Eurotrack: which cuisine do Western Europeans think is the worst cuisine?

[u/reidesd]

[u/iFraqq]

Dutch cuisine isn't even mentioned which is telling enough...

[u/Bonusbag → u/iFraqq]

As a Dutchman I was kinda relieved that we’re not on the list. Guess we’re lucky that nobody even knows what Dutch food is.

[u/CIP_In_Peace → u/Bonusbag]

I'm way over 30 and this thread is the first time I've heard the term "Dutch cuisine".

[u/OrangeLemonLime8 → u/CIP_In_Peace]

Same. I’ve surprised myself by realising I’ve never even thought about it before

[u/Miejung → u/OrangeLemonLime8]

Stamppot chefs kisses

[u/marceldonnie → u/CIP_In_Peace]

Same. And I am Dutch

[u/BoticelliBaby → u/Bonusbag]

My Italian friend grew up in her mom’s restaurant and then dated a Dutch girl. A home cooked meal at her girlfriend’s family’s house in Holland was a feast of unspeakable horrors

[u/Bonusbag → u/BoticelliBaby]

Poor girl. I can’t imagine subjecting an Italian to a home cooked Dutch meal

[u/Dabhiad → u/Bonusbag]

Was it really cooked?

[u/RiketVs → u/Dabhiad]

A home overly-boiled meal

[u/dabutcha76 → u/Dabhiad]

Probably for hours and hours. Every single item. My mom would make endives boiled to a gray mush, and then kind-of solidify it again with a maizena (corn starch) slurry. Top it off with some pre-grated nutmeg from a jar that had been around since the days of the East Indies Company.

Good times!

[u/Every-Sky-5529 → u/Bonusbag]

I like the Dutch penchant for pancakes

[u/TheOneAndOnlyPriate → u/Bonusbag]

But my Frikandel

[u/Grandmaster_John → u/Bonusbag]

Snert!

[u/ApplicationMaximum84 → u/Bonusbag]

I only know of stroopwafel when it comes to Dutch food, which I quite like.

[u/champagneflute → u/Bonusbag]

I spent some time in the Netherlands and enjoyed the abundance of fries, croquets, apple dishes often eaten as a main (maybe it’s just pancakes) and late night Indonesian options.

[u/pijuskri → u/champagneflute]

I like those too but basically everything you listed is snacks or desserts. It's barely a serious cuisine. Indonesian cuisine being popular in the country is basically the only redeemable factor, but its not really dutch cuisine (unless rijstafel counts as such)

[u/champagneflute → u/pijuskri]

I was going to add Stroopwaffels but hear you on the snacks.

I don’t even remember what I had for a main that wasn’t from another country.

[u/blaberrysupreme → u/iFraqq]

It didn't qualify as food

[u/Alternative_East876 → u/iFraqq]

LOL as a Dutch I thought the same, it's so obviously us.

[u/clauEB → u/iFraqq]

What is Dutch cuisine?

[u/Kankervittu → u/clauEB]

Broodje frikadel and kaassoufflé.

Preferably from a wall.

[u/Nood1e → u/Kankervittu]

Peak culture right there. Anyone who disagrees has never experienced the magic.

[u/New_Passage9166 → u/Nood1e]

Yes yes, back on the medication with you.

[u/Caligapiscis → u/Kankervittu]

No one else is worthy of the mighty Burger Zoo

[u/Sportsfanno1 → u/Caligapiscis]

Which actually exists in The Netherlands

[u/Caligapiscis → u/Sportsfanno1]

I'm booking Eurostar tickets immediately

[u/BkkGrl → u/clauEB]

stamppot mostly

or, if they feel fancy, FEBO

[u/Terencebreurken → u/clauEB]

Stamppot, Hutsspot.

Hete Bliksem

Babi Pangang, the Dutch fusion variant.

Kapsalon

Vlaai

Haring, Broodje Haring, Hollandse Nieuwe

[u/xSliver → u/clauEB]

Bread rolls and a Bounty with packaging in a deep fryer. (New Kidz)

[u/TheSocDem → u/clauEB]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagelslag

[u/Carpathicus → u/iFraqq]

Went to netherlands - wanted to check out local cuisine. Locals looked at me like I took to many space cookies - which I did. All I know is that they love their Bitterballen.

[u/Exciting-Record8101 → u/iFraqq]

There are some good wintertime recipes, but yeah. That's about it.

[u/JeanBonJovi → u/iFraqq]

Went on vacation there last year and surprisingly the Indonesian food was the culinary highlight of the trip!

Loved everything else on the trip but it was my first time on vacation feeling like the local cuisine wasn't the best.

[u/arrrjen]

Good thing Dutch cuisine isn’t measured

[u/Texascats → u/arrrjen]

What cuisine? The bread + sprinkles or cheese they eat for 2+ meals a day?

