Food can be a very emotional topic. A cozy, home-cooked meal that your mother made for you as a child can immediately fill you with comfort and nostalgia, while a simple, cold sandwich might remind you of your days as a student, forced to eat as budget-friendly as possible. 

But regardless of what we like to eat, we all have at least one controversial opinion about food that we might keep to ourselves, for fear of judgment from others. Redditors have recently been opening up about their most unpopular culinary opinions, so we’ve gathered some of the hottest takes down below. Enjoy reading through these opinions that might get you heated, and be sure to upvote the ones that you secretly agree with!

#1

It really is okay to put ketchup on a hot dog.

Image credits: R0botDreamz

#2

The "pineapple on pizza is just wrong" argument is b******t. Eat whatever combination of food tastes good to you. I don't like country music but I don't give a damn if YOU do.

#3

Hard tacos are actively unpleasant and a terrible vehicle for otherwise good food.

Image credits: FlanneurInFlannel

To find out how this conversation started in the first place, we reached out to Reddit user Deathbykoolaidman, who invited others to share their unpopular opinions about food. In their post, the OP noted that they despise pickles and that they refuse to use ketchup as an ingredient in a recipe (though they will eat it as a condiment).

As far as what inspired Deathbykoolaidman to start this thread, they told Bored Panda, "I was just curious. I had been hated on for my pickle opinion by many people and wanted to see what other crazy food opinions the people of the internet had."

I have to admit that I always hated pickles too until I was about 18 years old, so I can sympathize!

#4

Not every dish is improved by a block of cream cheese. Looking at you, TikTok cooks. .

Image credits: azemilyann26

#5

I think raw onions are disgusting. Eating raw onions in the office is a sign of hostility, IMO. I love them cooked, though. It's weird.

Image credits: Munchkin_Media

We also asked the OP if they had any other controversial opinions about food, aside from hating pickles and refusing to cook with ketchup. "I prefer cake with either very little, or no frosting at all," they shared. "It’s sickly sweet, gets stuck in my mouth and makes your hands messy. Perfectly good cupcakes get overpowered when giant dollops of frosting are piled on the top."

#6

Culture war b******t on food is nonsense. I should be allowed to abstain from or add condiments on basic food like burgers or hot dogs. The people who get legitimately angry over this are guaranteed to be a******s in every other aspect of life.

#7

Truffle flavour ruins food. Truffle fries, truffle oil on pizza. It’s supposed to be fancy and elevate meals but truffle anything tastes worse than without truffle

Image credits: Brilliant-Number6188

As far as why people are so passionate about their food opinions, Deathbykoolaidman says it's only natural. "Of course you’ll think your opinion is right! It’s like how everybody insists their grandma made the best cookies or apple pie," they explained. "You grew up with it, so you’ll assume it’s the only right answer. However, some people got very angry over other peoples opinions, and it’s like, just let people live!"

#8

Oysters on the half shell are not luscious. They are like eating snot.

#9

I don’t understand the hype about avocado.

The taste, the texture, the color. It’s all horrible to me.

I can maybe get behind guacamole, if properly done and there’s no chunks of avocado in there, but otherwise, please just keep it far from me.

Image credits: M0ONL1GHT87

We also asked the OP what they thought about the responses to their post. "Some of the answers shocked me, although I’m not sure what I expected, as it was meant for unpopular opinions," they shared. "Lots of people noted their dislike for steak, which is my favorite food."

#10

Authenticity doesn’t matter. Nothing is authentic. Everything has been and will be adapted to fit local availability and taste. Authenticity is a way for people to pretend like they know something about a culture or place and seem “cool”.

For most dishes you’ll can ask a dozen people in the original area how they make it and you’ll get a dozen answers.

Image credits: ScipioAfricanvs

#11

Most sweet desserts, especially in the US, actually have far too much sugar which overpowers the complexity of flavours. Icing sugar is particularly nasty in this regard. You don't need it.

"Many others said they felt the same way i did about pickles with raw onions, which shocked me because raw is the only way i will eat onions," Deathbykoolaidman continued.

"Others did in fact get personally offended by my pickle opinion, as expected. One user told me to 'stop being a little baby and eat it,'" they added with a laugh. "Never thought someone disliking pickles would garner that strong of a response, but to each their own!"

