11 Discontinued Fast-Food Items That We Need BACK

As fast-food menus continue to rotate and innovate, items once beloved by the public can inevitably disappear. These discontinued fast-food items lie dormant in their company’s vaults, but there are legions of customers who wish that some could be resurrected.

Below are just a paltry representation of those discontinued fast-food items no longer around but where a demand for return is humongous.

KFC’s Original Popcorn Chicken

Sure, the Colonel’s got Popcorn Nuggets on the menu these days, but their bigger size means that you get less of the seasoned, crispy batter than the original Popcorn Chicken. I’ll still get the Nuggets from time to time because snackable fried chicken is always a plus. I just wish the old-school version was available as well.

Make these nuggets at home with our KFC copycat recipes.

Pizza Hut’s P’Zones

Whether you were one of those screaming “It’s not a calzone!” or not, this was still one hefty meal when it was around. This mashup of pizza and calzone clocked in at about a pound, not counting the extra cups of marinara you’d buy to dunk the crust in. Pizza Hut has brought the P’Zone back before, though, and it most recently popped back up at stores nationwide in 2019.

Bring Pizza Hut to your kitchen with our very favorite Pizza Hut copycat recipes!

McDonald’s Original Fries, Cooked In Beef Fat

Foodbeast

McDonald’s made the switch over to vegetable oil in the early ’90s, and since then, people have been able to tell that the savoriness of these crispy spuds has decreased. The golden-arched fast-food giant has tried to replicate the old taste with milk and beef-based flavorings, but it’s still just not the same as the fries of old.

Taco Bell’s Waffle Taco

As one of Taco Bell’s first forays into the Frankenstein’d foods category, this waffle taco blew everyone’s minds when it first came out. The Bell has continued to produce breakfast and innovative items since then, but this combo of sweet and savory has yet to make an appearance since. A “successor” to it, the French Toast Chalupa, is in the works, so maybe there’s hope for the waffle taco in the future to pair alongside it?

Did you know Taco Bell is one of the healthiest fast-food chains?

Burger King’s Burger Shots

Burger King once went after White Castle with their version of sliders. Still, these were a buzz-worthy take on sliders slightly ahead of their time, as the mini burgers are poppin’ on menus elsewhere today. Could the King bring them back for an audience more accepting of these patties? Possibly.

Miss the Burger Shots? Copycat them at home with our favorite Burger King recipes.

McDonald’s Fried Apple Pie

Flickr/Betsy Weber

The current version of apple pie on McD’s menu is baked, not fried. There’s a clear distinction between the two, as the fried pies are flakier than the crisp, dry pastry of the baked version. I get that you’re trying to make things healthier, McDonald’s, but sometimes it’s OK to up the indulgence to the max and stick your pies in a deep fryer.

Did you know there’s a McDonald’s secret menu?

Pizza Hut’s Triple Decker Pizza

Before the cheese-stuffed crust was big, there was a cheese-laden pizza base. Pizza Hut crammed as much cheese as they could into these pies in the late ’90s, and was one of the first times the world questioned whether we’d taken indulgent fast foods too far. Today’s world is all about the cheese pull, though, so even though there’s probably an extra thousand calories in this pie, we’ll sacrifice our waistlines for this one.

McDonald’s Mighty Wings

McDonald’s take on wings was off to a flying start, but the company shelved it because it didn’t turn into a major success for them. Mighty Wings stood up to some of the country’s best wing chains at the time, though, and if the fast-food giant can find a way to drop the price on them, could be a tasty bite of nostalgia for wing fanatics.

Taco Bell’s Bell Beefer

Of all the taco meat delivery systems at The Bell, my childhood favorite was the (long since discontinued) Bell Beefer. Taco meat on a bun. Mmmm

A post shared by Kyle Osborne (@entertainmentordie) on Mar 9, 2015 at 9:46am PDT

Originally from Naugles, the Bell once had a take on the “Taco Bun” that piled taco meat into burger form. It ate more like a Sloppy Joe than a burger, though, and while it was popular at first, demand eventually declined to where it left the menu. There’s many fans out there, though, who would love to see Taco Bell’s take on a burger come back to the menu one day.

Here’s what else was dropped from the new Taco Bell menu.

Wendy’s Frescata Sandwiches

Wendy’s brought these out as a challenge to Subway, but cold cuts from their drive-thru just didn’t sell well. I feel like if Wendy’s revisited these and learned how to make them faster while toasting the bread, they could still be a solid hit. It could be a foray too far into Arby’s territory, though, so maybe sticking to fresh beef is the better move for Wendy’s.