13 Popular Discontinued McDonald's Items Ranked Worst To Best

In the mid-20th century, one of the largest meat-eschewing groups in America were adherents of the Roman Catholic faith, who, as part of the reflective 40-day period of Lent each year, avoid meat on Fridays. That led to a huge drop in business on Fridays for a McDonald's franchise in a predominantly Catholic part of Cincinnati owned and operated by Lou Groen. In order to help keep revenue up, he petitioned McDonald's corporate office to introduce a Catholic-friendly option. Since fish was allowed on Fridays, he suggested a fried whitefish patty on a bun. 

McDonald's boss Ray Kroc was put off by the sandwich's relatively complex prep process and gave Groen his own idea for a meat-free item — the Hula Burger. It consisted of a slice of grilled pineapple, topped with cheese, and placed on a bun. And that was all. So convinced was Kroc that the Hula Burger was a sure thing that he set up a test at Groen's McDonald's. Both the Hula Burger and the newly created Filet-O-Fish would be offered on a Friday, and whichever sold more would be permanently added to the McDonald's national menu. By the end of the day, 350 Filet-O-Fish sandwiches were ordered, compared to only six Hula Burgers, which probably makes it the least popular fast food item in history. And with good reason — it was simple, bland, and not very well thought out.

Maybe McDonald's was responding to the perceived demand for healthier options on its menu, or perhaps the chain wanted to pull in a demographic that didn't usually hit up a burger joint for lunch. Whatever the case, McSalad Shakers were a poorly and cynically devised item that McDonald's thought so little of that it made buyers perform the food construction themselves and tried to pass that off like it was fun. 

Introduced in three varieties in the early 2000s, a McSalad Shaker kit consisted of a domed, clear plastic milkshake cup that was filled with flavorless romaine lettuce (similar to the pre-cut, pre-washed bag kind sold in supermarkets) along with toppings. The Chicken Caesar McSalad came with sliced chicken and shredded cheese, while the Garden McSalad included a cheese blend, tomatoes, green onions, and a chopped boiled egg. The dressing packet — gloopy, mass-produced, overly sweet, and, ironically, not particularly healthy stuff — came separately. And here's where the fun part came in. Eaters squirted dressing into their McSalad Shaker cup, put the lid on, and then agitated it wildly to spread the dressing. And then they got to eat an extremely mediocre salad out of a cup, through a narrow opening.

To borrow a catchphrase from a non-burger-oriented fast food giant, sometimes a company has to "think outside the bun." McDonald's did just that in 2006 when, according to Fast Food News, it unveiled its first Snack Wrap. Priced exceptionally cheap at just over $1, the item — which was the result of extensive test marketing — felt like something thrown together by a hungry, latchkey kid or college student with not a lot of food in the house. It was a small flour tortilla wrapped around a chicken strip with some shredded cheddar cheese and lettuce, and ranch dressing. Within a year, per The Impulsive Buy, more Snack Wraps appeared on the scene, including the Honey Mustard Snack Wrap, the Chipotle BBQ Snack Wrap, and the Salsa Roja Snack Wrap. They were a lot like the original, but with the ranch subbed out for different, ordinary condiments soaked into that same old chicken piece.

According to Delish, McDonald's started to phase out its wraps line in 2016, and they were gone by 2019, per Investopedia. The reason: The steam-cooking of tortillas added so much time to the prep process that it backed up drive-thru lines, which subsequently hurt revenues. Despite popular online petitions, the Snack Wrap remains out of American McDonald's, but really, fans could make one themselves at home with a tortilla, frozen chicken strip, and whatever salad dressing they've got laying around.

In 1988, McDonald's tried to get just a little bit fancy, introducing a sandwich that looked much like one of its regular cheeseburgers, but prepared a little bit differently and with slightly more upscale ingredients. Behold, the short-lived McDonald's Cheddar Melt. Instead of a plain white bun, McDonald's used a wheat bun — exotic for fast food in the late 1980s. Out went the slice of processed American cheese, and in came a hefty spoonful of creamy, gooey cheese sauce, not unlike that found on Welsh rarebit. And for a little kick, there were some onions, too, but not diced raw ones as per usual, but grilled, caramelized ones. All those little changes added up to a cheeseburger that felt more elevated than standard McDonald's grub, or even the diner-style melts that inspired the Cheddar Melt. It was a flavorful, mildly provocative spin on the regular McDonald's menu, but one step too far into the unknown to prove successful for the company in the 1980s.