#12

Chili is just a spice. Like most spices, it works great in certain types of dishes, but can ruin others. Your ability to stomach various chilis or hot sauces is not that interesting, and far from enough to serve as a corner stone of a personality.

We never hear people obsess about sage, nutmeg, star anise, or dill, but with chili it’s a different story.

#13

Miracle whip does not belong on sandwiches.

We hope you're enjoying scrolling through these unpopular opinions, pandas! Keep upvoting the ones you can't help but agree with, and let us know even more of your hot takes down below. Then, if you're interested in checking out a Bored Panda list discussing food trends people hate, we recommend reading this article next!

#14

I hate bow shaped pasta! It pisses me off! It’s so stupid! There I said it! God I feel so good now, I’m off for a swim with my new found ability to breath after I got that off my chest!

Image credits: Questionofloyalty

#15

pickles ruin food for me. to me, they’re just crunchy vinegar and i can’t even stand the smell of them, let alone taste. they ruin burgers and sandwiches for me, because it makes everything else taste like pickle. if i order something that has pickles i have to order it with no pickles. i can’t even just take them off myself, which i do with other food i don’t like that come on my orders. i’ll still get the essence of pickle on my taste buds

Image credits: deathbykoolaidman

#16

A lot of people massively conflate spicy food with seasoned food and some people who *love* spicy food cannot taste most of what they cook anymore other than heat so their food has no actual flavor other than burning.

#17

Soda is overrated. Carbonation is annoying. Its not even a top 10 beverage.

Image credits: eyepocalypse

#18

Deep fried anything is better with malt vinegar.

#19

The biggest problem with home cooking is that very few people add enough salt. It's not about making it salty, it's about enhancing the flavours. When I eat in other people's houses or in restaurants I never add salt until I taste it first. I love when I don't need to reach for or add salt and 100% of the times when I think it doesn't require salt, no one else mentions anything about it being too salty but instead raves about how amazing it is. If I do end up adding salt to a dish after it has been served to me,in public, I get nothing but comments from other people about how I eat far too much salt.

#20

I can’t stand the flavor of Hershey syrup or its imitators. Anything chocolate made with chocolate syrup, it’s very obvious and not good at all.

Image credits: Procedure-Loud

#21

The pickle thing was me like 5 years ago.

I went 40 years of my life hating f*****g pickles. No kind of pickled vegetable. It was gross as hell to me. If a pickle was even on food, it ruined it for me, but I accidentally ate them plenty of times. Hated em every time.

One day, a restaurant gave me the wrong order, gave me a bunch of cheeseburgers extra mustard and pickles, I was already home, and hungry as hell...so I ate them. And they were really, really good. And I've been slowly acquiring more of a taste for pickles since.

Food is weird man.

#22

Soggy bread texture is pretty good. I love to soak peanut butter sandwiches in milk.

Image credits: RevDrMavPHD

#23

Pepperoni does not belong on pizza. The flavor overpowers all other flavors so that you only taste pepperoni.

Image credits: NesnayDK

#24

I refuse to cook anything that includes ketchup in the recipe. I can use ketchup as a dip for many things. but as soon as it's listed as an ingredient? can’t stand it

Image credits: deathbykoolaidman

#25

I prefer boneless chicken wings. They’re just easier to eat.

#26

I’ll never understand people who get so up in arms about how other people get their steak cooked. I personally wouldn’t get my steak well done but I sure don’t give af if someone else does…I’m not eating it; it’s not my food. Who cares.

#27

Picky eaters shouldn't be coddled. Especially adults whose diets are similar to what you'd find on a kid's menu at a restaurant.

#28

Liking MSG doesn't make you special.

#29

When pancakes, waffles, or French toast get saturated with syrup, the texture is disgusting. These foods are far better topped with something less likely to absorb, such as peanut butter, jam, whipped cream, or Nutella.

Image credits: notreallylucy

#30

I like boring, soggy, steamed/boiled frozen vegetables. There. I said it.

Image credits: Kycb

#31

Cauliflower rice is the same mealy mouth feel as a red delicious apple.

#32

There should be enough garnish on a dish to have some in every single bite.

#33

Al dente pasta. I want that s**t cooked.

