Avoid These Fast Food Menu Items
What's your go-to fast-food order? A burger, fries, and a large drink? Well, you might want to think twice the next time you grab those items from your favorite restaurant, whether it's McDonald's or Subway. From the fish sandwiches and chicken nuggets to gravy and ketchup, there's a lot that happens behind the scenes that might make you lose your appetite. Fair warning: you might not want to eat while reading this list of 20 fast-food items you should never, ever order.
1. Mac & Cheese
No matter where you go for mac and cheese, you should know that everything in it is microwaved. Yup—that includes the pasta and whatever else comes inside the bowl. If you're looking for comfort food, it's probably best to make it yourself at home.
2. Fish Sandwich
Filet-O-Fish might be your go-to sandwich at McDonald's, but you may want to think twice before ordering anything that has seafood in it. It isn't just that they're fried from frozen—it's that burgers like Filet-O-Fish contain far more carbs (38g), fat (19g), and sodium (580mg) than anyone should be getting in one sandwich.
3. Tuna Salad
Sometimes, you might crave a tuna salad sandwich or tuna salad over greens. But here's the thing: the tuna mix you're ordering was likely made a week ago, so no one can really vouch for its freshness or taste. Sure, you might end up lucky and not get a stomachache, but it's probably better to just skip the item altogether.
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4. Chili
Be wary of ordering chili at any fast-food restaurant. Sure, they may all claim to make it fresh, but that just means it's served to you hot. The ingredients inside, though, are often items that sat out too long and weren't sold, so they're stored back in the fridge, then diced up and thrown into the chili when the pot is being made.
5. Gimmicky Items
If any fast-food restaurant is telling you to try their new "hand-crafted" or "artisanal" anything, don't buy into their marketing and steer clear away. More often than not, these items aren't better quality or made any differently than the regular stuff on the menu that you've been eating for years.
6. Anything with Garnishes
Not only should you steer clear from any menu items that come with a garnish, but you should also avoid eating them if they end up on your plate. These garnishes are—wait for it—sometimes washed and reused if they come back untouched from someone else's table, so the lemon, pickle, or coleslaw you're getting might have been previously served to 10 other people.
7. Decaf Coffee
Ask for decaf coffee and you're probably just going to end up getting a watered down drink, not the thing you actually want. Plus, if you're looking for good coffee, you might want to get it at an actual café, and not at a fast-food joint.
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8. Unpopular Items
Stick with the items people always order—you don't want to branch out and go for something wildly unpopular. If you do, just know that you're probably getting something that's been sitting out (or stored in the fridge or freezer) for who knows how long, so the taste may be off-putting.
9. Machine-Made Drinks & Desserts
The next time you want to order a shake or frozen dessert from a fast-food restaurant, remember this: those machines have probably never been cleaned. So if you ever wondered why the ice cream machine was always down at McDonald's, it's likely because the lack of cleaning made the stuff inside sticky and the machine unusable.
10. Breadsticks
Breadsticks might be one of your go-to orders when you're heading to places like Little Caesar's, but here's a tidbit that'll give you pause: those breadsticks may have dropped on the floor then put back in the paper bag afterwards. Plus, they're also covered with butter and fat, so you're not doing your body a favor either way.
11. Anything That's Labeled "Gluten-Free"
If you have a pretty severe food allergy, whether it's to peanuts, sesame, or gluten, you probably don't want to be getting your meal at a fast-food restaurant. Even if some menu items are advertised as "gluten-free," cross-contamination can still occur, and you could still get sick.
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12. Gravy
The delicious gravy that comes with your fries might make you want to drink the bowl clean, but you might want to think twice. Not only is the sauce made from powder, but it often also contains at least one heaping ladle of reused fryer oil. Mm, mm, mmm.
13. Large Drinks
Unless you're getting soda and are given a cup to fill to your heart's content, avoid ordering any large-sized drink. Most of the time, there's no real discernible difference between the medium and large, so you're paying more just for the employees to put extra ice in your beverage.
14. Mushrooms on Pizza
It might not cross your mind when you bite into your cheesy pie, but you may want to avoid ordering mushrooms on pizza next time. At some fast-food joints, the mushrooms go bad quickly but employees are advised not to throw them out. The result? Slimy, rancid-smelling mushrooms that are served to customers like you.
15. Small Batches of Nuggets
If you want to order chicken nuggets at McDonald's or any other fast-food place, you're better off ordering the largest size possible instead of just a six-piece batch. The reason is that you're much more likely to get a freshly made box if you order 20 pieces than just six. Unsold nuggets often end up sitting out for hours until they're refried and sold.
16. Salad
Sure, salads might be the healthiest items on a fast-food menu, but they're also—unsurprisingly—the least popular items. What does this mean? That you shouldn't expect a bowl of fresh greens. Instead, what you might get is soggy, slimy lettuce and carrots that are starting to go bad.
17. Sweet Tea
It comes as no surprise that sweet tea is, well, sweet, but you still might want to think twice before ordering it at McDonald's or any other fast-food restaurant. A large order of this beverage contains a whopping 88g of sugar! To put that into perspective, a large order of Coke totals to around 77g of sugar.
18. Beware of Patties
We know, we know—saying "beware of patties" is a big claim, considering that you're most likely ordering a burger when you're at a fast-food restaurant. But one thing you should know is that those patties might have been sitting out for hours until they're finally sold, so don't be surprised if you get sick afterward.
19. Secret Menu
If you think Starbucks has a "secret menu" you can order from, sorry to disappoint you: they don't. The good news, though, is that the baristas there can make almost any drink you think up, so just tell them the ingredients you want added instead of insisting to see a special menu that doesn't exist.
20. Self-Serve Condiments
If you want condiments, ask the employees for individual packets. The self-serve ones might be more convenient if you need a lot of ketchup or mustard, but those stands and refills probably haven't been cleaned in a long while, meaning you could be eating months-old ketchup.
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