2027 Food Trends: Is Your Terrace Ready?

Sharing Plates Are Coming — Does Your Terrace Say So?

If you haven't yet read Bidfood identifies functional ingredients, sharing plates and contrasting textures as 2027 trends, add it to your reading list today. Bidfood's forward-looking report lands sharing plates firmly at the centre of what diners will expect in the years ahead — a convivial, generous style of eating that naturally encourages longer table stays, higher spend per head, and that all-important buzz that makes passers-by stop and look twice.

That last point is where smart operators can steal a march on the competition right now, well before 2027 arrives.

The Pavement Is Your First Menu

Sharing-plate culture is inherently visual and social. People don't just order it — they photograph it, talk about it, and choose a venue *because* they can already picture the experience from the street. Your pavement presence is therefore not a cosmetic afterthought; it is the opening line of your sales pitch.

Yet walk down almost any UK high street and you'll find tired, faded A-boards or nothing at all. A handwritten slate sign announcing *'Mezze boards from £14 — walk-ins welcome'* does more commercial work in a single afternoon than a week of boosted social posts. It speaks to the person who is already outside, already hungry, already deciding.

One Investment, Continuous Return

This is exactly why the Securit® Sidewalk sign "Woody" belongs on your kit list before you redesign a single menu. The Woody is a robust, warmly styled pavement board built for British outdoor conditions. Its blackboard faces take liquid chalk markers beautifully, meaning your team can update messaging daily — new sharing board specials at lunch, cocktail pairings at dusk — without any print costs or lead times.

The crafted wooden frame also does something a plain black plastic board simply cannot: it signals quality before a customer has read a single word. That visual shorthand matters enormously when you're competing for the attention of someone walking past at pace.

Prepare Now, Profit Later

Bidfood's report is a gift for operators who plan ahead. Sharing plates demand a theatre of generosity that begins on the pavement, carries through your entrance, and culminates at the table. Getting your outdoor signage working hard this autumn means you'll have the messaging discipline — and the footfall habit — already embedded when the trend peaks.

The venues that will win in 2027 are the ones building their identity today. Start at the kerb.

---

*Charlotte Whitfield, Country Manager United Kingdom, securitshop.com*