Palytt Team · 2026-09-25

How to find new dishes you'll actually like

The easiest way to find new dishes you'll like is to start from one you already love and work out why you love it. Is it rich, spicy, tangy, smoky or crunchy? Then order a dish from another cuisine that shares those traits. If tonkotsu ramen is your favorite because it's rich and savory, carbonara and xiao long bao are safer bets than a sharp, sour salad. Change one thing at a time, and you'll rarely order something you regret.

Why do some new dishes land and others don't?

Most people don't love a cuisine. They love a handful of flavors and textures, and a cuisine happens to deliver them. Someone who "doesn't like Thai food" may have only tried very sour, very hot dishes, and might love massaman curry, which is mild, rich and a little sweet.

When a new dish disappoints, it's usually because it changed too many things at once: a new cuisine, a new texture, a new heat level and an unfamiliar main ingredient. When one lands, it usually kept the core of something you already enjoy and changed the rest.

How do you figure out what you like about a dish?

Pick three dishes you'd happily order again and rate each one from 0 to 5 on a few traits:

• Rich. Fat, cream, butter, bone broth or cheese.
• Savory. Deep, salty, meaty flavor from soy sauce, fish sauce, parmesan, broth or seared meat.
• Spicy. Chili heat of any kind.
• Tangy. Lime, vinegar, tamarind, tomato or pickles.
• Sweet. Sugar, honey, palm sugar or sweet sauces.
• Fresh. Herbs, raw vegetables and citrus.
• Smoky. Char from a grill, a wok or a smoker.
• Crunch. Fried coatings, crisp bread or crunchy toppings.

Look for the traits that score high on all three. Those are what you're really ordering. A lot of people discover they're chasing one thing, like char or tang, across every cuisine they eat.

What should you order next, based on what you love?

Here are some reliable jumps, using the flavor matches on our food matches pages:

• If you love tonkotsu ramen: try shoyu ramen for a lighter bowl, or cross over to spaghetti carbonara or xiao long bao. All three are rich and savory in the same way.
• If you love pad thai: try nasi goreng or pad see ew. Both are sweet-savory, wok-fried and easy to like. See all the dishes like pad thai.
• If you love butter chicken: chicken tikka masala is the obvious step, but massaman curry and Japanese curry share the same mild, rich, slightly sweet profile. See dishes like butter chicken.
• If you love Korean BBQ galbi: yakitori, bulgogi and chicken teriyaki all bring that sweet, charred, grilled flavor.
• If you love bright, sour food like larb: try tom yum or ceviche. All three are sour, spicy and full of fresh herbs. See dishes like larb.
• If you love khao soi: curry laksa is nearly the same dish from next door, and dan dan noodles bring the same rich heat in a different form.

Each of these keeps what you like and changes one or two things: the cuisine, the format or the intensity.

How adventurous should your next order be?

Use a simple rule: keep two of your favorite traits and change one thing.

1. Same dish, different kitchen. The lowest-risk step. Order your favorite at a new restaurant to learn what a great version tastes like.
2. Same format, new cuisine. Love noodle soups? Go from ramen to pho, or from pho to laksa.
3. Same flavors, new format. Love rich, spicy noodles like dan dan? Try mapo tofu over rice.
4. One new trait. Add heat, tang or smoke to something familiar. Pad see ew to drunken noodles adds chili and basil to the same wok-charred noodles.

Save the big leaps, like a new cuisine, format and heat level all at once, for when you're sharing plates and can fill up on something safe.

How do you do this at a real restaurant?

A menu doesn't tell you which dishes are rich or tangy, so a little translation helps:

• Scan for your traits in the descriptions. Words like braised, coconut, butter and bone broth mean rich. Lime, tamarind, pickled and vinegar mean tangy. Grilled, charcoal, charred and wok mean smoky.
• Ask the server a better question. Instead of "what's good?", try "I love rich, savory dishes. What would you order?" You'll get a more useful answer.
• Order one familiar dish and one match. Sharing a safe dish and a new one means the meal works even if the experiment doesn't.
• Write down what you thought. A quick note like "too sour, loved the crunch" teaches you more about your taste than any star rating.

For a step-by-step way to choose from any menu, see our guide on how to decide what to order at a restaurant.

How can Palytt help you find dishes you'll like?

Our food matches pages compare flavor profiles between dishes, so they're the same for everyone. The Palytt app goes further. It's a free iPhone and iPad app that learns your taste from a short quiz and from the dishes you rate, then gives each dish on a restaurant's menu a 0–100 match score with a one-line reason. Your friends' verdicts show up next to the dishes they've tried, and each restaurant's order guide sorts dishes into get this, add on, popular here and maybe skip. Palytt covers fewer restaurants than the big review apps, since it focuses on places where people have posted dish recommendations. To see how you eat before you download anything, take the free taste type quiz.

FAQ

How do I find foods similar to ones I like?

Name the traits you love in a dish, such as rich, spicy, tangy or smoky, then look for dishes in other cuisines that share them. Changing one thing at a time makes a new dish much more likely to land.

What should I try if I love ramen?

Try shoyu ramen for a lighter bowl, pho for a fresher noodle soup, or carbonara and xiao long bao for the same rich, savory flavor in a different form.

How can I get less picky about food?

Start from dishes you already like and change one thing at a time: the restaurant, the cuisine or the format. Order new dishes to share, next to something you know you'll enjoy.

Is there an app that recommends dishes based on my taste?

Yes. Palytt gives dishes a 0–100 match score based on your taste profile and your friends' verdicts. It's free on iPhone and iPad.