Restaurant Food Trends 2026 Irish Kitchens Must Prepare For

Restaurant food trends 2026 are pushing kitchens toward bolder flavours while increasing food safety risks.

Food trends for restaurants in 2026 are shifting fast, with swicy flavours, bitter greens, and vegetable-forward cooking leading the change.

Walk into any Dublin restaurant this month and you’ll spot them: the adventurous eaters, phones out, recording their Hot Honey pizza drizzle shot in slow-motion for TikTok. They’re not ordering your safe Caesar Salad anymore. They want the unexpected. They want the “Swicy” nduja with raw honey. The charred radicchio with anchovy butter. The mushroom shawarma carved tableside like prime rib.

The Irish Proof

• Domino’s Ireland launched their “Hot Honey Pepperoni” pizza in June 2025, calling it “Sweet, Spicy, Irresistible” Irish Mirror.
• Black Market Cork collaborated with Tongue Tied Hot Sauce for a Burnt Pizza Express launch featuring hot honey drizzles TikTok.
• Even Darina Allen’s 2025 food trends column included a recipe for “perky chilli honey” to drizzle on pizza and toast Ireland-Guide.

How to Execute It (Without Burning Down Your Pass)

Low-Hanging Fruit:

• Buy commercial hot honey (or make your own: 360g runny honey + 2 tsp crushed chilli flakes, infuse overnight).
• Add it as a finishing drizzle to pizza, roasted veg, fried chicken, charcuterie boards.
• Upsell it: “Would you like hot honey on that?” = €1.50 add-on, zero labour.

Next Level:

• Pair tropical fruits with chillies: Mango-habanero glaze on pork belly, pineapple-jalapeño salsa on fish tacos.
• Sweet chilli mayo for chips (already a customer favourite just rebrand it as “Swicy Sauce”).

The Acorn Star Angle:
“Swicy” only works if your team understands allergen safety (chilli cross-contamination is serious) and temperature control (honey-based glazes burn fast at high heat). Our HACCP Level 2 course teaches you to balance innovation with compliance, so you’re not explaining to the EHO why there’s jalapeño residue on the gluten-free prep board.

Trend #2: Bitter Is Better And Chicory Is Leading the Charge

The Shift

After a decade of “caramelised this” and “candied that,” diners are craving bitter complexity. Radicchio, endive, kale, dark chocolate in savoury sauces, even coffee rubs on steak. It’s the antidote to sugar fatigue.

The Science

Bitterness signals phytonutrients diners perceive it as “healthy” without feeling virtuous. It also cuts through richness: charred chicory balances a fatty pork chop better than any apple compote.

Whole Foods’ 2026 trends highlight chicory in prebiotic beverages, but the real action is on the plate.

The Irish Opportunity

You don’t need radicchio from Treviso. Irish growers are stepping up:

5 Irish Suppliers for Niche Vegetables (Bitter Greens & Beyond):

1. Ballymaloe Cookery School Organic Farm (Shanagarry, Co. Cork)
   What: Seasonal organic vegetables including chicory, kale, endive.
   Why: 100-acre certified organic farm supplying their cookery school and Ballymaloe House. If it’s good enough for Darina Allen, it’s good enough for your gastropub.
   Contact: ballymaloecookeryschool.ie

How to Execute It

Easy Wins:

• • Charred radicchio with anchovy butter and toasted hazelnuts (4 ingredients, 8 minutes).
  • Bitter leaf salad with pear, blue cheese, and honey-mustard dressing (the sweet/bitter balance sells itself).
  • Kale crisps as a snack or garnish (literally bake kale with olive oil and salt your customers will pay €3.50 for “healthy chips”).

  Next Level:

  • Dark chocolate mole on duck breast.
  • Espresso-rubbed ribeye with chicory salad.
  • Endive boats filled with smoked mackerel pâté (elegant, easy, allergen-friendly).

  The Acorn Star Angle:
  Bitter greens require proper washing protocols (sandy chicory = customer complaints) and date labelling (leafy veg has a 3-5 day shelf-life max). Our HACCP Level 1 course teaches your team to handle high-risk produce safely, so you’re not throwing out €50 of radicchio every week because someone forgot to label the prep box.

