Undertale looks like a small game about monsters under a mountain, yet it has a surprising amount of food — and almost every dish carries the character of its owner. You cannot simply get hungry here: healing items are story, joke and act of care all at once. Toriel's pie restores health and warmth, the rabbit vendor's ice cream cheers you with a note on the wrapper, and the spider bakery raises money "for spiders, by spiders." Food in Undertale is a language the monsters use to speak to the player.
And though many dishes sound strange (snails in a pie, spider cider), almost all of them have a clear real-world counterpart. Let's go through the Underground's main menu and figure out what to cook at home in their spirit — minus the snails, but with the same warmth.
Toriel's butterscotch-cinnamon-snail pie
The game's warmest dish is the pie Toriel bakes. In canon it is a butterscotch-cinnamon pie, sweet with caramel and cinnamon. The joke is that Toriel adds snails — she loves them and sincerely thinks of them as a delicacy. The player never tastes the snails, of course, and the pie becomes one of the best healing items.
At home we happily skip the snails. The essence of the dish is warm cinnamon and caramel sweetness. The perfect counterpart is cinnamon rolls, or a cinnamon apple pie with a butterscotch glaze. Dough, a generous layer of cinnamon sugar, and a butterscotch icing of butter, brown sugar and cream on top. That is exactly the kind of motherly baking Toriel's pie is meant to be.
Spider Donut and Spider Cider
The spider bakery (the Spider Bake Sale) sells two signature products — a donut and a cider, "made by spiders, for spiders, of spiders." It sounds creepy, but in-game it is simply a sweet source of healing.
At home, naturally, without spiders:
- Spider Donut — an ordinary glazed donut. For the theme, decorate it with a web: thin lines of melted white chocolate and a candy "spider" on top.
- Spider Cider — a warm, non-alcoholic apple cider with spices: apple juice, cinnamon, cloves, star anise and a slice of orange. Serve it hot in a mug.
The spider theme works beautifully for Halloween: black-and-white glaze, a chocolate web and a couple of sugar spiders turn plain baking into a reference.
Nice Cream — ice cream with kind notes
Nice Cream is sold by a friendly rabbit vendor, and the trick is not the ice cream itself but the wrapper: it carries an encouraging phrase like "You look great today!" It is a small detail that perfectly captures the game's spirit — kindness instead of violence.
Recreating it is as simple as it gets: take any fruit ice lolly and wrap it in paper with a kind message. For a homemade version, make ice pops — juice or berry puree frozen in moulds. What matters here is not the recipe but the gesture: a supportive note turns a dessert into Nice Cream.
Snowman Piece
One of the game's most touching items is a piece of a snowman. In snowy Snowdin stands a sad, talking snowman who asks the player to carry his piece as far as possible so he can see the world. It is a strong healing item and a tiny story about a dream at the same time.
The home counterpart is something cool and white: coconut sorbet, vanilla ice cream or a white meringue shaped like a snowman. On a themed table you can build a "snowman" from mozzarella balls or coconut-curd balls — an edible reference that reads instantly.
Grillby's burger and fries
Grillby is a fire-elemental bartender who runs a diner in Snowdin. He serves what the Underground so badly lacked: normal, fast human food — burgers and fries. By the game's joke his burgers are made "of fire," but at heart it is a classic fast-food corner.
At home this is the most straightforward menu item. Build an honest burger: bun, patty, cheese, lettuce, tomato, sauce. Bake or fry the potatoes until golden. Grillby's diner is about comfort and normal food after the Underground's strange delicacies, so do not overcomplicate it.
How to set an Undertale table
The core idea of Undertale's cuisine is warmth and care, not realism. Build a menu from four simple things: cinnamon rolls in place of Toriel's pie, web donuts, ice pops with kind notes in place of Nice Cream, and burgers in honour of Grillby. Add Spider Cider as a hot drink.
And do not forget the game's signature touch — kind messages. Write encouraging phrases on the napkins and wrappers, and an ordinary table turns into a little corner of the Underground, where the monsters wish you nothing but well.
