4 in 5 diners said they like to try new cuisines when eating out

Asian foods came out as the most popular cuisine across the world.

80% of diners have said they were either likely or very likely to try new cuisines when dining out, highlighting the need for restaurants to enhance their culinary offerings with world flavours, according to the latest AAK Foodservice Digest insight.

AAK Foodservice surveyed over 650 people from across the UK, US and Europe to find out how consumers are dining this summer, revealing that today’s consumers have more discerning tastes than ever before. 

54% surveyed have said that they like eating hot and spicy foods either ‘a lot’ or ‘a great deal’.Over 64% enjoy eating barbecue foods. Interestingly, 38% of consumers choose snacks as a way to try international cuisine flavours.

Asian cuisine is the most popular. Though Chinese and Indian foods were very popular, newer cuisines like Thai and Korean were also noted as favourites by diners, with the research suggesting Southeast flavours will be big on menus across the summer and beyond.  As well as Asian flavours, other trends to look out for are hot and spicy foods and barbecue foods. Though both are established trends, regional variations of both hot sauces and barbecue sauces, and applying the sauces in different ways, for example, Korean fried chicken.

The survey, carried out via SurveyMonkey, asked a range of diners of different ages, sexes and household incomes for their food preferences from across the UK, US and Sweden. The survey took place in May 2024.