30 Comparisons Of The Food Restaurants Serve vs. How It’s Advertised
When you don’t have any expectations, you can’t get disappointed. But when there’s an advertisement for a delicious meal shoved right up in your face but you get served a big pile of cheap-looking cooking, you can’t help but get angry.
Nobody expects picture-perfect food at restaurants. However, some of these meals are so incomparable to their ads, Bored Panda just had to show you side-by-side examples. Check them out below, upvote the most egregious cuisine lies, and let us know about the times when a restaurant has made you swear like a souped-up version of Gordon Ramsay.
We’re not talking just about fast food here. Restaurants in seemingly good standing are also known to violate the most basic tenet of human relations ever: don’t mess with someone’s food. (Though, come to think of it, can you really expect anything good from places that have pictures of food on their menus? Kidding! Haha! Just kidding! Please don’t hurt me, Picture Menu Restaurant Mafia.)
This post may include affiliate links.
I Ordered Bruschetta From My Local Pizza Shop
As I see it, there are two main problems when it comes to sloppy reality being far from the picture-perfect gourmet meals you expect to receive. And they have a lot to do with our expectations. The problems are all about the actual cooking standards and the way food adverts can raise our expectations too high.
The first issue is very human: sometimes, the people making your food don’t 'five a guck' about what you’ll get served or they mess up and decide to put the meals out anyway. They might be overworked and burned out. Or they might be lazy and inattentive.
The solution here is simple (and incredibly hard at the same time)—the kitchen staff need to find the inner motivation to take pride in their work. Meanwhile, management needs to maintain acceptable standards. If you wouldn’t eat something you make, why would you expect your customer to? It’s better for the food to be late but presentable instead of rushed and disappointing.
This Steak Salad That Looks Nothing Like It's Advertised
The second problem, however, is directly related to how things are advertised. What you see on the menus are the ‘perfect’ versions of meals that restaurants want you to see. While some restaurants go for amateur snaps, others go all out and hire professional food stylists to turn grub into glamor shots.
Food styling is an art. Pros can end up using a whole array of tools, from tweezers and tape to blowtorches and paint. So when you take so much time and effort to create a work of art, can somebody in the kitchen who is under pressure really deliver something that’s comparable? Sometimes? Yes! Always? Dear Lord, no.
Menu vs. What They Served Me. No, Millennials Didn’t Kill Appleby’s, They Committed Suicide
A Texas Sized Disappointment
Pretty much all the takeaway joints are guilty of doing this.
The 3 Pieces Of Lettuce Was A Nice Touch I Guess
Expectation vs. 2020
Taco Bell, I Try To Love You, So Why Do You Treat Me This Way??
Restaurant’s Charcuterie Board As Advertised vs. What I Got
Damn, I Am So Looking Forward To Eating This Delicious Burger With Copious Amounts Of Guacamole, Just As Advertised, And Then- Oh Wait..
Tim Hortons New Fruit Loop Donuts
Jack In The Box Tacos
Thanks KFC, Totally What I Expected
Arby's Bacon Beef 'N Cheddar
So... they don´t "have the meats" after all... (as opposed to the Arby´s tv commercials declaring "We have the meats")
The Tempura Green Beans Looked Delicious On The Menu. I Think They Fell A Smidge Short
I Know It's Airline Food, But Sweet Baby Jesus United Airlines, Why Would You Let Someone Pay $10 For This?...
This Is Why You Check Your Food Before You Leave The Restaurant...
So I Bought This New Burger From Burger K!ng...
When Reality Doesn’t Meet Expectations
The Pico De Gallo Burger At Whataburger
Note: this post originally had 69 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
The problem is that a lot of takeaway joints use props to advertise their food and what is pictured is not actually all food. They make the burgers, pizzas, tacos etc out of numerous things not just food. For example the patties are often undercooked to make them look juicier, the buns are meticulously chosen and sometimes the sesame seeds are glued on. They also use cardboard, pins and special placements to make the foods look bigger and better. Some places even advertise ice creams using mashed potato. Don’t forget the advertisers also use photoshop.
I think they use elmers glue for mayo.
Well, i'm living in France, there is a difference between ad and reality, but not this much... Here, this difference is called robbery.
Misleading advertisements should come with hefty fines.
In most European countries laws were passed years ago that prohibit the use of non-food items to represent food in advertisements.
