Anecdotally, yes. The “low fat/no fat” craze in the late 90s/early 00s saw a lot of fast food start experimenting with, and leveraging, alternatives to traditionally fatty ingredients. McDonald’s stopped using beef tallow for its fries – for example.
I’m not a scientist nor a nutritionist so I can’t really comment on the pros/cons of these changes other than as a casual consumer, the food tastes worse. I’m of the opinion that fast food is not intended to be part of a regular diet, and I preferred the more flavorful, “less healthy” (quotes because it’s really not black/white), recipes.
E: also I don’t think this is a “aging leads to degraded senses” thing. I mean, that statement IS true, but there are other restaurants that serve beef tallow fries (let’s stick with that example) and those still taste better to me today than McDonald’s fries, or any fry that was cooked in vegetable oil.
I think the biggest change is beef tallow. Not like RFK Jr. is right about a lot of stuff, but beef tallow tasted better and was a little healthier than vegetable oil.
Also, preservatives in bread. Wendy’s buns taste like rubber.
Vegetables also don’t taste as good as they used to. they’re less flavorful but easier to mass produce.
I don’t know about that specifically but in general there are longer term trends to get rid of trans fats and replace sugar with corn syrup. Also I believe some may have changed their frying oil to be more healthy.
I think that yes, if you brought back the old methods you would probably have better fast food.
I fry food at home and its not magic. You take a lot of things and fry them and it comes out good. If I changed out the oil to be healthier my bet is that would come out either some mix of more expensive or less tasty.
Do you remember when you’d go to McDonald’s and they just had a big metal warming station behind the registers with like 15 hamburgers/cheeseburgers/etc. lined up and ready to go? It’s probably just nostalgia, but those were delicious.
It depends on the restaurant. I’d say McDonald’s for example has higher quality ingredients and tastes better now than in the late 90s/early 00s, but Chipotle is the opposite where the quality has decreased since then. Starbucks is definitely worse, they are awful now, and perhaps the biggest decline in quality.
I think there are definitely some things that have gone to hell.
Dunkin’ Donuts used to actually make donuts every night in the store. Now they come in on a truck. I think Walmart donuts taste better than Dunkin’ and that’s just wrong.
Panera used to bake stuff too – I don’t think they do any more either.
McDonald’s used to make pancakes with batter on the grill, now they come in frozen and get microwaved. Those fresh-cooked “hotcakes” were darn good. The microwave ones aren’t bad, but the real ones were better. You could tell when it changed because the restaurant-made ones were very inconsistent in size and shape, but the frozen ones are all identical. Eggo frozen pancakes taste just like the current McDonald’s hotcakes to me.
Same story with the folded egg – I think that comes in pre-cooked now too, but I’m less sure.
And of course the fries – some people swear by beef tallow for french fries. They definitely tasted different and I saw some site where they did a taste test and almost everyone agreed it tasted better.
But today’s quarter pounder cooked burger patty is so much better than it was twenty years ago.
I’m in my fifties and honestly didn’t eat much fast food in my childhood – mostly just Hardee’s. My mom has some funny ideas about food.
Yes. And I know it’s not rose colored glasses because more than once something’s started tasting different and I’ve looked it up and the company changed things. Hersheys chocolate is also way worse than it used to be, and don’t even get me started on Butterfingers. They’re so gross now and they used to be my favorites.
I think the fries were better back in the day because more places used peanut oil and were much more giving with the salt. There’s not real sugar in anything anymore so the drinks taste all bleh in comparison now. And you can’t have unlimited condiments anymore which sucks.
Lol for those of you who think that this is all about old age and rose colored glasses, just have a look at everything else in the United States and the lower level of quality that we have in products, compared to even 10 years ago. Of course fast food quality and taste has degraded over time, just like everything else. The almighty dollar rules.
Yes. I’m not even old- I’m early 40s. The fast food growing up was much better quality. It was not normal for a burger to come messed up, with everything falling out of it, and badly wrapped.
