This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK).
If, in recent years, food trends have been overly influenced by the cost-of-living crisis and the long shadow of the global pandemic, for 2025 there’s finally a sense of a return to fun. Whether this involves picking up expensive, overstuffed sandwiches for lunch, sipping craft limoncello or eating crisps in high-end restaurants, there are signs that diners are ripping up the rule books and enjoying themselves again. As always, chefs, retailers and influential food personalities have breathed new life into some unlikely old favourites, while social media, particularly Tik Tok, continues to have a significant influence on what we eat, with several trends directly traceable from platforms to supermarket shelves. So, from super-clear cocktails to Korean booze, here’s a snapshot of what we’ll be eating and drinking more of over the coming 12 months.
Supercharged sandwiches
While gourmet sandwiches aren’t new, supercharged sandwiches are currently taking over lunchtimes across the UK. One of 2024’s most hyped London openings was Sandwich Sandwich, which drew huge queues for its elaborate creations. Rogue Sarnies and Dom’s Subs have also gained cult followings for their restaurant-level sandwiches in London, while Manchester has Fat Pat’s and Leeds has Silver’s deli. The trend seems at least partly fuelled by social media, where OTT sandwiches play extremely well and new creations can instantly go viral. At the more novel end of the spectrum, New York deli Seven Brothers Gourmet created a storm last summer with its pickle sandwich, in which the bread itself was replaced with a giant sliced pickle, while chopped sandwiches have been a recent TikTok staple in the US. Looking forward, Sandwich Sandwich plans to open the ‘biggest sandwich shop in the UK’ in London’s Fenchurch Street in 2025, while Milan’s legendary De Santis paninis are also arriving in the capital.
Supercharged sandwiches are taking over lunchtimes across the UK.
Photograph by Sandwich Sandwich
Sandwich Sandwich plans to open one of the biggest sandwich shops in the UK in London in 2025.
Photograph by Sandwich Sandwich
Clarified cocktails
Clarified cocktails (completely clear mixed drinks that have had their impurities and solids removed) have been trending in New York and London for the past few years and have now spread to bar menus globally. Good examples include the ghosted colada, served at Alleybar in Singapore, and the gamble, a clear cooler made with pisco, mezcal, celery leaf, guava, ginger and sea buckthorn at The Living Room at Masque in Mumbai. Although some bartenders question the point of clarification beyond the visual trickery, it seems the trend is here to stay — there’s even a market for ready-to-drink clarified cocktails, such as Myatt Field’s Cocktails Invisible Lychee Martini.
Crisps on restaurant menus
Crisps are the hot new snack on London restaurant menus, with chefs elevating this humble treat to gourmet proportions. One of the year’s hottest new openings, Oma/Agora in London Bridge, serves hot potato crisps alongside a variety of fresh Greek dips; just across the Thames, Toklas has housemade salt and oregano crisps topped with mussels escabeche; July in Fitzrovia has crisps dusted with currywurst spice mix; while new Turkish restaurant Leydi offers crisps tossed with Baharat spices, sumac, garlic and parsley.
Pimped-up instant noodles
Speaking of quick snacks, instant noodles are back in the limelight thanks to a TikTok trend, which sees them elevated with fancy additions. As a result, sales of instant noodles have reportedly risen by 50% on UK grocery group Ocado’s website, while searches for toppings such as chilli oil, nori and crispy onions are also up. On social media, some of the most popular recipes include a simple garlic, butter, egg and soy sauce version and ramen carbonara made with ultra-spicy Korean Buldak noodles.
Bookshop bars
For 2024, listening bars were earmarked as an emerging trend; this year, it’s the turn of bookshop bars — those establishments that operate somewhere between a bookshop, a cafe, a library and a bar. A decidedly analogue reaction against digital dominance, many ban laptops and wi-fi after 5pm, instead offering events, readings and happy hour drinks, from craft beers at Liz’s Book Bar in Brooklyn to the specialist riesling wine menu at Golden Sardine in San Francisco. The UK is cottoning on too, with the excellently named Gulp Fiction in Oxford; BookBar in Finsbury Park; and The Last Bookstore in Glasgow, which has small plates, a literary-themed cocktail menu and 8,000 books.
This year, it’s the turn of bookshop bar — those establishments that operate somewhere between a bookshop, cafe, library and bar.