Kryogen haha
Kryogen good
kidsmiley +
Wax is also used often when photoshooting ice cream.
Or colored mashed potatoes
Here is an interesting video showing a McDonald's photoshoot. The food is real. https://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/food-photography-tips-mcdonalds/
At McDonalds? Please. Out of all the places.
So when they advertise sports cars with a beautiful woman spread across the bonnet, she's not actually included with the car? Oh no! I've been "deceived"! lol
Like lipstick on strawberries! (They will want to wear high heels and go on unchaperoned dates next).
Wrong. They make it out of real food but many places buy the menus from someone who is doing their best to photograph the food to make the food item look its best. Like a swimsuit model on Instagram versus that same model in real life. Edited to add - I once asked a waitress if a certain item pictured came with the mushrooms the way it was shown and she told me straight up that the pic was bogus.
WildBerry +
They often use non food items for advertising for example they use engine oil instead of maple syrup, they glue sesame seeds onto buns, they undercook patties to make them look juicier and colour them with shoe polish to make the grill marks and to look properly cooked, cardboard inside layers of cake, they use hairspray to make fruit and veg shinier. Even the steam showed in food advertisements are faked. They do have special food artists that pick the best of the best food items but they still use other tactics to make them look better for advertisement. BTW I am not saying all, these are just some of the common things used when advertising food.
They use mashed potato for ice cream photographs for a pretty good reason - ice cream has a tendency to melt very quickly under studio lights. If they didn't use potato, they would only get photos of disgusting soggy melted messes or photos in very poor lighting that help no one.
Gabby M - Not sure if you know how hot studio lighting is, but the ice cream wouldn't survive for even one shot, thoe lights are that hot.
I get the reason why (the melting)...what I don't get is how many shots do you need to take for it to be necessary to fake it. How many angles are there. Ya ya the lights but for real ... It's not moving.
Gabby M -
Most of these are from fast food franchises so the product will vary from owner to owner. They all use cheap unskilled labor anyway so it is unrealistic expect quality.
Also, the manager may be telling them to use X amount of the ingredients because of pressure from the owners, who want to build their own profits. It will also affect the manager's salary.
Exactly. Those "cheap unskilled" laborers would be hooking you up if it wouldn't get them fired. Stuff like this is always the fault of management/the company...Not the people who actually do the work.
mph seti Good response!
exactly my thoughts. But even if they make the food as it is advertised. Most franchises pack their food into tight plastic/paper wraps and squish them together. It will never look pretty once you unpack it.
Happy_Pandalover what
Happy_Pandalover what
keyontoh no
keyontoh good
garretsuhrie like
Momma Rose knows.
Most of these 'what I really got' pictures are also not real. They've been altered to look bad for the sake of the posting. I eat at a few of these places and the food looks good
I was thinking the same thing. Some of the “reality” photos look staged or they altered the order.
Soggy Crumpet no
Couldn't agree more
it's Instagram vs reality just food version.
Monika Lachova ?
Monika Lachova -
They all get by with it - because we let them.
I wish I knew this was a thing--I would have submitted my Giant Meatball from Olive Garden. It was the ONLY reason I even went there in the first place. What I got looked more like meat sauce on spaghetti.
Naomi Armitage follower
Absolutely do not believe some of these. However, not uncommon for burger and sandwiches to look all smashed when they are take out. If I went to a restaurant and got some of these, however, I would so not pay for them.
I do think there is a level here of Managing your Expectations....a lot of these are exactly what I would EXPECT to get from a fast food franchise / delivery having seen the promo pic Then, there are the ‘send it back immediately’ examples - I feel for the limp espresso martini recipient.
Exactly. They expect cheap and they expect gourmet. You can't have both. If you want a meal like is in the picture go to a high end restaurant and pay for it. If you buy from a food truck or a mall food court take what you get and be glad you do not live in a third world country where you can't even get that kind of food.
Insta return, some exceptions due to bad lighting but majority looks inedible
Food stylists spend hours making the foods for ads look delectable. They use vaseline, food coloring, toothpicks, glycerin, etc. The poor chef in real life has twenty seconds to fill the order.
Well...I'm not hungry anymore...
a) Who actually expects the real thing to look like the ad photos, and b) I just don't buy most of these. No Subway in my town would serve that whatever the hell it is to a paying customer.
