State of the Plate: Unpeeling Bananas’ Menu Potential

A New York Times article in July headlined “Everything’s Bananas” and suggested the tropical fruit might be the next pumpkin spice. This came on the heels of a story from Eater that asked rhetorically, “Is It the Year of the Banana?” noting its appearance across a broad spectrum of food, beverage and personal-care products like body lotion and candles. Flavor & The Menu was out ahead of both, naming bananas as a top ingredient to spark joy in 2024. That joy and its burgeoning popularity reflect the fact that the banana continues to rate as our No. 1 favorite fruit, which Americans consume to the tune of about 27 pounds per person per year.

With this kind of media buzz and rock-solid acceptance, it’s no surprise that operators have jumped on the banana boat and made it a menu must-have.

Proof Is in the Pudding

A staple in Southern U.S. kitchens, banana pudding evolved from English custard desserts, but it found national prominence in the 1940s, after Nabisco began printing banana pudding recipes on its Nilla Wafers box. The resulting popularity has made it a classic that’s ripe for riffing. And riffs there are.

Krispy Kreme’s seasonal collection this spring included a Banana Pudding Doughnut that nodded to its history with a dusting of crushed wafer cookies. Hash Kitchen’s long-running Bread Pudding French Toast Sticks is a kind of churro variation, with cinnamon sugar and Nutella crème. Haven Hot Chicken’s Key Lime Banana Pudding is made with freshly sliced bananas and a key lime drizzle. Last year, Ruby Slipper & Ruby Sunshine filled their limited-time Banana Pudding Beignets with warm pudding, while this year’s variation, Banana Cloud Beignets, featured banana whipped mascarpone, salted caramel, white chocolate ganache and powdered sugar.

Fostering Culinary Creativity

Credit: Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream | Peet’s Coffee

As a flavor, bananas play well with everything from caramel, which is swirled in the Bananas Foster ice cream at Handel’s (left), to matcha, as demonstrated by the Protein Banana Matcha Oat Latte at Peet’s Coffee.

Bananas Foster was created in the 1950s at New Orleans institution Brennan’s Restaurant, where its marriage of sweetness and show biz was an immediate success. Consisting of bananas sautéed in rum and banana liqueur, the iconic dessert is ignited tableside for a finishing flourish. Many operators have subsequently taken advantage of the appeal of caramelized bananas, though typically without the “Wow!” factor pyrotechnics.

Denny’s ran a promotional trio of Salted Caramel Banana Waffles, Pancakes and French Toast, and competitor IHOP stepped up with a Bananas Foster Pancake of the Month with sliced bananas and Bananas Foster sauce. In a nifty changeup, Snooze A.M. Eatery’s summer Dulce de Leche Banana Pancakes were stacked with housemade dulce de leche and chopped walnuts.

Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream accents its Bananas Foster option with caramel ripple throughout, while a caramel swirl crowned the Caramel Banana Brew at Philz Coffee in the San Francisco Bay Area last fall. This fall, PJ’s Coffee’s seasonal menu will warm things up with buttery, caramelized brown sugar Bananas Foster Bites that can be shared or enjoyed solo.

Beverages Are Going Bananas

Last year, Yelp’s Trend Tracker reported that searches for banana bread latte soared an extraordinary 6,267 percent, proving the homey, familiar quick bread can deliver comfort in a cup. This summer saw sizzling-hot 7 Brew Coffee cool things off with Banana Bread Cold Brew, a liquid version of the food standard that layers banana syrup, brown sugar and vanilla cinnamon. On a related note, Australian import Two Hands Hospitality is a café-restaurant chain expanding stateside with signature cocktails like Two Hands Banana Bread Espresso Martini, featuring vodka and banana liqueur. And in a turnabout, the Banana Walnut Bread ditches the spirits for a spike of espresso mascarpone.

Yelp also named banana matcha as a major trend for 2026, and chain versions include Peet’s Coffee’s Protein Banana Matcha Oat Latte and Scooter’s Coffee’s Banana Cream Matcha served hot, cold or blended, each with banana cold foam.

Other fun iterations include Ruby Slippers & Ruby Sunshine’s August-only Iced Banana Cream Latte, which blended creamy banana milk with espresso and salted caramel. On the bar side, patrons at Golden Rule in San Francisco can receive Bananagrams, an unconventional mix of Fernet Branca and banana liqueur straight from the freezer, for a “cheekie” menthol blend.

The foam beverage-topper juggernaut has taken on a life of its own, and it has taken bananas along for the ride in both cocktails and nonalcoholic drinks. Golden Rule’s Bi-Coastal features rum, cold brew coffee and espresso liqueur topped with banana cold foam. Last fall, Starbucks rolled out a line of Protein Cold Foams that includes banana flavor, though the brand’s Iced Banana Bread Matcha is served with brown sugar cold foam.

Chefs Are Going Bonkers for Bananas

Credit: Lat 14

Rooted in the Filipino dish of the same name, the Turon at Lat 14 coats ripe bananas in brown sugar and tucks them into lumpia wrappers before deep-frying. The dessert is served with ube crème fraiche, coconut caramel, brûléed banana and caramel tuile.

The New York Times’ story dubbed bananas “one of the last nonpolarizing foods in a polarizing world,” a quality that has made it a go-to ingredient for many operators. IHOP tuned into the zeitgeist with its limited-time Chicken & Banana Pancakes Stack Hack based on the goofy musical earworm “Chicken Banana” that hijacked TikTok and Spotify last year. In IHOP’s rendition, crispy chicken strips and banana pancakes were finished with sliced bananas, whipped cream and dipping sauce or syrup.

A crunch factor comes into play in many dishes, like Banana Brittle French Toast at First Watch, which put the texture promise right in the name with a winning combination of custard-dipped challah, caramelized bananas, honey-roasted almonds and almond-butter crème anglaise. Cold Stone Creamery dishes up scoops of Banana Caramel Crunch with roasted almonds, and diners at Lat 14, a lauded, Pan-Asian independent in Minneapolis, can enjoy Turon, which features banana lumpia with coconut caramel, for dessert. Lumpia (essentially, Filipino egg rolls) are traditionally deep fried for a satisfying munchability.

Outlook and Opportunity

There will be a continuing flood of beverages like banana milk, a Korean staple that is riding the K-craze onto coffee menus. This past summer, Maman, a French bakery-café chain expanding out of New York, featured a barista-modulated banana milk in its Banana Iced Pudding Latte with a fluffy banana cloud and gluten-free vanilla wafer crumbs.

Banana water is making waves, too. Positioned as an alternative to sports drinks and a potential replacement for hydrators like coconut water, it boasts low calories and lots of magnesium.

Finally, bananas have been underutilized in savory dishes. Banana ketchup, a staple Filipino condiment, can spiff up mains and sandwiches. And while use in entrées has been rare, appealing approaches like Thai Banana Duck Curry, which is made with duck, coconut milk, fresh bananas, basil and pineapples at under-the-radar, independent Asparagus Restaurant in Merrillville, Ind., may encourage chefs to look beyond the banana leaf.