16 Hipster Restaurants That Horrified Diners With What They Used Instead Of Plates

 The modern world is an incredible place. Technology has changed the face of the planet, allowing us to keep in touch with loved ones on the other side of the globe, and it’s made our day to day lives so much easier – impacting everything from our health to our working lives.

However, there’s some disturbing modern trends that suggest society has gone too far. Now that we are able to do just about anything, the powers that be have decided to render certain everyday utensils obsolete and that includes the humble plate!

Here’s 16 of the most ridiculous things that restaurants have used instead of plates…

1. Cocktail in a rock

As hard as it is to believe, a restaurant has served a cocktail inside a rock. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, they provided a straw to help this customer drink it. Personally, I like to see what my cocktails look like – there’s nothing Instagram-worthy about this.

 2. Ravioli on a clothesline

One of the best things about ravioli is that you can enjoy more than one square at a time, but you can forget doing that if you’re at a restaurant that serves it on a clothesline. Unpegging pasta is the last thing that I want to do at dinner time!

 3. Desert on an image of a plate on an iPad

This restaurant clearly wanted its diners to reminisce about simpler days gone by and decided to serve a desert onto an image of a plate. It’s actually on an iPad, and I’m no technology expert, but I’m pretty sure that you can’t put iPads in the dishwasher.

 4. A parma mouse?!

Okay, there might be a plate here, but even when this dining convention is adhered to, restaurants these days can’t help but try to jazz things up by giving said plate some seriously bizarre decorations. It looks like a skinned rat – delicious.



My mom’s always said, “If it’s not broken, don’t try to fix it.” There’s a lot of truth to this saying, and if this worrying trend continues, I dread to think what my children will be eating out of. Maybe I should keep some plates as family heirlooms to pass down to them.

5. Spare a thought for the dishwashers

One of the reasons that plates have been used for hundreds of years is that they’re easy to clean. Ceramic doesn’t absorb foodstuffs in the way that other surfaces do. Can you imagine the amount of bacteria that would still stick to planks of wood after they’ve been cleaned?!

6. Whoever managed to put this together deserves a medal

I dread to think how long this meal took to put together without the aid of a plate. That pizza was probably frozen by the time it was served. It doesn’t make sense either. This person wouldn’t be able to have a drink until they’ve eaten everything else.


7. A meringue on a levitating pillow

You have to wonder how people come up with these ideas, let alone make them possible. I’d rather have a larger desert on a plate than get served something like this. That levitating contraption is undoubtedly costly. Talk about a space-age dining experience.

 8. Can you imagine the devastation you’d feel if this fell apart?!

Plates are great because they give people enough room to eat their food without risking it falling to the floor. After all, you’ve just parted with your hard-earned cash, and you want to enjoy your food. But the odds of successfully eating this desert aren’t very high…

The epidemic of restaurants foregoing plates in favor of hipster alternatives has been brought to light on social media, with many using Twitter and Reddit to share the bizarre alternatives that they’ve been served food on, and, naturally, expressing their disdain.

9. A raspberry sorbet served in a rock

There’s some foods which shouldn’t be messed with and sorbets are one of them. They don’t need plates in the first place, so why on Earth has this one been served inside a hollowed out rock?! We can only hope that this restaurant was joking.

10. Even kitchen sinks are better than plates. Apparently.

You have wonder where some of these restaurants have gotten their plate alternatives from. If you’ve ever decorated a bathroom, you’ll know that sinks are expensive, so the only logical conclusion is that they’ve been harvested from the trash.

11. This works if you were trying to teach kids how to count

Is it just me, or do these plates look a bit sparse? Maybe restaurants are serving food in bizarre ways to cover up the fact that they are shortchanging their customers when it comes to portion sizes. Or maybe there’s just no explanation for this madness…

 12. Modes of transportation can be used as plates too!

The evidence that restaurants are saving money by taking random items from the trash and using them as plates is certainly adding up. Admittedly, the skateboards do the job, but a nice floral plate would make the cakes and pastries look a lot more appetizing.
 In an attempt to combat this problem, people have begun to use the hashtag #wewantplates to reunite the dining necessity that is plates with their food. Hopefully at least a handful of restaurants will listen to common sense and get rid of these bizarre alternatives.

13. Dinner on a bin lid

Dumpster diving is frowned upon around the world, and it’s regarded as a last resort for people who have nothing to eat – even though a lot of perfectly edible food is needlessly thrown away. One thing’s for sure, only hipster restaurants are taking the actual lids from dumpsters!

 14. A pint of trifle, anyone?!

Trifles might be traditionally served in see-through glass bowls before being distributed into actual plates, but this is ridiculous. We can only hope that this woman was given a spoon to help her eat her pint. But hey! At least you can have as many pints of trifle as you want!




15. Cocktails in lightbulbs

Lightbulbs weren’t designed to be containers, and it’s no secret that they’re pretty easy to smash. I’m amazed that someone was able to fill these bulbs without breaking them. It’s one thing to be ridiculously hipster, it’s another to put people’s safety at risk.


16. Plates weren’t even necessary here

There’s some foods which don’t need plates. These cakes were given cases for a reason – so that they could be served that way. This is clearly a pretty extra restaurant. They’ve just put them in martini glasses for the sheer hell of it. This wouldn’t even look cool on Instagram.

With any luck, plates will be making a return to restaurants in the near future.

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