FROM MEXICO CITY TO ISAN: THE FLAVOURS YOUR GUESTS WILL BE ASKING FOR NEXT

Menu trends travel faster than they used to, and pub, club and hotel kitchens are well placed to catch them. Recent commentary from the editors of The Age Good Food Guide, new forecasts from US food intelligence firm Datassential and a fresh Sydney opening all show where diners are heading, and how a venue can borrow the best of it without rewriting the whole menu.

Hearty is having a moment

The Age Good Food Guide editors say that after taramasalata in 2024 and chawanmushi in 2025, the signature of 2026 across Victoria has been meat and potatoes. They are not talking about corned beef and chunky mash. Korean gomtang, a long-simmered beef bone soup, is being served in bowls across Melbourne, and marrow has been finding its way into everything from risotto at the new Roma in the CBD to Thai-style sticky rice cakes at Dessous.

Steak and chips has been reimagined as steak frites in fine dining rooms, local pubs and everywhere in between. Potatoes have appeared as crisp golden pucks that hold creamy toppings, as slices fried in beef tallow, and as silky mash finished with a sauce of crab roe and claw meat at Little Rose. The common thread is comfort, protein and a bit of craft, which is familiar territory for any pub kitchen.

The editors also point to an unprecedented number of Mexican restaurants opening this year, and a growing wave of West African venues.

What the forecasters see coming

Datassential’s 2027 Trends Report, released last week, backs up the global appetite. Seventy-five per cent of consumers say they are looking forward to new food and beverage trends next year. The firm says restaurant menus are an early indicator of what later appears on supermarket shelves, so what you see on menus now is what customers will be asking for soon.

Mexico City cuisine features prominently, with 58 per cent of surveyed US consumers interested in trying it and 75 per cent of millennials. Pulque, a fermented agave drink, has grown 147 per cent on alcoholic beverage menus over four years. The firm is also watching Korean buldak, Sichuan doubanjiang, the Filipino raw fish dish kinilaw and the South Asian dessert falooda for future growth. On the drinks side, it points to makgeolli, koji milk, Vietnamese lemonade and the Mexican cantarito. Established ideas such as banana, anchovy, mango and the Old Fashioned are expected to return in new forms, including banana cocktails and mango sticky rice pies. The data is American, but the direction matches what Melbourne’s editors are seeing: regional, specific and unapologetically flavourful.

A Sydney example of getting specific

Yum Club, which has just opened on Crown Street in Surry Hills from the team behind Ama, shows how specific the new wave is getting. It is modelled on the som tum shops of Thailand’s Isan region, with a long list of spicy-sour yum salads ordered on a yum cha style checklist where diners mark the dish and the spice level. There are fried larb, fire-grilled skewers, sticky rice and a fermented fish relish for those who want it.

Co-owner Rowena Chansiri says Sydney has plenty of Thai restaurants but few that serve Isan food the way it is eaten in Thailand, and she wants it to feel like the real thing. The drinks follow the same logic: Singha and Chang beers arrive in ice buckets, and Yakult and chrysanthemum Margaritas can be ordered with or without alcohol.

What this means for venue managers

You do not need to open a specialist restaurant to benefit from these trends. Use them to sharpen your menu in three ways.

First, give comfort food a story. A steak frites or a tallow-fried potato side with a house sauce makes a familiar pub favourite feel new and supports a stronger price point.

Second, add one regional or international special and rotate it every six to eight weeks. A short checklist or share-plate format lets guests experiment without committing to a whole meal, and it suits groups, which is where pubs and clubs excel.

Third, match the drinks. Offer a beer, a spirit or a cocktail that pairs with the special, and give a zero alcohol version of the signature serve, as Yum Club does. It broadens the appeal of the whole menu.

Finally, check your dishes against what your own customers order. Trend reports are a prompt, not a plan, and your sales data is the best forecast you have.

Sources
/by
Articles you may enjoy
WHY NURTURING A STRONG FOOD SAFETY CULTURE IN YOUR ORGANISATION IS IMPERATIVE!
NSW BUSINESSES MUST SEPARATE FOOD WASTE
SOUTH AUSTRALIA’S MICHELIN MOMENT
VENUES ARE IN FOR A BUMPER FUNCTIONS SEASON
RISING BEER TAX PRICING PATRONS OUT OF THE PUB
THE MODERATION DRINKER JUST GOT A LOT MORE CHOICE
INTRODUCING THE FUTURE OF COCKTAIL SERVICE IN AUSTRALIAN VENUES
REDEEMX MERCHANT APP
Share this entry