What is the greatest fast food item of all time?

Inspired by this podcast, what is the greatest fast food item? I was listening to this in the car earlier, and I spent an embarrassing amount of time contemplating this. I came up with a top 5 pretty quickly, and think I settled on a number one. So, top 5:

5. Wendy's Baconator
4. Taco Bell Crunchy Taco
3. McDonald's French Fries
and the top two I went back and forth on for awhile, but settled on:
2. Popeye's Spicy Chicken Sandwich
and the #1:
1. In N Out Double Double

With an honorable mention to the McDonald's Apple Pie

So, what tops your list?

 

1. Burger King Original Chicken Sandwich
2. Chicken with rice from any of the hundreds of street carts in NYC

(I know this isn't a chain, but it's ready in seconds and the carts are everywhere, so I think it counts)​

3. Popeye's Regular Chicken Sandwich
4. Taco Bell Grilled Stuft Burrito with chicken
5. Domino's thin crust with as much cheese as the pie can hold without collapsing

 

Love your list.

1. In N Out Double Double
2. Arby's Classic Roast Beef
3. McDonald's Fries
4. Taco Bell Crunchy Taco
5. Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers

 

Oooh, I didn't think of street carts, because an NYC dirty water dog with mustard and kraut would probably knock the Baconator off the list.

 

In my memory from eating it last when I was about six years old, Arthur Treacher's fish and chips.

 

Ha, for the record I was thinking primarily of street carts that have multiple locations, whether or not owned by the same people. Once you get below 59th Street you can't throw a rock without hitting one. My favorite, though, was always the one on 61st and Broadway. I'm not counting one-off spots like Korilla, Big D's, or Desi Food Truck.

Also, a lot of those specialty street carts are unreasonably slow. The same thing happens at Lardo; I've never been able to figure out why it takes them so long to assemble a sandwich with three ingredients. Yesterday I waited over 20 minutes, with nobody ahead of me. The halal carts, meanwhile, take about 30 seconds from when you order to when you have your food in hand (for me it was always chicken/rice, lettuce, corn, lots of white sauce, a little hot sauce).

 

Top three (in no order, as they change based on which way the wind is blowing and which is closer to the freeway offramp)....

Big Mac
KFC Nashville Hot Chicken (actual chicken on the bone, not a sandwich).
Taco Bell Double Decker Taco Supreme (which is off the menu around here, but if you know A Guy, you can still get one)

 

Grilled stuft burrito

 

Although I do not partake in these fast foods nearly as often as I used to, I am fond of the following:

6 wings with mild and hot sauce (from a LONG TIME Chicago local chain, Harold's Chicken)
White Castle Double Slider
McDonald's Egg McMuffin
Taco Bell Mexican Pizza

 

If we're talking price and the longevity of the price, I would vote #1 to be the Jack in the Box tacos, two for $.99 which they've held at that price for at least the last 25 years. I don't know (and I don't want to know) if they've maintained that price because of cheaper ingredients or it being a weird loss-leader that has fought the good fight of food inflation for about a quarter of a century. I think its in my top five just grading on taste or some weird sense of loyalty.

1. Popeye's red beans and rice
2. Taco Bell Doritos Locos Taco Supreme (nacho shell)
3. McDonald's Filet o Fish
4. In n Out Double Double
5. Jack in the Box tacos

 

1. Italian Beef Sandwich (Chicago Style)
2. Chicago Style Hot Dog
3. KFC (Original Recipe)
4. Little Caesars $5 One Topping Large Pizza to go
5. Burger King Whopper

*Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips would have been No. 1, but they are no longer around except for their last remaining location in Ohio, assuming that they survived the Covid shutdown. LOL

 

Do you like Portillo's? Sounds right up your alley. (I love their "combo" sandwich... the Italian beef with an Italian sausage inside too.)

I forgot about a Taco Bell Meximelt. Used to love those so much.

 

Chubbyville Brick Oven Beef sandwich!

(I doubt that anyone else even recognizes this!)

 

Yeah, Portillo's Italian Beef and Chicago Style Hot Dogs are good. Al's Italian Beef and a couple of other local places are also good for Italian Beef.

Portillo's stock also went public recently, so there's been talk that they want to expand nationally too. Maybe we'll see one in Vegas in the future. I just hope that if they do go national that their quality doesn't suffer.

 

The Portillo's in Orange County sure is good. I've not been to the Chicago Portillo's.

I didn't know they were publicly traded. In normal times, the $6 million in annual net income doesn't equate out to a $2 billion+ market cap, but we do not live in normal times.

 

McDonald's Fries over everything

 

Mexican pizza at Taco Bell (only after midnight)
Chic fil a sandwich with an Arnold Palmer

 

I would put McDonald's fries at P1 if they are fresh and crispy, otherwise I can't argue with the IN-N-OUT Double Double!

 

McD's fries were gourmet quality in the days when they were made in beef tallow. Even Julia Child said so. Nothing since then has come close.

 

1.sausage biscuit/mcmuffin
2. crinkle fries
3. popeyes chicken sandwich
4.whataburger double cheese everything with bacon
5. breakfast burritos from the roach coaches.