Ok, this must be very upsetting. For you. I gotta couple laffs
This is why even well before the pandemic I shop at the grocery store, and make my own meals 99% of the time.
These are not issues of the product not matching the promotional image, but rather that they are truly disgraceful. No food should ever be served that looks that disgusting.
I'm laughing because some of those are seriously criminal!
And many are bogus. Made to look especially bad for the topic.
J.B. good
That reminds me of Michael Douglas' restaurant scene in Falling Down. 😂
CLASSIC!!!
Janine B. lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJs9p-VNORw
Janine B. what
yb-agopatria no
The food in the adverts is expertly made with precision. I've seen modellers construct the items; every minute detail is taken of. They are genuinely made by food artists. That is why the food you get will never look like what you anticipated. Never. Also, as someone has already commented, most of these are franchises and you can see where they have reduced the fillings to gain more profit.
Steve Barnett lol
Steve Barnett lol
pairwin Good response!
I lost my appetite
I did momentarily, but it's since come back :-D
I think most of the places this posting refers to ought not to be called "restaurants" but, at best, fast good shacks.
I understand why some food may not be up to par, but these are jut sad. If you love your job, why not take the time to put some love, and in these cases, time, into waht you make? I can understand fast food restraunts, but for somebody who has opened their own, make food IRL look presentable. Before you serve it to someone else, think "whould I want to eat that?" Thank you!
These are all fast food places (or semi-fast food). They don't get time, they have a certain amount of seconds in which they are expected to create a food item. And that's a very challenging amount. So they don't have time to make it look like the pic, or even remotely like a food item at some cases..
Honestly, that's really no excuse. If you advertise something and it looks a specific way, at least make an effort to make it look as advertised. It doesn't have to be perfect. Food isn't supposed to look sad or make you sad. Although I understand it's a strategy of advertising but it's all scam really.
Most of these were fast food joints, so no love there
This is why I don't go to fast food chains. The clue is in the title - Fast Food. If it's Fast it's usually Crap.
I know the props for the photos are pretty fake, but these guys should be fined for false advertising. So much of this isn't even close to the pictures.
All that cooked lettuce.
has anyone seen that film Standing Down with Michael Douglas?
Well. Most of these foods are garbage mixed with additives of all categories to begin with, the fake photoshopped pictures fit the concept. Beware of those lying adds and go for actual food stuff instead.
Why do people do this stuff just for money like for instance what if someone was about to pass out because they hadnt eaten in a while and they pay 20 dollars for food and it looks and tastes like abselute crap and they dont eat and pass out while driving then cause 10 cars to crash just because they didn't do their job correctley like this needs to stop or be illiegal and this is coming from a 10 year old even i am smart enough to know this kinda stuff like geez you have job just at least try to do it correctly. Thank yall all for listiening
Lorelei Michael Good response!
Please hall give me credit plus I am smarter than most adults
You hide it well.
Next article ... (recycling this one) ... "Look at how these Advertising Food Stylists make normal food look fantastic!"
This is why I don't do fast food -- or, indeed, *ANY* restaurant food -- anymore. 🤢🤮
All of it looks awful. All processed muck.
Michele Wittner -
It is f*****g unbelievable the s**t we put up with. Nobody holds their feet to the fire. False advertising in the biggest way. And for some reason thats ok. Well f**k no its not
Thomas Mills good
The awful actual results look like either 1. they were not trained how to make the food as it is supposed to be. 2. the person did not care just so long as they got rid of the customer.
Most of these are just disgusting, I hope people gave that crap back and demanded their money back.
Gives alot more understanding of why there are so many, "Karens" around. I would be complaining my ass off if I was served Any of that crap.
A lot of this is just plain greed, and I think there needs to be accountability. Some of these, there's so little substance what you're being given, I think it's really stepping over the line into fraud.
Fun fact you can always go and demand it to be better. I've done that plenty of times. Even walked out of this fancy looking but ultra shitty as f**k "restaurant" after the f****d my stuff up a second time after waiting for over 30 minutes
this is karma
This looks unreal!
Opal4eva +
Open a restaurant/fastfood/deli or whatever, as employees pick people without actual culinary education who mostly won't give a crap, severely underpay them, make their work conditions unbearable and this is your result. Enjoy
Google paid for all online work from home from $ 16,000 to $ 32,000 per month. The more youthful sibling was jobless for a quarter of a year and a month prior her check was $ 32475, working at home for 4 hours per day, and procuring could be much greater… . So I started…….https://xurl.es/qxneo
To all the people who were disappointed for false advertising. I suggest you go to Japan as the fastfood (and most foods) they serve looks the same and sometimes even better than the one they advertise. What you see is what you get.