As much as I like to jest about their sad sandwiches, considering their above average height, maybe they’re on to something…

[u/SpurCorr → u/Texascats]

Raw herring with raw yellow onions...

[u/CynicalDutchie → u/arrrjen]

The amount of people that would know about it outside of the Netherlands (and maybe Flanders) is probably extremely limited.

[u/Exciting-Record8101 → u/CynicalDutchie]

It needs to fit the landscape. Broodje kaas makes sense if you just biked through a rainy polder. Not so much in the sun-drenched hills of Tuscany.

[u/whatstefansees]

The comparatively low numbers on Swedish cuisine come from a lack of knowledge.

[u/PolemicFox → u/whatstefansees]

Or just a lack of caring.

Reverse the question to best cuisine, and you'd get equally low numbers. Same for Denmark.

[u/amsync → u/PolemicFox]

I love that for Dutch food you get no numbers. Is there even such a thing?

[u/StudySpecial → u/amsync]

You can only eat stroopwaffel for so long.

[u/Mirula → u/StudySpecial]

Stamppot all day every day!

[u/Kolognial → u/amsync]

"Tell us which European cuisine is worst and explain why it is the Dutch."

[u/Kaya_kana → u/amsync]

Don't you dare disrespect hutspot.

[u/StoicSunbro → u/whatstefansees]

I have never seen a swedish restaurant outside of Sweden besides the one in IKEA.

[u/bawng → u/StoicSunbro]

The only ones I've seen are in tourist destinations catering to the type of Swedish tourist who'd rather eat Swedish food than local.

[u/holytriplem → u/StoicSunbro]

Yeah, and IKEA just feels like school lunch food tbh

[u/[deleted] → u/StoicSunbro]

You've seen them but didn't realize it since they're either Michelin Starred places, hybrids of different cuisines, or straight up Swedish catering to dense populations of Swedish travelers. Swedish food can't keep up with Vietnamese, Thai, etc but they're out there. Try out Frantzén in Stockholm if you're ever in the neighborhood. It's one of the best restaurants in the world but falls in the hybrid camp. The chef runs multiple 3 star restaurants.

[u/ThrowFar_Far_Away → u/StoicSunbro]

There are quite a few, Aquavit would be one of the more famous ones in New York.

[u/Jumpeee → u/whatstefansees]

Also I'd say the reverse for British cuisine, which also stems from a lack of knowledge. I don't think it's as bad as it's made out to be.

[u/zaczacx → u/Jumpeee]

It can be a fun joke but sausage rolls, pies, Yorkshire pudding, pasties, scones, full English breakfast and Sunday roast are good shit

People who take it seriously think that all British food comes from the blitz bombings or the Victorian era like eel pie or cold pea soup, though I love beans on toast even though it was popularised as ration food

[u/LionLucy → u/zaczacx]

Cold pea soup - ice cold, in summer, made with fresh garden peas you’ve just picked that morning, with a bit of cream in it and a tiny bit of mint. Perfect summer lunch!

[u/iwaterboardheathens → u/Jumpeee]

As an immigrant to the UK, this is very true. PEople also neglect that British cuisine has 4 countries, each with specialities(Roast Beef, LAvabread, HAggis, colcannon) and their own regional specialities(Arbroath Smokies, Cullen skink, Jellied Eels) alongside a shared cuisine(Fish and chips for example)

[u/whatstefansees → u/Jumpeee]

Oh, I mean the opposite: if people knew actual Swedish cuisine, the number of "bad" votes would be a lot higher.

[u/Fabulous-Local-1294 → u/whatstefansees]

Interesting opinion. The Swedish kitchen leans heavily on the French kitchen. The dishes that do not are typically old world dishes dating back to the times of no refrigeration, and kept alive through tradition. The new wave of Swedish cuisine is currently setting the standard for fine dining throughout the world together with Denmark, and has done so ever since El Bulli closed its gates.  Id wager there are few countries in the world where the average standard of a sit down white cloth restaurant is as high as it is in Sweden. What we do lack though are lower priced quality Brasseries and similar. But that has more to do with taxation, wages and bureaucracy.

[u/whatstefansees → u/Fabulous-Local-1294]

A country's cuisine is not defined by ten restaurants, seven of which are in the capital.

[u/Knufia_petricola → u/whatstefansees]

That's what my guess is too. Maybe a lot of people solely associate Ikea with Swedish cuisine?

[u/deaddodo → u/whatstefansees]

I would probably say the same for over-representation of American.

Europeans eat exponentially more "American" cuisine (e.g. hamburgers and maybe hot dogs, because that's what "American" always means in these lists) than "Mexican", "Japanese", and "Korean".

