The Oddest Things Restaurants Use For Serving Food – Not Including Plates

We love going out to eat at restaurants, and whenever we do, we’re instantly drawn to the strangest dish on the menu. Being an adventurous foodie has its ups, downs, and definite questionable moments. While there is a long list of red flags to look out for, no one can exactly predict when they’ll receive food served on random things.

We’ve all become begrudgingly accustomed to dishes served on slabs of wood. In fact, social media signal boosts weird trends, and restaurants tend to catch on. It turns out that planks being used as plates were just the beginning.

Blocks of salt, like the pink Himalayan salt slabs mined in Pakistan, are also popular platters for serving and chilling foods. The solid bars can be placed directly on a stove for heating. Moreover, they don’t melt and can double as the perfect frying pan for eggs, shrimp, and thin slices of beef.

From shovels to sinks, here’s are some of the oddest things restaurants use to serve their food.

A Spot Of Skateboard

Skateboards have a very clear, almost singular purpose; they’re for skateboarding. However, this restaurant decided to repurpose the four-wheel board.

How?

The establishment serves yuca fries at the end of various skateboard. It looks cool, but looks aren’t everything when it comes to food and sanitation.

“All I can think about is dirty Vans standing on this before it got to me,” one Reddit user wrote.

While another user identified the potential culprit, Santa Salsa, a Venezualan street food truck in Brooklyn, NY.

The restaurant isn’t alone, though.

Other restaurants use entire skateboards to serve meals. And one Redditor renamed the dish a “plateboard,”

Served On Antlers

Reddit user, Biolobri14 encountered “Venison scrapple… jabbed onto antlers.” And luckily, they captured a snapshot of the incredible food moment.

Don’t think the diner didn’t question the dinnerware choice, though.

They also asked, “I can’t stop thinking about how they clean and store [the antlers] in the kitchen.”

And the antlers aren’t the only interesting thing about the dish.

Venison scrapple is a mixture of cornmeal and venison leftovers that’s fried until golden brown. “I’ve never seen scrapple at any place other than a greasy spoon diner,” another user commented.

But they weren’t fickle.

“I’d love to try this fancy pants scrapple, with or without a plate,” the poster continued.

While this curious diner’s interest was piqued, others weren’t quite as impressed.

“I threw up in my mouth a little…” Redditor Diegocamp wrote.

Fighting Form

If you’ve ever wondered what a fight between churros and dipping sauces would look like, it’s your lucky day.

One restaurant showed us the vision.

And this Redditor posted a photo of their delicious dessert in fighting form.

“And in the blue corner… weighing in at approximately 6 ounces… EL CHUUUUURROOO!”

People didn’t seem too disappointed to forego a plate for this spectacular serving situation. It’s actually a miniature wrestling ring.

And one person had a particularly strong endorsement.

“F*ck plates,” jdiezel10 wrote.”I want every meal [served] in this.”

Foodie Kicks

Over the last few years, expensive sneakers have become habitual purchases for fashion connoisseurs. They’re like a style obsession.

And some sneakerheads don’t even walk outside in their most coveted pairs.

But what would you do if a pair of sneakers ended up at your dinner table?

Some diners had to figure that out very quickly.

In fact, a Las Vegas, NV, restaurant serves one of its signature dishes in a glass shoe.

And, no, there aren’t any other Cinderella vibes at the establishment.

At Bazaar Meat by José Andrés, the croquetas de pollo (or deep-fried and breaded chicken-bechamel fritters) are the stars of the show.

One might say the croquetas receive the royalty treatment.

Moreover, Bazaar Meat was so committed to showmanship that they used to present the dish in an actual shoe. That was until the state’s health department put an end to it.

Reddit wasn’t impressed, though.

“[I] would send these back,” wrote Reddit user Unlimiteddarkpaths.

French Kissing Gazpacho

Would you french kiss a dish? Well if you order one particular gazpacho with strawberries, rhubarb, and tomato you might have to.

The presentation leaves little to the imagination.

Served on a silicon model of a real human tongue, the gazpacho arrives with interesting instruction. In fact, the chef has a specific request for all of the diners.

We’re not sure how necessary it is.

But anyone who orders the gazpacho is asked to lick the food from the tongue. If you’re squeamish or just dining with your parents, this might not be the dish for you.

And that’s not the only surprising thing on the menu.

The Alchemist, a Copenhagen restaurant responsible for this creation, has many other specialties.

And one reviewer detailed his dining experience at the restaurant for Food and Wine.

They noted:

A human head cast from silicone with real eyebrow hair is set in front of me. Inside the “head,” which I open like a box, is a dish of lamb brain that’s salted and steamed, then coated with cherry sauce and served atop a cherry meringue with onion marmalade.”

