In Britain, the 1990s might be remembered for Britpop, boy bands and girl power, but the decade's most popular culinary delights caused quite a stir, too. From Pot Noodles and turkey dinosaurs to posh pesto and the Pret sandwich, it was a time of foodie highs (and a few memorable lows). Join us on a nostalgia-fuelled journey back in time as we reveal the foods that powered 1990s Britain. How many do you remember?
Click or scroll through our gallery to discover the foods that were all the rage in Britain in the 1990s – counting down to the most iconic of them all.
We've based our ranking on the enduring popularity of each food, and on the opinions of our well-travelled (and well-fed) team. This list is unavoidably subjective.
We were spoilt for choice when it came to sugary breakfast cereals in the 90s, when free toys and plastic trinkets were a popular marketing tool used to secure our loyalty. But some varieties didn’t last the distance. Kellogg’s Banana Bubbles, Ricicles and Choco Ricicles were among them. The former, launched in the late 1990s, were basically banana-flavoured Coco Pops that turned the milk a banana milkshake flavour.
Kellogg’s brought its popular US Pop-Tarts brand of toastable frosted pastries to the UK in 1990. British kids initially clamoured to try the saccharine handheld treats, known for their rectangular shape and lava-hot jam filling. However, they didn't prove quite as much of a hit in the UK as they were back in the USA. That said, they're still sold in British supermarkets today.
A 1990s power lunch staple, the Caesar salad was what the UK businessperson ordered in a bid to look virtuous. Little did we realise that this seemingly healthy (and undeniably delicious) salad was hugely calorific – in fact, it often had a fat content equivalent to that of a Big Mac. Invented in the 1920s in Mexico, and made popular in the US (specifically California), the salad is an irresistible combination of crunchy romaine lettuce, bacon bits, fried croutons, anchovies, a creamy dressing and curls of Parmesan. At Pizza Express, a favourite chain of the era, you could have it with grilled chicken for an even classier meal.
The US trend for Tex-Mex cuisine spiced up UK dinner tables in the 90s, with Old El Paso spice mixes becoming store cupboard staples. We also had a huge appetite for American-style chains, with TGI Fridays (hitting the UK in 1986) a popular choice for Tex-Mex feasts. People loved the chimichangas (deep-fried burritos), loaded nachos, hard-shell tacos and enchiladas – the cheesier the better – all served by waiters in cheery red and white striped uniforms.
Launched in Vermont in 1978 by school friends Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, Ben & Jerry’s had well and truly captured the US market by the time the brand appeared in the UK in 1994. We loved its iconic flavours, Cookie Dough and Chocolate Fudge Brownie, and fell for Phish Food when it joined the family in 1997. Eating it straight from the tub was de rigueur at girly sleepovers, mimicking the film trope of heartbroken American teenagers mainlining ice cream. It also helped that the ultimate 1990s icon, Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston), was seen eating a tub of Ben & Jerry’s in a 1994 episode of Friends.
When rocket was ‘re-discovered’ around 30 years ago, it became the height of culinary fashion, and the salad leaf of choice for food trendsetters. Known as rucola or arugula in the US, the Italian leaf has an intense, peppery flavour. It was actually a popular ingredient in 16th-century Britain, but it fell from favour over the centuries. It was embraced with such fervour in the 1990s that the likes of rocket salad with balsamic vinegar and sun-dried tomatoes became something of a culinary cliché.
Did you know that Doritos were actually invented at a Mexican-style restaurant in Disneyland? Rolled out across the USA in 1966, the hugely popular triangular corn tortilla snack eventually landed on UK soil in 1994 – and it hasn’t looked back since. Flavours like Cool Original, Tangy Cheese and Chilli Heatwave continue to delight British snack fans today.
If you were a vegetarian in the 1990s, liking goats’ cheese was a must. The creamy, tangy cheese took a starring role in most veggie menu options, often accompanied by another new food fad of the time: the sun-dried tomato. Thanks to Delia Smith, one of the TV cooks who introduced the nation to these exotic treats, our love of warm goats’ cheese salads and bruschetta topped with goats’ cheese and sun-dried tomatoes really flourished in this decade.
