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.
My "Cookies And Cream Stuffed French Toast" From Ihop
I Ordered Bruschetta From My Local Pizza Shop
Cheese Fries From Buffalo Wild Wings
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 looks like when you throw all the leftovers in the fridge together at 2 am because you have the munchies
This Is So Outrageous
Jameson and Ginger had been online dating for a while, when the day came where they would finally meet.....
Subway Pizza
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
Taco Bell’s Grande Stacker Box
Burger King Grill Dog Cheddar And Bacon
Part Of A $3.50 School Lunch. Picture On The Menu And What Was Served
A Texas Sized Disappointment
The 3 Pieces Of Lettuce Was A Nice Touch I Guess
Dreams Were Dashed At The Airport
Grilled Salmon At The Mall Food Court
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
Fungi Toastie From Subway
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
The Burger I Ordered Tonight
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
Eww. These must all be franchisee run businesses skimping for the biggest profit. I can only assume they live in highly populated areas where they can still survive, even if no one ever goes twice.
ooh they must have gotten the gross idea from our school lunches clever (not)
Can't be taco bell. I always get my taco with no lettuce. Half the time I still get lettuce, and its a TON of it with a speck of cheese. I always end up losing the cheese when I scrape all that lettuce off.
Is there a massive shortage of leaf salads, what did I miss? They cost next to nothing
Was at casino a few weeks ago. Sit down restaurants closed. Chose Fatburger's for lunch. Did not expect much but my son and I were hungry. It turned out to be a pretty good burger. Would try it again.
Thanks for that irrelevant information that has nothing to do with this taco.
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How can anyone make a mistake like this? AND be able to sell them?
The lettuce really brightens and fills the void. When it's requested to be omitted, assuming that the space will be filled with the more expensive ingredients is wrong.
The salad already left for the day, what were they supposed to do?
Has to be from Taco Bell - always a disappointment! Back in the day they were great!
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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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.
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..
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Don't buy from them anymore and tell everyone how they're scamming people.
I worked at McDonald's in the 90's in Sweden, and yes, the pictures didn't look exactly like the hamburgers, because the pictures were of stone-cold food, to make it look plump, and the ingredients were all put in front, so you could see what was in them. The amount of foodstuff were still the same between the pictures and what was on the tray, at least in the restaurant I worked in. I looked for differences like that here, but the comparisons weren't even in the same ballpark, or (sometimes) in the same city.
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
This is why I don't do fast food -- or, indeed, *ANY* restaurant food -- anymore. 🤢🤮
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
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.
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
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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.
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.
Load More Replies... 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
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.
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.
I was going to order take out for dinner this evening. This article made me decide to cook dinner at home.
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.
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
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.
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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.
Load More Replies... 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.
Load More Replies... 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.
Load More Replies... 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.
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.
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.
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 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.
Load More Replies... 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.
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..
Load More Replies... Don't buy from them anymore and tell everyone how they're scamming people.
I worked at McDonald's in the 90's in Sweden, and yes, the pictures didn't look exactly like the hamburgers, because the pictures were of stone-cold food, to make it look plump, and the ingredients were all put in front, so you could see what was in them. The amount of foodstuff were still the same between the pictures and what was on the tray, at least in the restaurant I worked in. I looked for differences like that here, but the comparisons weren't even in the same ballpark, or (sometimes) in the same city.
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
This is why I don't do fast food -- or, indeed, *ANY* restaurant food -- anymore. 🤢🤮
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
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.
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
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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.
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.
Load More Replies... 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
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.
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.
I was going to order take out for dinner this evening. This article made me decide to cook dinner at home.
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.
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
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.
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