The quality of the ingredients were better and fresher and the service was better so the food was made well.
I am old enough to remember when they would fry McDonald’s fries in beef tallow, and they were AMAZING. Don’t get me wrong, they’re fine now, but simply not as good.
It did. KFC was edible when I was young. Hate it now. Corporate restaurants chains starting cutting the costs every way they could with food because there are so many fast food restaurants and they are competitive. The. They add mono sodium glutamate to everything to increase appetites so customers will consume more. I don’t eat any fast food now. Waste of money, I would rather hve eggs at home or. Can of beans if I am so hungry that I don’t want to spend time cooking a meal.
Yes, truly. I got a big Mac the other day for the first time in 20 years, and I could not believe how bad it was, also shrinkflation . It used to be a third of the size more. Also, quarter pounders aren’t even edible. The amount of sodium makes it that you can’t even finish the sandwich. So I thought maybe it was my taste buds and I got another one a while later and it was just as salty and I had to throw it out. Like who is adding the seasonings to this food? And what are they doing? Trying to kill us?
I doubt there’s been any significant change to the quality since the 90’s when the menus expanded and they had to make basically everything pre made and frozen to reduce cooking times. So at this point you’d have to be able to remember back 30-40 years to when the big fast food chains really started making their food crappy. In my adult life (I’m 38) I’m pretty sure the quality has pretty much stayed the same.
My old guy take is the biggest drop across the board was during Covid. For me most of the change is execution. I don’t know how much is people not being trained, cutting labor costs, serving old food to save food costs or what. I think a well executed McDonalds, Taco Bell or KFC is about as good as it was in the 1980s or 1990s but I get it well executed much less frequently now. But since it’s so pricy now and often not great quality I don’t eat out super often.
I can absolutely confirm this. I am not that old (33f), but I can confirm that fast food used to have more trans fats and other unhealthy ingredients (trans fat bans now in place).
When recipes were changed, so did flavor. There was a drastic difference between the McDonald’s fries I had in early high school compared to the ones I had just a couple years later . in late high school/college.
The old recipes did taste better, but it is less unhealthy now… Not that I eat lot of fast food anyway.
I used to eat mcdonalds a lot in the middle of the 2000s while I was in high school. After high school, I almost never ate fast food, but I recently went to mcdonalds, and the food was almost unrecognizable. Everything was smaller and less “real” tasting.
I kind of get the impression that they’re always tweaking things to make things more cost effective, but you only really notice if you take long breaks.
For one example I’m closely familiar with, nobody would have ever claimed Taco Bell was on par with an authentic Mexican or even Tex mex restaurant, but they did make everything fresh in the store up until 1991. Vegetables came in the same cases supermarkets got them in, chips and taco shells were fried up from tortillas, even the beef was just 50lb bulk packs of raw beef that got roasted in the mornings before the store opened.
Then they switched to factory prepped stuff that came in bags and the quality took a sharp downturn. They compensated for it by slathering everything with nacho cheese, it just isn’t the same even if it was never sophisticated.
This is true in certain cases. For example, Taco Bell used to make genuine refried pinto beans in each store, boiling giant pots of pinto beans until they were soft, then using a giant hand mixer (roughly the size of an AR-15) to grind the softened beans into the desired consistency. For over 20 years now, though, they have taken this process out of the stores and instead send each store dehydrated pinto beans that are processed elsewhere. The stores simply add water to the dehydrated beans and stir. This results in varying consistencies in refried beans from store to store, with some thick, and some watery. The old way was better.
I think food flavors have individually become less potent/strong over the years as people have stopped smoking and now people want more “complex flavors” for a lack of a better term.