The chocolate bar that dominated school lunchboxes, Time Out launched in 1992 and quickly became a family favourite. The bar, produced by Cadbury, featured two wafer fingers coated with smooth milk chocolate. Much to fans’ dismay, it was discontinued in 2016, then replaced with a single-finger version called the Time Out Wafer.
Was a 1990s dinner party really a dinner party without banoffee pie for dessert? Featuring sliced bananas, a gooey, toffee-like sauce and whipped cream layered over a crumbly biscuit base, all finished with lashings of chocolate shavings, this unashamedly cloying pudding was reasonably easy to prepare – and it brought a touch of exoticism to tables throughout Britain. Though it was (and, in some cases, still is) hugely popular elsewhere, including the US, banoffee pie was actually invented at The Hungry Monk Restaurant in East Sussex.
One culinary trend that fascinated the nation throughout the 1990s was fusion food, with Asian-inspired takes on classic British dishes becoming increasingly popular. A number of major brands, including Birds Eye (remember that frozen chicken balti pie?), jumped on the trend, albeit with varying degrees of success. This interest in sampling different cuisines inspired a new generation of fusion restaurants across the country.
‘If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit, join our Club’ was sung by school kids around the UK. This catchy advertising jingle was just one reason why we had a soft spot for the Jacob’s Club. With a distinctive inner foil, an outer paper wrapper and a rectangular shape, the original Club Milk was a plain milk chocolate–coated biscuit. There was also a Club Orange, a Club Mint and a Club Fruit. The bars are still produced in the UK, now under the name McVitie's Club.
Thanks to chilled soup pioneers New Covent Garden Soup Co., the likes of carrot and coriander and wild mushroom soup became staples of the British lunch in the 1990s. A gourmet alternative to Heinz's tinned tomato soup, the range of fancy fresh options in a carton shook up the soup category. The British brand first began trading in 1986, but its products were initially only stocked in the chiller cabinets of high-end food stores like Harrods and Selfridges. Sainsburys was the first supermarket to offer the chilled soup range in 1990, and the others swiftly followed suit.
A Genoese speciality that’s become a failsafe meal base for parents of young children, pesto was a sophisticated novelty back in the early 1990s. Sacla’ Classic Green Pesto – now a store cupboard staple for many – appeared on British supermarket shelves in 1991. Before we knew it, this vibrant green sauce was being dotted on (and drizzled over) everything. Red pesto (made using sun-dried tomatoes) swiftly followed; it was considered a travesty by Italian food purists, but Brits lapped it up (mostly spread on crispy crostini).
Now something of a culinary cliché thanks to its many appearances on the television show MasterChef, the chocolate fondant was the undisputed posh pud of the 1990s. Its origins are contested; Michelin star chefs Michel Bras and Jean-Georges Vongerichten both claim to have created the molten-centred dessert. It quickly became a mainstay of high street restaurant chain and pub menus. Often called chocolate lava cake, this gooey treat was also a popular ready-made dessert in supermarkets.
A silver pouch of Capri-Sun was a must-have lunchtime accessory for the 1990s kid. Perfectly squishable, it was easy to fit inside your lunchbox. Some childhood geniuses also realised it could be frozen and used to keep lunch items cool on those rare hot summer days. The original (and we’d argue best) flavour was orange, but tropical and blackcurrant also joined the family and garnered their own fans.
Hitting corner shop shelves in 1987, Wheat Crunchies were another school lunchbox favourite. Produced by KP Snacks, the savoury treats were known for their hollow, tube-like structure and signature crunch. The original Crispy Bacon flavour continues to be a nostalgic choice for anyone who grew up in the 1990s, with Cheddar & Onion and Spicy Tomato following closely behind.
A standard choice for any UK kid let loose on the newsagent sweet counter, Opal Fruits were chewy, intensely flavoured fruit sweets that had been made by Mars since 1960. They were renamed Starburst in 1998, in line with the US brand. Though they're essentially the same (bar the addition of lemon and lime and blackcurrant flavours), the Opal Fruit brand remains a much-mourned loss among nostalgic sweet eaters who grew up in the 1990s.
Produced by KP Snacks since 1979, these distinctive potato discs were (and still are) a party for the taste buds. Perfectly crunchy, with a punchy flavour coating, Discos were a regular inclusion in packed lunches across the UK throughout the 1980s and 1990s. These snacks continue to come in three signature flavours: Cheese & Onion, Prawn Cocktail and Salt & Vinegar.
