This Year's Most Ordered Foods On DoorDash Are Exactly What You'd Think
It's the end of the year, which means it's time for corporations large and small to analyze trends and make predictions about what lies in store for the year ahead. While this year was, well, shall we say, a little hard to have predicted in advance, it's certainly interesting to look back on at least some of the happier, more positive trends – by which, of course, we mean the ones having to do with food. One thing we all loved about this not-so-lovable year was the fact that we were told it was practically our patriotic duty not only to stay home camped out on our couches but also to keep the struggling restaurant industry afloat by ordering loads and loads of takeout. Although sadly the restaurants themselves may not have benefited from our largesse as much as we'd hoped, at least we all stayed well-fed. But what, exactly, were we dining on once the doorbell rang and our deliveries arrived?
While a report recently released by GrubHub highlighted some off-the-wall trends by focusing on what menu items increased in popularity over the course of the year, we kind of had our doubts that Hawaiian pizza, garlic-mushroom burgers, and spicy tonkatsu ramen really outsold all other items. Rival food delivery company DoorDash crunched their numbers in a different way, however, and found out that the year's three most-ordered dishes were, no surprise, classic comfort foods.
The familiar foods topping the list
Coming in at number three on the list of DoorDash's most-ordered items was mac & cheese, which has evidently yet to go out of style. At least this was probably mac& cheese in its classic form, however, not in some trendy carb-overload incarnation on top of a pizza or inside a sandwich. Second place was 2019's viral hit, the chicken sandwich – admittedly, getting one of these via DoorDash is far safer than the way we used to do it back in the olden days. Topping the list, however, was something that's a menu staple for every super-picky toddler out there: chicken fingers and fries. Perhaps in the face of a pandemic, we all resort to our own inner three-year-old? (Plus there was also the fact that daycares were closed down for a bit, leading to an increase in more actual toddlers dining at home.)
Rounding out the list of the year's most popular items were, in order from 4th to 10th place, guac and chips, not-so-all-American apple pie, comforting-yet-exotic pad thai, chicken quesadillas, iced coffee, California rolls, and chicken tikka masala.
What DoorDash thinks we'll be ordering in 2021
Based on their analysis of 2020 items with the greatest increase in popularity, DoorDash channeled Nostradamus and made vague, open-to-interpretation remarks about what we'd be eating in the year ahead...Surely, we jest. Instead, they were quite specific, predicting we'd be eating a wider range of foods from different countries. It seems that Taiwanese, Filipino, Australian, and Moroccan foods all saw newfound popularity in past months, and long-out-of-favor French cuisine also made a surprising resurgence.
DoorDash also thinks Black-owned restaurants will see an increase in business in 2021, as 58 percent of customers say they plan to seek out such businesses in the coming year. Sixty percent also plan to order from restaurants owned by women. Awesome trends, both of them – can get some love for LGBTQ+-owned restaurants as well? Fully 84 percent of customers also intend to support local restaurants, but they may need to do a little investigating first. Ghost kitchens aren't just a GrubHub thing, after all, so those "neighborhood" restaurants may turn out to be chains like Applebee's or Chuck E, Cheese in disguise.
The one prediction we're taking a "wait and see" attitude towards is DoorDash's assurance that we'll all be eating healthier in 2021 just because 72 percent of us said we had plans to do so. Sure, we all intend to eat better starting January 2nd, don't we? Then life gets stressful, and we're back on the chicken fingers once again.