Not sure what you consider older but I’m 41 and think chain restaurant food in general has suffered a decline in quality as companies relentlessly try to cut costs to increase profit margins, often taking it too far. Thank the MBAs of the world. But I’ll admit it could be in my head. Fast food isn’t wildly different than it was when I was a kid. And Burger King has better fries. Everything just feels a bit cheaper than it used to quality wise. And it’s definitely more expensive for what you get. Fast food used to feel like a real bargain. Like you’d look at it and be like can’t believe I got all this for $5 or whatever you paid. Now I’m like how tf was this pitiful meal $15?
Honestly I can’t really remember. The only one I do is that in the late 90s early ‘00s McDonalds had a breakfast bagel and I loved it… they have this newer one now and it’s no where near as good. (It’s possible they’re just using a different recipe…but ¯(ツ)/¯
They did something to the hamburgers but not on purpose. It’s the same way they did something to all the meat.
What I’m guessing is that fast food places use to source their burgers the same way they do today. But the processing must have been slightly different.
My grandmother use to like this small hamburger place a few minutes from her house. It’s was called “Old Fashioned Hamburgers” and had a jukebox. I’ve noticed that older people that like these “Old fashioned hamburger” places. Basically say this was how fast food hamburgers use to taste. So based on what I tried as a kid from this Old fashioned hamburger place. The fast food in the past must have been significantly better.
It has more of a “grill out / or cook out” hamburger taste.
I think plain Five Guys hamburgers without all the toppings is close to what fast food burgers at McDonald’s use to taste like.
The other thing I noticed is when I was a kid I had a Checker Burger once and it was really good and had that same taste as the “Old fashion hamburger” place I went to with my grandma. I tried Checkers as an adult and it was disgusting.
The only take out food I get that still generally tastes like it did when I was a wee lad is Chinese takeout, and original KFC… that’s the one thing about KFC they have never changed their chicken, mashed, or Mac and cheese biscuits or coleslaw. The only thing they screwed up on was replacing their potato wedge fries with stupid regular. Bring back the wedge!!!!!!
Yes! McDonald’s especially. They used to fry their fries in beef tallow. The documentary supersize me had them make changes to their recipe. They changed their chicken nuggets
My boomer mom had a story from working at a KFC in the Los Angeles area in the 60’s. A coworker severed his thumb cutting apart chicken on the bandsaw.
My mind was blown, not from the injury, but to realize that once upon a time KFC broke down whole chickens in-house (and cooked fresh to order!). I’ve never worked at KFC, but these days I’m positive everything comes in pre-battered, pre-cooked, and re-frozen, then flash-fried to order.
Yes, most major food changes have reduced the amount of sugar/carbs/fats in their food to be healthier. While also outsourcing their production, most food is premade and packaged not made in house anymore.
Yes it’s true. For cost saving purposes most places no longer make stuff fresh or in house. Many ingredients have changed as well (look at the sugar now being pumped into pizza and sodas)
I think in some cases quality dropped, and in other cases it’s just that thing where when you’re a kid you’re like “this is food and it tastes great” and then when you’re an adult the same thing is “oh this whole thing tastes like chemicals”
I kinda think is true but also like someone said on previous comments this is due the low fat craze in the 90s companies started experimenting with alternatives and not only that the amount of preservatives and additives that have crossed out of the fast food and processed industry
Yes and no. The food used to be made fresher, so it was probably better. At the same time, the American foot palette has progressed over the last couple decades.
Burger King tastes like garbage now. That’s the main thing that I thought of when I saw your post. Now it tastes like they use liquid smoke. They used to actually flame grill the patties. The change happened maybe 6-8 years ago.
I had Pizza Hut in Costa Rica. It was notably better than here and the restaurant was more of a family place like it used to be, not just a bunch of TVs every direction you look.
Wendy’s is an example. In the 80s and 90s their burgers were meatier and bigger than McDonalds and Burger King. Now they are small and crappy just like the others.
That’s true. I remember that McDonald’s burgers used to taste better. And the fries were fried in beef tallow instead of vegetable oil, giving them a delicious flavor.
