Fast-food places are one of the go-to places to get food for American families. Relatively cheap when compared to most restaurants, places like McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s for example, have been profitable for decades, cooking up food that has satisfied most. However, throughout those decades, many items were created, and then taken off, the menus through trial and error on each company’s part. Whether it was just trying to expand their line of products, or trying to compete with rivals, many of these items have come and gone, but it’s always interesting to see what could’ve remained. Here are a couple to get your mouths watering:

McPizza:

Started in the late 1980s, McPizza was an attempt from McDonald’s to try to keep up with competitors like Domino’s and Pizza Hut. Placed on their dinner menu, the pizza was apparently well-reviewed, and was offered in over 500 locations before being discontinued! Baked in an actual oven, and with a few available toppings like onions and peppers, those who got it found it pretty good. Unfortunately, the biggest complaint about the McPizza was the longer wait time, as it took just about 11 minutes to cook. There were also issues with people ordering it drive-thru, as delivery, and the aforementioned wait, factored in. With McDonald’s being a fast-food chain, they wanted their reputation around timely service to remain positive, so the McPizza was discontinued in 2000. As of now, if you want to try one, there is only one McDonald’s left that offers the McPizza: Orlando, Florida!

Whopperito:

Belonging to Burger King, the Whopperito seemed to be an attempt on Burger King’s part to move into Mexican food. Why this was done, no one knows, but some have speculated it was an attempt to compete with other fast food chains like Chipotle. Conceived in 2016, the Whopperito consisted of your typical Whopper ingredients, like ground beef, lettuce, tomato, onions, and pickles, wrapped up into a tortilla, then dressed with a special queso sauce before it was ready to be served to eager customers. The demand of the Whopperito proved to be incredibly high, and most consumers and food critics agreed it was rather good! Many taste testers thought the concept was kind of weird, but that the actual item was delicious! Unfortunately, it seemed to be only available for a limited time, and was never brought back, as the Burger King president of North America, Alex Macedo, stated that it was more of an item to boost sales and keep the brand alive rather than becoming a mainstay item. As such, sadly, the Whopperito has yet to make another appearance.

Hula Burger:

Back to McDonald’s, this time in 1963, back when Ray Kroc was still alive and helping out the company! At this time, McDonald’s was trying to get a hold of the Catholic market, who weren’t eating meat on Fridays during Lent.  There were two products the company had to please that corner of the market: The first was the Filet-o-Fish, a fish sandwich with a slice of cheese and tartar sauce that has stayed on the menu since then. The second was one of Kroc’s own thinking, called the Hula Burger. It consisted of a sliced grilled pineapple, topped with cheese on a bun. Yeah, safe to say, the product underperformed due to its bizarre flavor and was replaced with the Filet-o-Fish, which was way more popular! The Hula Burger was then quickly taken off the menu, and hasn’t been seen since, and probably for good reason!

Hot Dog Stuffed Crust Pizza

Pizza Hut may not be the first place that comes to mind when you think of fast food, but over the years they have amassed a steady business, selling tons of different variations on pizza, garlic knots, and salads. However, one of their stranger ideas was this product, which had a short life in 2015. While Pizza Hut has used stuffed crusts to shake up the formula on one of the most popular foods in America, five years ago they made a pizza that had 28 mini hot dogs baked into a crust. The goal was, I guess, to have a combination of appetizer and dinner, but the item never took off and was diconsinuted shortly after being sold in 2015. The item was sold in the U.S., as well as Canada, the U.K., and South Korea to name a few, but unfortunately the Hot Dog Stuffed Crust Pizza didn’t take off in any of those locations either. 

Double Down

While resurging back to KFC locations in some international locations, it appears as though the Double Down hasn’t really had as much popularity as it once did in 2010 stateside. The sandwich was notorious for being one of the most unhealthy sandwich options in all of fast food, as the buns to this sandwich weren’t even buns at all: they were FRIED CHICKEN PATTIES!! And as if that were enough to clog your arteries, inbetwixt that chicken was bacon, Monterey Jack cheese, and barbeque sauce! While initially only one the menu for a limited time, the Double Down became so popular that its stay on the menu became a bit longer, with Stephen Colbert even giving it some attention. Sadly though, the calorie count was a bit much, and KFC seems to have given the Double Down a rest for that reason!