The Food Habits And Trends We’re Ditching In 2026

If 2025 taught us anything, it’s that the internet can turn the most random food habit into a global crisis, a shortage, or worse, a personality trait you can’t shake off. We watched ingredients get idolised, menus get AI-fied, and diners behave like they were auditioning for a reality show titled Chaos at Table 12. Now that we’ve officially stepped into 2026, it’s time to retire the food habits that made dining feel like a competitive sport. Let’s clear the clutter, call out the cringe, and enter the year with taste, not theatrics.

1. Hype-Based Overconsumption

Matcha lattes, matcha croissants, matcha skincare, matcha everything. At one point, Japan literally faced a matcha shortage because the internet collectively decided matcha was its entire identity. Beyond ingredients, the obsession extends to dining only at the newest, most hyper-Instagrammed restaurant, and then complaining about long queues and mid-food disguised under edible flowers. If it takes 45 minutes to get a table and another 20 to locate your dish under microgreens, it may be time to rethink the hype.

What’s In: Neighbourhood gems, chef-led menus, and restaurants that care about flavour more than reels.

2. Ordering More Than You Can Eat

Nothing kills the vibe faster than a table full of untouched plates ordered for the sake of variety, impulse, or content. Wasting food? In this economy? Let’s not. If you can’t finish it, pack it, share it, or skip it. And restaurants, too, need to rethink how much excess stock is prepared and what lands in the bin by closing time. Sustainability is not a trend, and I stand by it.

What’s In: Conscious ordering, sharing plates, and zero-waste dining done tastefully.

3. Protein In Everything 

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Protein kulfi is something I thought I'd never hear. At this point, even nimbupaani risks getting a “fortified with whey” reboot. Not every snack must double as a gym accessory. Some things deserve to be enjoyed for flavour, not macros. Let desserts be desserts, please.

What’s In: Seasonal ingredients, balanced meals, and snacks that taste good because they’re meant to, not because they’re jacked.

4. Bad Table Manners

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Snapping fingers at waitstaff, talking down to servers, leaving a mess, or treating a restaurant like your personal photo studio. This behaviour deserves to be left behind permanently. Good food tastes better when paired with good manners. Restaurants run because humans make them run so treat them with respect. It goes without saying that shaming the person you are eating with on their food choices, be it vegetarian or non-vegetarian, should also go out of the window. It is about time.

What’s In: Eye contact, thank-yous, kindness, and basic human decency. Not groundbreaking.

5. AI Menus And Endless QR Codes

A beautifully designed menu is part of the experience. I long for those days I didn't have to scan a code to find out what to eat. But these days, every meal seems to start with “scan the QR code,” followed by three minutes of adjusting brightness and dodging pop-up ads. Yes, digital menus may be more sustainable, but AI-managed menus are slowly stripping the soul out of dining. Bring back paper menus, the kind that tell a story before you even place an order.

What’s In: Real menus, tactile charm, and the joy of flipping through pages, not tabs.

6. Ruining Food In The Name Of Fusion

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There’s fusion, and then there’s chaos. Not every dish needs to be hybridised, mashed together, or reborn as a Frankenstein version of its former self. We’ve reached a point where biryani meets sushi, tiramisu shows up as chaat, and pasta arrives drowned in makhani just because someone wanted to “disrupt the format.” Innovation is great, until it forgets taste altogether.

What’s In: Thoughtful crossovers, cuisine respect, and fusion that adds flavour, not confusion.

Now that 2026 is underway, here’s hoping we leave behind the excess, the etiquette lapses, the protein-packed dessert experiments, and the QR fatigue. Bring back mindful dining, real conversations, and restaurants that prioritise hospitality over hashtags. Here’s to better habits, better meals, and better energy ahead.