Sweeping aside the whole “we used to salt and fry everything in beef fat before the sugar lobby ruined things” era, many supply chains didn’t survive the pandemic and many companies annihilated quality to increase profitability (not just the ones bought by private equity).
Comments
I rarely trust rose-colored glasses.
Hell, Five Guys used to taste better and it ain’t even too old.
It did because it used to be real food.
Anecdotally, yes. The “low fat/no fat” craze in the late 90s/early 00s saw a lot of fast food start experimenting with, and leveraging, alternatives to traditionally fatty ingredients. McDonald’s stopped using beef tallow for its fries – for example.
I’m not a scientist nor a nutritionist so I can’t really comment on the pros/cons of these changes other than as a casual consumer, the food tastes worse. I’m of the opinion that fast food is not intended to be part of a regular diet, and I preferred the more flavorful, “less healthy” (quotes because it’s really not black/white), recipes.
E: also I don’t think this is a “aging leads to degraded senses” thing. I mean, that statement IS true, but there are other restaurants that serve beef tallow fries (let’s stick with that example) and those still taste better to me today than McDonald’s fries, or any fry that was cooked in vegetable oil.
The first thing that comes to my mind is that the senses of taste and smell weaken as we age. So that’s a contributing factor.
Novelty is also a contributing factor.
Beyond that, I don’t eat enough traditional fast food to comment.
Everything tastes better when you’re paying in cents or max a dollar or two.
Yes. They changed the oil (fat) that fries are cooked in. That makes a difference on taste. https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/revisionist-history/mcdonalds-broke-my-heart
I think the biggest change is beef tallow. Not like RFK Jr. is right about a lot of stuff, but beef tallow tasted better and was a little healthier than vegetable oil.
Also, preservatives in bread. Wendy’s buns taste like rubber.
Vegetables also don’t taste as good as they used to. they’re less flavorful but easier to mass produce.
I think fast food used to taste better.
I don’t know about that specifically but in general there are longer term trends to get rid of trans fats and replace sugar with corn syrup. Also I believe some may have changed their frying oil to be more healthy.
I think that yes, if you brought back the old methods you would probably have better fast food.
I fry food at home and its not magic. You take a lot of things and fry them and it comes out good. If I changed out the oil to be healthier my bet is that would come out either some mix of more expensive or less tasty.
They used to fry in tallow decades ago. Tallow fries do indeed taste better. I’m only 34 and I can recall fast food tasting less synthetic.
Probably was better 5 years ago, I don’t eat fast food enough to notice but many places have shrinkflation.
Also notably McDonald’s stopped using beef tallow for fries some time ago, and most people suggest it’s a downgrade.
Do you remember when you’d go to McDonald’s and they just had a big metal warming station behind the registers with like 15 hamburgers/cheeseburgers/etc. lined up and ready to go? It’s probably just nostalgia, but those were delicious.
It depends on the restaurant. I’d say McDonald’s for example has higher quality ingredients and tastes better now than in the late 90s/early 00s, but Chipotle is the opposite where the quality has decreased since then. Starbucks is definitely worse, they are awful now, and perhaps the biggest decline in quality.
Yes
I’m 62 and no.
Nostalgia is a terrible drug. It makes you hate the present day.
I think there are definitely some things that have gone to hell.
Dunkin’ Donuts used to actually make donuts every night in the store. Now they come in on a truck. I think Walmart donuts taste better than Dunkin’ and that’s just wrong.
Panera used to bake stuff too – I don’t think they do any more either.
McDonald’s used to make pancakes with batter on the grill, now they come in frozen and get microwaved. Those fresh-cooked “hotcakes” were darn good. The microwave ones aren’t bad, but the real ones were better. You could tell when it changed because the restaurant-made ones were very inconsistent in size and shape, but the frozen ones are all identical. Eggo frozen pancakes taste just like the current McDonald’s hotcakes to me.
