24 McDonald’s Menu Items We Never Want Back

Since opening its doors in 1955, McDonald’s has dominated the fast food industry. The franchise boasts a powerful connection to burgers, fries, shakes, and speed.

Though McDonald’s is a successful restaurant chain, several attempted menu items have flopped horrendously. Some of these items might surprise you, but the popularity consensus has concluded that they should never return.

Arch Deluxe

The Arch Deluxe was McDonald’s most expensive marketing failure. The burger contained a quarter-pound beef patty with bacon, lettuce, tomato, onions, American cheese, ketchup, and mustard.

The Arch Deluxe marketing aimed at adults and featured children shunning the gourmet burger. Even though the burger tasted delicious, based on popular opinion at the time, the marketing method caused it to flop hard.

McPizza

Fast food and pizza typically work together perfectly. However, McDonald’s didn’t account for how the average customer feels when they visit the establishment. Most people go to McDonald’s for burgers and fries, not pizza.

Most pizza lovers head straight to Dominoes or Pizza Hut, which are already well-known for such foods. Another issue caused by the McPizza was the wait time. The average McPizza order required a wait time of 11 minutes, frustrating many customers.

Mozzarella Sticks

Mozzarella sticks sound like a fantastic fast-food item, don’t they? The initial reaction to the mozzarella sticks supplied by McDonald’s left people wanting more cheese. Most found that only one of their three mozzarella sticks had any cheese in them at all.

To make matters worse, a Californian customer filed a lawsuit against McDonald’s, claiming they used a starch filler in their ‘100%’ mozzarella cheese. The customer dropped the case in 2016, and the mozzarella sticks soon vanished from sight.

McHotdog

The McHotDog appeared twice, once in 1991 and again in 1995. Both times, it lasted only a month or two and then disappeared again.

The primary reason it failed eludes us, but Ray Kroc, one of McDonald’s founders, allegedly said he never wanted hotdogs as part of his business since you can’t uphold a hotdog standard when no one knows what’s inside it.

McSpaghetti

The McSpaghetti failed for precisely the reason you might expect. The average McDonald’s consumer wants a burger and fries, not pasta.

The McSpaghetti tasted fine, and some people chose it over the traditional burger options. It remained for a considerable portion of the late 80s and early 90s. However, the lack of demand caused the discontinuation of the Italian menu item.

Angus Burger

The Angus Burger survived for quite some time but lost its luster as beef prices started to soar. Customers look for value as much as or more than quality from McDonald’s, and paying 3 to 4 times more than a value burger for a single Angus Burger was more than most Americans were willing to pay.

Since beef prices were the primary reason for losing the Angus Burger, countries like New Zealand and Australia retained it longer than the US.

McLobster

The McLobster sounds like something many people would want, but it failed before even coming into existence. The typical McDonald’s meal price can’t be maintained when lobster is involved. Subsequently, only some people would choose a lobster sandwich over a value burger and fries.

Another significant issue involves the lack of lobster availability in certain states, meaning not everyone can get one from anywhere in the country, not to mention the rest of the world.

McSalad Shaker

The McSalad Shaker lasted for about twenty years, starting in 2000. People could order a salad delivered in a plastic cup. Three years later, the McSalad Shaker got a makeover, adding more gourmet options and offering the salad in a bowl instead of a plastic cup.

Despite the improvements, the McSalad Shaker took longer than the typical fast-food meal to prepare, and keeping the quality of the ingredients to standard meant taking even longer than that. The McSalad Shaker ultimately died off in 2020.

McStuffins

The McStuffins lasted less than a year. The product failed miserably during all marketing tests beforehand, so it stands to reason that the launch wasn’t a success.

The McStuffin compares to a hot pocket crossed with a burrito. While such an item sounds plausible for a fast-food restaurant, McDonald’s customers weren’t buying it in the literal sense.

Chicken Fajita Wraps

Preparation time once again claimed a McDonald’s menu item. The chicken fajita wraps McDonald’s sold in the 1990s lasted almost into the 21st century. However, due to the speed people expected to get through the line as the years passed, they needed to be more viable.

Thus, the fajita wraps are no longer available because they involve much behind-the-scenes preparation.

Spanish Omelet Bagel

McDonald’s breakfast bagels went in and out of fashion between 1999 and 2020. The Spanish Omelet Bagel was the first of its kind but only lasted a year and disappeared in 2000.

