Food in Old School RuneScape (much like real-life) is essential for survival. Whether you are taking part in PvM or PvP content, or even doing skilling methods that reduce your health, food is the quickest way to restore your Hitpoints anywhere in the game.
There are dozens of different foods available, all ranging in effectiveness, additional effects, and availability.
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Judging which food is the best for you is often based on a number of factors, including how often you will need to eat, cost-effectiveness, and what kind of content you are doing.
Nonetheless, narrowing down which food you should stick up on is essential to both save on gp while getting the most out of it.
The best food in OSRS includes Anglerfish, Manta Rays, Dark Crabs, Saradomin Brews, Guthix Rests, Tuna Potatoes, and Wild/Summer Pies.
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What Is the Best Food in OSRS?
While there are plenty of food options to choose from, there are a handful of different foods that are typically chosen above others. This is from a combination of their cost-effectiveness, as well as accessibility for Ironman-accounts.
That doesn’t mean that most food in Old School RuneScape is obsolete, in fact there are still plenty of unconventional food options that serve well in niche situations.
There are also foods that have additional bonuses or side effects that may persuade you to lean for/against that item.
A quick example is Saradomin Brews, where despite them healing up to 64 Hitpoints (across four different does for a single inventory slot), it will drain your combat stats, making you have to factor in the costs for using Super Restore Potions/ only using them for non-combat situations.
Anglerfish
One of the highest-healing foods in Old School RuneScape, Anglerfish is a high-level fish that can be caught off Port Piscarilius at 82 Fishing and cooked at 84 Cooking.
Due to such requirements and how effective it can be, this expensive fish is usually sold for 1.5k each on the Grand Exchange.
The way that Anglerfish heals is different from most other food in the game, as it will heal an amount based on your base Hitpoints level.
Starting from levels 10 to 19 Hitpoints, it will only heal 3 Hitpoints, eventually peaking from 93-99 Hitpoints and healing 22 at a time.
Anglerfish is also one of the few items that can overheal, allowing you to temporarily increase your maximum hitpoints. For example, having 99 Hitpoints and eating an Anglerfish will put you at 121 Hitpoints.
It is worth noting that the overhealing ability does not apply in PvP areas. Regardless, it is an excellent food overall to take for high-level combat situations where you need to restore high amounts of health in a single click.
If bringing an inventory of Anglerfish is not preferred (whether because of cost or other reasons), players may bring one or two of them to eat both before/after a major fight to overheat.
Combined with other food options, this allows you to have the benefits of having more than your base hitpoints while being cost-effective with the rest of your inventory setup.
Manta Rays
A slightly cheaper option than Anglerfish, Manta Rays heal up to 22 Hitpoints at a time while costing around 1.4k on the Grand Exchange.
Manta Rays can also be earned from the Fishing Trawler minigame, as well as dropped from various bosses like Zulrah or Vorkath (making it one of the few fish that cannot be caught naturally in the game).
Unlike Anglerfish, Manta Rays will heal 22 Hitpoints regardless of what your base Hitpoints level is. However, it is unable to overheal you like other food options.
The trade-off to not overhealing is being able to heal 22 Hitpoints at a time from a low level.
Dark Crabs
Similar to Manta Rays, Dark Crabs can heal 22 Hitpoints at a time, and only cost around 1k each on the Grand Exchange.
Another key difference is that they can only be caught naturally from the Wilderness Resource Area in deep Wilderness, as well as received as a drop from the different Wilderness Bosses, making them a rare commodity among Ironman accounts. When fished, they can be cooked at 90 Cooking.
Despite being similar in effects and healing capabilities, being able to spare the extra few hundred gp per Dark Crab can make a world of a difference when buying them in bulk.
Tuna Potatoes
Among the collection of food options that heal 22 Hitpoints at a time, Tuna Potatoes are an unconventional food item that can go for around 1.2k on the Grand Exchange.
They can also be obtained as a drop from various bosses in Old School RuneScape, like the Corporeal Beast and the Thermonuclear Smoke Devil.
Unfortunately for Ironman accounts, making Tuna Potatoes on their own from scratch is a bit of a Nightmare, as you will need to make each of the components yourself.
