16 Weird Ways Customers Have Been Served Food On Anything But A Plate

In the quest to tempt appetites and land on more social media feeds, chefs around the world have taken culinary creativity to new heights by playing with the presentation of foods. Whether captivating or annoying, plateless dishes mean that courses are served in unique vessels — or sometimes, even suspended in air. Ranging from children's toys to cut slabs of wood, courses served on anything but plates have attracted gawking netizens, some entertained by the whimsical spreads and others scoffing at serving ideas that seem more pretentious than practical.

Often entertaining and sometimes extreme, plateless presentations may not affect the taste of the food itself but certainly influence the perception of the restaurant and what goes on in the kitchen. We scoured the internet for documentation of some of the platterless ways customers have been fed to let you decide which food platings are ridiculous and which ones you might consider hunting down and shelling out cash for — or perhaps even trying at home.

You may have dried certain food ingredients like meat and fruit, but at the Azul Tequila Bistro in Arkansas, cooked tacos are presented on a clothesline-like contraption, clipped with wooden clothespins onto a line. Though the presentation might be unorthodox, the order known as quesabirrias has received rave reviews from visitors. "The birria tacos and quesadilla make my mouth water just thinking about it," gushed one diner on Instagram.

At the Hyde Park Pub in the UK, beer isn't the only thing served in pint glasses. One customer feasted on pork crackling strips shoved vertically into a mug and served alongside an actual pint of Sharp's pilsner, with a side of apple sauce for dipping. Whether the pint glass was used due to a shortage of other plating options or as a smart ploy by the establishment to tempt visitors into ordering more beverages, we can only guess.

Most diners know what it takes to get meat onto the table, but that doesn't mean they want a reminder of the exact process before digging in. In Budapest, Hungary, one diner received a piece of buttered meat plated on top of a meat cleaver that also held herbs, with a flower set to the side of the knife — perhaps in an attempt to soften the striking visual.

Whether you're trying to get a child to eat their meal or simply want to bring some spark to a dinner party, toy trucks, machinery, animals, robots, and Legos can play double duty (see what we did there) when plates seem too dull for the job. Though it might look silly, creatively plating food can encourage picky eaters to sample new ingredients and be a constructive technique for children during mealtimes.

Footwear is probably the last plate replacement you might think of, yet at Jaleo in Las Vegas, appetizers are served in shoes. Chef José Andrés is known for telling stories and creating experiences with food, and the chicken croquetas served in a shoe are a nod to his childhood, when his mother scolded him for putting his feet on the dinner table. While many shoes at Jaleo are made of acrylic, some locations use actual shoes or replicas made of glass.

At home, there are definitely nights when food is eaten straight from the pot to reduce cleanup. At restaurants, though, pretty presentations add to the experience — and at Jacuzzi in the UK, pasta arrives in a copper pot that looks like it came straight from the stove. As nice as copper cookware is for cooking, this is not exactly the plating one expects when ordering a classic truffle cream pasta.

We're all for upcycling kitchenware and giving old objects new life. Repurposed egg cartons can make hosting easier and keep kitchens tidy — but why not serve food inside them, too? That's exactly how Side Hustle Doughnuts in Seattle once served its sweets. Though the shop is now permanently closed, assortments of doughnut flavors were stacked into egg cartons for easy carry. If you want to try this yourself, make sure to place parchment paper inside before storing stickier recipes like lemon-glazed earl grey cookies or marshmallow-frosted lemon bars.

Though you're used to pushing grocery carts around the store, you may be more surprised to see one placed on a restaurant table. Mini shopping trolleys are being used to plate french fries and duck rolls — as well as other appetizers — at Poppy's Thai Eatery in London. Not only has the creative display won fans, but this unique plating approach certainly gives "à la carte" a new meaning.

At The Kitchin — a rightfully earned Michelin-starred restaurant that blends French and Scottish tradition — in Scotland, tender scallops are served inside shells for one of the best restaurant dishes we ate in 2023. This is a perfect example of creative plating that doesn't draw suspicious looks but actually works. Diners are shown how to open the dish, where plump Orkney scallops bathed in a creamy, garlic-flavored white wine sauce await.

While ice cream has been scooped into clogs in the Netherlands, fries have been served in a wooden clog at a Dutch restaurant in California, and bitterballen have been plated inside Dutch clogs, octopus is new territory — but one paying customer was surprised to receive fried octopus plated inside a wooden clog at a tapas bar. Is the inside of this wooden shoe lined with parchment paper? How are diners expected to scoop their meal out of the clog?

While slates of stone and wood have been used to present charcuterie boards, at Malmaison in Manchester, slabs of butter are placed onto individual slates and brought to tables for guests to dig into. The trend may have originated from dining experiences in Iceland where butter was presented on pieces of lava rock. However, since rocks are porous, plating butter on such surfaces could be unsanitary, and rougher textures could pose challenges to both diners and chefs.

For those moments you can't be bothered unloading the dishwasher, perhaps there are still clean glasses in the cupboard. This seems to be the case at Tacos & Tequilas Mexican Grill in Atlanta. Here, one diner was confused when trying to figure out how to eat tacos rolled up and inserted into drinking glasses. The three glasses were placed in a wooden serving tray for easy transport, but the stuffed tacos required some maneuvering to remove cleanly from this atypical display.

While frying baskets are useful in the kitchen, some restaurants have given them more responsibility by using them not just to cook food but to serve it. You could argue that this presentation is cute and efficient — after all, fryer baskets are easier to stack and clean without the risk of dropping or cracking dishes. But whether serving french fries or chicken wings, fryer baskets appeal to some diners while repelling others.

At the Odeon Social in New Delhi, pasta was served in unique containers. Instead of arriving on a plate, the meal was tucked into a metal box with a latch that diners had to open to reveal the contents. A separate dish of garlic bread — toasted and sliced on a plate — was presented off to the side. Though this establishment is permanently closed, looking for unique compartments to carry to your own dining table could be the creative culinary project that brings some levity to this week's menus.

Fries and snacks are often served in metal buckets, but carrying a stack of potato wedges to the table in a gardening pail certainly gives a different spin to this side. Does ketchup pour out of the spout when the watering can is tipped? What if a lone fry gets lodged at the bottom of the container? We have more questions than answers.

In what appears to be a balancing challenge, skewered bread rolls pierced onto a polished circular log are placed on tables at BellBoy Bar, a cocktail bar located inside Tel Aviv's Hotel Berdichevsky. Butter swiped into a shell and set on top of this presentation adds to the curious plating. The speakeasy is known for creatively served cocktails, like drinks presented in small bathtubs and seashells. If you're not sold on carrying skewered rolls to the dining table, try transforming dinner rolls into elegant bread leaves instead.