It’s not one of the chain’s original items, but since the McFlurry was introduced in Canada in 1995, it has been an integral part of McDonald’s menus all around the world. The ice-cream dessert features soft-serve and candy in a cardboard cup with a lid and a chunky hollow spoon. Over the years, McFlurries have come in a tonne of tasty flavours including Oreo, M&M’s and KitKat. A fast food staple, golden, crispy Chicken McNuggets were added to McDonald’s menu in the 1980s and remain an enduring favourite.
Tracking the latest news on the food, chains, industry and trends of Fast Food. The chain tried to initially launch a breakfast menu in 1985 but pulled the plug after just nine months of slinging eggs. It tried in earnest to serve breakfast again in 2007 and then again in 2012 but still couldn’t quite gain Egg McMuffin-level traction. The Baconator is great for satiating any intense bacon cravings you might have; filling up your stomach on a long road trip; and, oh, stashing your weed when the cops come rolling through to search your car. It turns out stuffing drugs in a burger isn’t effective for avoiding citation for drug possession. These tacos have been called everything from “a wet envelope of cat food” to “vile and amazing.” Whatever they are, it’s impossible to imagine Jack in the Box without them.
The Whopper is teased as “America’s favorite burger” by Burger King, and other chains try to keep up with this burger, which has set the standard for a classic fast food burger without a special sauce. And if you didn’t know the Whopper was this famous, then you probably don’t know these other facts about your favorite fast food chains. To determine the most famous fast food menu items of all time, we looked to Nation’s Restaurant News’ list of the top 200 restaurants by sales and pulled out the fast food chains from the top 50. Of course, regional restaurants such as In-n-Out and Shake Shack are also world-famous and have their own distinctive menu items, so we included these cult-favorite places as well. From there, we looked at which menu items are the most sold, most well-regarded and most known from the top chains.
Creamy and icy, this semi-milkshake, semi-soft serve dessert has been delighting dessert fans since 1969. Originally available in chocolate, Wendy’s also introduced the vanilla Frosty to its American restaurants in 2006. Real heads know that both flavors are delicious and can be improved only by using the Frosty as a dipping sauce for Wendy’s fries. The iconic sandwich featuring thinly sliced beef, Arby’s Sauce or Horsey Sauce and a toasted sesame seed bun has been on the menu at Arby’s since the beginning in 1964. While the chain has added fancy new promotions such as a venison steak, crispy onion and juniper berry sandwich, the roast beef delight has true staying power. These crispy-edged, soft-centred string fries are some of the best in the business.
Then they doused some fries with cheese and bacon and called it a day — a day forever known as the one where Baconator Fries proudly entered the world. The fries were supposedly limited time only when they were first introduced in 2015 but as of this publishing, they’re on the Wendy’s menu ready for consumption. Papa John’s has come under fire over the past few years for founder John Schnatter’s racial comments and the subsequent departure of franchisee and spokesman Peyton Manning from the operation. Hailed for its “solid-looking crust and glistening cheese,” it can be ordered with one of eight dipping sauces, from ranch to honey mustard to blue cheese.
When A&W comes to mind, you instantly think of the Root Beer Float. The oldest restaurant franchise in America, the chain started as a root-beer stand in 1919 and its signature brew is still made onsite at restaurants, before being topped with creamy vanilla soft serve and presented in a frosty mug. In the meantime, let’s simply admire its no-doubt solid construction.
Not many fast food chains have such a massive cult following that they become a top destination for Valentine’s Day, but White Castle has just that sort of fanbase. Since 1921, this fast food burger chain has been selling its teeny, tiny sliders with pickles and a little onion sauce, and they’ve been thriving ever since. While White Castle has introduced plant-based sliders, fish sliders, chicken sliders and a whole breakfast menu, their original slider remains their most iconic offering. Added to the McDonald’s menu in the 1960s, the Big Mac is one of the most famous burgers on the planet. It features two beef patties, a three-part sesame seed bun, Big Mac sauce, pickles, lettuce, chopped onion and cheese. It’s the chain’s signature item and so widely available around the world thatThe Big Mac Index is used as an economic tool.
We know, this one might be tough to accept, as Burger King has been one of the few fast-food restaurants to have offered up the side dish since the beginning. But if you take a closer look, you’ll see these onion rings aren’t really the best for your health. One order is packing more than 1,300 milligrams what kind of ecosystem are exotic species especially threatening to? of sodium, and this is without any sandwich or nuggets you would be eating alongside these rings. The American Heart Association recommends the average person consume no more than 2,300 milligrams of the salty stuff per day, moving toward an ideal limit of 1,500 milligrams for most adults.
Newer versions such as the Spicy Chicken Sandwich have joined the menu, but we reckon the original still takes some beating. To say the Baconator took the fast food world by storm when it first arrived would be a bit of an understatement. Within two months of initially promoting the now-iconic Wendy’s bacon cheeseburger, the company sold 25 million sandwiches to hungry meat-eaters. In the summer of 2007, a few months after the Baconator mania took hold, then CEO Kerrii Anderson told Business Wire, “This is one of the most successful new product introductions we’ve had in some time.” You could argue that the Big Mac – perhaps the ultimate fast-food burger, with its double patty, sesame bun, American cheese, and pickles, lettuce, and onions – is the icon here.