Foodnews

These are the 7 most important restaurant trends for 2025

Loaded fries met ijs

My good resolution for 2025? Eating out more. Just like in 2024, there are once again so many fun, new restaurant trends in 2025. They are predictions, of course, but when you see this list, don’t you just feel like going out to eat even more?

Foto van culinair journalist Jeske van Steen

We recently told you about the four most important food trends we’ll see in 2025. Which trends will specifically show up in restaurants next year?

1. Ongoing trend: conscious, healthy and sustainable

In 2025, we’ll once again try to eat consciously, healthily and sustainably. Restaurants are responding to that. Menus with local products, healthy options on the menu and even places where you can eat mindfully—slow dining, for example. We want pure and honest food, preferably with less and less fuss. So there’s a good chance you’ll see fewer and fewer frills and impressive-looking constructions on your plate. Restaurants will increasingly put (plant-based) ingredients in the spotlight: they already deserve plenty of attention in their own right.

2. Unusual meat and camel milk

We have been seeing more and more vegetarian and vegan options for years, including in restaurants. Yet in 2025, a striking trend is emerging that takes the exact opposite direction: meat and milk. We want to try new things and be surprised. And that will happen with unusual types of meat, such as ostrich or frog legs. Another thing you’ll see in restaurants: less standard types of milk, such as camel and buffalo milk. Oat milk is so 2024; camel and buffalo milk it is!

3. Copycats

Many large restaurant chains—especially in the fast-food scene—are getting lazy. They no longer feel like having to think things through and come up with new ideas themselves. Instead, they look over at the neighbors to check which menu items are bestsellers. Virtually identical versions, or perhaps outright copies, are the result. So don’t be surprised if, next year, you can order exactly the same pizza or burger at a competitor’s restaurant.

4. Nostalgia in a new guise

I really love this trend! It is also known as newstalgia or “inherivatie” (inheritance + innovation). Restaurants will give old, classic dishes, often comfort food, a makeover. New and distinctive products are sourced and creatively incorporated into local dishes and centuries-old culinary traditions. Think of British fish & chips or the typical Hawaiian poke bowl. Old dining styles, such as Japanese omakase, are also being applied in innovative ways. On pizzas and burgers, for example. Cool, right?

5. Attention for hated ingredients

If you hate cilantro or loathe pineapple on your pizza, then 2025 is not your year. At least not if you decide to eat out more often. There’s a good chance you’ll see these kinds of ingredients on menus more and more. Restaurants enjoy experimenting with them—and they also want to get a social discussion going.

6. Dessert snacks

Some people are disgusted by them, while others think they are an amazing invention: dessert snacks. The best example is chocolate pizza. Pizza chain Happy Italy has it on the menu as standard. Snackspert Eke Bosman thinks it is truly the stupidest snack ever, but next year he’ll have to deal with it. Maybe he’ll like loaded fries with ice cream or dumplings filled with chocolate sauce? You could very well be ordering those in restaurants next year, because dessert snacks are one of the trend predictions for 2025.

7. Popular cuisine: East Asian

The culinary world considers East Asian cuisine adventurous and well-balanced in terms of flavor. This is partly why restaurants continue to show interest in Asian cuisine. The focus remains on dishes from Korea, but the Vietnamese cuisine is also proving attractive to restaurants worldwide. Korean kimchi remains just as popular in restaurants, as does Vietnamese pho. We certainly don’t mind.

Also read:

Sources: Technomic, Eat This, Newsweek, Restoranto

Geen foodnews Missen?
Ontvang een update in je inbox