Image credits: justletlanadoit

#34

I don’t care for tomatoes on sandwiches only because it makes the bread soggy and there is nothing worse than soggy bread for your sandwich

Image credits: Smith801

#35

I love grating fresh parm for most dishes but sometimes that chump Kraft stuff just hits the spot.

#36

Jarred garlic is fine actually.

#37

I cannot stand ziti. There’s zero texture, nothing holding the sauce on, nothing to make it interesting. Its just a slimy noodle that slides around.

#38

Authentic Neapolitan style pizza is overrated. It’s a soupy soggy mess with little to no texture. You can’t eat it by hand because it falls apart. Those little bits of cheese pull off the pizza with every bite leaving the next bite just tomato and bread. The best Neapolitan compared to the worst isn’t far off. They’re almost all the same.

#39

Baking's not that hard and the degree to which it's an exact science is wildly overrated. Unless you're a professional it's just unlikely you'll ever get a comparable amount of baking experience vs cooking such that you can improvise. The major tricky difference is just that there's no trying the product partway through to know if you're on the right track. But there's plenty of reasonable leeway if you know what you're doing.

#40

Berries and chocolate don't belong together. Strawberries dipped in chocolate for example. The one is fresh and juicy the other has to melt in your mouth be enjoyed.

#41

The entire 'no such thing as too much garlic '

But maybe that's cause I cannot digest garlic and onions so I have a reason to be grumpy about it.

I don't dump on others about it though! I'm jealous I miss garlic cheese bread!

#42

Raisins are gross lol.

#43

Pepper doesn't deserve to share the spotlight with salt.

#44

Smash burgers are aight but foodie culture has pushed the smashing too far making it the BBL of burger shapes  

People follow Kenji's word like gospel to the point where it actually runs counter to his sciencey food nerd spirit  

Chipotle is better than many and possibly the majority of hole in the wall Mexican places 

Ketchup is fine on hot dogs and the Chicago people who disdain it are boring .

#45

I think pizza is overrated and not that great.

Image credits: keIIzzz

#46

Everyone ive ever met gets REALLY upset when i say i dont like peanut butter. its not entirely true, as i like peanut butter in a single application: peanut butter and pickle sandwiches. which they think im unhinged for. apparently its a common pregnancy craving. i think i just crave it because i have a chronic salt deficiency, unless ive been pregnant for (checks notes) 8 years. i also dont like chocolate very much at all. white chocolate is better.

anyway, as someone who is a fiend for pickles, i never get upset when someone doesnt like pickles. it just means more for me!

#47

I feel the way you feel about pickle about tomatoes *specifically* on sandwiches. I like tomato. I can pop cherry tomatoes as a snack. But NOTHING ruins a sandwich for me more than sliced tomato on it. Now it’s all I can taste, none of the meats, cheeses or spreads; just wet overwhelming tomato flavor.

#48

I love love love candy corn.

#49

I cannot stand using Brioche Buns on burgers.

#50

I am a tomato snob, I don’t put them on anything unless they come from my garden in July and August. Otherwise it’s just a mealy red thing that tastes vaguely like tomato water.

#51

I can’t stand macaroni and cheese.

#52

Mint chocolate chip ice cream is one of the worst flavors out there. That is a hill I WILL die on.

Image credits: 16RabidCats

#53

Italian food is some of the easiest food to cook, Italians i think make it sound hard because they’re not very good.

#54

Melons ruin everything they come into contact with. Everything smells and tastes like the melon and I will refuse to eat any fruit that touches it. Watermelon on the other hand is delicious. Unless, of course, it comes into contact with cantaloupe or honeydew. (Those are the 2 types I'm familiar with, maybe another variety would taste better to me).

#55

Pancakes, waffles, and french toast aren't meant to be a regular meal, They're a dessert.

Image credits: Lobsterfest911

#56

I don't understand why people are obsessed with pasta and bread. I'll eat it, but I don't lose my mind over it.

#57

I think bacon ruins things.

#58

Beef and steak in particular is overrated. It is something that just has enough flavours to not offend people.


There are sooo many other options that are for more interesting .

#59

Cereal is better eaten without milk,milk just ruins it imo.

Banana are best eaten well baked into something like banana bread or pudding.Banana alone make me nausea.

#60

Green apple is the worst flavored jolly rancher.