The plate was usually white and round, and had the advantage of keeping food in one place while making it look nice. 

 

Nowadays, anyone hoping for a relaxing meal out will be expected to wrestle² their steak off a breadboard, fish their chips out of a bucket and their rotisserie chicken off a brick. 

 

Across the country, gastropubs and restaurants -- desperate to be on-trend -- are serving their food in flower pots, dog bowls, roof tiles, high heeled shoes...What on earth is going on? And please can we make it stop? 

 

If the trend for wacky tableware continues, the dinner plate will become a relic³. It will join the soup tureen and cow creamer in the great crockery graveyard⁴ on top of the kitchen cupboard. 

 

Thankfully, a backlash against this ludicrous craze is underway. 

 

An enterprising chap called Ross McGinnes has founded a campaign group on Twitter called We Want Plates, sparking an internet sensation. 

 

He has been inundated⁵ with pictures from disgruntled diners of their bizarre experiences.

 

At one restaurant on the Isle⁶ of Man, the breakfast fry-up is served on a shovel⁷. Elsewhere, bread is being served not in a basket, but in a flat cap. 

 

Cocktails⁸ are no longer poured into elegant, thin stem glasses or crystal tumblers. No, all drinks must be served in jam jars, retro milk bottles, fish bowls, toy treasure chests and even ski boots.

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