch
- Birria taco
- Clam chowder
- Impossible burger
Dinner
- Burrito bowl
- Cheese pizza
- Beef sliders
Late Night
- Al pastor taco
- Chicken tenders
- Chimichanga
If you hadn’t already noticed, one cuisine seemed to be on everyone’s list – Mexican! Furthermore, chips and dip appeared twice on the top ordered side dishes of 2021 with chips and pico de gallo orders rising 205% and chips and queso orders rising 155%.
Food & Dining Trends to Look For in 2022
Now that we’ve given you a rundown of what we were eating this past year, let’s dive into what we can expect the food industry to look like in 2022. We’ve listed a few of top trends to you’ll see this year according to Delish and Food & Wine:
Smaller Menus & Rising Prices
Unfortunately, food cost is projected to continue to increase as we navigate the supply chain difficulties in this new world; and with this, menus will begin to shrink. Vinson Petrillo, executive chef at Zero Restaurant + Bar in Charleston, states “With escalated meat prices, restaurants will be simplifying their menus to adapt in 2022. Chefs will take a creative approach towards minimizing waste and creating flavors from the ingredients themselves. Streamlining the menu to focus on delicious food without too many choices will help businesses effectively manage their costs.”
Plant Based Everything
We’ve already seen the impossible burger make an appearance at some of our favorite restaurant chains including Red Robin, BurgerFi, Qdoba, and Subway, but we are expecting to see a lot more in the plant-based category this upcoming year…especially in terms of plant-based “seafood”.
Ghost Kitchens & Re-Evaluating Large Third-Party Delivery Services
For those of you wondering what in the world a “ghost kitchen” is, it is a restaurant kitchen set up to cook and prepare food only for delivery – meaning you can’t dine in or pick up. With the rise of food delivery services and so many people looking to stay in, ghost kitchens are projected to gain popularity in the near future. In fact, one of My Hot Lunchbox’s trusted partners, Famous Dave’s, has already hopped on board!
With the food delivery demand continuing to rise, restaurants are looking to retain as much revenue as they can and are beginning to eliminate expensive, non-community based delivery services. They are instead turning to services that provide more control over the preparation and delivery structure in addition to giving back to the community. With My Hot Lunchbox, your restaurant is able to have full control over prepping, packaging, and delivery process for massive orders. My Hot Lunchbox also gives you the opportunity to reinvest a portion of the profits from each meal ordered back into the school community!
Are you interested in getting your restaurant or ghost kitchen to work with us? Click here to sign-up as a vendor.
Photo by Ella Olsson from Pexels