Plastic Udders

Other restaurants probably can’t compete with The Alchemist’s out-of-this-world creations. If you eat there, expect to have your boundaries and tastebuds pushed to the limit.

Food is like an art installment.

Indeed, the establishment even serves udders. Diners are supposed to suck the realistic-looking foodstuff.

And people participate wholeheartedly.

The udders contain goats milk ice cream because ice cream with cow’s milk just wouldn’t cut it. Simple bowls were out of the question, too.

Right Out Of The Bowl

One Redditor mentioned the “famous ‘feijoada in the toilet.'” A local bar serves it in Brazil. The user conceded that “the dish is typical of here and is delicious.”

But even they recognized the oddity.

Indeed, when one orders the dish in question, they receive a serving of meat. To take it to the next level, the food arrives in a toilet bowl.

Few things are less appetizing than eating meat out of a toilet bowl, though.

Moreover, the pork stew contains an array of brown hues. So this dish is a little hard to swallow.

One Reddit user boiled it down into a simple statement.

“I’m sure the reason it’s in the toilet bowl is because of what the actual food looks like,” they wrote.

The Redditor continued with their less-than-appetizing revelation:

It’s black beans and some other stuff, so I bet the toilet bowl is part of the joke. This bowl of soup looks like diarrhea… or puke.

Roof Tiles Look Like Bowls, Right?

Tacos served on a roof tile. That’s the entire dish. Now, this interesting choice is pretty impressive if we’re giving away points for creative repurposing. But seemingly, most people weren’t all that impressed.

We can’t imagine why.

Tacos on tile sound creative and yummy. If the roof tile isn’t exactly clean, though. We remove our endorsement.

One Redditor dubbed the dish a “kitchen nightmare.”

Others joked that it would be clever, if only “you [ran] out of plates during a storm.”

Clothesline Cuisine

“Meat obviously wasn’t dry enough so [it] had to be stuck on a clothesline,” wrote Redditor Neosaurus. And the resulting concoction looked like a charcuterie board with a bit of a twist.

Slices of prosciutto, salami, and ham are hung with wooden pegs.

What’s the purpose, though? We’re still undetermined. One commenter claimed, “I can’t even explain why I find this so disturbing.”

However, clotheslined meat isn’t new.

It turns out that this is an unnerving trend at many other restaurants. Hanging meat on clotheslines is actually quite commonly seen.

And, admittedly, it’s probably a great space-saver.

Another Redditor shared an image of a trio of empanadas hanging by their tips in the exact same way.

User, Not_The_Only_Jacob posted his own hanging food experience.

Four strips of bacon are suspended by the same contraption. “There is a plate, like right there dude,” one frustrated commenter leered.

Helping Hand

Your mother probably told you to never eat with your hands. But what about eating with someone else’s hands? This restaurant thought they should put that old adage to the test.

One Reddit user shared an image of a croquette placed in what looks like an old doll hand.

Most people were grossed out by the scuffs and poorly maintained platter. “It’s probably a hand for a larger ball-jointed doll,” one commenter wrote.

The Redditor continued:

They’re generally fragile and being repeatedly washed is definitely not what they’re made for.”

Yikes, that means the hand might not even be clean.

Trick Or Tree-Eat?

Food naturally grows on trees, so serving fruit and vegetables in an organic, tree-focused way sounds appetizing.

The natural elements will match up nicely.

But what if donuts are the foods on sale, and the tree is a metal jewelry holder? Yeah, no nature or methodology there.

One Reddit user shared their experience.

They received a donut tree that wasn’t particularly tasty or aesthetically pleasing.

“Those are either beignets or zeppole,” the user noted. “They should be covered in powdered sugar. The lack of understanding is out of control.”

What About A Taco Tree?

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This person dined at a restaurant in Greece. But they had no idea what they were in for after ordering a serving of tacos.

Rather than getting a plate of the delicious Mexican favorite, the traveler received an entire potted tree with four tacos placed underneath.

“The real crime here is that you ordered tacos in Greece,” one commenter joked.

Tiny Shopping Cart

Who doesn’t absolutely love to fill a shopping cart to the brim at the grocery store? You feel accomplished and can look forward to a week’s worth of yummy meals.

It’s like the epitome of adulting.

But what if that shopping cart was a tenth of the size and filled with spring rolls instead of groceries? Who would feel as pleased?

A London restaurant serves this dish.

And the establishment didn’t miss a single detail. Their miniature shopping cart comes complete with a little bowl of sauce on the bottom rack.

It’s like they thought of everything.

One commenter found the idea “cute as hell” if not entirely as satisfying.