This involves making the Baked Potato, creating the Pat of Butter, adding those ingredients with each other, cooking the Tuna and Sweetcorn, chopping the Tuna, and adding them all together one at a time.
Therefore, players are much better off purchasing Tuna Potatoes directly from the Grand Exchange or getting them as a drop for use.
Wild & Summer Pies
Out of all the available pies in Old School RuneScape, Wild Pies and Summer Pies both heal 22 Hitpoints each (11 Hitpoints per the two slices they offer).
While they can be made at 85 Cooking and 95 Cooking, respectively, they can be bought from the Grand Exchange for around 700gp a pie.
In addition to having a high healing amount, each of the pies comes with an effect that is applied after eating.
When eating a slice of Wild Pie, your Slayer level will be temporarily boosted by 5 (along with your Ranged level increased by 4).
This means that you can attack Slayer creatures just above your current Slayer level for as long as it is boosted (your Slayer level boost will begin to deplete by one for every minute).
Summer Pies have the effect of boosting your Agility level by 5, along with restoring your Run Energy by 10%. This makes Summer Pies a fantastic option for combat situations where you are constantly running around, such as the Chaos Elemental or the Alchemical Hydra.
Speaking of the Chaos Elemental, using Summer Pies are often preferred because after eating it completely, you are left with the Pie Dish, which will fill up your inventory slot and make it so the Chaos Elemental won’t be able to unequip your gear.
Saradomin Brews
One of the most iconic foods in Old School RuneScape, Saradomin Brews heal an incredible 64 Hitpoints in total (16 Hitpoints per dose) and also have the ability to overheal you.
After drinking a dose of Saradomin Brew, your Defence level will also be temporarily boosted by more than 20% for your base level.
However, Saradomin Brews are expensive, costing around 13k on the Grand Exchange, or made naturally with 84 Herblore.
On the flip side of drinking Saradomin Brews, the rest of your combat stats, Attack, Strength, Magic and Ranged, will be decreased by more than 10% a dose. This means that while bringing Saradomin Brews seems ideal for bossing situations, you will need to bring Super Restore Potions to offset the negative bonuses.
The golden ratio is to bring one dose of Super Restore Potions for every three doses of Saradomin Brews. For example, if you are bringing 8 Saradomin Brews (32 Doses), bringing 3 Super Restore Potions will be enough to offset the difference (12 Doses).
In cases where you are not worried about combat and you just need to heal over a prolonged period of time, such as Wintertodt, the Hallowed Sepulcher, or training Thieving, you can bring as many Saradomin Brews as you’d like and not worry about Super Restore Potions.
Guthix Rests
Deviating away from foods based on restoring Hitpoints, Guthix Rests are a valuable tea that provides additional effects.
Sold on the Grand Exchange for around 4.5k each, they can be made naturally with an Herb Tea Mix of two Guams, one Harralander, and one Marrentill with a Tea Cup filled with hot water.
Similar to potions, Guthix Rests have four doses, each healing 5 Hitpoints at a time. In addition to the small healing, it can boost you by 5 Hitpoints above your maximum Hitpoints level, remove a status level of Venom/Poison, and restore 5% of your Run Energy.
Since Guthix Rests are also a drink, they can be “tick-ate” with other foods, allowing you to eat another food and quickly drink a dose without going through the animation cycle. This makes Guthix Rests valuable for the PvP community, as it effectively does three different effects in a single inventory slot, and can do it up to four times.
Karambwans
Considered a valuable food item to make money with, Karambwans are an extremely cost-effective food item that can be used in every kind of combat scenario.
Karambwans can heal up to 18 Hitpoints at a time, and only cost around 600gp on the Grand Exchange.
They can also be caught off the northern shore of Karamja after completion of the “Tai Bwo Wannai Trio” quest, and with 65 Fishing, as well as cooked with 30 Cooking.
On top of its high-healing properties, Karambwans can also be tick-manipulated with other foods, allowing you to tick-eat with other foods. For example, you can quickly eat an Anglerfish and a Karambwan at the same time, healing up to 40 Hitpoints in a single game tick.
In many high-level combat situations like the Inferno, the GWD, or in PvP, where time is essential for DPS, being able to heal extraordinary amounts of Hitpoints within a few seconds is critical to survival.
That is the best food in Old School RuneScape!
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