I feel that is among the most significant info for me. And i am happy studying your article. But wanna observation on few normal things, The site style is wonderful, the articles is truly nice : D. Good job, cheershttps://onlinepkjobs4all.blogspot.com/2020/09/job-in-pakistan-airforce.htmlhttps://onlinepkjobs4all.blogspot.com/2020/09/public-sector-organization-gov-peshawar.htmlhttps://onlinepkjobs4all.blogspot.com/2020/09/jobs-in-pakistan-navy.htmlhttps://onlinepkjobs4all.blogspot.com/2020/10/pir-mehr-ali-shah-arid-agriculture_7.htmlhttps://onlinepkjobs4all.blogspot.com/2020/10/office-assistant-tehsil-municipal.htmlhttps://onlinepkjobs4all.blogspot.com/2020/10/guard-district-education-authority.html
Ayyan Ali follower
Ayyan Ali good
In Brazil #4 actually looks like the photo.
This kind of marketing should be considered false advertising. Stock photos, and photos of inedible doctored up "food" (can it really be called food when it has varnish sprayed on it, glues added, or other behind the scenes trickery) completely misrepresents what's being sold.
Daniel (ShadowDrakken) easy
shannonpreder good
This should be illegal. 😡
Marta Dyrgała lol
Are these restaurants all in the US? I live in Greece and even McDonald's don't try to fool us this way.
I think it's funny how this is actually normal yet everyone keeps going back and paying high over priced items from the menu. Plus you're expected to also pay a tip!! I hate going out to eat, tired of dropping $30+ on one nights worth of fast food that sucks and makes you fat and has little nutrients. They rip you off and its bad for your health. But, people do it daily.
These pictures are mainly of fast food, where tipping isn't expected.
This was so yucky, there is really nothing else to say.
i'm a bit suspicious of stuff this bad, 'cause nobody would ever go in those joints
d bradley ?
😂🤣 The usual dishonest establishments fleecing customers. 🙄
Simba no
If there was ever an argument for learning to cook at home. You know what is cheaper, faster, and taste better than eating at a fastfood joint of chain restaurant? Cooking at home. I haven't eaten at a fastfood chain or restaurant chain in years because I can cook everything at home cheaper, better, and faster. Only time fastfood is an option to me is when you are traveling long distances.
I don't know where you guys live but where I live the food comes out right.
Not especially shocking. I've never ever had a fast food meal that looked even remotely like its advertisements. If I go through the drive through and get the same thing I ordered I consider it a minor miracle.
Kenny Kulbiski good
My hubby and cousins used to work fast food as teens/college students. All have said it literally is a "They don't pay me enough to give a flying f**k about this bullshit"
I’ve had so many places try to serve food when they were out of the major components. Just say you don’t have it. It’s much better than making someone avoid the chain from then on because they feel you’re dishonest. I feel for the servers as I’m sure management is making them serve crap.
I was going to order take out for dinner this evening. This article made me decide to cook dinner at home.
Loveyiii good
Do you want GREAT fast food? Go to Greece and avoid all the big chain names, especially the American ones but not only, and the food is almost always very, very good. The same goes, I believe, for most countries outside the big "first world, developed" countries where a lot of fast food has become so downgraded at the altar of profits from scaling up that it no longer should be called food.
Like to see same people complain about other products. "Oh I was not as happy as the woman in tv using this shampoo" or "This parfume was nothing like riding a horse in a open field"
Joshua Weissman has entered the chat.
So many look like diarrhea. Now I don’t want breakfast. 🤢
bruh...
Mr_Person love
Mr_Person yes
Two Seriously meant questions: WHY do people still choose to buy what in essence is substitute food from these places? More importantly, WHY DO THEY FEED IT TO THEIR CHILDREN???
The lesson here is to not by food from places that have photos to advertise it
Rainclouds Radio love
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Americans do realise foodstuffs consist of more than just meat, cheese and crappy bread. Don't they?
Don't speak in absolutes. I live in America, but stuff like this is practically like a once a year thing. And even if I decide to order something, it's not gonna be crap like this anyway. Yeah, sure I eat meat but even that's not always appealing to me. I'm sure thousands of other people feel the same way I do. So shut up.
