Food and Beverage Trends 2026: A Guide for Restaurants

Every year food and drink trends make headlines with a new dessert or a new drink. In 2026, though, cost and convenience are driving more of the decisions at the table. Guests compare prices carefully, often order from their phone and want to see exactly what they are eating on the menu. Below you will find seven trends backed by official data and industry reports, each with a step you can put into practice.

The numbers shaping 2026

Before getting into the trends, it helps to see the ground they stand on. The table below brings together the latest figures that directly affect the 2026 decisions of restaurant and cafe operators in Turkey.

The table puts two facts side by side. Eating out keeps getting more expensive quickly, and in limited-service venues that serve fast, the annual rise is clearly above general inflation. At the same time, a large share of orders now comes in online. Most of the 2026 trends take shape where these two facts meet.

1. Price sensitivity and value menus

In its 2026 What's Hot survey of chefs and industry professionals, run in October 2025, the US National Restaurant Association (NRA) put "value menus and options" in third place. According to the association's 2026 industry report, 82% of US operators said their average food costs rose in 2025 compared with the year before. In Turkey, annual price rises at restaurants and cafes running above 30% also point to a period when guests compare prices more carefully.

Offering value does not mean making everything cheaper. A set lunch menu, a main course with two portion sizes or a combo served with a drink can protect the guest's budget while still looking after your margin. What matters is knowing what the discounted item costs you before you decide.

Try this week: Recalculate the recipe cost of your five best sellers using current purchase prices. With the food cost calculation guide and the menu price increase scenario tool, you can see which items need a price change and which need a portion adjustment. In Ritapos, product cost is calculated from the ingredients in the recipe and sales data sits in the same account, so you can reread your menu engineering results after every price update.

2. Delivery and fast delivery keep growing

According to the Ministry of Trade's report on the state of e-commerce in Turkey for 2025, e-commerce volume in the food sector was 270.16 billion TL in 2025, up 57.6% on the previous year. E-commerce made up 12.6% of the sector's total trade for the year. Quick commerce, which covers instant and scheduled deliveries, grew 55.6% to 388.7 billion TL, and 69.5% of that volume came from food orders.

The same report shows that the food with the highest quick commerce spend was the hamburger, at 26.74 billion TL. Pizza followed with 17.03 billion TL, chicken doner with 12.56 billion TL and lahmacun (thin Turkish flatbread topped with minced meat) with 6.67 billion TL. The hamburger also came first by units sold, at 97.85 million. The report also shows that 41.5% of e-commerce businesses in the food sector sell on two marketplaces at once. In short, running more than one delivery platform at the same time is now common.

The more channels you have, the higher the risk of mistakes when you follow orders on separate tablets. Platform commission also hits profitability directly, which is why you may need to price delivery separately from the dining room.

Try this week: Compare each platform's commission and average basket with the delivery commission calculator. Ritapos brings Yemeksepeti, Getir Yemek, Trendyol Yemek and Migros Yemek orders onto the same screen as your dine-in orders, and calling a courier and courier tracking run in the same flow. Delivery integrations and courier management are included in the free plan too; for details, see the free delivery integrations page.

3. Familiar flavors, new twists

On the NRA's 2026 list, comfort food is second, smash burgers are fourth and home-style takes on global cuisines are seventh. Euromonitor also highlights, among its global consumer trends for 2026, a "Comfort Zone" consumer who looks for comfort and simplicity in uncertain times. According to Euromonitor, 58% of consumers experience moderate to extreme stress every day.

Search data in Turkey paints a similar picture. In Google's 2025 Year in Search list for Turkey, a restaurant-style beyti kebab recipe was third among recipe searches, a Mevlana soup recipe fourth and a Dubai chocolate recipe sixth. The top three on the "How do you eat it?" list were kiwano, tamarind and quinoa. Guests want a well-made version of a flavor they already know, and they also want to try the new thing they saw on social media.

Try this week: Serve a classic from your menu with a seasonal twist for a limited time, and compare its sales with the original over two weeks. Testing a viral dessert or drink this way before adding it to the permanent menu cuts the risk of being left with unused ingredients. When placing the new item on the menu, you can use the criteria in our post on what to watch for when planning a restaurant menu.

4. Menu transparency and allergen information

On the NRA list, clear labels, icons and symbols on menus are fifth, allergen-friendly menus sixth, and recipes with fewer additives and less processing eighth. Before picking a dish, guests want to see quickly what is in it, how many calories it has and how long it will take.

In Turkey, showing prices clearly is also a legal obligation. You can find the price list rules for restaurants and cafes in our post on the price list requirement, and the rules on portion information in our post on the portion weight requirement.

Try this week: Agree allergen and ingredient information with the kitchen for the ten dishes guests ask about most. With the Ritapos free QR menu, allergens, calories, preparation time and photos are published straight from the product record. When you update a price in Ritapos, the QR menu updates too, so what the guest sees at the table never drifts away from the price at the till.

5. Protein add-ons and non-alcoholic drinks

Extra protein options are ninth on the NRA's 2026 list. The report points out that protein can be added to all sorts of items, from coffee to pancakes. On the drinks side, low-alcohol and non-alcoholic drinks are among the headline topics.

