Some items on the McDonald's menu are forever. Big Macs and Chicken McNuggets aren't going anywhere,
and french fries are here to stay. But McDonald's has taken many beloved items off their menu,
sometimes leading fans to ask for their favorite discontinued
items back. Here are some poised to return.
The McRib has had a tumultuous history at McDonald's. It was first introduced in 1982,
and after 30 years as a staple, it was removed from menus nationwide in 2012. Since then,
the barbecue-flavored pork sandwich has made limited appearances at select locations over
the years, but for the most part has remained an elusive, nostalgic sandwich from the hazy
McDonald's memories of our childhoods. It's all part of McDonald's business strategy to
leave customers wanting more, which is frustrating from diners' perspectives.
But fans of the McRib can now rejoice. While the year 2020 didn't bring us very
many good things judging by the state of the news, we did see the return of
the McRib to McDonald's menus nationwide. McDonald's tweeted in December that it was
putting the McRib sandwich back on its menu at locations around the country.
"The McRib sandwich returns to McDonald's on Wednesday and it'll be available for a
limited time at all of its more than fourteen thousand stores."
It's not clear at this point how permanent this move is going to be,
given McDonald's long history of pulling things off the menu.
But there's a good chance that the widely beloved McRib will stick around for a while.
One of the more nostalgic and iconic favorites from McDonald's isn't even
on the food menu. We're talking about the old-school soda fountain classic,
Hi-C Orange Lavaburst. It's practically made to be paired with a Happy Meal or, for adults,
a 20-piece nugget meal. You're never really too old for the occasional Hi-C, thank you very much.
Despite Hi-C Orange Lavaburst's popularity with a large portion of McDonald's diners,
the drink was removed from the chain's soda fountains back in 2017. McDonald's apparently
attempted to appease Hi-C fans with a similar bright orange fountain drink, Orange Fanta,
but it clearly wasn't good enough for the most dedicated fans, who begged for the soda's return.
Their effort paid off. In February 2021, McDonald's had this to say in a statement:
"To those who have passionately asked for us to bring it back over the years,
we're excited to say we 'C' you."
Now, tons of McDonald's Hi-C fans who will be able
to sip tangy goodness again at McDonald's locations nationwide in the summer of 2021.
For those in search of a quick, cheap, and indulgent burger,
McDonald's Bacon McDouble was a dream come true. It's stacked with two beef patties,
cheese, and thick-cut bacon, and all for just two dollars. McDonald's introduced the burger in 2013
as part of its Dollar Menu & More, which was a spinoff of its once-beloved Dollar Menu.
But the Bacon McDouble was among several menu items the chain decided to cut in 2020 as the
COVID-19 pandemic led McDonald's to streamline its operations across the board, according to Retuers.
But good news: The Washington Post reported that McDonald's decided a
few months later to bring the Bacon McDouble back to menus nationwide,
along with a handful of other fan favorites. So, the next time you need a fast bacon fix,
you can most likely find the Bacon McDouble on a McDonald's menu near you.
McDonald's isn't just beloved for its burgers and fries. Many people head to the drive-thru
to get a fix for their sweet tooth in the form of a milkshake or a McFlurry. For many,
the go-to frozen treat of choice is none other than McDonald's humble but mighty vanilla
soft serve cone. Made from McDonald's special recipe, which changed a few years back to cut
out artificial preservatives and other additives, the signature soft serve is featured in most of
the chain's shakes and ice cream desserts. That's all despite the fact that the ice cream machine
seems to be on the fritz half the time at just about every local McDonald's franchise.
Ice cream cones were one of the items that McDonald's decided to cut at the
beginning of the pandemic, possibly to the joy of many employees who had
to deal with upset customers when the soft serve machine would inevitably break down.
But The Washington Post reported in June 2020 that the cones were among some of the first
items McDonald's said it was bringing back to the menu. Your sweet tooth can now rest easy.
Cookies have been a feature of the McDonald's dessert menu for decades. Back in the day,
there were the signature boxes of crunchy McDonald's cookies in the shape of the
McDonaldland characters. Sugar and oatmeal cookies were also offered at various McDonald's franchise
locations, but those were discontinued in the mid-2010s. And recently, the signature
soft-baked, chewy chocolate chip cookies were the only kind you could get from McDonald's.
