You need a great deal of creativity, the right ingredients and knowledge in the kitchen to present a decent meal. Whether dining at a restaurant or hosting guests at home, serving a dish that rises to the occasion can be a challenge. These Reddit users shared images of food fails that fell short of expectations, and definitely needed a do-over!
Lettuce Sandwich
The sandwich features lettuce, tomato, jalapeño slices, and a yellow sauce, but Reddit user semideadinside apparently thought those ingredients were enough on their own. Maybe two slices of bread with a piece of meat would make it better. A reply from user ppickledplum mentioned: “Add some ham or salami and I’m sold.” It’s a simple example of how food fails can sometimes be fixed with just a few extra ingredients.
Failed Oatmeal Cookies
These oatmeal cookies are overcooked and look like they would be hard to digest in that state. Reddit user [borrado] shared this image showing how a roommate thought oatmeal cookies were just oatmeal you put in the oven to cook; this was the result. A reply from user [borrado] mentioned: “Mash up a banana and mix it with Quaker Oats. Then put it in the oven at 350°F for 15 minutes.” These food fails show that can happen when a recipe is misunderstood.
Pot Roasted
This image looks like anything but food, but Reddit user CrimsonNeko96 stated that it is a pot roast made at his workplace. A reply from user Mehchu_ mentioned: “Honestly, I’m more confused than anything else. I don’t think I could make that if I tried. Did he pre burn everything by roasting them then put them in the cooker?” It’s certainly one of the strangest food fails in the collection.
Cold HotDog Pie
The combination of a hot dog with sauces like ketchup and mustard works wonders, but only if it is hot. Reddit user MacroPirate shared a pie that a coworker brought to work; it was cold and contained sausages. He revealed: “A buddy of mine made this for the work potluck, and I thought he wouldn’t do it. He made this pie from blended hot dogs and garnished it with ketchup, mustard, and relish.” This unusual combination makes for one of the memorable food fails.
Sonic The Hedgehog Hot Dogs
Sonic the hedgehog hot dogs are made by cooking a thick, savory meat chili and simmering the hot dog right in the sauce before placing it in a toasted bun, that is what gives them their distinctive color. However, the dish shared by Reddit user Funee3 looks anything but appetizing, featuring green hot dogs and blue toppings that appear to be onions. This certainly is one of the unusual food fails.
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Failed Brownies
Reddit user yutuyurika shared this image of a completely burnt brownie cake prepared by a friend at work. According to the user, despite following the recipe step-by-step, the friend had spilled the leavening agent. Alternatively, the issue could have been a combination of incorrect temperature and the baking pan being too cold. These were the user’s hypotheses, and another of the memorable food fails.
Vienna Sausages Cake
Reddit user [borrado] revealed that the inside of this savory dish, which looks like a cake, is Libby’s Vienna sausages, barely visible beneath the thick layers of pasta. He also mentioned: “It was surprisingly solid, even the leaky bits. I let it sit too long in a hot water bath before transferring it to the plate.” Certainly, it’s another of the food fails.
Quick Dinner
This diner sandwich shared by Reddit user INKatana was made by his friend and consisted of sourdough bread, lettuce, cheese, cucumber, chocolate, tomatoes, and Skagen, a creamy Swedish shrimp salad. User staermose80 explained: “This is a danish dish, where you put chocolate sheets on bread, and many Danes will have a near religious view on whether the chocolate should be of the milk or dark variation.” This strange combination makes another of the food fails.
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Eggs Cake
This image shows egg yolks arranged in a circle inside a ring-shaped mold, along with egg whites, to cook a continuous ring of cooked egg. A reply from user jeremebearime expressed: “I could see this being delicious if there were omelette fixings in it. Would still be weird though, but amusingly weird rather than questioningly weird.” It may look strange, but not every one of these food fails is necessarily inedible.
Christmas Pizza
This dish might confuse a lot of people, as it is a pizza Reddit user Imatworkgoaway shared when the themed event “favorite traditional holiday dish” occurred at his work-place. To fit the holiday theme, he added mushrooms and peppers, along with green dye mixed into shredded cheese to create the shape of a Christmas tree on top. This is one of the unusual examples of food fails.
Chili Dog
With all the hot dog variations that exist across the United States, and so many cities within each state preparing their own signature toppings, this is a truly strange one. The user mentioned: “One coworker brought the beans, while another the hot dogs, but they hadn’t thought about how they were going to heat them, so we put the beans and the sausages together.”
Caesar Salad For $15
Reddit user ThisssBabe shared an image of the dish he ordered from a local restaurant near his home. He stated that he ordered a Caesar salad that cost $15, and this was what he received. It looks like a quick meal to throw together when you don’t have much food in the fridge and simply put whatever is edible into a container. A reply from user NoGnome mentioned: “It’s deconstructed for a unique eating experience.” Whatever the intention, it looks like one of those food fails that leaves customers wondering what they ordered.
Weirdest Gelatin
This gelatin was made with beans, onions, and pistachios, four elements that should never be combined in the same dish. A reply from Reddit user [borrado] jokingly mentioned: “This will only be funny if you have real food after presenting the ‘joke’ food, otherwise I hope you are forced to eat this.”
Boiled Hot Dogs in Red Cabbage
This dish is truly bizarre: boiled sausages have been skewered with long toothpicks, with the other ends stuck into a round red cabbage. The sausages themselves are ready to eat, but the unusual presentation leaves it unclear how they are meant to be eaten with the cabbage. Cabbage is usually eaten raw in salads or cooked in stir-fries, stews, and roasts.
Roasted Chicken
Reddit user jokingly mentioned that this chicken somehow ended up as a completely burnt roast. Whoever cooked this meat dish surely forgot it inside or miscalculated the relationship between cooking time and the required oven temperature. In any case, that dish should go straight into the trash.
Conclusion
These dishes are truly surprising and bizarre. They range from items that don’t even look like food, such as pretzel sticks made to resemble cigarettes, to others requiring little effort, like the Christmas pizza, and complete failures, like the burnt brownie. It can happen to anyone, but the mishap certainly leaves you with a funny story to tell.
