"I Haven't Seen It Since The Early '90s": 23 Menu Items That Were Popular Decades Ago, But Have Almost Entirely Disappeared From Restaurants Today

Sometimes, it feels impossible to keep up with popular menu items, and foods that were "trendy" one day might be forgotten about the next. Recently, we posted about the restaurant menu items older adults remember being everywhere when they were growing up but have since vanished. Well, according to the BuzzFeed Community, there are a lot more. Here are a few other "forgotten" dishes they shared.

1."Sundried tomatoes! I remember in the late '90s/early '00s, you'd see them in at least one dish on the menu in every single restaurant!"

2."I used to get egg creams at the local diner with my grandma. It brings back memories. We used to get Monte Cristos, too. You don't see them often anymore."

—josephc15

3."Crudite: a small glass dish of raw celery, carrots, radishes, scallions, and olives. It's not so much a menu item as it would just appear right as you sat down in the better restaurants during the 1970s. Adults would have something to nibble on with their cocktails while kids would grab the carrot sticks! I might never have tried a radish if not for those little dishes!"

4."I, personally, love a big-ass Reuben sandwich, and you don't see those quite as much."

—cutepepper91

5."Coquille St. Jacques: a rich and creamy scallop dish that used to be in so many seafood restaurants."

6."Veal piccata, or anything veal for that matter. Once people learned what it actually was, it was gone."

—Anonymous

7."Chicken cacciatore. You used to be able to find it at any decent Italian restaurant. Now, it's scarce."

8."Tapioca pudding! I'm one of those weirdos who loves tapioca pudding, and it's so hard to find these days. Even getting Minute Tapioca is hard. I was excited to find that Snack Pack does tapioca pudding but then bummed because it's basically just slightly sweeter vanilla pudding."

—lobster_lemon_lime

9."There was a roast beef, ham, and/or prime rib carving station at every hotel restaurant that served brunch. At Thanksgiving and Christmas, add a turkey and serve everything with spiced apple rings and a sprig of parsley."

10."Foil-wrapped chicken (aka paper-wrapped chicken) used to be a staple on the menu of every sit-down Chinese restaurant. It has almost completely disappeared in my region. When I do find it, it's bland and stringy instead of the juicy little treasures dressed up in soy, hoisin, ginger, and garlic."

—xouielee

11."Oysters Rockefeller — I used to love this steakhouse appetizer. But trying to find it now is almost impossible."

12."At family restaurants, meatloaf was often a special. It was also a staple for a home-cooked family meal. It was just a two-pound burger slab mixed with seasonings and slathered with ketchup. Also, it took forever to cook and was always a bit pink in the middle, but we loved it!"

—Anonymous

13."I used to get gazpacho and hearts of palm salad down in south Florida in the late '80s and early '90s. I can't find anyplace around here that has either of those!"

14."Frog legs. They used to serve them at fancy seafood places."

—Anonymous

15."Sweetbreads. Not bread, but the thymus or pancreas of a calf or lamb. It sounds gross, but it was wonderful."

16."There was a time when every chain restaurant had jambalaya."

—melllvar

17."Cottage cheese and apple butter were served as desserts. Even if they weren't on the dessert tray, they were on the salad bar. I haven't seen that since the early '90s."

18."Chicken à la King. We didn't have enough money to eat it at a restaurant, but you could get it frozen from the grocery store when I was a kid. It was so good."

—flaviadelucifer

19."I used to always order Shirley Temples when I was a kid. I loved them. Seems they don't encourage children to start drinking mocktails any longer."

20."Chocolate, lemon, and coconut pies with a tall amount of real meringue on top. Pies were so common that meals ended with the question, 'What kind of pie do you have?'"

—Anonymous, 76, Kansas

21."Rice pudding, custard, and Jell-O salads were very popular in the '70s, especially at buffets. I don't see those anymore."

22."Hot roast beef sandwich: hot roast beef between slices of white bread, cut along a diagonal, on a plate with mashed potatoes in the middle and a generous amount of beef gravy over all of it."

—Anonymous, 76, Kansas

23."Zucchini sticks were always on the menu of mid-tier restaurants as an alternative to mozzarella sticks."

What menu item disappeared in your lifetime? Tell us in the comments or fill out this anonymous form!

Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.