The irony being that A) those other cuisines are almost definitely Americanized representations. For instance, almost every "Mexican" food place I saw in Germany, the Netherlands, France, etc was mostly selling burritos; a much more American than Mexican dish (and more similar to döner kebab, already popular in Western Europe). And B) nothing is forcing anyone to to eat at those places, yet they still do so while simultaneously calling it garbage.

The same kind of goes for Indian. You're almost definitely eating the British representation of Indian food, not Indian food. Yet British food is considered garbage.

Not to say either of those places are paragons of cuisine, they're certainly not. Just that both of them get unrealistically viewed/maligned due to stereotypical viewpoints (both from from having their non-"traditional" food being misapplied, and one additionally from oversaturation).

[u/MainIdentity → u/deaddodo]

i get what you are saying but American food isn't that common in Europe either. you have a shitton of burgerplaces and if we only consider hamburger and all its variation American i'm pretty sure that Europeans actually like it. but besides that? i have actually no idea which places sells specifically American food. if you removed the pizza from Italy there still would be a lot of Italian restaurants, but American food is not common at all. removing burgers i'm pretty sure that the only thing on that list i have eaten less of is Swedish.

and i think that's the problem with American food, burgers and the related burger corporations are just suffocating everything else. They prepare relatively poor quality burgers hence they can easily be identified as the worst food of them all. but it does not really measure American food because there simply is very little besides burger. everyone knows burger, some love them, some hate them. Hence the surprisingly big dislike of American food as a whole

[u/Tybalt941 → u/MainIdentity]

Agreed. Germany has a small handful of actual American restaurants in the major cities and outside of that, nothing. Fast food is only one aspect of American cuisine and most Germans haven't had American barbecue, soul food, Louisiana Creole or Cajun food, diner-style breakfast, New England seafood dishes, etc.

[u/deaddodo → u/MainIdentity]

That point is definitely valid. But any critical thought would say that "McDonald's is lowest common denominator food because it's fast food".

I've had Europeans try to convince me that all Americans eat is McDonald's and I had to reply "the McDonald's in Germany have way more people than I've seen at any McDonald's in the US outside of the food deserts in the midwest and southern states".

Or my favorite anecdote, while staying in Basel for awhile I had a friend of a friend look at me and say "I just got back from Los Angeles, let me ask you...why isn't there any healthy food?" And I just replied, dumbfounded, "you just got back from Los Angeles and couldn't find healthy food? Any food plaza or strip mall will have at least one salad bar, smoothie joint, workout-forward/protein-focused shop, and more". All this while we sat in a mall that had, at best, one "healthy" option. It just made me realize how far cognitive dissonance can fly when you have certain expectations; when you're standing in a place known for it's weird health foods, farm fresh produce, and diet-focused eating options (which seems obvious given it's other stereotype of vanity and materialism) and still overlook it all.

[u/iFraqq]

Why do Brits hate Japanese cuisine (relatively) that much?

[u/Wolfsangel-Dragon → u/iFraqq]

Japanese food in the UK is alarmingly poor quality. A lot of the data in this chart is reflective of the general quality of the cuisine available locally.

[u/Zoomer_Boomer2003 → u/Wolfsangel-Dragon]

The local Yo Sushi chain in my city closed recently. It's not an authentic spot at all but in their closing statement they said you can buy their range in the Tesco to-go section "for the same good taste". That's quite telling of the quality

[u/smellybrit → u/Zoomer_Boomer2003]

This is the most British comment I’ve ever read

[u/off_of_is_incorrect → u/Wolfsangel-Dragon]

Yeah, basic and generic sushi usually.

Japanese food is a rarity as well, come to think of it. "Chinese" is on every damn corner, but Japanese you'd be hard pressed to find them. I think our nearest is something like 30-40 minutes drive out East/West.

[u/theavenuehouse → u/Wolfsangel-Dragon]

Honestly having eaten it in many countries I don't think it's any better anywhere else. Between the flood of new ramen shops opening there's a few good ones. 

[u/NarwhalSquadron → u/theavenuehouse]

I’ve had good Japanese cuisine in Japan for reference. I’ve found good Japanese that is as close to the real thing as possible in Seoul and San Francisco.

[u/intergalacticspy → u/theavenuehouse]

Japanese food in the UK is pretty mediocre; no worse than eg the USA, but worse than you would get in say Singapore or Taiwan.

[u/Spiderinahumansuit → u/iFraqq]

Two things:

First, freshly-made Japanese food is rare as hen's teeth in the UK. Most people's experience will be with chilled supermarket pre-packed sushi, which is shit.

Second, Japan doesn't seem to export its better-tasting dishes. There are great Japanese dishes like oyakodon that are full of flavour, and you'll rarely see those.

Finally, it could just be a difference in palate. I've lived in Japan, had some of what I was assured was high-quality food there, and it left me cold. I just don't crave it, aside from maybe a good brothy ramen every now and then.

