Menus Are Getting AI-Sloppified, and the Images Are Terrifying - Business Insider

A menu of AI-generated sandwiches in Chicago. Chris Murphy 2026-08-30T08:31:01.323Z Read in app Save Saved Listen to this story This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in . Chris Murphy said he was on his lunch break from his job as a server at a restaurant in downtown Chicago when he walked to the nearby Chi-Town Deli to buy a sandwich. As he scanned the menu, he noticed something unsettling: All of the images were actually AI-generated monstrosities. AI has tragically struck my local deli. Reuben in particular looks like vomit pic.twitter.com/oITqDoqlmG — dropchris1000 (@dropchris1000) August 27, 2026 "Immediately I clocked [AI use] from the glossy sheen, the sameness of every sandwich, that weird lettuce that looks like it's made of bricks, and the horrifying Lovecraftian Reuben sandwich that they were all pictures of AI monstrosities," Murphy told Business Insider. I called the Chi-Town Deli and talked to manager Ali Malik. He told me that the AI-generated sign was made by an employee and was put up several weeks ago while they wait for the delivery of a new sign with real photographs. The creepy AI Reubens are a placeholder for now, he said. So at least in the case of the Chi-Town Deli, the answer to the question, "Why would anyone OK such obviously sloppy AI?" appears to be: "Because it's only temporary and doesn't matter that much." This is genuinely one of the worst ai shop horror food menus I’ve ever seen and I have to pass it almost every day on the way to work pic.twitter.com/dM7myJt6si — Julia 🤝 (@REMARKSIST) August 27, 2026 This does seem to be part of a larger trend — many other restaurants and delis are using AI for menus and signs. And customers seem to hate it. People have been sharing online photos of very clearly AI-generated food on menus, ranging from humorously uncanny to downright nauseating. At one point, while discussing this story with my editor, I had to close Slack because I couldn't bear to look at the trytophobia-inducing image of a holey burrito he had sent me a link to. The death of folk graphic design in favor of AI slop across our country's delis is leading to some incredibly Lovecraftian food horrors pic.twitter.com/snDyC675Ei — Sam Biddle (@samfbiddle) August 23, 2026 It's not hard to guess why a small deli owner might resort to using AI-generated images of their menu instead of paying someone to take photos. These are small business owners in an industry with rising costs and tight margins; your local corner store is unlikely to have much of a marketing budget. Many of the examples people have shared on social media are from cheap eats-type places, not fancy restaurants or big chains. It's not like deli photography was so great before AI, either. A lot of delis I've been to have used stock images that they clearly didn't take themselves to show various food offerings. A few years ago, my local deli renovated and put up a massive collage of stock images of foods in the window that defied all logic of cuisine and aesthetics. I didn't find it particularly appealing, but the outside signage had zero effect on my frequency of visits for snacks and toilet paper (often). I'm not saying it's great that these places are using AI to create food monstrosities, but I'm saying I understand. If AI is going to erode society — and maybe it is — deli signage isn't necessarily what I imagine will be the front lines. Or maybe it is. Like a perfect shrimp doughnut, I keep going in circles on that. Explore BI Games Take a smarter break in your day - and see how far you get. Play now Want more Business Insider in your news feed? Add BI in Google so our reporting is easier to find when you’re searching for what matters. Add to Preferred Sources