Fast Food Menu Items That Took Things Too Far

Fast food has become a prominent fixture on the modern culinary scene, and its popularity continues to soar. Food on the go not only offers convenience but also provides consumers with a comforting sense of familiarity. After all, there's a certain satisfaction in knowing precisely what will be served to you once you place your order.

While every fast food chain has its iconic signature items, such as McDonald's Big Mac and KFC's fried chicken, there are occasions when these establishments like to experiment. And while these innovations let customers break away from their typical menu choices, they can also push the boundaries of customers' palates just a tad too far.

Whether it's an unusual fusion of two contrasting flavors that defy culinary logic or an unexpected amalgamation of ingredients, some fast food experiments resulted in taste experiences that were difficult for customers to embrace. With this in mind, here are some of the strangest fast food items unleashed on the unsuspecting public.

In 2019, KFC polarized the culinary world with the release of its Chicken & Donuts Sandwich. Consisting of a piece of fried chicken sandwiched between two donuts, the sweet and savory treat sparked a flurry of debates and discussions. As reported by USA Today, the KFC U.S. chief marketing officer, Andrea Zahumensky, emphasized the meticulous attention that had gone into perfecting this fast food marvel, saying, "Only a donut that's glazed-to-order and served piping hot every single time can stand next to our hand-breaded fried chicken."

The reactions to the Chicken & Donuts Sandwich were mixed. Dana Rivera from UPROXX called the casual dining invention a "brutal fast food experience," saying that while the sandwich actually tasted pretty good while you were chewing it, it wasn't long before things took a turn for the worse. And this, she said, had nothing to do with the taste of the meal but the sheer gluttonous spectacle that it represented. "Eat it if you want a fast-food experience that adequately reflects the times we live in," she wrote. "It's a sandwich designed to make you instantly regret eating it, one that makes you feel ashamed for liking it."

Unfazed by culinary conventions, in 2012, Burger King took a leap into the great unknown with its Bacon Sundae — a treat that combined contrasting flavors and textures. This menu item consisted of frosty vanilla soft serve served with chocolate fudge, caramel, and "thick hardwood smoked bacon," as reported by HuffPost.

So how did Burger King's Bacon Sundae fare with fast food enthusiasts? The taste tester for HuffPost was impressed with the amount of bacon that went into the dessert, estimating that each sundae contained two or three strips of the stuff. And while the reviewer was quick to point out that they would much rather indulge in a sundae without pork, they also admitted that the dessert's ingredients were complementary. "The saltiness of the bacon was a nice contrast to the sweetness from the rest of the ingredients. I also really liked that the bacon added a crunchy element to the smooth soft-serve," they wrote.

Adam Martin, who wrote about the Bacon Sundae for The Atlantic, described the menu item as the chain's attempt at jumping on the bacon-as-dessert bandwagon that he said had already run its course (the concept of bacon as dessert is said to have kicked off in 2004 with bacon and egg ice cream at the Fat Duck, a three-Michelin-star restaurant in the U.K.). "The product is just such obvious pandering, a clumsy and manipulative stab at trend-chasing," he wrote. "And, honestly, a bacon sundae's not even a good novelty item."

While Buffalo sauce is usually associated with chicken wings, its zesty and spicy flavor also makes a welcome addition to other dishes such as tacos and potato skins. However, there are certain menu items where Buffalo sauce seems out of place. One such offering was Tim Hortons' Buffalo Latte, which made its debut on the fast food scene in 2017. Crafted with espresso, chocolate, and buffalo sauce, and finished off with whipped topping and Buffalo seasoning, the beverage was available in select Tim Hortons outlets in Buffalo, New York.

Tim Hortons introduced the Buffalo Latte as a limited-time item to showcase the chain's new lineup of espresso, featuring lattes, cappuccinos, and Americanos, as well as a range of new flavors such as vanilla, mocha, caramel, and pumpkin spice. As such, it's probably not surprising that the chain's U.S. regional president, Stephen Goldstein, offered an offbeat rationale for introducing the unusual item, saying, "Tim Hortons and Buffalo sauce were both born in 1964, so why not take these two Buffalo staples and combine them?" (via Myrecipes).

The rich flavor of caviar and the succulent, buttery taste of lobster are typically associated with opulence and fine dining. This is why many were left confused when, in 2012, Wendy's launched its lobster and caviar offerings at outlets in Japan. Shellfish enthusiasts were able to select from the Premium Caviar & Lobster Sandwich and the Lobster Surf & Turf Burger, which were made with Canadian Omar lobsters. And for the health-conscious, Wendy's offered the Ocean Premium Salad with lobster, avocado, onion, and egg. In case you're curious about the prices, the burger and sandwich were $16 each while the salad cost $20 a pop. This is the equivalent of around $21 and $26 today — a little pricey for casual dining.

The limited-time offerings were just some of Wendy's other upscale meal ideas launched in Japan to celebrate the chain's re-entry into the country's market after a two-year hiatus. Some of these extravagant items included the foie gras and truffle mushroom burger and the truffle and porcini grilled chicken sandwich. To explain the move, the chief executive officer of Wendy's Japan LLC, Ernest Higa, commented: "The Japanese consumer, as compared to the U.S., they want higher quality, higher service, generally speaking, and they also want variety [...] It's an affluent economy and a very sophisticated consumer" (via AOL).

KFC's Double Down Dog was a spruced up — and more offbeat — version of the Double Down, a sandwich made with bacon and cheese lodged between two filets of fried chicken that made its debut in the U.S. in 2010. Released in the Philippines in 2015, the Double Down Dog consisted of a hot dog-style frankfurter sausage encased in two fried chicken filets. And just like a real hot dog, the gluttonous menu item came with optional mayo, ketchup, and cheese.

Cedric Lizotte reviewed the off-beat treat for Continents Condiments, and let's just say that he wasn't impressed. Lizotte proclaims that he was underwhelmed by the item's small size and aesthetics, saying that it was "the saddest-looking chicken sandwich [he'd] ever laid eyes on." According to the brave taste tester, the sandwich was also unimpressive in terms of flavor. "The chicken was extremely salty and oily," he writes, adding that the meal came with a "greasy processed orange cheese."

In recent years, we've witnessed some peculiar experiments with pizza crust. Pizza Hut's Flying Fish Roe Salmon Cream Cheese Pizza is a case in point. Introduced in Hong Kong in 2014, as its name suggests, the pie came with a crust stuffing made from fish eggs and salmon-flavored cream cheese. The pizza came in two different toppings. For seafood enthusiasts, the Crayfish Seafood Deluxe Pizza featured crayfish, clams, scallops, shrimp, and a bunch of the typical veggies you usually find on a Pizza Hut offering. Alternatively, carnivores could indulge in the chain's Sausage, Pepperoni & Pomelo Pizza, which combines all that its name suggests plus berry sauce, peaches, and more.

This isn't the first time Pizza Hut has outdone itself in the unusual pizza crust department. In 2012, Pizza Hut Middle East released the Crown Crust Pizza, which let pizza enthusiasts choose between a crust filled with either cheeseburgers or chicken filets. Two years later, the fast food giant introduced its Chee-Zee Marmite Stuffed Crust Pizza in New Zealand. Just like its name suggests, the pie was filled with cheese and the polarizing yeast spread.