America's 10 hottest delivery foods, according to Grubhub

Food delivery is convenient. Some might call it lazy. Either way, it has become a central way Americans choose to consume their meals.

Grubhub (GRUB) is the market leader by far, although the space has become increasingly saturated by the likes of UberEats and DoorDash. With over 16.4 million active diners, Grubhub compiled a list of the foods that surged the most in popularity for 2018.

Image Credit: David Foster/Yahoo Finance
Image Credit: David Foster/Yahoo Finance

Bean burritos were the most popular food item in 2018, with the number of orders rising 276% compared to the year before.

Poke bowls, chicken sliders, baby back pork ribs and chicken burritos rounded out the top five most popular foods ordered on the platform. Poke took the top spot last year. The Hawaiian dish saw a 205% increase in popularity this year compared to a 643% boost in 2017.

While the data is from a single platform, it indicates a lot about changing consumer tastes. Plant-based foods dominated a lot of the list, as vegan and vegetarian diets continue to gain popularity. Cauliflower is the vegetable du jour, with cauliflower rice bowls and buffalo cauliflower both making the cut. Grubhub said red meat is glaringly absent from the list. There is an age-old debate about whether pork is indeed a “red meat,” but the company takes the stance that it is not.

Food delivery marketshare
Food delivery marketshare

Despite the over-hyped chatter about avocado toast, the millennial favorite may not be a perennial choice after all. It didn’t make the top 10 list, after ranking No. 3 last year.

Grubhub looked at orders through its platform, which encompasses Seamless and LevelUp, Tapingo, Eat24, AllMenus and MenuPages, as well as a survey of 1,927 people in the U.S.

Melody Hahm is a senior writer at Yahoo Finance, covering entrepreneurship, technology and real estate. Follow her on Twitter @melodyhahm. She hosts Breakouts, a monthly interview series for Yahoo Finance featuring up-close and intimate conversations with today’s most innovative business leaders.

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