With their promise of an easy meal, these frozen, breaded and filled pancakes were a revelation for many hardworking parents in the 1990s. Whether you were a fan of the cheese, cheese and ham, or minced beef variety, the pancake pockets, with their molten filling, were a quick win. Even if they didn’t enter your family’s home cooking repertoire, the endless adverts would have been seared into your brain.
It’s hard to imagine a time when Pringles didn’t line every supermarket snack shelf in the country, and yet the crunchy curved crisps didn’t arrive in the UK until 1991 – two decades after launching in the US. They quickly became a British favourite, and classic flavours like Sour Cream & Onion still have their fans today. No party buffet is complete without a tube.
We all have our favourite childhood chocolate bar and, for some kids growing up in the 1990s, the Fuse was the ultimate treat – a winning combination of raisins, peanuts, crispy cereal and fudge pieces, all cloaked in Cadbury’s chocolate. It launched in 1996 to great fanfare and was an instant hit with Brits, with around 40 million bars sold in the first week. Despite the promising start, the confectionery company stopped producing the dense delight just 10 years later.
This vibrant orange drink launched in the UK in 1998, powered by a huge marketing campaign by Proctor & Gamble. The British public was initially dazzled by its modern-looking packaging and Floridian origins. However, Sunny Delight's high sugar levels and low fruit juice content was revealed by the UK's Food Commission, which criticised the brand for misleading consumers about the drink's health credentials. It was rebranded as SunnyD in 2003, with more fruit juice and no artificial ingredients or added sugar.
The year 1995 was a historic one for pizza lovers in the UK. This was when popular high street pizza chain Pizza Hut launched the stuffed crust pizza. We loved these extra-cheesy pan pizzas almost as much as we loved our multiple visits to the salad bar (those crispy croutons made everything feel fancy). TV presenter Jonathan Ross and model Caprice Bourret starred in the adverts for the new cheese-tastic pizza style.
Viennetta was originally launched in 1981 by Wall’s Ice Cream as a Christmas special, but it really hit its prime in the 1990s. The dessert secured a place in the nation’s freezers (and hearts) thanks to its soft layers of artfully ruffled ice cream, alternated with crunchy sheets of chocolate. The Viennetta Mint followed, while the Viennetta Birthday Cake – complete with layers of vanilla and strawberry ice cream and multi-coloured sprinkles – was launched in 2022, to celebrate 100 years of Wall’s ice cream.
Available in a range of punchy flavours like Nice 'n' Spicy, Scampi ‘n’ Lemon and Rib 'n' Saucy, these knobbly corn nibbles were a favourite savoury snack in the 1980s and 1990s, with their claim to fame being that no two Nik Naks were ever the same shape. Made by KP Snacks, they’re still a corner shop treat years later.
The very first outlet of British sandwich shop franchise Pret a Manger opened in London in 1986, with the second store following four years later. By the 1990s, Pret was a major player in the chilled prepared sandwich market, and grabbing a latte and a ready-made sarnie here became part of modern working life. As well as its traditional bestselling sandwiches (think tuna and cucumber, and posh cheese and pickle), the chain dazzled us with daring new combos like crayfish and rocket.
Back in the 1990s, Golden Wonder's Pot Noodle was a revolutionary hot snack that introduced many of us to the joys of slurping noodles (way before we'd even heard of ramen). Cheap and easy, this was a student staple – all you needed to know was how to boil a kettle. However, there was a certain knack required when stirring, or you'd end up with a gloopy, salty mess at the bottom of the pot. Leaving the noodles to stew for just the right amount of time was key, too.
The 1990s were heady days for sweet lovers, with British sweet maker Barratt leading the charge for the most memorable sweets. Twisted marshmallow Flumps, Frosties (chewy cola-flavoured pastilles), Dip Dabs and Wham bars were among the top treats, alongside iconic confectionery like Refreshers, Catherine Wheels, Fruit Salads, Sherbert Fountains and love-them-or-hate-them Black Jacks. Of course, the ultimate win was bagging a mixture (with a couple of flying saucers and pink shrimp thrown in for good measure) at Woolworths' pick 'n' mix stand.
