A study into the discontinued McDonald's items has found the top 10 things customers most want to see on the menu.
Besides its standard list of usual offerings, Maccies has a revolving cast of guest items which come and go every month or so.
Last month the Steakhouse Stack and McSpicy x Frank's Red Hot were shunted off the menu in favour of something new in the form of the Big Arch Burger.
If you end up liking the new thing then that's good for you, but if you really loved the stuff that's no longer on the menu you're stuck playing the waiting game until it comes back around at some point in the future.
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Pretty much everyone who regularly finds themselves in a McDonald's has some things they like which aren't on the menu any more.
Sometimes they come back, like the incredibly popular Breakfast Wrap, and sometimes they stay discontinued in fast food purgatory.
A study from Infinity Calculator looked at the most popular Google searches from US McDonald's customers of more than 70 items which are no longer on the menu.
By working out what people were searching for most in McDonald's home market they reckon they've put together the top 10 things people want to see back.
McRib
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The McRib is one of those seasonal items that comes and goes, always seeming to attract huge fanfare when it does as though it's a conquering hero returning.
With the study finding it to be the most searched for item that's not always on the McDonald's menu, it seems the McRib is the prince across the water.
Honestly, dear reader, the McRib made an appearance in the UK last year and I thought I'd try it to see what all the fuss was about.
I ended up being rather underwhelmed at this thing everyone had been hyping up as though it was like devouring the flesh of God himself.
Snack Wraps
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Chicken, cheese and lettuce safely ensconced in a blanket of tortilla is the second most popular discontinued item at McDonald's.
However, it's good news for Snack Wrap appreciators because they're actually going to be appearing in US branches this month.
McDonald's had previously teased that they'd return on the 14th of an unspecified month this year, but later announced that they were actually coming back on 10 July.
They'd first been introduced in 2006 and discontinued a decade later after McDonald's said they were too complicated to make.
Joe Erlinger, president of McDonald's USA, said the food as a 'cult following' and he gets loads of emails about bringing them back.
Spicy Chicken McNuggets
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These things really do what they say on the tin, they're basically just chicken nuggets with more spice.
First introduced in 2020, they've been coming and going on McDonald's menus ever since then and have seemingly made enough of an impression that people keep checking when they're coming back.
If you're really missing these then you probably won't have to wait all that long.
McDLT
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Now this one is a blast from the past, and the most popular item in the top 10 that has genuinely not been around for years.
The McDLT was a burger with lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise which McDonald's brought in to do battle with Burger King's Whopper, and part of the gimmick was it being served in a container that was twice as wide so the cooked beef patty didn't make the healthy bits horribly warm, and the box told people they'd be getting 'cool lettuce' and 'hot beef'.
Introduced in 1985, the McDLT didn't last long in the grand scheme of things as it was discontinued in the 90s as the polystyrene container wasn't environmentally friendly.
These days the Big Tasty is what McDonald's puts up against the Whopper, but there are people who still remember that time when the McDLT was still around.
Fruit 'n Yogurt Parfait
One of the few offerings on the McDonald's menu that wasn't fried in some way, this one takes the prize of most popular dessert choice.
Or at least it's the most popular dessert choice that isn't always on the menu, otherwise that'd likely be the McFlurry since they've always got some of those on the menu.
Whether or not the ice cream machine works is another matter, so perhaps it's no wonder so many people are looking up when the parfait will return.
Szechuan Sauce
You can probably blame Rick and Morty for this one.
The sauce came out in 1998 to go with chicken nuggets as part of a promotion for the Disney movie Mulan, but since it was only a limited time thing it was soon gone again.
However, years later it got a shout out on Rick and Morty for being something Rick really loved and in 2018 McDonald's brought it back for a limited time.
Bosses might have been regretting that decision as some fans threw very public tantrums when they got to McDonald's and found that they'd run out of it.
Still, the sauce got brought back a few more times over the years.
Grilled Chicken Sandwich
Once a staple of the McDonald's menu, the Grilled Chicken Sandwich was quietly shuffled off the list of offerings back in 2020.
TikToking former McDonald's chef Mike Haracz said the reason behind the demise of this sandwich is that 'y'all didn't buy enough' of them.
He explained: "A lot of times, there are menu items that need to meet a certain threshold to be profitable for McDonald’s to keep them on the menu.
"For a time, they had salads. They had grilled chicken. They had better-for-you options for those people who want to eat a little better."
The chef added that McDonald's realised it could drop the healthier options from its menu and people would still turn up, and apparently it makes things easier in the kitchen as it's fewer things for the staff to cook.
Cinnamon Melts
The McDonald's Cinnamon Melts, or 'Cinnamelts' if you're feeling like a portmanteau, were stuck onto the menu back in 2007 and proved to be popular enough that people would pine for them.
However, they were apparently not popular enough to stick around and were given their marching orders in the late 2010s to be replaced by a cinnamon roll.
For some people, it's just not the same.
Hot Mustard
Beyond all of the food you can get on the menu, it seems that many Maccies munchers are lamenting the loss of a certain sauce.
You could technically have had this as your meal but we wouldn't have recommended it.
Sadly, it was mostly discontinued in 2014 and you can only find it in a few places now, so for most folks it's never coming back.
McPizza
Never mind competing with Burger King and the Whopper, at one point McDonald's was trying to outdo pizza places.
This one takes spot number 10 on the list of menu items people most wish would come back, though McDonald's found that it took too long to make compared to its other items and didn't really fulfil its remit of 'fast food'.
As such it dropped pizza from the menu in around 2000, though there is one McDonald's in Florida where you can still get the McPizza.
However, it's not likely to make a comeback anywhere else.
Topics: McDonalds, Food And Drink, US News
Joe Harker