AI-generated images and content are increasingly infiltrating restaurant menus, from delivery apps to physical posters, often producing bizarre or unappetising results such as maggot-riddled burritos or plasticky pasta. The trend, dubbed "AI menu slop", has emerged as restaurants digitised their offerings to compete on platforms like DoorDash and Uber Eats, using free or low-quality AI tools to generate food imagery instead of paying for professional photography, frequently with poor and off-putting results.

Beyond images, AI is now shaping what actually appears on menus, with data firm Tastewise, which works with companies including Nestlé, PepsiCo and Kraft Heinz, deploying "agentic" tools to guide product development and identify menu trends. Its chatbot, TasteGPT, flagged trends such as dates, cake-flavoured plant-based snacks, cold foam, hot honey, strawberry matcha and ube as rising consumer interests, illustrating how generative AI is moving from surface-level visuals into decisions about food creation itself.