Photograph by Book Bar
Korean sool
The global spread of Korean culture has given us plenty of films, music and food, but sool (a broad category of Korean alcoholic drinks) have been a little slower to catch on in other countries. Interest is certainly growing however, with soju (a distilled rice spirit) increasingly popular in the UK — sales of Jinro soju soared in 2024 and it’s now stocked at Sainsbury’s and Ocado. A craft movement of independent makgeolli (rice wine) producers is also emerging: Copenhagen has Yunguna Brewery (now available to ship to the UK); in New York there’s Hana Makgeolli; and in Seattle there’s Rainbrew.
Limoncello
Despite always being popular in Italy, limoncello has endured an uneven reputation outside the country, with second-rate, sickly sweet versions turning drinkers off. But thanks to a new wave of craft producers across the world, from Exeter’s Quayside Distillery in the UK to California’s Re:Find Distillery in the US, things are changing for the better. Limoncello cocktails are appearing on menus everywhere from The Dorchester hotel in London, which offers a lemon drop martini, to the European-wide Big Mamma group of Italian restaurants and the UK pub group Wetherspoon’s, which has a new limoncello spritz. UK supermarket chain Waitrose, ever attuned to culinary trends, also used limoncello liberally in its Christmas range, introducing a limoncello fizz panettone and a white stilton infused with limoncello.
A new wave of craft brewers have helped revive limoncello worldwide.
Photograph by Re:Fined Distillery
Haute dogs
An evergreen staple in the US, hot dogs briefly trended in the UK back in 2012, when hot dog and champagne bar Bubbledogs opened (it closed in 2020). But there are now signs they’re rising in popularity again, with openings like Jason Atherton’s Hot Dogs by Three Darlings at Harrods, serving gourmet dogs such as The Texican, topped with guacamole, chipotle and tortilla chips. Other London options include Engel, which offers a hot dog trolley of German sausages with toppings like truffle mayo, gruyere, fig jam and crispy onions, and new wine bar Quill, whose menu features a hot dog smothered in cheese and mustard fondue. Meanwhile, in 2025, Rake will take over residency at The Compton Arms in Islington, serving Cumberland sausage hot dogs with French dip gravy.
Specialist seaweed
In its food and beverage trends report for 2025, Whole Foods Market highlights seaweed varieties such as sea moss and duck weed as increasingly popular ingredients, touted both for their health benefits and their sustainable credentials. In the US, new seaweed products on the shelves include sea moss mango juice, kelp salsa and sea moss gummies. Interest is growing in the UK too, with sustainable Welsh seaweed farm Câr-Y-Môr now offering seaweed ketchup, pesto and spice mixes. Chefs are also embracing seaweed, with Tomos Parry using Câr-Y-Môr sea kelp in his famous crab omelette at Mountain, and Simon Rogan’s Aulis serving seaweed custard with tendons, Scottish girolles and roasted beef broth.
Masa
Chefs across the US are rediscovering masa, the nixtamalized corn dough that’s central to Mexican cuisine. Kernels from dozens of heirloom corn varieties grown in Mexico are soaked in alkaline solution overnight and then ground, with the resulting dough used to create delicious, nutritious tortillas. This new masa movement is being led by the likes of Komal in LA, which offers fresh masa or tortillas by the pound as well as tacos from the adjoining taqueria. In Vegas, James Beard Award semi-finalist chef DJ Flores is making blue corn masa tortillas at his restaurant Milpa; in Brooklyn, Matt Diaz turns fresh masa into quesadillas stuffed with fresh squash blossoms at For All Things Good; and at Tatemó in Houston, fluffy masa pancakes appear on the brunch menu. Look out for masa in the UK in 2025 too, as wholesaler MexTrade launches its new nixtamalized masa tortillas into restaurants and retail.
Pistachio
Long a favourite ingredient for chocolatiers, pistachios are cropping up in all manner of products, from pesto to butter. Waitrose has seen searches for the nut increase 19%, and its new offerings include a pistachio-stuffed croissant and a pistachio tiramisu. Aldi, meanwhile, is getting in on the trend for Christmas with a pistachio panettone. Various cafes, including Starbucks, offer pistachio lattes. Further afield, Caffe Paradiso in Boston mixes up pistachio martinis and, in Dubai, Fix Dessert Chocolatier’s Can’t Get Kanefeh It pistachio chocolate bar become a viral TikTok sensation in 2024.
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