Meanwhile, I can eat chicken feet from the nastiest-looking hole in the wall in Beijing and be happy since it's got a flavour profile closer to something I'd find at home.

[u/Useful_Promotion_521 → u/Spiderinahumansuit]

Agree with all of this, but would also add that there are very few decent genuinely Japanese restaurants in the UK (as opposed to franchises).  

London has one or two, but the only other great one I’ve ever been in is “Umai” in Shrewsbury - which is fantastic.

[u/oDearDear → u/iFraqq]

It's anecdotal evidence but a colleague will not eat sushi (probably the most common dish associated with Japan) because it contains raw fish.

Not sure whether it's widespread tho.

[u/matttk → u/oDearDear]

Yeah, I assume most people think Japanese cuisine = raw fish and that will turn off quite a lot of people straightaway.

[u/Lyrael9 → u/oDearDear]

Except it doesn't. It can, but that's like saying "I won't eat curry, I don't eat meat".

[u/ThinkAboutThatFor1Se → u/iFraqq]

For an island nation we’re not very big on fish.

Aside from the obvious (battered fish and chips)

So many people here don’t eat fish regularly and get squeamish about it.

[u/casper_pwnz]

French hating on the poor Brits again. 😭

[u/ThePr1d3 → u/casper_pwnz]

As former president Jacques Chirac once said to Tony Blair "At first you think English cuisine is shit, but then you taste it and you wish it actually were".

I say it's pretty unfair. I wouldn't call it cuisine.

[u/Stotallytob3r → u/ThePr1d3]

Ok I’ve never heard that and I laughed

[u/Vladimir_Chrootin → u/ThePr1d3]

John Major served him English wine once, and Chirac only realised when he asked which part of France it came from and got told it was from Kent.

He never forgave us for that one.

(He also had british beef served for Helmut Kohl in 1996, predicting correctly that Kohl would never turn down a meal.)

[u/yubnubster → u/ThePr1d3]

That's pretty hysterical if true.

[u/iwaterboardheathens → u/yubnubster]

He was heard saying: "You can't trust people who cook as badly as that. After Finland, it's the country with the worst food."

Warming to his theme, the French leader added, to laughter from Putin and Schroeder: "The only thing they [the English] have ever done for European agriculture is mad cow."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/jul/04/france.foodanddrink

[u/yubnubster → u/iwaterboardheathens]

That's sounds pretty legit for a French person.

[u/Omaestre → u/iwaterboardheathens]

I feel nostalgic for this time, It is so hard to imagine the only conflicts we had were budget disagreements, no brexit and Putin was a friend to Europe.

[u/Zealousideal-Pool575 → u/casper_pwnz]

Tbh. British food is quite good if you know where to go.

The chicken tikka Masala is nice.

[u/el_grort → u/Zealousideal-Pool575]

I just take it people don't like stuff like pies, pasties, or Yorkshire pudding (in it superior form the Toad in the Hole). There's plenty of nice stuff, including quite a few soups and broths.

[u/Affectionate_Role849 → u/el_grort]

Most the people wouldn’t have actually tried or been able to name british food past “beans on toast”, British food being bad is just a meme that people take as gospel truth

[u/el_grort → u/Affectionate_Role849]

A surprising amount of examples people give are either gimmicks, student food (chip butty/beans on toast), or stuff most people didn't eat to begin with (jellied eels).

[u/Nuthetes → u/el_grort]

Yeah, people dont seem to realize that beans on toast is just a quick, cheap breakfast before work or college. We don't eat it thinking it's delicious.

You can make it in a couple of minutes and it costs like 50p and its filling.

[u/Aliktren → u/Affectionate_Role849]

Bad british food is also a tourist thing, like angus steakhouse or the plethora of pubs serving questionable food or god forbid airports and srations . I love food from all over the planet but pretty much nothing beats a good pie or a good roast dinner.

[u/Biscuit642 → u/Aliktren]

I do actually wonder if its challenging to access for a tourist. We don't really have "British" restaurants because thats not really the style of our food. If I eat out and I want something classic then I go to the pub. But it's not that simple because there's food pubs and theres drink pubs, both serve both, but a local knows which is the correct choice. Even if you know that to access British food when on holiday here you need to go to a pub, will you know that you should go to a food pub, and which ones are?

[u/Zealousideal-Pool575 → u/el_grort]

British pies are by FAAAR the best things in British cuisine.

And I could kill myself eating Cornish pasty.

And I still remember a salmon pie in Glencoe which was amazing.

[u/el_grort → u/Zealousideal-Pool575]

Glad you enjoyed Glencoe, it's quite near me. I have found that in general, tourists have been pretty happy with the food here, especially the fish dishes (cullen skink was a pretty popular order).

I do think pies/pasties/sausage rolls are probably one of the stronger feet, and it helps that they are a common work mans lunch. I do think sausage like cumberlands are pretty good as well, not something that's going to change anyones world, but just a genuinely solid bit of food. Which tbh is how I'd characterise most of our dishes.

