5 Fast-Food Favorites From the ’90s We Still Wish Would Make a Comeback

Remember when ordering fast food felt a bit more adventurous? The nineties were kind of a golden age for chains that weren’t afraid to get weird with their menus. Some experiments crashed hard, sure, yet others became legends in their own right before vanishing into thin air. Recent menu item revival events by chains like Taco Bell and Pizza Hut bringing back select items in the 2020s indicate there’s money to be made with nostalgic foods. Fast food fans have never forgotten these culinary marvels, and honestly, we’re still hungry for them. Let’s revisit five items from that era that deserve another shot at glory.

McDonald’s Arch Deluxe

Despite its massive $200 million marketing campaign in 1996, the Arch Deluxe was discontinued. Here’s the thing though: this burger was actually really good. The Arch Deluxe featured a quarter-pound beef patty on a bakery-style roll, topped with peppered bacon, lettuce, cheese, onions, and a secret mustard and mayonnaise sauce. It was marketed as the sophisticated burger for adults who’d supposedly outgrown Happy Meals.

The burger did not appeal to consumers, possibly due to the higher price point or the appeal to adult tastes rather than the usual family-friendly menu. Kids thought it looked boring in the ads, while adults didn’t want to pay extra for what felt like an ordinary burger. Looking back, maybe we just weren’t ready for it. In today’s world where gourmet burgers cost fifteen bucks at trendy joints, the Arch Deluxe would probably fit right in.

Taco Bell’s Bell Beefer

The Bell Beefer was on Taco Bell’s menu from the 1960s to the mid-1990s. Imagine walking into Taco Bell and ordering a burger. Sounds wild, right? The Bell Beefer was more like a sloppy joe than a burger, with loose taco meat as the main protein topped with shredded lettuce, diced onion, and mild sauce, all heaped on a hamburger bun. It was basically a taco deconstructed and reassembled on bread, which honestly sounds delicious when you think about it.

Originally called the chili burger, the Bell Beefer was one of Taco Bell’s five original menu offerings alongside tacos, burritos, frijoles, and tostados, remaining on the menu until the 1990s. The Bell Beefer certainly has plenty of ardent fans, with online petitions and Facebook groups trying to get Taco Bell to bring it back. I think there’s something charming about a fast food item that refuses to pick a side in the burger versus taco debate.

Pizza Hut’s Bigfoot Pizza

Let’s be real: Pizza Hut used to go absolutely crazy with pizza sizes. The Bigfoot Pizza was released in the 1990s, and it lived up to its name in the most glorious way possible. This wasn’t your standard round pizza. The Bigfoot was rectangular, massive, and cut into square slices that made sharing actually possible at parties.

Pizza Hut may have discontinued it because of production issues since they’d previously struggled with heavier-duty dishes, yet people loved the pizza so much that they created a Facebook fan page to advocate for its return. The pizza embodied Pizza Hut’s 1990s experimental era before operational streamlining eliminated menu complexity, and years later, thousands maintain a dedicated Facebook group petitioning for resurrection. That level of devotion tells you everything about how much this pizza meant to people.

Burger King’s Original Chicken Tenders

Burger King’s Chicken Tenders made their debut in a menu revision and expansion in 1985 to address the absence of a chicken fingers product akin to McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets. The original Burger King chicken tenders were first introduced in 1985 and remained on the regular menu until 2012, making a brief reappearance in 2018. These weren’t your average chicken strips; they had a lightly peppered, toasty coating that fans still dream about.

Launched in 1985, the chicken tenders went through several major changes before being officially scrapped in 2012 and relaunched as chicken nuggets, possibly to help Burger King compete with McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets. Multiple Facebook pages beg Burger King to bring back the chicken tenders, and in September 2018, the chain announced it would serve them again, but they were gone after a limited-time run. The replacement nuggets just don’t hit the same, no matter how hard Burger King tries.

McDonald’s Salad Shakers

McDonald’s Salad Shakers, introduced in 2000, were uniquely served in a transparent, cup-like container that allowed you to add dressing and shake it to evenly distribute. I know it sounds crazy, but these were actually kind of genius. You could eat them on the go without the mess of traditional salad containers, and shaking your lunch felt oddly satisfying.

Despite their popularity, McDonald’s discontinued Salad Shakers in the early 2000s when they revamped their salad menu, and eventually McDonald’s did away with salads entirely. The packaging made eating healthy food fun, which is no small achievement. In an era where convenience is everything, bringing back the Salad Shakers could give McDonald’s a fresh edge with health-conscious customers who still want that fast food experience.