Dining Predictions for 2026
I have a crystal ball and I’m not afraid to use it!
This has been a weird year for me, personally. “When it rains, it pours” has never felt more true in both senses of the saying, and my neck hurts from the whiplash. I don’t feel ready to let go of 2025 yet—there are loose threads I’m itching to tie—but I’m trying my best to enjoy the mandatory pause this time of year imposes on us… My plans? A mix of spending time with family in Taiwan and spending time reorganizing my apartment (the state of my closet looks like a cry for help). Wherever and however this newsletter reaches you, I hope you’re also enjoying some much-deserved rest.
But, enough looking backwards! I believe in the power of a new year as a chance to reset. Sure, a calendar year is arbitrary, but it doesn’t change how magical the advent of a new year feels. And my advice (if you want it) is to lean into that magic. Maybe you can be a new version of yourself on New Year’s Day… I’m sure trying to be.
Speaking of the future, I consider myself as a bit of a professional trend forecaster, and in the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking hard about what my predictions are for dining in 2026. Last year, I focused more on my personal relationship with restaurants, and I think most of my manifestations came true. Let’s kick it up a notch this year: here are five predictions for food and dining culture at large in 2026. My qualifications? An acute sense of “the vibes.”
(Ironic) dining at chain restaurants will be all the rage, even among all you elitists out there.
Is it just me, or are sit-down chain restaurants having a big moment right now? The Corner Store was one of 2024’s hottest new restaurants (and it’s still impossible to book a reservation at to this day), but as one of my coworkers likes to put it, it’s… just adult Applebee’s? We’ve been overpaying for pigs in a blanket for far too long, and how many elevated American classics can one eat before it’s time to go back to the source? Oreo Dream Extreme Cheesecake… I’m sorry that I ever doubted you.
Forget the slop bowl. Weekday lunches are going to be longer… or at the very least more interesting.
The slow death of the slop bowl this year has been well-documented. But, while most articles covering the trend point to packed lunches or fast food as alternatives, I’m predicting a shift in another direction. The slop bowl is suffering due to ever-inflating prices and an uninspired product, and spending less on lunch is probably the obvious pivot. But let me present an alternative: spending more. Let’s bring back the proverbial three-martini lunch—there’s professional value in the personal connection that comes from sharing a meal with someone else, after all.
And since hours-long lunches on a daily basis are unreasonable (I do my job… I promise), I’m also predicting a shift towards more direct slop bowl alternatives: more local restaurants offering lunch specials, food trucks, and neighborhood hidden gems.
The dirty soda trend (the cocktail-ification of sodas) will give way to the soda-ification of cocktails.
Girls, leave your extra dirty martinis at home. Utah (and The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives) brought us dirty sodas, giving sodas a bit of a cocktail treatment with an infinite number of combinations and concoctions. On the other hand, cocktails have trended towards savory for awhile, and it’s time to shake things up. Over the weekend, Viraj and I had dinner at Margot, where our server was about to launch into a long description of a cocktail only to pivot and say, “it tastes exactly like Dr Pepper.” That immediately sold it, and it did! I’ve had my fair share of weird, savory cocktails this year (I’m traumatized by this one in particular), and though I don’t think the joy of mixology is going away anytime soon, I believe that 2026 points in a sweeter direction.
Out: Reservation platforms. In: Phone calls and walk-ins.
I’ve said this so many times already, but I’m exhausted by the state of restaurant reservation culture. We started this year with a front-row seat to the ongoing battle between Resy and OpenTable to get the city’s hottest restaurants, and we’re ending it with Doordash’s entry into in-app reservations in New York. I can’t help but shudder.
Don’t get me wrong. As an aggressive planner and busy person, I love the certainty a reservation brings. But at the same time, we’ve already seen the negative impact of (what feels like) reservations being the only way to eat at a restaurant these days: a black market of restaurant reservations and more importantly, the death of spontaneity, which I think is an integral part of dining out.
And beyond the inability to decide last-minute to go out to dinner on a Friday night, the joy of restaurants also lies within the service: the warmth of being cared for by other human beings. Although reservations don’t entirely take that way, it does put a machine in between yourself and a great night out, an interaction that could instead be person-to-person at the host stand or over the phone. Booking a reservation over the phone is so chic! You can’t tell me otherwise!
The year’s hottest flavor will be banana.
I have nothing further to say on this prediction. Only time will tell! Viraj—famous for his hatred of bananas second only to his hatred of tomatoes—is very upset at me.
From all of us at One More Bite (it’s just me), Happy Holidays. May there be good food and even better company in your near future… and into the new year. And thank you, as always, for reading. It means the world.