Same story with the folded egg – I think that comes in pre-cooked now too, but I’m less sure.
And of course the fries – some people swear by beef tallow for french fries. They definitely tasted different and I saw some site where they did a taste test and almost everyone agreed it tasted better.
But today’s quarter pounder cooked burger patty is so much better than it was twenty years ago.
I’m in my fifties and honestly didn’t eat much fast food in my childhood – mostly just Hardee’s. My mom has some funny ideas about food.
Wendy’s had really good fries up until… 10? 12? years ago. Their fries have sucked ever since.
McDonald’s fries aren’t as good since they moves away from beef tallow.
Yes. And I know it’s not rose colored glasses because more than once something’s started tasting different and I’ve looked it up and the company changed things. Hersheys chocolate is also way worse than it used to be, and don’t even get me started on Butterfingers. They’re so gross now and they used to be my favorites.
I think the fries were better back in the day because more places used peanut oil and were much more giving with the salt. There’s not real sugar in anything anymore so the drinks taste all bleh in comparison now. And you can’t have unlimited condiments anymore which sucks.
Lol for those of you who think that this is all about old age and rose colored glasses, just have a look at everything else in the United States and the lower level of quality that we have in products, compared to even 10 years ago. Of course fast food quality and taste has degraded over time, just like everything else. The almighty dollar rules.
I worked Taco Bell and pizza hut 86-90.
Ingredients were made in the store. Cheese was fresh and shredded there.
Now everything is made somewhere else and brought in frozen.
And fig newtons used to be divine
Yes. I’m not even old- I’m early 40s. The fast food growing up was much better quality. It was not normal for a burger to come messed up, with everything falling out of it, and badly wrapped.
The quality of the ingredients were better and fresher and the service was better so the food was made well.
I am old enough to remember when they would fry McDonald’s fries in beef tallow, and they were AMAZING. Don’t get me wrong, they’re fine now, but simply not as good.
It did. KFC was edible when I was young. Hate it now. Corporate restaurants chains starting cutting the costs every way they could with food because there are so many fast food restaurants and they are competitive. The. They add mono sodium glutamate to everything to increase appetites so customers will consume more. I don’t eat any fast food now. Waste of money, I would rather hve eggs at home or. Can of beans if I am so hungry that I don’t want to spend time cooking a meal.
Yes, truly. I got a big Mac the other day for the first time in 20 years, and I could not believe how bad it was, also shrinkflation . It used to be a third of the size more. Also, quarter pounders aren’t even edible. The amount of sodium makes it that you can’t even finish the sandwich. So I thought maybe it was my taste buds and I got another one a while later and it was just as salty and I had to throw it out. Like who is adding the seasonings to this food? And what are they doing? Trying to kill us?
I doubt there’s been any significant change to the quality since the 90’s when the menus expanded and they had to make basically everything pre made and frozen to reduce cooking times. So at this point you’d have to be able to remember back 30-40 years to when the big fast food chains really started making their food crappy. In my adult life (I’m 38) I’m pretty sure the quality has pretty much stayed the same.
My old guy take is the biggest drop across the board was during Covid. For me most of the change is execution. I don’t know how much is people not being trained, cutting labor costs, serving old food to save food costs or what. I think a well executed McDonalds, Taco Bell or KFC is about as good as it was in the 1980s or 1990s but I get it well executed much less frequently now. But since it’s so pricy now and often not great quality I don’t eat out super often.
I can absolutely confirm this. I am not that old (33f), but I can confirm that fast food used to have more trans fats and other unhealthy ingredients (trans fat bans now in place).
When recipes were changed, so did flavor. There was a drastic difference between the McDonald’s fries I had in early high school compared to the ones I had just a couple years later . in late high school/college.
The old recipes did taste better, but it is less unhealthy now… Not that I eat lot of fast food anyway.
I used to eat mcdonalds a lot in the middle of the 2000s while I was in high school. After high school, I almost never ate fast food, but I recently went to mcdonalds, and the food was almost unrecognizable. Everything was smaller and less “real” tasting.