But if you were a fan of the baked fast-food treat, you were more than content with your lot.
That is until 2020, when the chocolate chip cookies were one of the first menu items to
go when McDonald's decided to consolidate its menu during the pandemic, much to the
disappointment of fans. While the chocolate chip cookies apparently come to each location
frozen before being baked and sold, they were still popular enough that people sought out the
secret recipe for them in online hubs like Reddit. Luckily, McDonald's announced that the chocolate
chip cookies were returning to the menu in December 2020, according to The Washington Post,
so fans of the McDonald's dessert treat should be able to get their fix easily now.
Spicy chicken is having a moment in fast food, if the ongoing fast food chicken wars are any
indication. McDonald's decided to go beyond the bun and debuted Spicy Chicken McNuggets with
Mighty Hot Sauce late in summer 2019, announcing the new offering on its official Twitter account.
Though those not in the know might shrug at the announcement, this was a big deal for many
reasons. The Mighty Hot Sauce was the first new sauce McDonald's had debuted since 2017, and it
was the first time ever that the chain offered a new spin on its classic Chicken McNuggets.
It was a huge hit for many, though Eater London was less impressed, saying that
the new offering was only the regular Chicken McNuggets, quote, "with a spray tan." Still,
the new nuggets and sauce were so popular that McDonald's started selling out of the
limited-time items just two weeks after they hit the menu, according to Business Insider. So fans
of the new nuggets immediately began petitioning McDonald's to make them permanent. Now, it seems
like McDonald's is listening. The chain announced in January 2021 that the Spicy Chicken McNuggets
and Mighty Hot Sauce would be back on the menu starting in February. Even better, McDonald's
promised that those fiery chunks of chicken would stick around as long as supplies last.
Perhaps one of the most controversial items McDonald's has ever offered is actually one of
its condiments — Szechuan Sauce. It's a sweet and tangy sauce with a hint of sesame oil,
with no actual Szechuan pepper. It was introduced as a limited-time
item in 1998 to promote the release of Disney's Mulan, according to Salon.
Szechuan Sauce disappeared shortly after, only to make a major comeback in 2017 after
being featured on an episode of the popular animated show Rick and Morty.
"They created a new sauce for the McNuggets and it's called Szechuan sauce
and it's delicious. And then they got rid of it and now it's gone,
it's the only place we're gonna be able to try it is in my memory."
The episode led to renewed mass demand for the sauce, including a popular Change.org petition.
With so much support behind the initiative, McDonald's decided to bring it back for a
limited time. But the chain didn't anticipate just how many people wanted to get their
hands on it. The lack of supply led to literal riots among angry customers, according to CNBC.
McDonald's tried to make it up to people with a second release of Szechuan Sauce in February 2018,
but not everyone liked the stuff. Eater deemed it hardly better than strawberry jelly,
saying that customers, quote, "might just as well pour this Szechuan sauce on pancakes."
McDonald's brought back the Szechuan sauce once again in 2020,
and this time around it's only available in New Zealand, according to Pop Culture.
It's not clear if and when the sauce will make a stateside comeback.
McDonald's started offering all day breakfast in 2015,
after admitting that it was the number one request it got from customers.
"Customers are just so happy now that they can get a hash brown or hot cakes at lunch time."
So you can imagine people haven't been taking it well since McDonald's decided to discontinue its
all day breakfast amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It makes sense from an operational perspective,
as kitchens were forced to streamline operations while enacting social distancing
measures and downsizing on-site staff. But that doesn't mean fans didn't almost
immediately start asking for McDonald's to bring it back.
There are reasons to believe that McDonald's doesn't want to make all day breakfast
a permanent thing ever again, given that some franchisees argued that offering McMuffins,
hash browns, biscuits and the like at all hours had impacted their speed and quality of service,
according to the Wall Street Journal. But here are lots of reasons to have hope for
its comeback despite the resistance from behind the counter. Eat This,
Not That! found that McDonald's locations in several states are actually still offering
all day breakfast. McDonald's also confirmed this to be the case on its official Twitter.
After McDonald's officially discontinued all day breakfast in March 2020,
the chain's U.S. president, Joe Erlinger, suggested on his own Twitter that it would
indeed be back at some point. Midnight McGriddle lovers everywhere, stay strong!
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