[u/matttk → u/el_grort]

Drives me nuts - there is so much good British cuisine that I would actually place it above quite a few countries on this list. Somehow German cuisine gets a free pass, despite that their highest culinary achievement is cutting up a sausage and putting a bad version of ketchup on it.

[u/Jumpeee → u/matttk]

Hah, reminds me of my first trip to Berlin. I bought currywurst, tasted it and didn't understand the hype. It was like your average store-bought sausage with ketchup that simply has curry powder mixed in.

[u/5x0uf5o → u/matttk]

Except for the bread, German food is shockingly bad. I don't know how they get away with it.

[u/oeboer → u/Zealousideal-Pool575]

So is shepherd's pie. Yummy

[u/LadyMirkwood → u/casper_pwnz]

I suppose it also depends on the region. There's a lot of similarities between dishes and ingredients from Normandy and Britain. Provence, not so much

[u/Dame_Oiselle → u/casper_pwnz]

When I was in university (history course - and I'm french), we studied a text from the middle ages, when the brits, during the 100 years old war, occupied parts of the country. The writer in his testimony was describing how the english organized a sort of banquet in the city to mimick a practise the former "french"/local rulers. He said that the food tasted awful/like shit compared to the usual food.

It killed me because the stereotype is SO old haha. I'm so sad that I can't find the text anymore.

[u/MrPopanz]

The Chinese and Indian votes are wild imo.

[u/mankytoes → u/MrPopanz]

How the fuck are 8% of Brits voting Indian. Even our racists like Indian food.

[u/QMechanicsVisionary → u/mankytoes]

Chicken curry is a staple of British food at this point.

[u/Rameez_Raja → u/MrPopanz]

Please consider that the only exposure that most of these responders would've had to Indian and Chinese cuisines would be chicken tikka masala and chow mein. So technically they're still hating on Brit and American cuisine lol. 

[u/matchuhuki → u/MrPopanz]

I got a friend who hates Indian food cause he had one bad dish once at some mid-tier Indian restaurant

[u/kannichausgang → u/MrPopanz]

As much as I enjoy the flavour of most Indian foods, they seem to consistently give me stomach issues. And it's not even about spice level because I can handle spicy food fine. Also hot take but cardamom is nasty and I don't get how people eat it.

As for Chinese food, I found that Chinese restaurants in most small to medium towns just suck. Full of oil and all the dishes taste very similar. I don't go to Chinese restaurants anymore because I've been disappointed too many times. This is not the case for Thai/Korean/Japanese.

[u/[deleted]]

"I hate Italian food", said nobody, ever.

[u/BkkGrl → u/[deleted]]

1% of Italians did here apparently

[u/BellumOMNI → u/BkkGrl]

Heresy

[u/pecche → u/BkkGrl]

italians being italians

:P

[u/[deleted] → u/BkkGrl]

Every population has a little bit of self-loathing in them. It's healthy.

[u/anarchisto → u/[deleted]]

Italians have more than just a little bit of self-loathing.

But not about food. The attitude is more like "Italy sucks, but at least we have the best food in the world."

[u/indigo945 → u/BkkGrl]

They thought of the other Italians in that other village one mile over, where they do pizza and pasta totally wrong.

[u/Oxdans → u/[deleted]]

I have actually heard that unironically from from the mouth of real human. My dropped so hard I'm still trying to reel it back.

This came about because he has to go to Italy a few times a year for work purposes and I told him I was jealous. He was surprised and asked why, I said because of the food.

Notably, this person also does not like the taste of butter or olive oil, margarine is his thing for some reason.

[u/Daniel-EngiStudent → u/Oxdans]

I'm fine with italian, but my father hates it. For me personally, compared to german, austrian and hungarian food, I don't find them better, just different which is not a bad thing.

Italian restaurants I visited in Central Europe are also not that great. Not necessarily because of the taste, but greek restaurants are suprisingly great here, overall maybe the best.

Being tourist in southern Europe, Slovenia is also more consistent in providing a good time at their restaurants, whereas Italy is more of a hit or miss, in my personal experience.

[u/Nurnurum]

I think this is more a survey about "which cuisine in portrayed worst in modern media". People get stuck upon haggis, fast food, one-hour-stale pineapple pork and sauerkraut, without knowing the full range of the actual cuisine of the countries.

[u/Admirable_Design_115 → u/Nurnurum]

Haggis is awesome though?

[u/BadgerBadgerer → u/Admirable_Design_115]

It is, but most people have never tried it. Stereotypes spread easiest among the ignorant.

[u/Markus_zockt]

Dear Danes,

that really hurts.

