I agrée Grub Hub’s user base is going to be skewed geographically and probably demographically as well. Not an optimum research resource.
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Total clickbait. The Hotdog is typically #1. Burgers or pizza are probably contenders nowadays.
I’d imagine burgers and pizza rank higher than hot dogs these days. Just a guess, no real info to back that up.
(An aside–why does the list include hamburgers and cheeseburgers separately?)
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For those who are arguing about the Grubhub survey results, don’t look down but your age is showing.
This is not a popularity contest based on what food people say they like, but based on what people actually order and eat. I don’t eat everything on the list but as I scrolled through, I said to myself, yup, yup, check, yup many times. The number one item ordered is a burrito bowl, above a cheeseburger. Totally fits with how I would order. Much more likely to get a bowl for delivery than a burger. Bowl survives the time much better than a burger. Frankly while I love a good burger, I probably eat more pad thai. Spicy tuna roll? Sure!
Seeing plain white rice is indicative of how restaurants are charging for things that used to be included.
Full disclosure I probably order from Grubhub 3-4 times a week as a NYC coastal resident. Pretty common. I got Grubhub, DoorDash, Uber eats, ChowNow and others on my phone to give me options.
Because they’re different. I eat burgers not cheese burgers as I prefer the taste of the meat not covered up by the cheese. Others want cheese. I have no issue considering them different.
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looking at the listings . . . potentially making a choice of least undesirability . . . ?
like, , , not the best choice, just the least worst choice . . .
Not sure what age has to do with questioning the reliance on GH (I’m more of a direct order or DoorDasher myself). I thought it was more the idea of where GH may be a popular choice and what foods may be readily available for delivery across the US.
NYC is the largest city in the US and many of its residents order delivery
takeout and dine out often. Not sure it reflects the whole of the country though 
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Oh man, have TV dinners been mentioned yet? My brother and I loved TV dinner nights when mom would set us up with a Swanson’s meal on actual metal folding TV tables in front of the TV, usually Salisbury steak with creamy mashed potatoes, some carrot or corn, and a delightful brownie.
I’m reminded because I just bought the following for Spring Onion. He’s been willing to try new proteins lately, so I thought, why the hell not? Out of the package, it’s definitely not the same as when we were kids. It’s ensconsed in yucky plastic (which you are directed to cook the food in — no way, man). I moved the frozen food to a baking dish and will cook the little brownie later. We’ll see if SO likes it.
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The title is a lie. Those aren’t “America’s Favorite Foods.” They’re “Foods Americans Get Delivered Most Often.” Not the same thing at all.
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First my experience is that the older generations are less likely to use something like GH.
Secondly, the younger generations eat very differently. I am now one of the older guys at my firm. Can’t believe that’s happened. But I manage a large group and there are several in their 20s and 30s who work for me. I also have children in their early 20s. What they want is very different as a group than what someone who is a boomer or Gen X. Many of the younger generation don’t eat red meat at all. So when I am taking a group out for a meal I find sushi winning out over a burger bar. Most of them would never touch a hotdog as its mystery meat. Sushi, hummus, burrito bowls are what they want. I recall once having a closing dinner and having the team pick a restaurant. The overwhelming selection for the group was Nobu. I ended up sitting next to the oldest member of the team from our client who was in his 60s. He was completely bewildered with the food. I told him the next time he was in town I would take him out for a burger. It’s not that no one eats burgers. Just that tastes are a lot more diverse.
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Agree with @small_h on this - the article is mistitled. I can see that it may well be reflective of urban ordering out via GH, but it would simply not hold up if everyone listed their favorites across different areas and demographics of the US, including those not in the continental US.
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He liked it! He tried the veggies but they weren’t to his liking, even after I slathered them with butter. But at least he had a few forkfuls. And, according to the packaging, he had nearly 22 grams of protein, which he needs.
Can’t get more American than a TV dinner, IMHO.
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I do also take your point about the age thing, but not true in my case. I have two millennials as well, but they grew up with us, and had lots of exposure to different foods, and types of cuisines. We also live in an urban area with lots of choices. However we aren’t typical compared to some of our extended family members who live in various places within the USA. On both sides of the family. Some friends too.
There are myriad alternatives for pizza delivery so a grub hub survey could easily undercount pizza deliveries. I have never ordered a pizza thru or delivered by grub hub.
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A guy in his 60s was “bewildered” by sushi? That seems…odd. I’m not much younger, I grew up in NJ, and I’ve been eating sushi since I was in my early teens. Was this guy unusually sheltered?
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Really? My husband and I were born 1955. We have used GH, DD, etc. many, many times before, during and after pandemic. Also we cook at home most often and have been cooking at home using “exotic” ingredients such as saffron, sumac, making our own pomegranate molasses before we heard of Ottolenghi. Cooking from Paula Wolfert since her first cookbook came out.
My husband still likes a hamburger now and then. Not me. Otherwise we are mostly vegetarian and have been since college graduation in 1977. We adopted a 7 year old from foster care in 2007. He experienced a lot of food trauma/deprivation and he likes hot dogs. His parents don’t.
We started making hummus at home in 1985 and homemade yogurt then, and learned to make authentic tex-mex with dried chiles in college.
Not sure how you arrived at thinking boomers don’t like diverse tastes and don’t make them.
Also the new drip/pour over coffee “fad”: we bought a Chemex and started making pour over coffee from fresh-ground coffee beans in our dorm room in Cambridge, MA, in 1976. Still making pour over coffee in 2023, much better since we discovered Peets coffee beans in grad school decades ago before Starbucks.
Those boomers. can’t handle diverse tastes.
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And the bored denizens of HO thanks you for that.
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We have one opening nearby.
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The people’s republic explains its
Good addition! We were only allowed to eat in front of the TV when Wizard of Oz was on once a year. But TV dinners were a bit more often, although still not in regular rotation. I liked the one that had the little apple pie in it. I always - and I mean ALWAYS burned my tongue and the roof of my mouth on that stupid dessert.
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Our dinners in front of the TV were only for Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom and Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights.
Marlin speaking in the background: “And now Jim is going to tag each of the 3 gazelles we captured with nets from the helicopter… Oh, my goodness. The gazelles are acting up!
Jim is not seriously injured, he is still going to tag the last…
The gazelles seem to have escaped before Jim tagged the last one, but once he is conscious, we will net the last one again and get that tag on it!”
Those shows (and the Apollo landings) were the only time I ever saw my Father watch television.
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