I kind of get the impression that they’re always tweaking things to make things more cost effective, but you only really notice if you take long breaks.
For one example I’m closely familiar with, nobody would have ever claimed Taco Bell was on par with an authentic Mexican or even Tex mex restaurant, but they did make everything fresh in the store up until 1991. Vegetables came in the same cases supermarkets got them in, chips and taco shells were fried up from tortillas, even the beef was just 50lb bulk packs of raw beef that got roasted in the mornings before the store opened.
Then they switched to factory prepped stuff that came in bags and the quality took a sharp downturn. They compensated for it by slathering everything with nacho cheese, it just isn’t the same even if it was never sophisticated.
This is true in certain cases. For example, Taco Bell used to make genuine refried pinto beans in each store, boiling giant pots of pinto beans until they were soft, then using a giant hand mixer (roughly the size of an AR-15) to grind the softened beans into the desired consistency. For over 20 years now, though, they have taken this process out of the stores and instead send each store dehydrated pinto beans that are processed elsewhere. The stores simply add water to the dehydrated beans and stir. This results in varying consistencies in refried beans from store to store, with some thick, and some watery. The old way was better.
I think food flavors have individually become less potent/strong over the years as people have stopped smoking and now people want more “complex flavors” for a lack of a better term.
Yes. KFC for instance is completely different now than what it was in the 90s.
Not sure what you consider older but I’m 41 and think chain restaurant food in general has suffered a decline in quality as companies relentlessly try to cut costs to increase profit margins, often taking it too far. Thank the MBAs of the world. But I’ll admit it could be in my head. Fast food isn’t wildly different than it was when I was a kid. And Burger King has better fries. Everything just feels a bit cheaper than it used to quality wise. And it’s definitely more expensive for what you get. Fast food used to feel like a real bargain. Like you’d look at it and be like can’t believe I got all this for $5 or whatever you paid. Now I’m like how tf was this pitiful meal $15?
Honestly I can’t really remember. The only one I do is that in the late 90s early ‘00s McDonalds had a breakfast bagel and I loved it… they have this newer one now and it’s no where near as good. (It’s possible they’re just using a different recipe…but ¯(ツ)/¯
Burger King Whoppers used to be amazing!
They did something to the hamburgers but not on purpose. It’s the same way they did something to all the meat.
What I’m guessing is that fast food places use to source their burgers the same way they do today. But the processing must have been slightly different.
My grandmother use to like this small hamburger place a few minutes from her house. It’s was called “Old Fashioned Hamburgers” and had a jukebox. I’ve noticed that older people that like these “Old fashioned hamburger” places. Basically say this was how fast food hamburgers use to taste. So based on what I tried as a kid from this Old fashioned hamburger place. The fast food in the past must have been significantly better.
It has more of a “grill out / or cook out” hamburger taste.
I think plain Five Guys hamburgers without all the toppings is close to what fast food burgers at McDonald’s use to taste like.
The other thing I noticed is when I was a kid I had a Checker Burger once and it was really good and had that same taste as the “Old fashion hamburger” place I went to with my grandma. I tried Checkers as an adult and it was disgusting.
Yes. Quality has dipped, as well as just the actual ingredients used. Far more is highly processed and frozen after being pre-prepared.
Plus vegetable oil instead of tallow etc
McNuggets used to be made out of pure dark meat in the 80’s
The only take out food I get that still generally tastes like it did when I was a wee lad is Chinese takeout, and original KFC… that’s the one thing about KFC they have never changed their chicken, mashed, or Mac and cheese biscuits or coleslaw. The only thing they screwed up on was replacing their potato wedge fries with stupid regular. Bring back the wedge!!!!!!
Yes. I used to like Chicken McNuggets. Then they took out the dark meat. Then they made them thinner.
