10 Worst Dining Trends of the Last Decade

The Chicago Tribune's Christopher Borrelli asked chefs, restaurant experts, and the owners of a food bookstore in Maine: "What were the 10 worst dining trends of the last decade?" and got some great answers.

I couldn't include every gripe -- mache, water sommeliers, organ-meat entrees, unisex bathrooms, bacon tattoos on chefs, over-flaunted kitchen burns, chefs tables ("usually they're done as an afterthought, and it shows") -- but here's what leaped out, in order of annoyance.

Flipping through the pictures, I found myself chanting "yes" and "YESSS!!!"

Tell me about your pet peeves, below.

Craig "Meathead" Goldwyn is the editor of AmazingRibs.com.

Comments

[AudreyH]

It's not so much the actual restaurant as it is the clothes. I love to dress for the occasion, and one of my pet peeves is people who wear sneakers and sloppy jeans or sweats to a nice private restaurant or steakhouse. This is fine for applebee's but Morton's or somewhere nice like that? C'mon ppl!
This is the reason tourists stick out like sore thumbs in Europe!
At least wear some dress jeans with nice shoes and a collard top (man or woman) to go out to dinner! Let's bring some class back to dressing in America like in my grandma's generation the 50s (by the way they can keep the pre feminist treatment of women in the workplace though! lol)
The clothes back then were gorgeous...watch Mad Men everyone you'll see why I love the clothes so much!

[bnyb]

Collard top? Like collard greens?

[AudreyH]

sorry for spelling errors...jeez..give me a break...I'm getting a phD and I don't sit around acting like I'm smarter than everyone else.

[kylennblack]

One more: the Copper River salmon fad.

A co-worker swore by it and would not cook salmon from anywhere else and constantly bragged about her CR salmon dishes.

I had to explain to her using small words that it was just a marketing ploy to get consumers to pay inflated prices under the mistaken idea that it was higher quality when in reality it wasn't any better than any other salmon. She, and others who bought into it, had been had.

[kylennblack]

#6 especially! One restaurant I went to advertises if you can eat an entire 80 oz steak you don't have to pay for it. Really? That's five pounds of meat in one sitting. If someone succeeds at that little stunt they'd probably need that money to get their arteries unclogged.

Also "Fourth Meal" at Taco [whatever]. Is that necessary? We americans are obese enough from stuffing ourselves with three meals, do we really need another one?

Yuck.

[SlinkyTWF]

1. Ethnic restaurants owned and operated by the culturally unrelated. I love authentic food. But Japanese restaurants in particular should be run by Japanese-trained chefs. Especially those which serve sushi, and especially over food safety concerns. I love all authentic Asian cuisines. Please stick with what you know. It shows.

2. The assumption that because I'm Caucasian, I can't handle spicy or exotic food. PLEASE! If I order a vindaloo, I want to feel the pain. And nothing's worse than bland Mexican food. And if you have a separate, authentic menu, PLEASE let me know somehow, even if it's a blurb on the regular menu.

3. The assumption that because I'm Caucasian, I can't use chopsticks. I can play chopsticks on my chopsticks (well, my Japanese-style, tapered ones anyway). I love the casual Vietnamese restaurants that just put a rack of tools on the table.

[kylennblack]

#3 - yes! It's happened to me a few times, they just give me a knife, spoon and fork and my Asian-descent companions chopsticks. When that happens I just pull out my own chopsticks (a custom pair I keep in my bag) and eat with them...much to the waitpeople's surprise. BTW, I'm very adept at using them.

[SlinkyTWF]

I'd carry my own pair if I carried a bag. Better for the environment as well should the eatery be using disposables.

[unclelew]

Overpriced fakery gets me going: I have no problem with plain grub, but I do have a problem with lying, such as claiming hand-cut fries when they're from a bag; hamburgers made from frozen patties shipped in from God knows where; gravy from a can — the list goes on and on.
Bad enough from a greasy spoon, but there are far too many roadhouse style restaurants that pull this crap and charge an arm and a leg.
Also have to agree with criticisms of the top end restaurants, which have become far too concerned about "eating with eyes" at the expense of eating with the mouth. Far too much artistry, far too little taste.

[Weirdwriter]

Yumpin' yiminy, do I have issues with restaurants.

1) Pricey entrees served with no sides. You pay extra for anything else
2) Entrees where everything is piled on top of each other. Especially when served on oversized dishes.
3) Food served so elaborately it's hard to recognize what it is.
4) Lemon slices automatically served with water. My spouse continually has to ask for plain water.
5) Bread served automatically as we await our orders -- neither the spouse nor I can eat it.
6) High-noise ambiance -- whether that's music or chatter, at a volume that makes talking with one's tablemates strenuous.
7) Lighting so low that it makes reading the menus challenging, especially if the type on those menus is small or fancy.
8) Being called "guys" by the waitstaff.
9) Being served "cream" with coffee that isn't even half-n-half. Or worse, it's artificially flavored "creamer." Or given "syrup" that didn't come from a tree or fruit. Or 'butter" that's really margarine.
10) Asking to have our leftovers bagged to take home, and simply handed containers to do it ourselves, at the table. .
Thanks for letting us vent, Meathead!

[JScott]

6. Those terrible fast food items. I thought the no. 1 would be-A super unhealthy HUGE MEAT & CHEESE ITEM wrapped in MEAT & CHEESE.

[Galileo126]

Yes! YESSS!!

I am in particular agreement on the "Look at me!!" aspect, where deconstruction is more about the ego of the chef, leaving the food to take a back seat. I mean really... I don't go to a restaurant to meet the chef, I go to eat their food (and possibly get new ideas).

And the $40 entree? It never impressed me. I'll take the money and go buy some good quality food and the the stuff myself...and feed 3 others in the process, and take all the credit .

Thanks, Meathead!

[esgabel]

Too many and overly attentive waitstaff...Our table had 3 servers and even at that our food came underseasoned and a bit lifeless--but I felt they would cry if I complained and this from a culinary viewpoint known for Bam!--so I ate my meal and followed it up with the overpriced wine! They were so earnest...