McDonald’s has been around for a long time, and although it’s obviously been massively successful as one of the world’s largest fast food chains…
Not everything they do is a huge winner.
And sometimes, even beloved dishes get the axe. (Unfortunately.)
Because, let’s face it…
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When you’ve been around as long as McDonald’s, you’ve lived through several changes in food tastes.
Trends have come and gone. All that kind of thing.
So even something that seemed perfectly reasonable at the time may now seem pretty weird!
But I just don’t think any of these dishes could ever have been considered all that “normal” for a McDonald’s to carry…
Starting with a personal favorite:
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Yes – for a brief, shining period in 2016, you could get eggs benedict (complete with hollandaise sauce) at McDonald’s.
The setup was simple: Two egg McMuffins served open-faced and smothered in hollandaise sauce.
This dish was never meant to last, as it was part of a promo with the big breakfast platter, but I sure miss it!
I mean, who would have thought – eggs benedict at McDonald’s, right? Talk about wacky!
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Yeah, McDonald’s used to serve soup.
There were two flavors – broccoli cheddar and chicken noodle.
They weren’t great. (Which is probably no surprise.)
But they were certainly weird!
I mean, I can see the argument – Wendy’s has chili after all – but it was just kind of a weird thing for McDonald’s to do.
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Ray Kroc, who popularized McDonald’s and ran it as CEO for six years, famously warned the chain against ever selling hot dogs.
After he passed, they decided to give it a try.
While it was kind of a zany idea (especially since Kroc said no), it did have a certain logic. Right? Like, when you grill hamburgers, usually you grill hot dogs too.
Anyway, hot dogs didn’t last long – they were introduced in the late 90s and then came back briefly as a seasonal item in 2002.
I’m betting they don’t come back again – it’s been over 20 years.
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Yes, back in the 80s McDonald’s did…spaghetti.
With marinara sauce and a meatball. The whole nine yards.
It actually lasted for a while, even despite the fact that when you think of Italian food…McDonald’s is just about the last name that comes to mind.
But it’s gone and has been for over 40 years, so I’m pretty sure it’s never returning.
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This was one of the weirder ideas I’ve seen come out of McDonald’s, and that’s saying something.
But the pitch for it goes something like this.
Like fried chicken but not a fried chicken sandwich? Get chicken nuggets or chicken tenders.
Like fried fish but not a fried fish sandwich?
Well, these fish McBites might be for you.
The bites themselves were fine – I tried them and had no complaints – and had a certain uniqueness factor, but honestly it’s obvious in retrospect that they were never going to have any real staying power.
Much like…
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Long before the Chicken McNugget…McDonald’s experimented with Onion Nuggets.
I actually don’t hate the concept – think like a cheaper, less tasty Bloomin’ Onion, right? – but it was a total flop, even back in the ’70s when people’s tolerance for weird food was quite a bit higher.
Anyway, they flopped and have been gone for more than 40 years, so it’s a pretty safe bet that they’re never returning.
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Yes, McDonald’s briefly offered breaded chicken wings in the hopes that people wouldn’t just associate it with burgers? Maybe?
Anyway, these spicy wings debuted in the early 1990s but were pulled pretty quickly after poor sales showed the public wasn’t biting.
They tried them again in 2013 and pulled them even faster for the same reason.
So, sorry – you’ll have to get your chicken wings from an actual wings place.
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No surprise – McDonald’s tried a pizza too, in the late 1980s.
Originally the thinking was they’d go for family-sized pizzas that would be placed in the middle of the table, but by the early ’90s McDonald’s had scaled it down to personal pan pizzas.
The McPizza lasted for over a decade, but ultimately its streak ended because the cook time (over 15 minutes) was just so much longer than for any other item on the McDonald’s menu.
You can’t call it fast food if it’s not fast!
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This one’s a personal favorite of mine.
The hula burger replaced the burger patty with a thick slice of pineapple.
So you ended up with a sweet burger with almost no protein. (I guess a good opportunity to order two? Or maybe if you eat enough fries…but I digress.)
The hula burger was invented to give practicing Catholics something to eat on meatless Fridays, but ultimately the Filet-o-Fish ended up capturing the crown.
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If you’ve ever wished McDonald’s would make its own hot pocket (and really, why would you), then you, sir, were the target market for the McStuffins.
They tried out pepperoni pizza and chicken teriyaki fillings, but unfortunately – and not surprisingly – they didn’t gain any traction.
Does anyone even really like hot pockets?
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So there you have it – 10 wacky, weird, beloved McDonald’s favorites that are probably never going to come back.
It’s sad, but that’s just the way things go sometimes.
Of course, that begs two big questions:
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#1: Which is your favorite of these weird and wacky foods? Which do you miss most or wish you’d gotten the chance to try?
#2: What bizarre McDonald’s inventions have I missed?
Let us know in the comments!
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