The reason for discontinuation involved people’s general preference for the McMuffin. Bagels made a comeback several times, but the Spanish Omelet Bagel has yet to reappear.

Big Xtra

Of all the discontinued McDonald’s burgers, the Big Xtra holds the memories of most customers.

The Big Xtra was phased out simply because the Big N’ Tasty replaced it. Both burgers were marketed simultaneously in different places in 1999. Ultimately, the Big Xtra left something to desire, while the Big N’ Tasty became the staple.

Big N’ Tasty

Speaking of the Big N’ Tasty, people chose it over the Big Xtra mainly because it had a one-third-pound patty instead of a quarter-pound. It survived 11 more years until being removed in 2011.

The Big N’ Tasty vanished because it took up too much space to be held comfortably and was a tad expensive.

Chopped Beefsteak Sandwich

The Chopped Beefsteak Sandwich holds many hearts in the US. Most people who remember it thought it tasted great and even came with free steak knives.

The steak sandwich existed in the early 1980s but hasn’t for a long time. Preparing the sandwich took a while and cost much more than the average burger.

Roast Beef Sandwich

The Roast Beef Sandwich succeeded in terms of popularity. Served back in the 1950s, the sandwich was a huge hit. The issue lay with the projected profits from each roast. They expected to make several sandwiches out of each roast but needed to consider the shrinkage during roasting.

Ultimately, the roast beef sandwich was gone as quickly as it came because it cost McDonald’s a lot of money.

Mighty Wings

Mighty Wings performed reasonably well when they formed in 1990. They achieved moderate popularity for some time but died out in 2003.

Mighty Wings caused complaints mainly due to cost and spiciness. While some still loved the strong taste, it was discontinued because it wasn’t causing enough impact for the company.

McAfrika

The McAfrika contained beef, cheese, tomatoes, and spices wrapped in pita bread. While the McAfrika tasted good, many considered it poor taste to name it as such in 2002, when Africa was suffering from a severe famine.

McDonald’s did its best to recover from the oversight and apologize, including collecting donations, but the McAfrika disappeared shortly after.

McDLT

The McDLT brought the first McDonald’s burger with both hot and cold elements to life. They packaged it in a polyester container that housed the hot ingredients in the lower half and separated them from the cold ingredients at the top.

While the idea seems sound, the polyester container still needs environmentalists’ approval, considering it would take 500 years to break down. McDonald’s cut it off entirely rather than trying to find a new way to house the McDLT.

Onion Nuggets

McDonald’s Onion Nuggets hit the shelves in 1978 but barely lasted into 1979. While no one particularly hated the onion nuggets, the creator was informed that they needed to focus on chicken-based items instead.

They took the onion nugget and created the first chicken nugget using the same method. The chicken nugget was so popular that the onion nugget got left behind.

Crab Sandwich

People commonly refer to the McDonald’s Crab Sandwich as the McCrab, but it has not officially received that name. The sandwich consisted of snow crab meat, lettuce, tomato, and mayo on toasted sourdough bread.

The Crab Sandwich debuted in 2017 in select McDonald’s restaurants but never really took off due to the cost of crab and the inability to source it in specific locations.

Hula Burger

The Hula Burger consists of a single pineapple ring stuck between two slices of American cheese in a bun. While that may sound boring, the burger’s purpose was to provide an alternative for Catholics during the Lenten season, during which they can’t eat meat.

Ultimately, the Hula Burger’s egregious defeat against another alternate option, the Filet-o-Fish, led to its almost immediate removal from the menu.

McLean Deluxe

The McLean Deluxe received much flack shortly after its release in the early 90s due to its low-fat content, which resulted in a low taste. The experimental burger used seaweed to bind the patty, containing 10% of total fat.

While the premise of a healthy burger makes sense, it only helps if the burger tastes horrible.

McGratin Croquette

While the McGratin Croquette survived quite a while in Japan, it never took off elsewhere. The burger contained cheese, pasta, and white sauce inside a potato croquette.

Most Americans found the burger too strange and heavy, so it never made a long-term appearance.

Super-Size

The super-size option succeeded for a while, and many customers enjoyed it. However, that all changed when the movie Super Size Me featured Morgan Spurlock eating nothing but McDonald’s for a month.

Due to Spurlock’s quick weight gain and other health issues, McDonald’s permanently removed the super-size option. Recently, Spurlock has passed away from an unrelated illness.