When it comes to what not to order at Wendy's, the trouble doesn't just come from high calorie
counts.
We found the worst offenders on the Wendy's menu, from sketchy food preparation practices
to gross revelations about the cleanliness of equipment.
Wendy's employees have a lot to say about the chain's chili — in particular, the method
in which it's made.
In Reddit threads asking employees what not to order from fast food joints, Wendy's chili
dominates the conversation.
Here's a fairly typical example:
"It's made from dried up, leftover hamburger meat.
It sits in bags of its own grease in the freezer for god knows how long, until it's pulled
out and boiled.
Then it's mixed with giant cans of beans and tomatoes that smell like vomit, and boiled
again for hours.
Whatever wasn't used at the end of the night was poured back into vats and stored in the
walk in until it would be reheated in the morning."
Another Redditor added:
"Wendys chili is made with the old leftover unserved burger meat.
After its sat in the plastic bins under a heater (sometimes for hours, all day) its
chopped up and soaked in water.
Then packaged up in large plastic bags and stored in the freezer till used."
Whether or not you're on board with the practice of using burger rejects in chili, one thing's
for sure: If you're lactose intolerant, or have a milk allergy, Wendy's chili is not
the dish for you.
"I'm lactose intolerant."
"Really?"
"I have no patience for lactose, and I won't stand for it."
According to one Wendy's employee,
"A new procedure was just implemented to put a slice of cheese on the patty immediately
after it comes off the grill.
We are told to scrape as much cheese off as possible and to still use it as chili meat.
If you're lactose intolerant or have a dairy allergy please do not order the chili now."
It turns out this isn't just one location doing some sketchy cheese-scraping.
Sure enough, if you check the allergens for Wendy's chili, you'll find milk listed.
The company officially explained the change in its cooking procedure, saying,
"Wendy's hamburgers have always served as the meat base for chili.
For quite some time, Wendy's has included a 'may contain' milk statement on its allergen
information related to chili because hamburgers are cooked on the same grill as, and may come
in contact with, ingredients containing milk such as cheese.
The recent changes to cooking procedures for hamburgers introduces meat with some cheese
directly into the chili."
No other fast food chain offers baked potatoes like Wendy's does.
Sure, it's easy enough to make one at home, it just takes a long time.
And that's precisely the appeal of the Wendy's baked potato: you don't have to do it yourself.
Plus, the chain promises that they
"...cook them from a raw state, in an oven, wrapped in foil, baked for an hour, just like
you would at home."
But one former employee warns that they're not always freshly oven-baked, saying,
"If you come during/at the end of a lunch or dinner rush and you order a baked potato,
there's a decent chance you're getting a microwaved potato."
If the turnover isn't high, the freshness could still be questionable, as a former Wendy's
manager explained:
"If you order a baked potato, and see that it is a translucent brown color, don't eat
it.
Hell, after a certain time frame, don't order them at all.
They take over an hour to bake, and then they are supposed to sit in a heat drawer for only
one more hour.
I used to find potatoes that were absolutely squishy from sitting in the bin all day."
Another former employee says the potatoes in their store were, quote, "stored on the
ground and mopped around every day."
You won't find the fish sandwich on the Wendy's menu year-round, but it does pop up seasonally.
If you take from some in-the-know Redditors, avoid it next time it's on the menu, unless
you like your fish aged.
One employee dished,
"I work at Wendy's and I will say that the worst thing to get is the fish.
When I started a month ago they brought out a new bag of fish, and the same bag is still
there."
Another former employee agreed, saying,
"As for a specific thing at Wendy's I wouldn't order is the fish, it's just common enough
to keep around, but as for how often we would get a new shipment… let's just say some
of those fishes could have been old enough to have a birthday."
If you're thinking of ordering a salad to try for a healthier option, be warned: It
might be gross.
One Wendy's insider warned diners from ordering salads too early in the day, saying,
"Don't order salads from Wendy's until at least 12:30.
The first salads are yesterday's salads that have been flipped upside down and a layer
of lettuce taken off the bottom."
Another former employee explained that the chain's seasonal salads with berries can be
a roll of the dice, saying,
"Strawberries for some reason are the easiest to get moldy even while sitting in the walk-in
fridge.
The kicker is employees will ask managers to throw them out but the manager will just
tell you to pick the ones without mold in them and wash it a bit.
When I worked there I literally had to sneak those moldy batches into the trash can."
According to one Redditor, the cheese sauce topping on your Baconator fries might be a
lot less cheesy than you'd hoped for, thanks to shady food prep practices.
They warned,
"… watch out for the liquid cheese.
Some managers will make the crew pour boiling water from the coffee maker into it when it's
almost out to 'make more.'"
Others cautioned that it is usually "lumpy" or has a "nasty skin" over the top, and honestly,
if there's one thing cheese sauce is supposed to be it's smooth.
That's not asking too much, is it?
How in the world could bacon possibly be on any "what not to order" list?
Even if Wendy's bacon isn't exactly the thickest, meatiest bacon we've ever seen, it deserves
our love and affection, doesn't it?
Not if it's old or burnt.
One Redditor advised,
"Avoid getting anything with bacon at Wendy's.
