Let’s be honest: None of us go to the drive-thru because we want a healthy meal. But sometimes, chains just go too far in the name of innovation. Some fast food restaurants have come out with some true flops that left the menu hanging their heads in shame. We found the most ridiculous ones, guaranteed to make your stomach say, “no thank you.” Chances are, you still remember the last one best. (Page 20).
1. Taco Bell’s Bell Beefer burger went against this slogan
We all know Taco Bell’s slogan, “think outside the bun.” But the popular taco chain once made a taco burger, complete with bun. Its customers did not love the burger, and stuck to tacos instead. However, some customers still ask “where’s the beef?” A small but loyal Facebook group, “Taco Bell Please Bring Back The Bell Beefer,” even begs the chain to revive the product.
2. Taco Bell seafood salad got a little too creative
If you don’t go to a fast food restaurant for its seafood, you probably made a good choice. In the 1980s, Taco Bell rolled out a seafood salad. It subsequently pulled it off the menu, after numerous reports of food poisoning.
3. Wendy’s: It’s (not) what’s for breakfast
Wendy’s has tried to compete with the iconic McDonald’s breakfast multiple times, but it has never found success. As of this writing, it had pulled those items off the menu, yet again. What can we say, the Egg McMuffin has no parallel.
4. Dairy Queen’s Breeze was anything but
The ice cream chain offered the healthier alternative to the Blizzard from about 1990-2000. The chain tried to sell it as a healthier alternative to the chain’s iconic Blizzard milkshake, using frozen yogurt instead of ice cream. However, nobody wanted the concept. In fact, so few people purchased the product that the frozen yogurt went bad before it got used.
5. Burger King’s idea did not satis-fry
When most of us order french fries, we know just what we got ourselves into. But Burger King tried to lighten up its fries with a low-calorie alternative, for those who like lying to themselves. Customers literally didn’t buy it, and they disappeared from the menu in 2014.
6. McDonald’s brought the rain of fury down on the McAfrika
The McAfrika — a pita with beef, cheese, lettuce, and tomato — created a huge PR disaster for the chain. It released the new concept in Norway during a famine in southern Africa, showing truly insensitive timing. The chain pulled the sandwich shortly thereafter, surprising exactly no one.
7. Wendy’s tried to mimic another chain with these sammies
The Subway-esque Frescata sandwich marked another attempt to make Wendy’s menu “fresher” and more healthy. But when we want Subway, we just go to Subway. Customers did not go for it, and Wendy’s decided tostick to burgers instead.
8. Keeping the hot side hot didn’t sound so cool
The McDLT came out in the 1980s but failed because of one weird reason — packaging. The burger came in a Styrofoam container that kept the lettuce and tomato separate, to prevent the dreaded lettuce wilt. It actually went over really well with customers, but the amount of packaging it required eventually killed the sandwich star.
9. Burger King tried — and failed — to shake it up
In theory, shaking fries up in a bag with cheese sounds like a tasty idea. With the shake ‘em up fries, Burger King asked customers to do just that. Nobody wanted to DIY at a fast food joint, so the fries left the market pretty quickly.
10. Jack in the Box went out of the box
Fried macaroni and cheese bites sound like a good idea, but Jack in the Box customers disagreed. The breaded, fried triangles filled with ooey, gooey macaroni and cheese flopped in 2008. When it comes to fast food, sometimes innovation does not go over well.
11. McDonald’s tried to get deluxe and failed in a big way
Don’t try to get fancy with us, Hamburglar. McDonald’s tried to appeal to foodies with the Arch Deluxe quarter-pound burger. The “secret sauce” on the burger did not intrigue customers, who just wanted their Big Macs. It wound up ranking as one of the most expensive failures in the chain’s history.
12. Customers did not want to ‘shake it’ at McDonald’s, either
While some people actually did love the McDonald’s shaker salads, they did not last very long. People might have wanted a fast food salad, in theory, but you have to actually buy an item for it to stick around. They didn’t.
13. Sonic’s Pickle-o’s had us saying Uh-oh
The kitschy drive-in Sonic attempted to bring back this fried pickle snack from the 1960s in 2003. The problem? Fried pickles have to come out super fresh, or they get soggy and gross within seconds. The format just does not lend itself to fast food, and Sonic had to pack in these rings pretty quickly.
14. Burger shots even sound bad
The burger giant tried to compete with White Castle by introducing sliders, in the 1980s, with Burger Bundles and Burger Buddies, then again in the late 2000s with Burger Shots. One problem: they made the burger patties so small, they kept falling through the broiler grates. They also took too long for employees to make, stalling production. And of course, nobody wants White Castle at Burger King.
15. Friendly’s tried to give its customers heart attacks with this one
Friendly’s took two grilled cheese sandwiches and stuck a burger with all the fixin’s between them. What could go wrong? The entire Burgermelt meal with fries weighed in at a ridiculous 1,500 calories, 97 grams of fat, and a gut-busting 2,090 milligrams of sodium. It left the menu in 2010, after customers realized they should not get more than their day’s worth of sodium in one meal.
16. McDonald’s onion bites sounds good, in theory
If you like onion rings, you might also like the idea of this idea. In the 1970s, McDonald’s introduced fried onion bites, which replaced chicken with chopped onions. The consistency came out less appealing than they wanted, and the bites, well, bit it.
17. Yes, a pizza can get too big
Pizza Hut came out with the behemoth Priazzo to try and mimic Chicago deep-dish. The monster pizza came with two layers of crust, lots of cheese, and a ton of meat. However, because it had so many components, it also took longer to cook. Because we want our pizza hot and ready, the Priazzo went the way of the dinosaur.
18. Speaking of pizza, nobody ordered this one either
McDonald’s pizza has become something of a legend, after it came out in select stores for a short time. The year: 1989. The treat: A “freshly made” pizza from everyone’s favorite burger chain. It weirded people out to order pizza at Mickey D’s, so this concept did not last very long.
19. Burger King put an omelette on a bun
Yes Burger King, you can make a sandwich too big. The chain stuck an egg omelette, sausage, and cheese on a gigantic sesame seed bun in 2005. While all of the individual components worked, most people did not want a sandwich the size of their firstborn child. It failed once we realized this makes a terrible way to start your day.
20. We’re all better off without Super Size
The McDonald’s “super-size me” campaign had huge success for more than a decade, but it never made much sense, health-wise. After independent filmmaker Morgan Spurlock released his documentary Super Size Me in 2004, the chain took a huge hit. The film showed Spurlock eating nothing but McDonald’s for a month, and it negatively impacted his health. Super Size Me subsequently killed Americans’ appetites for huge meals and by the end of 2004, we lost our super-sizing privileges.
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