It was a crass, stupid over-generalisation made at the end of a very long day. Please do accept my apologies.
JeanBean_BC +
huck24 easy
hoolzroolz -
Ed Walker ?
Ed Walker yes
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Aaaaaand food has been ruined forever. 🤢
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
The reason I rarely east fast food any more. It's really just food made by lazy people for people to lazy to make a peanut butter sandwich.
Kevin Camp follower
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
●●●●●●●●●●●●●I get paid over $190 per hour working from home with 2 kids at home. I never thought I'd be able to do it but my best friend earns over 15k a month doing this and she convinced me to try. The potential with this is endless..., COPY HERE---------->https://xurl.es/v23qj
The problem is that a lot of takeaway joints use props to advertise their food and what is pictured is not actually all food. They make the burgers, pizzas, tacos etc out of numerous things not just food. For example the patties are often undercooked to make them look juicier, the buns are meticulously chosen and sometimes the sesame seeds are glued on. They also use cardboard, pins and special placements to make the foods look bigger and better. Some places even advertise ice creams using mashed potato. Don’t forget the advertisers also use photoshop.
I think they use elmers glue for mayo.
Well, i'm living in France, there is a difference between ad and reality, but not this much... Here, this difference is called robbery.
Misleading advertisements should come with hefty fines.
In most European countries laws were passed years ago that prohibit the use of non-food items to represent food in advertisements.
Kryogen haha
Kryogen good
kidsmiley +
Wax is also used often when photoshooting ice cream.
Or colored mashed potatoes
Here is an interesting video showing a McDonald's photoshoot. The food is real. https://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/food-photography-tips-mcdonalds/
At McDonalds? Please. Out of all the places.
So when they advertise sports cars with a beautiful woman spread across the bonnet, she's not actually included with the car? Oh no! I've been "deceived"! lol
Like lipstick on strawberries! (They will want to wear high heels and go on unchaperoned dates next).
Wrong. They make it out of real food but many places buy the menus from someone who is doing their best to photograph the food to make the food item look its best. Like a swimsuit model on Instagram versus that same model in real life. Edited to add - I once asked a waitress if a certain item pictured came with the mushrooms the way it was shown and she told me straight up that the pic was bogus.
WildBerry +
They often use non food items for advertising for example they use engine oil instead of maple syrup, they glue sesame seeds onto buns, they undercook patties to make them look juicier and colour them with shoe polish to make the grill marks and to look properly cooked, cardboard inside layers of cake, they use hairspray to make fruit and veg shinier. Even the steam showed in food advertisements are faked. They do have special food artists that pick the best of the best food items but they still use other tactics to make them look better for advertisement. BTW I am not saying all, these are just some of the common things used when advertising food.
They use mashed potato for ice cream photographs for a pretty good reason - ice cream has a tendency to melt very quickly under studio lights. If they didn't use potato, they would only get photos of disgusting soggy melted messes or photos in very poor lighting that help no one.
Gabby M - Not sure if you know how hot studio lighting is, but the ice cream wouldn't survive for even one shot, thoe lights are that hot.
I get the reason why (the melting)...what I don't get is how many shots do you need to take for it to be necessary to fake it. How many angles are there. Ya ya the lights but for real ... It's not moving.
Gabby M -
Most of these are from fast food franchises so the product will vary from owner to owner. They all use cheap unskilled labor anyway so it is unrealistic expect quality.
Also, the manager may be telling them to use X amount of the ingredients because of pressure from the owners, who want to build their own profits. It will also affect the manager's salary.
Exactly. Those "cheap unskilled" laborers would be hooking you up if it wouldn't get them fired. Stuff like this is always the fault of management/the company...Not the people who actually do the work.
mph seti Good response!
exactly my thoughts. But even if they make the food as it is advertised. Most franchises pack their food into tight plastic/paper wraps and squish them together. It will never look pretty once you unpack it.
Happy_Pandalover what
Happy_Pandalover what
keyontoh no
keyontoh good
garretsuhrie like
Momma Rose knows.
Most of these 'what I really got' pictures are also not real. They've been altered to look bad for the sake of the posting. I eat at a few of these places and the food looks good
I was thinking the same thing. Some of the “reality” photos look staged or they altered the order.
Sogg