29-03-2025
"They Basically Disappeared In The Late '90s": 24 Menu Items That Were "All The Rage" Way Back When, But Are Nonexistent Today
Nothing makes me more nostalgic than recalling the days of "fancy" dinners at the local chop house in my town, fully equipped with a smoking section and salad bar. So, I was very intrigued when redditor u/igotplans2 asked folks of the r/AskOldPeople community to share the dishes that were once popular in restaurants but then disappeared. Here are some of the "trendy" menu items that older generations recalled from way back when.
1. "Nobody serves beef stroganoff anymore."
2. "Blackened everything. It seemed like chefs were working overtime to figure out what they could make in a Cajun blackened version."
— u/igotplans2
"I credit the original Cajun gourmet, Justin Wilson, for this. In the late '80s/early '90s, when more and more people were getting cable TV, he had a few different shows that reached coast to coast. He was maybe not iconic, but he was pretty popular and inspired people to have a taste of the culture and cuisine he fondly promoted."
— u/Ok_Athlete_1092
3. "Potato skins were pretty big in the '80s."
u/hippy2zippy / Via
— u/bg370
"I would order loaded potato skins as my meal until they basically disappeared in the late '90s."
— u/Nagarkot1
4. "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."
— u/Professor-genXer
"Sun-dried tomatoes were freaking EVERYWHERE for a while there."
— u/GraceStrangerThanYou
5. "Quiche in the late '70s and the '80s. Every fern bar restaurant like TGI Fridays featured quiches, and people were cooking quiches. 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).'"
u/peepee_dancer / Via
6. "Steak Diane. Particularly, made the correct old-school way: flambéed tableside."
— u/MooPig48
"I used to flambé table side in the late '70s/early '80s. Steak Diane was my favorite. Then it just sorta dropped off menus everywhere."
— u/MetalPlaygrounds
7. "Salad bars. In the '80s, every restaurant had one, even some fast-food burger places like Wendy's."
— u/MarshmallowSoul
"Ah, the Wendy's solarium. The epitome of fine dining in the '80s."
— u/80sWereAMagicalTime
8. "Beef Wellington, at pricier restaurants. It's hard to find now, but not too hard to make at home for the right occasion."
— u/newleaf9110
9. "Fondue."
u/No_Lack_7636 / Via
— u/sretep66
"There was a whole-ass fondue restaurant in downtown Royal Oak, Michigan, in the '90s. Cheese for the appetizer, then meat and/or shrimp in oil for the main, and chocolate for the dessert. Tasty, but it took hours."
— u/TeacherPatti
11. "Bananas Foster and the whole tableside performance flambé craze from the '70s. Maybe some places still offer that? I haven't seen it on a menu in forever."
13. "German chocolate cake used to be everywhere, and I haven't seen it in decades."
u/imedrgrs678 / Via
14. "Crêpes as an entree was popular in the '70s, filled with chicken or crabmeat in a sauce."
— u/Uvabird
"The first restaurant I remember going to as a kid with exotic-looking houseplants everywhere was a '70s creperie. I didn't see another place that did crepes primarily for over 40 years."
— u/Quaranj
15. "Trout amandine. I miss it. I'm a terrible cook, so I can't make it myself."
u/stoatymcstoatface / Via
— u/sillyconfused
"I grew up in Louisiana, and we had this everywhere! I always order it now when I see it on a menu."
— u/poissonerie
17. "The Monte Cristo: a turkey, cheese, and raspberry jam sandwich fried up like French toast with powdered sugar on top — '80s food deliciousness."
u/unclecactus / Via
19. "I will submit Swedish meatballs, which I actually just got done making for dinner. I don't know if it died out, but I never see it on the menu anywhere."
u/sverremagnus / Via
—
"Only at Ikea."
— u/beaujolais98
20. "Please travel back in time with me to the '60s, and let's talk about baked potato 'fixings' being brought to your table in that thing with a connected metal bowl. Sour cream? Coming up! And it was spun around that bowl so the server could spoon it into your potato. Cheese, bacon bits, and salad dressings were served the same way, including the rarely-seen (but then popular) Thousand Island and Roquefort dressings."
— u/ronmimid
21. "Chocolate mousse in a stem goblet. It was my favorite thing about eating out as a kid in the '80s. Then at some point, it was all crappy frozen chocolate cake."
22. "Around 1980, it seemed like every restaurant had fried zucchini and fried mozzarella sticks as appetizers."
— u/Intelligent-Rip-2270
23. "Liver and onions."
u/jibjeb86 / Via
— u/300-02_F41-1
"I was a cook in the late '70s, and Thursday had liver and onion specials. Man, I still remember having to cook that nasty stuff. The only people who ordered it were old people."
— u/nbfs-chili
24. "'A diet plate that had a hamburger patty, a lump of cottage cheese, and canned peaches."
— u/splattermatters
"This, but with a pineapple ring instead of the peaches, is like a nostalgic meal that reminds me of my grandmother. It was years before I realized she was always on a diet."
