Food trends are often a hot topic in the media as well as on social channels such as Facebook and Instagram. These food trends can be a key indicator of the types of dishes customers are buying within a certain time period and are something that can be leveraged by restaurants to drive sales.

But, with so many different trends across the country and these ever-evolving, how can restaurants keep up to date and use consumer trends to benefit your business?

With more than 12 years worth of data, Menulog has a wealth of knowledge to share with its restaurant partners and can provide both local area and national trends to help inform its restaurant partners’ operations.

In fact, last month, we compiled our first-ever industry report, which is available to all Menulog restaurant partners. The report looks at past, current and future trends, and explores some of the exciting global innovation heading our way.

We found some really interesting food trends occurring over the course of a year, which included some evident microshifts in ‘on-trend’ dishes, such as a 40 percent growth in both Korean Fried Chicken and Ice Cream (not in the one dish of course!) but also reaffirmed Australia’s takeaway favourites continue to be those most in demand!

Australia’s Favourite Foods

• Italian food and pizza consistently top Menulog’s list of popular cuisines internationally, followed by Indian and Thai
• Australians ordered more than 4 million pizzas last year
• The top three dishes ordered by Australians are Pad Thai, Butter Chicken and Green Curry

Categories on the rise

• Newer categories such as Gourmet Chicken, Kebabs and Ribs are seeing a faster increase in popularity
• There has been a rise in gluten free options. More than 1 in 10 restaurants include gluten free options on their menu, with Asian cuisine the most popular gluten free choice
• Green Curry, Panang curry and Pad Thai come in as the top three gluten free dishes
• Preferences in soup are shifting with Laksa outselling Pho 7:1 in 2013 but now the gap has narrowed to 5:1

Additional Resources

There are a number of industry resources that restaurant partners can utilise when looking for more information on food trends.

Another great source of information is a recent report published by hospitality equipment company, Silverchef. Silverchef noted a range of national food and beverage trends, including nutella, wines, gin, gluten free, burgers, vegetarian and vegan, online ordering, delivery apps, people weathering the storm for good food and restaurants offering local produce.  Check out their report at www.silverchef.com.au.

Leveraging food trends

Based on the trends highlighted in both the Menulog Industry Report and Silverchef’s Cafes and Restaurants Report, there are some simple update you can make to your menu to leverage these trends:

• Add more ‘chef specials’
• Expand your wine selection
• Introduce more menu specials and meal deals
• Where relevant, create dishes that use local produce
• Invest in food photography to use in marketing and social promotion
• Offer or highlight foods that are on trend
• Use local seafood
• Capitalise on seasonal changes
• Create ‘Instagrammable food’ – food that customers want to take photos of

To find out more about Australia’s favourite food, see the full Menulog Industry Report here. 

The information provided on this site is general in nature only and is not legal or business advice. For full site disclaimer please click here.