Usually the bacon is a couple days old, if not a week, and it's just stored in open trays
in a fridge.
It's pretty nasty sometimes."
Another specified that it's the Baconator fries you should avoid, because, quote, "they
use the bacon that got too burnt to use on burgers."
And, don't forget, Baconator fries also come topped with cheese sauce, which might be watered
down, lumpy, or both.
Regardless of whether or not Wendy's fries take top honors among crispy fast-food spuds,
french fries are still an essential part of any fast food meal, and you'd be remiss not
to order them with your Baconator.
Or would you?
For years, lifehackers have suggested ordering "unsalted" fries to make sure they're fresh.
But one Redditor says that, at Wendy's, quote, "unsalted fries were just old fries thrown
back in the fryer for 30 seconds to 'get the salt off.'"
Another Redditor suggests flat out asking for fresh fries is also pointless, saying,
"My fiancee used to work at Wendy's and would tell me about how it was super common practice
when people asked for fresh fires to just take the fries already in the warmer and put
them in the fryer again just long enough to heat them back up."
In a perfect world, there would be two things on the Wendy's menu that employees across
the country would agree is on the "do order" list: the Frosty and the french fries.
Because really, is there any better fast food treat than salty fries dipped in a chocolate
Frosty?
Unfortunately, if what these Redditors say is true, it's best to avoid your former favorite
frozen treat.
One Redditor advises,
"Never order Frostys at Wendy's.
Most employees don't care to properly clean out the Frosty machine correctly.
The leftover Frosty is poured into buckets and left in the fridge overnight.
Sometimes they're even too lazy to wrap the top of the bucket, leaving it wide open for
anything to get in.
We pour the leftover Frosty from the buckets back in the machine at open."
Another person claiming to be a former worker confirmed that the Frosty machine is rarely
cleaned.
We get it.
You're trying to be environmentally conscious by not requesting those condiment packets
that are no doubt clogging up landfills.
But unless you've actually lifted the lid of the ketchup dispenser in the dining room
to verify its cleanliness, you might want to think twice about pumping from it.
That's according to this former employee, who said,
"Worked at Wendy's when in high school […] I was filling up the catsup pumps.
The catsup comes in gallon or so plastic bags and you just take the lid off the pump, and
squeeze this whole gallon of catsup in there.
The store manager [...] walks by and goes.
'Here's a tip whenever you eat out, never get catsup from this pump.
They don't get cleaned.'
[...] So yeah, the inside of the catsup pump may look like a reverse catsup volcano.
Old, petrified catsup on the outside borders of the bin (and probably inside the pump nozzle),
with slightly less gross, hard layers a little further in, and eventually mushy and red enough
to make it through the pump, into your little port-o-catsup container."
"Anybody got any extra ketchup packets?"
What could possibly be wrong with Wendy's nuggets?
Bet you never would have thought that melted plastic might be part of the chain's secret
recipe.
But it turns out that depending on which location you hit, it just might be.
One Redditor dished on his ex-wife's shady, though expedient nugget-making practice, saying,
"When they were about to fry a new batch of chicken nuggets, the other employees would
just dip the bottom of the plastic bag into the fryer so that it would melt and the nuggets
would fall out.
They were too f---ing lazy to open the bag properly."
Another former worker confessed that the nuggets they were serving, like the fries, might not
have been as fresh as you'd expect, saying,
"Ex-Wendy's employee here.
Those chicken nuggets are usually old as hell […] and the warmup for new orders is to
throw them in the fryer for a sec so they look fresh."
One employee blew the lid off Wendy's corporate policy when it came to manning the grill,
and not only might this information make you hesitant to order burgers and grilled chicken
sandwiches, but, oddly, cookies, too.
The worker explained in a Reddit AMA,
"Well in company training the person [...] on grill (someone on grill makes burgers, all
chicken, chili, bacon, cookies etc.) are not allowed to wear gloves when handling meat
of any kind.
Yes NOT allowed!
While all employees are required to wash their hands (duh) I personally would prefer if they
wore gloves.
However it is company policy."
While it's obviously nice to hear that hand-washing is required, can we be certain that employees
are scrubbing up at all, let alone doing so properly?
Gloves really would go a long way in making us all feel better about the food we're eating.
"Use gloves!
Use gloves."
According to the Wendy's website, their lemonade is all natural, with, quote, "no artificial
ingredients or preservatives."
According to some self-described ex-employees, though, employees aren't exactly squeezing
lemons in the back to whip up a fresh-from-the-tree beverage, so if that's what you're expecting,
you might be a tad disappointed.
Said one worker on Reddit,
"The 'fresh' lemonade comes from a carton and mixed with tap water."
Another echoed the same sentiment, saying,
"Honestly the fresh handmade lemonade is a lie that stuff is frozen concentrate honestly
just go ahead and order the Minute Maid lemonade from the soda fountain it's cheaper."
But maybe hold off before you head to the fountain.
One Redditor warned against using the soda machines, too, saying,
"Soda fountain nozzles were just put in a bucket of water for a few minutes.
Never saw them scrubbed."
Maybe bringing in your own bottled water is the best option.
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