#fast-food

#fast-food

A spud hasn't truly lived until it's been blasted with a generous amount of melty fromage. Once it has been, it makes for a combination that's salty, savory, and downright soul-warming. Just think of all the comforting cheesy potato dishes out there, from hash brown casseroles to creamy au gratins. Cheese and potatoes show up in many forms, and for good reason.

Can you imagine a world without fast food? We'll hazard a guess, and it's probably a no. As there are roughly half a million fast food restaurants in the world, it's not surprising that most of us have grown up with fast food all around us. This means that it's hard to picture a life without drive-thru burgers and fries on tap. But it did exist, albeit quite a long time ago.

McDonald's introduced the Super-Size menu, transforming a regular combo into a substantial serving of fries and soda. Jack in the Box stacked two quarter-pounders in its Colossus Burger. KFC went vertical with the regional Tower Burger, cramming a hash brown, cheese, and an extra chicken patty between its buns for good measure. It was an age of bigger, saltier, cheesier ambition.

Shattered expectations line the pathway to disappointment. How many times have you gotten your hopes up for a delicious new fast food item, only to find out it's not available in your area? This happens in rural communities all the time, but even big cities don't always get the hottest new thing. This is exactly what happened to one eager McDonald's fan in Chicago, who posted on Reddit about his city's lack of Crispy Chicken McGriddles.

A huge trend this year is crossover items and collaboration menus. Wendy's took a page from two popular sweet snacks to create its new Frosty Fusions, while the Popeyes x Hot Ones menu channeled the famed YouTube interview show's "hot questions and even hotter wings" with three spicy chicken items. Spicy dishes have been seen all over 2025 menus, making them hot in more ways than one.

A CurderBurger order takes a classic hamburger, which Culver's prepares using three cuts of beef, and stacks a patty of fried cheese on top. The fried cheese patty is made up of yellow and white cheddar cheese curds rolled in seasoned breadcrumbs and fried to golden perfection. The fried cheese adds a buttery crunch to burgers. Culver's executives have been surprised by the enthusiasm for the cheesy burger creation.

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. We get that it's a tough market out there, and no matter how big or small the business, the doors only stay open as long as people are spending money. At a time when we're spoiled for choice, marketing and hype play a huge part in getting the word out and enticing customers to spend their hard-earned dollars. But sometimes, things just go a little too far.

That honor goes to Mixue Ice Cream & Tea, a fast food chain founded and based in China. According to the Associated Press, Mixue Ice Cream & Tea has more than 45,000 stores. For reference, McDonald's website states that they have over 44,000. Foodies in New York will now be able to get a taste of Mixue Ice Cream & Tea's offerings as the chain is debuting its very first location in the U.S. on NYC's Canal Street.

If you've ever rolled through a Checkers drive-thru - or Rally's, there's no real difference anymore between Checkers and Rally's restaurants - and been handed that paper bag full of steaming-hot french fries, you know that they are something special. These aren't just your run-of-the-mill fried potato sticks, these are tender stalks of pure magic wrapped in a crisp, warm-hued crust that surely should have landed them at the top of the ranking of the best fast food french fries.

I'm a french fry fanatic - they're crispy, salty, and taste like heaven in your mouth.

That's right, despite the reputation of the Chick-fil-A-loving South as America's fast food hot spot, data from Escoffier shows that Maryland consumes the most. The report is based on three metrics measuring what percent of restaurants in a given state are fast food, the amount of fast food spots per capita, and what percent of food spending in the state goes to fast food, with the data coming from the Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Laura Reyes began experiencing terrible pain on her shift at a local Burger King. She quickly went to management, saying she was very ill and needed to leave work. Management did not allow her to leave. Laura went back to work, fearing for her job, and the pain got worse and she started bleeding heavily. She told her manager she thought she might die, but was still not allowed to leave. Only after more than three hours was Laura allowed to leave work.

I enjoyed the chicken sandwich from Shake Shack, but didn't feel like I got a lot for my money.

Subway's cookies have been ranked the absolute worst fast food restaurant option. The chocolate cookie with white chocolate chips was described as grainy and overly sweet.

Consumers are tightening their belts and eating out less frequently, but sit-down restaurants like Chili's and Cheesecake Factory are persevering because they're delivering more value for about the same price as fast food.

Popeyes launched four new dry rub wing flavors: Ghost Pepper, Lemon Pepper, Garlic Parm, and Buffalo, all on a mild marinated chicken base.

The Enormous Omelet Sandwich featured American cheese, two omelets, sausage, and bacon in a toasted hoagie bun, designed to be highly caloric and filling.