Ottawa restaurants face backlash over AI-generated menus

An AI-generated poster on the side of the Green Maple Mart & Kitchen store in Ottawa. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

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Right near Bayview Station is Green Maple Mart and Kitchen, a family owned hot food and convenience spot.

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Green Maple isn’t shy about its use of AI. Generated images plastered across the inside and outside of the building are filled with scaly-looking burgers and rubbery, too-symmetrical pizzas.

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Green Maple’s owner, Ali Dehghan, said that AI has been a huge help as a small-business owner, and that it doesn’t reflect the food he makes.

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On Instagram, Green Maple’s food looks nothing like it does in its posters — it looks real.

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“When I run my business, I use AI to design my menu, my sign, and prices. It helps me to get a good price on my food,” said Dehghan, who added that it has also helped because Persian is his first language and his English isn’t strong.

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“That is not appetizing and obviously not reflective of what you’ll actually be eating if you ate at this restaurant,” said Ottawan Cameron Ryan, who added that if given the choice, he’d prefer to eat at a spot that didn’t use AI-generated images because they show a lack of care and look “gross.”

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A passerby looks at an AI generated poster on the side of the Green Maple Mart & Kitchen store in Ottawa. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

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Outside Green Maple, Safa Chaari stood on the sidewalk in view of the business’s massive AI sign.

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“For me, I would not eat it. I prefer to do it at home, for me, for my husband, for my kids, because I would be sure about the ingredients. Because when I see the photo, it’s not real,” she said.

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Ryan and Chaari aren’t the only ones who feel this way.

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Amid a growing trend of local restaurants opting for generated pictures of their product, some are taking to social media to create collaborative lists of where to avoid in the capital, based on suspected AI-image use.

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The public’s fear and loathing of AI images has also led to people accusing Ottawa restaurants and culinary institutions of using AI when they say they aren’t.

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Numerous local restaurants, from shawarma shops to pizza joints to cafés, have begun using AI to generate images of their menus and promotions, some of which are more obvious than others. 

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Ottawa resident Mofeyisope Ayeni has noticed the growing trend, especially on Uber Eats.

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“Why do you have to use AI? What’s the point? I just don’t trust you then. Is the food that bad that you have to use it to advertise? I’m 100 per cent sure that if there’s pizza place that has an AI-generated picture, I can go to a million other ones in the city that I know what (their food) looks like,” said Ayeni.

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For some, a temporary fix

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In a Reddit thread on r/OttawaFood, one user asked, “How you feel about Ottawa restaurants using AI pictures,” and attached a screenshot of sushi spot Shinka’s menu, whose rolls appeared oddly shiny.

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While a few responses defended Shinka for its quality food, many of the dozens of responses were strongly negative about the use of AI, with some saying they’d never eat at a restaurant that used the technology.