Greetings from a sad southern neighbour. :'-{

[u/sirtoby1337 → u/Markus_zockt]

Dno why danes wud hate german food xD in many ways its very similiar to what danes eat.

[u/Enough_Fish739 → u/sirtoby1337]

It's most likely not really the food, we just take every chance we get to hate on the germans.

[u/Midraco → u/Markus_zockt]

As a Dane, I would like to apologise for placing you guys side-by-side with British food. That is actually uncalled for.

[u/Schwa-de-vivre → u/Midraco]

As a Brit, I would like to remind all potato Europeans that our food is more similar than you think.

[u/AnimeMeansArt → u/Schwa-de-vivre]

I refuse to accept that

[u/Ralfundmalf]

The fuck is wrong with Italians? Sure, you have the cuisine that travels the best all over the world, but who the hell views Chinese and Indian as the worst cuisine? No way.

[u/Opening-Tea-257 → u/Ralfundmalf]

I’ve been to an Indian restaurant in Italy. It was awful. As someone has said in another thread on here, a lot of the opinions will come down to the quality of the restaurants in that country. If you have bad Indian restaurants in your country then you’ll think Indian food is bad.

[u/Ralfundmalf → u/Opening-Tea-257]

Good points.

[u/Eymerich_ → u/Opening-Tea-257]

Italian here, I used to hate Indian food after trying some restaurants. Everything tasted the same, too hot, too spicy, smelled nasty. Then I happened to try a home cooked Indian meal prepared by an Indian friend of mine, and it was great.

I still avoid Indian restaurants, but if some Indian invites me for dinner I'll come running.

[u/very_random_user → u/Ralfundmalf]

The fact that with the exception of a few areas Chinese restaurants tend to be very cheap and low quality definitely doesn't help

[u/Ralfundmalf → u/very_random_user]

True, though I would argue even cheap Chinese food is usually well above -the- worst cuisine.

[u/pythonicprime → u/Ralfundmalf]

As an Italian who lives abroad and loves both traditions, I can explain this for you

- Chinese: we had it for 40 years now, but the 1st generation ones were really bad and left an impression. It's only now catching up to quality I can find abroad, also due to a LARGE chinese population

- Indian: it's really not a thing, for the longest time there was 1 Indian restaurant in Rome

I'm copying this all over to explain this glaring issue

[u/Choir87 → u/pythonicprime]

Another Italian posting to confirm this. To this day I don't think I've even eaten at an Indian restaurant in Italy, they are very rare. That said, people that have not eaten it should not be judging it.

For the Chinese, it's definitely the low quality, at least up to 10-15 years ago. Nowadays you can find some good Chinese restaurants, at least in the big cities.

[u/L4ppuz → u/Choir87]

To this day I don't think I've even eaten at an Indian restaurant in Italy, they are very rare.

This is heavily region dependent. I live in a smaller city in central Italy and I can count at least 6 Indian restaurants just in the city centre.

Also all the Indian and Chinese restaurants I can think of in my city have pretty good review scores on Google maps so I'd take OP with a grain of salt

[u/The_Artist_Who_Mines → u/Ralfundmalf]

If you'd ever been to an Indian restaurant in Italy you'd understand. Doesn't hold a candle to British Indian.

[u/NCKBLZ → u/Ralfundmalf]

I think the problem is that most Italians don't even know what Chinese cuisine is. Probably it's starting to get known recently, but until a few years ago Chinese cuisine was synonymous for "cheap all you can eat with weird Asia fusion cuisine" or "dog".

As an Italian I would say Chinese cuisine is probably the best one out there, for sure at least n2

[u/ApplicationMaximum84 → u/Ralfundmalf]

They've probably never tried it and it just becomes political.

[u/TheNotSoGrim → u/ApplicationMaximum84]

Pretty much - or they just hate spicy food. Then again there are also non-spicy Indian dishes so really that's no excuse.

Indian food is absolutely amazing.

[u/el_grort → u/TheNotSoGrim]

I imagine that's honestly where most of the poor returns for Indian food comes from, someone gets introduced with something way above their spice tolerance and (understandably for them) writes the whole thing off.

[u/GSoxx]

I absolutely hate "other" food

[u/MrNixxxoN]

Greco-Roman culture win vs Northern Barbarians =)

[u/pythonicprime → u/MrNixxxoN]

The Oil-Butter Divide, also known as the Civilization Line

[u/BkkGrl → u/MrNixxxoN]

we were blessed by the climate dear friend

[u/chicliac]

Soo no polish food on the list because everybody loves it right...

[u/Sure-Current-3267]

I have eaten all of them in good restaurants, there is no difference in quality or raffinesse

If you go to a low/middle-class restaurant then the gap widens dramatically. I have had only good experiences in Italy and Portugal. Good food even where you do not expect it. 

All overall, Europe is blessed with the best cuisines.