The Egg McMuffin always kind of evoked Eggs Benedict anyway. That classic, elegant brunch dish consists of two halves of an English muffin topped with a poached egg, ham, and creamy, tangy Hollandaise sauce. The Egg McMuffin debuted at McDonald's in 1971 — the first time an American fast food giant sold a breakfast sandwich, or breakfast food at all, for that matter — and clearly took inspiration from the Benedict. It consists of an egg disc (which has a similar texture as a poached egg) topped with ham and placed between two English muffin halves — it's Eggs Benedict made portable, eatable without a knife and fork, and dropping the Hollandaise sauce. 

Everything looped back around to itself in the summer of 2001 according to QSR Magazine, when McDonald's, in an inexplicable promotion tied to the release of Disney's "Atlantis: The Lost Empire," introduced the Eggs Benedict McMuffin. It was a garden variety McMuffin but with a small, not-too-messy amount of "special breakfast sauce" in the middle. The limited-time offering was everything great about a McMuffin — portability, numerous breakfast foods in every bite — but with the addition of the rich and tasty "breakfast sauce" that tasted a lot like Hollandaise. There was little to not like about the Eggs Benedict McMuffin, but McDonald's retired the product.

It's entirely possible that McDonald's was ahead of its time with the Arch Deluxe, and that the problem wasn't the sandwich but a world that wasn't ready for deluxe, high-end, specialty burgers from a fast food restaurant, let alone the most inoffensively reliable fast food restaurant. In 1996, years before the likes of Hardee's and Carl's Jr.'s Six-Dollar Burger, McDonald's introduced the large and premium Arch Deluxe, consisting of a well-seasoned patty on a bun and topped with lettuce, cheese, tomato, and ketchup, as well as more novel ingredients like a disc of bacon, sliced onions, and a big dollop of a peppery mayonnaise-based sauce.

It was tangy, resulted in a complex mouth-feel, and didn't taste like anything else on the McDonald's menu. The company prepared the world for that reaction with a $200 million marketing campaign, nicknaming it "the burger with the grown-up taste." As evidenced by the total failure of the Arch Deluxe, people in 1996 didn't want to go to McDonald's for something fancy that would challenge their palette. That sauce (along with the bacon) set it too far apart from the chain's regular fare, and if served today, at a sit-down spot like Chili's or Red Robin (or even at McDonald's) it would probably find an audience.

While the idea of assembling food oneself seemed annoying and pointless when McDonald's encouraged the notion with its McSalad Shakers, it can be a fun and even necessary thing if the restaurant provides a legitimate reason for the activity. Such was the case for the mid-1980s cultural phenomenon of the McDLT. A large hamburger sandwich with a quarter-pound meat patty and lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise, the meat stayed hot until the first bite, which also included surprisingly crisp and still-cold veggies — because the eater slapped the two halves of the sandwiches together just before tucking in. 

Thanks to a memorable ad campaign starring future "Seinfeld" actor Jason Alexander leading a song-and-dance number explaining that with the McDLT, "the hot stays hot" and "the cool stays cool" because of McDonald's innovative packaging design. The McDLT arrived in a double-wide styrofoam box, with one covered spot for the hot side and a separate one for the cold side. The whole thing worked, making for a delicious sandwich with numerous temperatures, textures, and flavors all jockeying for position and blending nicely — which usually doesn't happen with everything-all-at-once fast food burgers. 

McDonald's ultimately got rid of the sandwich because of the environmental impact. The 1980s is when the world realized that styrofoam was a landfill-filler that took years to break down, and rather than add to the world's trash heap, McDonald's heard environmental groups' pleading and got rid of the tasty sandwich whose quality relied heavily on its packaging.