I don’t know what they did to Pizza Hut pizza, but it doesn’t have much flavor now.
Burger King burgers were better when they were flame-broiled.
I think it comes from shitty changes the restaurants make over time.
Blimpie subs used to be awesome before they exploded to 1000 stores.
Taco bell nachos bell grande used to be better because they had olives and tomatoes.
But if you were born in 2005 you wouldn’t know
Burger King used to actually flame grill their burgers. Not anymore.
Yes! McDonald’s especially. They used to fry their fries in beef tallow. The documentary supersize me had them make changes to their recipe. They changed their chicken nuggets
My boomer mom had a story from working at a KFC in the Los Angeles area in the 60’s. A coworker severed his thumb cutting apart chicken on the bandsaw.
My mind was blown, not from the injury, but to realize that once upon a time KFC broke down whole chickens in-house (and cooked fresh to order!). I’ve never worked at KFC, but these days I’m positive everything comes in pre-battered, pre-cooked, and re-frozen, then flash-fried to order.
Yep it’s true.
I long for McDonald’s Apple Pies, the orignal deep freid pies.
They were the best ever….and you can’t prove me wrong.
Yes, most major food changes have reduced the amount of sugar/carbs/fats in their food to be healthier. While also outsourcing their production, most food is premade and packaged not made in house anymore.
Yes it’s true. For cost saving purposes most places no longer make stuff fresh or in house. Many ingredients have changed as well (look at the sugar now being pumped into pizza and sodas)
I think in some cases quality dropped, and in other cases it’s just that thing where when you’re a kid you’re like “this is food and it tastes great” and then when you’re an adult the same thing is “oh this whole thing tastes like chemicals”
Apparently they used to use beef tallow to make the fries at McDonald’s
Whoppers and Big Macs were great in the late 70s and early 80s.
Yes, “cost out” is a feature of American capitalism resulting in a race to the bottom for may industries fast food being one of them.
I kinda think is true but also like someone said on previous comments this is due the low fat craze in the 90s companies started experimenting with alternatives and not only that the amount of preservatives and additives that have crossed out of the fast food and processed industry
McDonald’s used to use Beef Tallow to cook the fries. Holy crap it was so much better
Yes.
Easiest question of the day.
French fries were awesome til they made them change the oil they are fried in. Now they are disgusting.
Yeah, mostly in the fryer fat
Yes and no. The food used to be made fresher, so it was probably better. At the same time, the American foot palette has progressed over the last couple decades.
Burger King tastes like garbage now. That’s the main thing that I thought of when I saw your post. Now it tastes like they use liquid smoke. They used to actually flame grill the patties. The change happened maybe 6-8 years ago.
Yes. I remember all fast food was better tasting. Period. And chain restaurants were better. Now not so great.
Yes. I remember the fry wars. It was wonderful.
Yes
Hardees used to cook their burgers on a charcoal grill, so I’m pretty confident that had to have been better.
Before the chlorine in the chicken and the hormones in the beef I guess.
I had Pizza Hut in Costa Rica. It was notably better than here and the restaurant was more of a family place like it used to be, not just a bunch of TVs every direction you look.
Wendy’s is an example. In the 80s and 90s their burgers were meatier and bigger than McDonalds and Burger King. Now they are small and crappy just like the others.
McDonald’s French fries suck too.
I’ll m sitting with two octogenarians and they’re just talking about lard like one might talk about weather 🥲
“Things just tasted better back then when everything was made with / in lard”—- because we were talking about canned biscuit donuts
Nuggets used to be exceptionally better across the board. They’re trash now.
That’s true. I remember that McDonald’s burgers used to taste better. And the fries were fried in beef tallow instead of vegetable oil, giving them a delicious flavor.
Sweeping aside the whole “we used to salt and fry everything in beef fat before the sugar lobby ruined things” era, many supply chains didn’t survive the pandemic and many companies annihilated quality to increase profitability (not just the ones bought by private equity).