Trend #3: “Vegetable Butchery” Treating Veg Like the Main Event

The Concept

Stop relegating vegetables to “sides.” Carve them. Sear them. Serve them as the hero.

Think:

• Celeriac Steaks (sliced 1-inch thick, roasted with miso butter, carved tableside).
• Mushroom Shawarma (king oyster mushrooms marinated, spit-roasted, shaved into flatbreads).
• Cauliflower “Chops” (entire cauliflower half, grilled with za’atar, served bone-in).

It’s not vegetarian it’s vegetable-forward. Omnivores order it because it looks impressive and tastes umami-rich.

Why It’s Smart Business

1. Lower food cost. A whole celeriac costs €2. A 250g ribeye costs €8.
2. Instagram gold. People film vegetables being carved like steak.
3. Reduces waste. You use the whole vegetable (celeriac trimmings = stock).

The Technique Gap

Here’s the catch: most chefs don’t know how to butcher vegetables because culinary school taught them to brunoise carrots, not treat them like proteins.

Skills Your Team Needs:

• Knife skills (to cut even 1-inch steaks from a round celeriac without a mandoline injury).
• Searing technique (vegetables need high heat + patienceflip them too early and they steam, not caramelise).
• Seasoning confidence (vegetables can take bold flavour miso, harissa, tahini, not just “salt and pepper”).

How to Execute It

Entry Point:

• Whole Roasted Cauliflower as a sharing dish (€12-€15, 85% margin).
• Portobello “Burgers” marinated in balsamic and grilled (already on your menu? Rebrand it as “Mushroom Butchery Burger”).

Next Level:

• King Oyster Mushroom “Scallops” (slice thick, score, sear in brown butter).
• Cabbage Wedge “Steaks” (roast until charred, serve with chimichurri).

The Acorn Star Angle:
Vegetable-forward cooking is food safety-intensive: cross-contamination (raw veg on the same board as raw chicken), temperature abuse (roasted veg left out too long), and allergen risks (tahini, miso, nuts). Our HACCP Level 2 course teaches your team to execute ambitious techniques without compliance disasters.

Training cost for 10 staff: €2,000-€3,000 one-time.
Payback period: 15 weeks.
Year 1 profit gain: €5,000-€7,000.

And that’s before you factor in the upsell revenue from actually executing trendy dishes that customers photograph and share.

The Acorn Star Solution: From Trend-Spotting to Execution

We don’t just teach HACCP we teach how to run a modern kitchen where food safety enables creativity, not blocks it.

Our Courses for 2026 Trends:

1. HACCP Level 1 – Personal Hygiene & Cross-Contamination
   For: All kitchen staff.
   Why: Handling raw vegetables (soil contamination), allergen segregation (chilli, nuts, tahini).
2. HACCP Level 2 – Advanced Food Safety for Supervisors
   For: Chefs de Partie, Sous Chefs.
   Why: Temperature control for honey glazes, FIFO for bitter greens, safe vegetable butchery techniques.
3. HACCP Level 3 – Food Safety Management Systems
   For: Head Chefs, Kitchen Managers.
   Why: Developing new recipes with documented safety controls (e.g., validating shelf-life for house-made hot honey).
4. Allergen Awareness Training – Critical for 2026 Trends
   For: All staff (kitchen + front-of-house).
   Why: Hot honey = possible honey allergy. Tahini = sesame (now a top allergen). Hazelnut garnishes = tree nuts.

All courses are:

• ✅ Fully online, self-paced
• ✅ CPD-certified
• ✅ Designed for busy kitchens (complete in 2-4 hours)

You’re still on your break. You have 5 minutes. Do this before you go back to service:

Right now (on your phone):

1. Check your last pest control report – read it properly
2. Check your training records – who hasn’t done food safety training?
3. Make a note of every gap, hole, or broken seal you know about
4. Check when door seals were last replaced

Tomorrow: 5. Walk to Goods Inwards and actually look at it with fresh eyes 6. Take photos of problem areas 7. Ask your porter/delivery staff what issues they see daily

This week: 8. Book door seal repairs if needed 9. Implement immediate cardboard breakdown rule 10. Brief all staff on door discipline 11. Contact your pest control company if gaps were mentioned in reports

This month: 12. Get basic food safety training for porters and delivery staff 13. Add pest checks to opening/closing procedures 14. Fix all ingress points identified in last pest control report