Birds Eye Arctic Rolls were often spotted in 1990s freezer cabinets, although they first appeared in the freezer aisle of supermarkets in 1970. A winning, and somewhat mind-bending, combination of vanilla ice cream swirled with raspberry jam, all encased in a vanilla sponge, it was a good day if you were served a slice of this frozen pud for afters. Despite its cult status, Birds Eye discontinued the teatime treat in 1997, only for it to make a welcome comeback a decade later.
Who can remember spelling out words with these tasty treats? Produced by frozen food brand Birds Eye, these savoury potato bites were crisp on the outside and deliciously soft in the centre. Alphabites quickly became a midweek staple for families throughout the 1980s and 1990s, often served with fish fingers or chicken goujons for the ultimate kid-friendly convenience meal.
Marking the end of the decade triumphantly, Cadbury released its Heroes selection box in 1999 to much fanfare. Stacked with miniature versions of the brand’s bestselling chocolates (think Dairy Milk, Twirl, Crunchie and Double Decker), it's still a beloved favourite over two decades later. A box or tub of these at Christmastime is non-negotiable for many families across Britain.
Another cornerstone of the cool kid's lunchbox, Frubes – tubes of squeezable fruit-flavoured yogurt – were introduced to the UK by French brand Yoplait in 1991. Their USP was that they were the only hands-free yogurt around at the time, and they were an instant hit with both school children and parents glad to see their little ones upping their calcium intake. Other yogurt-based Yoplait snacks, including tiny pots of Petits Filous fromage frais, proved popular too.
These handy snack boxes were a covetable item in the 1990s school dinner hall, when ultra-processed foods and single-use plastics were all the rage. Forget your box of Sun-Maid raisins and soggy homemade sarnie, these perfect little rounds of pasty pink ham and plastic-like cheese, which you could sandwich together with tiny crackers, were the ultimate make-your-own lunch.
Spotting the red and white Little Chef sign as you drove along one of Britain’s A roads, usually in a car packed to the rafters for a family holiday, was a joyous feeling. This well-loved roadside restaurant served fry-ups, scrambled eggs on toast and pancakes drizzled with maple syrup to customers up and down the country. By far the most iconic item on the breakfast menu was the 1994 Winter Olympics–inspired Olympic Breakfast, featuring (deep breath): two rashers of bacon, a sausage, two fried eggs, mushrooms, sautéed potatoes, a grilled tomato, baked beans, and a choice of fried bread or toast.
Why did we love these reconstituted potato grids from Birds Eye so much in the 1990s (and now, if we're honest)? Because they're waffly versatile, obviously. As the advert reminded us, you could: 'Grill ‘em, bake ‘em, load ’em, love ‘em. Waffly Versatile!' Potato waffles were certainly adaptable; whether you popped an egg on top and served them with baked beans at breakfast, or enjoyed them matched with those other freezer staples, Captain Birds Eye Fish Fingers, they were handy carbs to have on hand.
The Cheestring was the snack to be seen with in the 1990s. A tube-shaped, plastic-wrapped piece of cheese that you could peel (bizarre when you think about it), this bright yellow product had us hooked. The lunchbox favourite burst onto the scene in 1996, with a zany-looking cheese character and the catchy tagline ‘Real A-peelable Cheese’. They're still around, should the craving strike.
Back in the day, Micro Chips were a big hit with university students (and knackered parents) around the UK; the promise of having freshly cooked chips ready in just three minutes was a compelling brand USP. The fact that McCain’s revolutionary Micro Chips were soggy, often stuck together and a far cry from the golden chips you could get from the chippy just down the road didn't impact their popularity.
How do you get children to lap up a certain food? Form it into an appealing animal shape, of course. The Bernard Matthews brand did exactly that when its turkey dinosaurs roared into our freezer cabinets in the 1990s. The processed bites quickly became an easy, kid-friendly meal all over the UK. Turkey dinosaurs then disappeared for a while, but they were far from extinct; they reappeared as Jurassic World 9 Turkey Dinosaurs in 2022, to coincide with the release of Jurassic World Dominion.
Now discover the foods we loved in the 1980s
Last updated by Lottie Woodrow.