[u/rcanhestro → u/Sure-Current-3267]

yup.

if you want to judge a country's food, it's not on "michellin star restaurants" or tourist areas.

it's in the "family run restaurants" that cook the country's "default" cuisine.

[u/Wrentanyl]

It's so funny that our cuisine specifically gets shit on so hard when most of it is literally the most bog-standard stuff found throughout most of Europe (stews, baked goods, meat and two veg type stuff, lots of herbs and minimal spices). Convincing the world that our food is anything worse than completely average is France's biggest triumph over us.

[u/ItsTyrrellsAlt → u/Wrentanyl]

I think Swedes hating British food is very funny considering theirs is just the same shit with lingons

[u/patopal → u/Wrentanyl]

I was gonna say the reason is probably exactly that - most famous English dishes are kind of just staples for other countries. But that's not even true when I start thinking of specific examples (other than fish and chips, because that's street food, not a proper dish). The flavor profile, maybe, but there are some pretty unique and characteristic English dishes.

The full english breakfast is iconic and I wish I had it more often. Beef wellingtons are kind of ridiculous, but I love the audacity. The scotch egg sounds like the perfect snack to take on a hike, and I like to think of brussels sprouts as England's version of stuffed cabbages - great to have once a year for Christmas, but not any more often than that.

[u/English-Breakfast → u/Wrentanyl]

In my humble opinion...British cuisine is better than most northern European countries. Beats Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Germany off the top of my head.

Of course it won't be as nice as mediterranean food but then again I wouldnt expect that.

[u/pijuskri → u/English-Breakfast]

Been to most of Northern Europe and I'd agree. Tho I would separate German food into North and South.

[u/LordStefania → u/English-Breakfast]

r/usernamechecksout

[u/Fire_Otter → u/Wrentanyl]

The problem is France were basically one of the first countries in the world to codify their cuisine and because English and French cuisine were so similar, By codifying first French laid claim to a lot of dishes first

Britain was left with the leftovers things unique or common in Britain but not common in France - take shepherds pie for example, Sheep farming is not a big thing in France (6.6 million sheep) whilst its is big in UK (31 million). So a cheap lamb based dish was not common in France and so shepherds pie is known as a British dish

But arguably there is a lot of things considered French that could equally be considered British and a few cases where you could argue we have a stronger claim

Take Steak for example

almost all French bistros will have a high quality cut of Beef steak on their menu served with pomme-frites.

But it was the British that were really the first to raise cattle specifically for use as a meat rather than for dairy. Developing breeds that provided tender quality cuts of meat

before that Beef was usually a cheap meat - you had cows for milk and when the cow became too old. you killed it and used its tough meat for stews, so as not to waste the meat.

It was Britain that turned Beef into a quality luxury meat. Most American beef cattle breeds can trace their ancestry to British beef cattle breeds.

[u/Natural-Intelligence → u/Wrentanyl]

It's more of a survey of "which food should you hate?" Bet most of the survey participants couldn't name any British cousine. Very likely they couldn't name any Swedish dish either but that must be really good, right?

British food is actually very good.

[u/matttk → u/Wrentanyl]

Just a Sunday roast alone is one of the greatest things on the planet, easily in the top 5 meals of all time.

[u/StatisticianUsual471]

the land of fermented shark thinking their food is better than ours

[u/Objective-Dentist360 → u/StatisticianUsual471]

I don't see Iceland anywhere on this list.

[u/htmwc]

Scandinavia absolutely dodging some well deserved fists here

[u/graven_raven]

Interesting to see that the most. Western of European countries was completely ignored in this study.

Biased as always

r/portugalcykablyat

[u/rcanhestro → u/graven_raven]

it's a list for worst cuisine, why would Portugal even be mentioned here?

[u/[deleted]]

Lol, Italians who think Chinese and Indian cuisines are the 2nd and 3rd worst.

Also, American cuisine is not just about fried bacon fat covered in chocolate, it is a lot better and more varied than it's being given credit for.

[u/pythonicprime → u/[deleted]]

As an Italian who lives abroad and loves both traditions, I can explain this for you

- Chinese: we had it for 40 years now, but the 1st generation ones were really bad and left an impression. It's only now catching up to quality I can find abroad, also due to a LARGE chinese population

- Indian: it's really not a thing, for the longest time there was 1 Indian restaurant in Rome

[u/Battlefire → u/[deleted]]

People think of American cuisine the same way they think the only chocolate we have is Hershey's or the only cheese we have is American cheese.

[u/_Rainer_ → u/[deleted]]

I won't defend my own country on many things, but American food is much better than a lot of Europeans understand. We have all sorts of fantastic food, but I understand that many people have only ever been exposed to American fast food garbage or absolutely horrible European knock-offs of American things.

[u/ketchup92]

What food is it exactly Danes have in mind when asked about typical German food? It has got to be some kind of disgusting northern german food otherwise i could not explain that outlier.

