On Tuesday, December 12, Grubhub launched its annual Delivered report, which analyzes millions of orders from across the US to uncover the biggest food and beverage trends of the year.
While last year’s biggest trend was diners seeking comfort wrapped in a warm burrito, in 2023 they found joy in stepping out of their comfort zones and breaking conventions, such as pineapple on pizza and ordering salads with a side of fries.
Spice was the big winner in 2023, as over 53 million items were ordered with added spice. Classics like Sriracha were added over 91,000 times, and buffalo was the most ordered wing flavor followed by lemon pepper, BBQ, teriyaki and garlic parmesan.
The top five spicy dishes ordered in 2023 were:
- Spicy potato soft tacos
- Spicy chicken sandwich
- Spicy tuna roll
- Hot and sour soup
- Drunken noodles
Other notable order trends included:
- The #dietcokebreak trended with over 43 million views on TikTok, motivating consumers to get their fix with in-office orders of Diet Coke increasing by 17 percent in 2023.
- Over ten million coffee beverages were ordered after 5 pm.
- Dairy in coffee beverages had a 20 percent increase and whole milk took the lead among the top 3 dairy orders followed by 2 percent milk and chocolate milk.
- Over 600,000 customers ordered their salad paired with French fries in 2023.
- In 2023, pineapple rose as topping on pizza by 33 percent since last year.
- Pickles had the largest increase since last year as an individual ordered item with an 89 percent increase, totaling over 6.9 million orders in 2023.