You do not need to build a new menu to meet this demand. Offering grilled chicken on a salad, an extra egg on a breakfast plate or yogurt in a smoothie as a paid option gives guests flexibility and can lift the average check.

Try this week: Set up a protein add-on as an option on two or three items, and track how many checks include it. You can find how to set up add-ons like this in Ritapos in our post on product categories, products and variants. A new drink such as an alcohol-free cocktail can also go on the menu for a limited time first, as a test.

6. Local sourcing, packaging and waste

Local sourcing tops the NRA's 2026 list, and compostable and reusable packaging is tenth. According to the association's industry report, 37% of US operators stepped up food waste tracking in 2025 because of rising food costs. The Ministry of Trade report also shows an eco-friendly packaging rate of 71% among e-commerce businesses in the grocery, supermarket and food sectors.

Working with local producers gives your menu a strong story, but you also have to account for price and continuity of supply. On the waste side, the first win usually starts with measuring. It is hard to cut waste without knowing which items end up as waste.

Try this week: Keep proper wastage and loss records for one week. In Ritapos, stock is updated against the recipe after every sale, and ingredients that drop to critical stock show up on screen. When you upload the PDF of a supplier invoice, Ritapos reads the invoice lines and increases stock automatically. Advanced reports that show complimentary, canceled, wastage and loss lines separately are part of the Pro package. For details, see the inventory and cost management page and the guide to restaurant stock management and waste control.

7. Expectations around digital ordering and payment

According to TurkStat's 2026 Survey on Information and Communication Technology Usage in Households, the share of people buying or ordering goods or services online rose from 55.7% in 2025 to 60.0% in 2026. In the NRA's 2026 industry report, three out of four US customers who order delivery say technology options for ordering and paying matter when they choose a restaurant.

The dining room has a similar expectation. Guests want to look at the menu on their phone, be sure their order reached the kitchen correctly and settle the bill without a long wait. Here technology is less about replacing staff and more about giving them more time at the table during service.

Try this week: During a busy service, time how long it takes from taking an order to that order reaching the kitchen. In Ritapos, the Kitchen display is included in every package, the free plan included; you can see how an order moves through the kitchen in our post what is a kitchen display system (KDS). After service, you can also use a customer satisfaction survey inside the QR menu to get the guest's view.

Where are the 2024 trends now?

The 2024 version of this post highlighted sustainability, plant-based and vegan options, technological innovation, world cuisines and healthy drinks. That list is best read today as a historical note. In the 2026 data, most of these topics have taken a more concrete shape.

• Sustainability: It has moved from a general slogan to measurable steps such as local sourcing, packaging and waste tracking.
• Technology: Online ordering and digital menus are no longer innovations; guests expect them from the start.
• World cuisines: Rather than completely foreign plates, versions that add a global twist to familiar dishes are coming to the front.
• Healthy drinks: These have given way to more specific topics such as protein add-ons and low-alcohol and non-alcoholic drinks.
• Plant-based options: They do not appear as a separate entry on the NRA's 2026 top ten. Even so, keeping an option on the menu for guests looking for allergen-friendly and less processed food can work in your favor.

A four-week action plan

Trying to apply every trend at once strains both the kitchen and the budget. Look at your own sales data, pick one topic and measure it for four weeks.

1. In week one, update the cost of your best sellers and flag the items whose margin has dropped.
2. In week two, test a single value menu or a limited-time item.
3. In week three, check the ingredient, allergen and price information on the QR menu together with the kitchen.
4. In week four, compare sales, delivery channel and wastage figures with week one and make your permanent decision.

When reading the results, do not rely on a single week's numbers. Comparing the same days and service hours helps you separate out the effect of weather or special days. To connect sales data to your campaign plan, you can also look at the measurement tips in our post on 12 ways to attract customers to your restaurant.

Connect the trends to your own data with Ritapos

Trend lists give you ideas, but your own sales data makes the decision. In Ritapos, dine-in and delivery orders, stock and recipe cost are kept in the same account, so you can follow the effect of a new item or menu in the same reports. To see how it would fit your business, take a look at the restaurant POS system and cafe POS system pages.

Sources

• TurkStat (Turkish Statistical Institute), Consumer Price Index, September 2026 (published 5 October 2026): TurkStat Data Portal, inflation and prices. Summary: Presidency of Strategy and Budget, 5 October 2026. Restaurant sub-items: Turizm Gazetesi, Turizm Databank analysis, October 2026.
• TurkStat, Survey on Information and Communication Technology Usage in Households 2026 (August 2026): Forbes Türkiye report, 5 August 2026.
• Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Trade, E-Commerce Outlook in Turkey Report 2025 (in Turkish) (14 May 2026). Announcement: General Directorate of Domestic Trade.
• National Restaurant Association, 2026 What's Hot Culinary Forecast (19 November 2025).
• National Restaurant Association, State of the Restaurant Industry 2026 (2026).
• Euromonitor International, Top Global Consumer Trends 2026 (5 November 2025).
• Google Türkiye, 2025 Year in Search (4 December 2025).

The US-based NRA data does not directly represent the Turkish market; it is used as an example of where menus are heading. The figures reflect the period in which they were published and may be updated as new data is released.