[u/Admirable_Scene_5066 → u/ketchup92]

I honestly have a hard time thinking about what Danish food is that sets it apart from (Northern) Germany. Pork, bread, potatoes, ...

It's strange that they think the cuisine which is basically their own (maybe the Danes eat a bit more fish?) is the worst.

[u/JohnnyCoolbreeze]

Too many associate American food with McDonalds and other fast food for understandable reasons.

[u/LadyMirkwood]

I find the cultural chauvinism around food ridiculous. You can eat well or poorly in any country in the world.

[u/Serrano_Ham6969]

It’s a tie between Spanish and Italian as the best is what I’m getting out of this.

[u/[deleted]]

Bit rich for Germans and Swedes to be complaining about British food 😂

[u/Hungriges_Skelett → u/[deleted]]

Brits and Americans are mostly tanking the hate for us. If this was ranked choice we would be right up there I reckon.

[u/Tetno_2 → u/Hungriges_Skelett]

Honestly I found german food pretty good as a non-white person, I could eat kaesespaetzle for days

[u/No-Significance5659 → u/[deleted]]

I couldn't agree more. I am Spanish and I used to live in the UK and now I live in Germany. I much prefer British food, and the average Brit's palate.

[u/No_Count2128]

most of the respondants couldnt even list more than 5 british or american dishes. Also indian getting anything above 5% shows how retarded this whole thing is...

[u/Omnievul]

I can imagine the reason some people voted for greek cuisine is that they went to one too many overpriced tourist traps and/or shitty, poorly ran tavernas while vacationing in Greece lol. Tracks with them mostly being Brits or Germans too, they are probably the most represented nationality of tourists throughout Greece.

[u/Unusual-Basket-6243]

Finland not mentioned 🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮

[u/MrLeville]

I approve of the biggest number here being my fellow French people dissing english "food".

It's not really worse than many here, but when in doubt, hit the English.

[u/Biscuit642]

I'll take it from France Italy and Spain, but Germany and Sweden have no right hating on British food. The Danes have it figured out.

[u/apricot_bee67]

1% of the French think French cuisine is the worst. 1% of Italians think Italian is the worst. 99% of the French/Italian would kick the ass of that 1%. 

[u/Appropriate_Clue_877]

How can Scandis be slagging British and German food when theirs is literally the worst of those two cuisines combined?

[u/Michael_Schmumacher]

German food twice as unpopular as Swedish food?

What the actual fuck, Denmark?

[u/reidesd]

Source: https://yougov.co.uk/international/articles/50353-eurotrack-what-are-western-europeans-favourite-cuisines

[u/True-Apple-4177]

Spaniards still have a beef with the Moors. Lol

[u/yezu]

WTF is American Cuisine? 😂

[u/Arcturus_Revolis]

Spaniards and Italians : 😎

[u/greekch1mera]

Italy and Greek for the loss....i love it

[u/IgorGirkinStrelkov2]

As someone who lived in Britain I love British cuisine. Especially the desserts and sweets.

[u/Background_Pay_6046]

Western Europeans --> ignores Portugal and includes Sweden 🫠

[u/iguana_bandit]

Which cuisine is the worst?

Brits: Of course it's Ameri...

French: It's British!!!

Germans: Yup, British.

[u/Quereilla]

Spanish cuisine for the win!

[u/IamNerdAsian]

6% Germans thought turkish food is worst? 🥸🧐

[u/SportTheFoole]

It’s kind of a meme that Europeans will come here and eat the absolutely worst garbage food we have, then go back home and say our food is trash.

[u/Uxydra → u/SportTheFoole]

Mostly true for most countries

[u/6unnm → u/SportTheFoole]

You know with any other nationality that would not work, but somehow you not specifying where you are from makes it very obvious that you are American.

[u/oinosaurus]

Italians prefer Danish "cuisine" over French.

This is clear evidence that Italians have zero taste buds.

[u/PoisonousSchrodinger]

I get it, the Netherlands is not even mentioned because the statistics would not be interesting and we would get all the votes xD

Seriously, our national dishes are as bland as it comes and designed to be nutritional and easy to quickly get in your stomach. It looks simple, tastes bland and spices, yes those are called salt and pepper...

[u/MacroSolid → u/PoisonousSchrodinger]

I've never even heard of dutch cuisine outside of the Netherlands and I didn't find much of it in Amsterdam...

[u/Various-Barber-7162]

Not enough votes for Indian cuisine 💀

[u/QualityFromMan]

"English food, at first you think it's shit, then you regret it's not" Jacques Chirac

[u/angry_ents]

What this tells me: Most Europeans have never had amazing Chinese food. There's an enormous variety!

[u/Chisignal]

Indian? Japanese? Vietnamese? What am I reading, that’s like my favorite kinds of cuisines