15 nostalgic foods kids thought were super 'fancy’ but as adults realized were decidedly average

Kids don’t have the most incredible sense of what’s truly fancy and what is just excellent marketing. That’s why when you get older, a strange feeling hits where you wonder, was this restaurant ever really fancy at some point, and got worse? Was it never really that great to begin with? Or did it only seem great because we didn’t have much money growing up?

To make things a bit more confusing, social class, culture, and money are all relative, so what’s fancy to one person may seem a bit down-market to another. Further, status symbols and trends change over time, so a type of food that was seen as a delicacy 30 years ago may be seen as gauche in 2025.

A group of Redditors got together to discuss the foods they enjoyed growing up that they definitely thought were fancy as kids, but when they got older, they realized they were a lot less impressive than they thought. A Redditor posed a question to the AskReddit forum: “What food did you think was fancy as a kid but now you realize it’s trash?” The responses ranged from restaurants that haven’t stood the test of time to mass-produced food products that were positioned as upscale but clearly aimed at the average consumer.

15 nostalgic foods that seemed 'fancy' when we were kids, but as adults, aren't so great

1. General Foods International Coffees

"Basically, the sugary powder mix 'cappuccino' you can now buy from a machine at the gas station."

"My mom would keep the tin she had hidden in the cabinet so neither me nor any of my sisters could get it, which gave it an extra air of fanciness."

2. Andes mints

"Those Andes mints that all come individually wrapped. My aunt, who had a nice house, always had them, and we never did at home, so I thought it was a rich people thing."

"I mean they aren't fancy but they're definitely not trash. If you like mint and chocolate they're just as good as any other candy."

3. Salisbury steaks

"Those Salisbury steaks that you reheated in the oven for 15 minutes. If you had 2 you were in trouble."

"Salisbury steaks! I thought they were a made-up food! Explanation: non-American here, but have played a computer game (Fallout4) where Salisbury steaks are involved. I always thought they were just a made-up thing for the game."

For the uninitiated, Salisbury steak has a fancy name, but in reality, it's just ground beef, shaped into a steak with rich, thick gravy doped all over it. It's basically a dressed-up hamburger without the bun. The dish was named after Dr. James H. Salisbury, a 19th-century American physician who believed that a diet rich in minced meat was good for your health.

4. Chicken and red stuff (Catalina dressing)

"We had a meal growing up called Chicken and Red Stuff. It was my favorite meal, and anytime we had it I was a happy kid. You made it by placing a cut-up whole chicken into a baking pan and poured a bottle of Catalina salad dressing on top. Not Catalina Lite - you could f*** right off with that sh** - it had to be regular Catalina dressing. You then cooked the chicken in the oven for an hour at 350 degrees. When the chicken was done you would take it out of the oven and remove it from the pan. This was the chicken in Chicken and Red Stuff. You would then pour the drippings from the pan into a gravy dish. This was the Red Stuff in Chicken and Red Stuff. You would serve the chicken with a side of elbow macaroni and pour the Red Stuff on top. There would also be a salad, and of course, Catalina (still one of my favorite salad dressings) would be available."

5. Individually wrapped butter

"I thought the little individually wrapped butters you get in hotels were the height of sophistication, so my grandmother always bought them for when I visited. They aren't trash, but they are just butter."

"They were, however, a thousand times better than the margarine we had at home."

6. Pepperidge Farm cookies

"The packaging, the cool names, the crimped paper separating the layers… so fancy."

"Those cookies have had serious shrinkflation. Half the size they used to be."

7. Kid Cuisine

"Cuisine is such a fancy word."

"With the brownie!"

"And the corn always somehow got in the brownie/pudding by the time your parents set it in front of you!"

8. Imitation crab meat

"I thought I was having lobster in my bag lunch in elementary school."

9. Red Lobster

"But…cheddar biscuits!"

"We didn’t have a lot growing up. We weren’t poor, but we weren’t wealthy either. Lower-middle class. We didn’t go out to eat often, but once a year, after wrestling season was over, we’d go to Red Lobster, and we were able to get whatever we wanted. As a kid, I felt like we were eating at a Michelin-star restaurant. When you’re eating leftover chicken casserole and spaghetti most nights, Red Lobster felt like fine dining."

In May 2024, Red Lobster filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy due to mistakes, including the costly "endless shrimp" promotion and shifts in consumer dining habits. But the chain is now enjoying a remarkable turnaround after hiring 36-year-old Damola Adamolekun, the youngest CEO in the restaurant's history.

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10. Entenmann's

"Thought they were the peak of luxurious baked goods."

"Don't you dare slander Entenmann's. That chocolate-covered donut with a nice, light, crisp still goes hard today. The fudge cake, those chocolate chip cookies, and the lemon cake are all straight delicious. Unfortunately, I now live in FL, so the doughnuts melt together, but as soon as it gets cold for 6 days here, I'm gonna enjoy!"

11. Summer sausage trays

"Those 'summer sausage' trays with the big cheese balls that are coated in chopped nuts, I think? Like an '80s midwestern version of a charcuterie board."

"Oh, god, yes. I thought they were fancy for longer than I care to admit - like proudly gave them as gifts and stuff in my twenties."

12. Grey Poupon

"Remember those stupid commercials?"

"Vividly. And because I was a Gen X kid that loved Wayne's World, I used to think asking cars next to me at a stoplight if they had any Grey Poupon was just peak comedy in 1992 when I got my driver's license."

"Hey, compare Grey Poupon to most other Dijon mustards, it's got a lot more bite. It's damn near horseradish-esque."

Grey Poupon is still around, but the product is forever tied to the 1980s commercials featuring affluent people in Rolls-Royces exchanging bottles of the spicy mustard.

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13. The International House of Pancakes

"The Funny Face was the pinnacle of fine kid dining."

14. Ambrosia salad

"We only ever had it at 'fancy' events — birthdays, holidays, weddings, etc. — and it was called fu**ing Ambrosia. I thought it must be some super expensive luxurious dish. Turns out it's Kool Whip and fruit and marshmallows."

"Since I moved to France, I’ve been dying for a taste of midwestern jello salads. They’re truly awful but comforting."

15. Instant ramen

"When I was a kid, I thought instant ramen was the height of luxury. That little flavor packet felt like fine dining in a silver sachet. I used to sit there slurping noodles like I was in some five-star Tokyo restaurant. Now, every time I see it, I can practically taste my student debt and regret."

"I recently stopped eating Mr. Noodles and started getting the more "premium" instant noodles, and holy moly, they are so much better. The one I've been eating a lot lately has 2 packets of dry stuff and 3 liquid pouches! The life of luxury."