This tastes good! Mmmmmm yummy! What a delicious dish! What a nice chicken! The peas are wonderful!

As an adult, it bothers me when someone tells me a food or a dish tastes good. Good to one person may be horrific to another person. I always feel obligated to agree that yes, this food does indeed taste “good” even if I do not particularly care for it. I hate to rain on someone’s taste parade. I much prefer it when someone says something like “this dish is pretty spicy which I love.” This language does not corner me into agreeing, dishonestly, that I like something or admitting that I do not like something then feeling bad about it.

Describing food as good or bad apparently bothered me enough that I decided to provide a list of better words to describe food. This list describes both the taste and in some cases the texture of the food in question.

This list of words to describe food is fantastic for chefs doing some menu writing. Food adjectives can be a make or break it when it comes to what a customer decides to order. Culinary students might also find this list helpful!

Parents can also benefits from the various food adjectives presented here. How you describe food to children is something parents should strive to be more mindful of. “Good” and “bad” and similar phrasing do not tell children much about the food, only that they are supposed to like it or not like it. Good and bad stifle a child’s ability to form their own opinion about their taste preferences. It also does nothing to expand their vocabulary. Hence why these words to describe food can be helpful.

Here are 120 words to describe food to get your started. These words are related to the taste and texture of food.

Acidic Acrid Aged Bitter Bittersweet Bland Burnt Buttery Chalky Cheesy Chewy Chocolaty Citrusy Cool Creamy Crispy Crumbly Crunchy Crusty Doughy Dry Earthy Eggy Fatty Fermented Fiery Fishy Fizzy Flakey Flat Flavorful (my favorite flavorful recipes can be found in the Art Of Great Cooking With Your Instant Pot) Fresh Fried (this gluten free funnel cake is some really incredible fried food goodness!) Fruity Full-bodied Gamey (refers to the flavor or strong odor of game, like Elk or Deer. Garlicky Gelatinous Gingery Glazed Grainy Greasy Gooey Gritty Harsh Hearty Heavy Herbal Hot Icy Infused Juicy Lean Light Lemony Malty Mashed Meaty Mellow Mild Minty Moist Mushy Nutty Oily Oniony Overripe Pasty Peppery Pickled Plain Powdery Raw Refreshing Rich Ripe Roasted Robust Rubbery Runny Salty Sautéed Savory (try this savory Pumpkin Meatloaf recipe) Seared Seasoned Sharp Silky Slimy Smokey Smothered Smooth Soggy Soupy Sour Spicy (this gluten free Kung Pao Chicken recipe brings the heat!) Spongy Stale Sticky Stale Stringy Strong Sugary or sweet Sweet-and-sour (the absolute best sweet and sour chicken recipe is in this Paleo Takeout cookbook) Syrupy Tangy Tart Tasteless Tender (this Puerto Rican Sofrito Steak is the definition of tender!) Toasted Tough Unflavored Unseasoned Velvety Vinegary Watery Whipped Woody Yeasty Zesty Zingy

30 words to describe food instead of saying good or bad.

Amazing (Amazing Mexican Favorites with Your Instant Pot is a killer cookbook!) Appealing Appetizing Delectable Delicious Delightful Divine Enjoyable Enticing Excellent Exquisite Extraordinary Fantastic Finger Licking (every recipe in this Air Fryer cookbook is finger-licking good!) Heavenly Lip Smacking Luscious Marvelous Mouthwatering Palatable Pleasant Pleasing Satisfying Scrumptious Superb Tantalizing Tasty (this 5 ingredient Chocolate Cake is truly the tastiest!) Terrific Wonderful Yummy

Speaking of words to describe food…

Are you looking for some additional recipe inspiration? Check out all the offerings I have on my recipe page! Also be sure to take a look at the cookbooks I have authored and contributed to. You can also see all my favorite cookbooks on my Amazon Influencer Storefront!