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- The host had tested more than 200 fast-food menu items across America during the previous year, with most restaurants disappointing him. He wanted to determine whether secret-menu items and customer-created combinations could improve his opinion of those chains.
- The competition included both genuine secret-menu items and unofficial internet-created food combinations. Some items were recognized by restaurant employees or available in ordering systems, while others required customers to order separate ingredients and assemble them.
- Chef Christian joined the host for the main tastings in Texas. Kevin, from How Kev Eats, handled additional restaurant tests in Los Angeles. Where several secret-menu options existed at one restaurant, the better-performing item was selected for the competition.
- Dave's Hot Chicken had repeatedly disappointed the host with its regular chicken. He had visited the same location multiple times, hoping the food would improve, but considered the chicken consistently poor despite the chain's popularity.
- The Dave's Hot Chicken experiment replaced chicken with cauliflower bites. The internet-inspired combination included fries, macaroni and cheese, cauliflower bites, pickles, and Dave's sauce.
- The cauliflower had crunchy breading but a poorly seasoned interior. Christian appreciated the crunch, while the host found the cauliflower itself bland and overcooked. The macaroni and cheese was considered solid but unremarkable.
- Dave's cauliflower combination received a rating of approximately 6.7/10. It looked appealing and was good enough that one taster would make it again, although neither considered it exceptional. One wondered whether substituting chicken might improve it.
- McDonald's customer-created McGangBang was recognized by a drive-through employee. The combination placed a Spicy McCrispy chicken sandwich inside a McDouble, incorporating chicken and beef into one unusually large sandwich.
- The McGangBang suffered from excessive bread and competing ingredients. The spicy chicken added the strongest flavor, but the beef was disappointing and the four pieces of bread overwhelmed the sandwich. The host considered it tolerable rather than something he would order again.
- Bojangles' unusual chicken biscuit originated from an accidental order in South Carolina in 2021. News reporter Mike Uva received a pimento cheese Cajun fillet sandwich on a Bo-Berry biscuit. He posted about the mistake on Twitter, and the combination went viral.
- The original Bojangles combination could not be reproduced exactly in Texas. The restaurant lacked pimento cheese, so the host ordered Berry Chicken Biscuits with American cheese instead. Employees recognized the request and accommodated icing on both the inside and outside of the biscuits.
- Bojangles' blueberries and sweet icing complemented the fried chicken, but the cheese undermined the combination. The tasters agreed that fruit and chicken worked surprisingly well together and preferred the idea without cheese. They rated the result above average but not outstanding.
- Jack in the Box offered an unexpectedly successful maple-bacon cheesecake customization. The hosts ordered cheesecake with separate maple syrup and bacon bits, then combined the ingredients.
- The maple syrup and bacon improved the cheesecake's overall flavor, despite its unusual texture. The cheesecake dissolved into an almost liquid consistency rather than maintaining the density expected of a good cheesecake. Both tasters nevertheless awarded it 7/10 and recommended the combination.
- The Jack in the Box result reinforced the importance of balancing ingredients rather than simply combining large quantities of food. The sweet maple syrup, salty bacon, and cheesecake worked together well enough to overcome shortcomings in the base dessert.
- Chick-fil-A was tested with two competing customer-created bowls. The first combined chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, Buffalo sauce, and ranch dressing. The second, a viral bowl, combined waffle fries, nuggets, macaroni and cheese, ranch, honey, and roasted barbecue sauce.
- The viral Chick-fil-A bowl required customers to request a separate salad bowl for assembly. Its honey and barbecue sauce provided appealing sweetness, but the resulting mixture had a soft, messy consistency.
- The Buffalo Chicken Mac won Chick-fil-A's internal comparison. Its acidity and mild heat made it more balanced and appealing than the sweeter waffle-fries version. One taster said it would be even better with fries served separately.
- Chick-fil-A's Buffalo combination scored around 6.5–6.7/10. Both tasters enjoyed the flavor but criticized the uniformly mushy texture, which prevented the combination from becoming a leading contender.
- Starbucks' viral customized drink tasted more like a dessert than coffee. The exact order was not specified in the conversation, but the result was extremely sweet, resembling cold hot chocolate or a caramel-soaked cookie.
- The Starbucks drink concealed virtually all coffee flavor. The tasters found it pleasant as a sweet beverage but inferior to a proper milkshake or coffee. Its unpleasant aftertaste further reduced its appeal, despite a rating approaching 7/10.
- Sonic's Purple O combined Sprite, Powerade, cranberry, and lemon. The drink was one of the chain's best-known unofficial combinations and tasted similar to fruit punch with additional tartness.
- Sonic's Extreme Tots combined tater tots, chili, cheddar cheese, and jalapeños. The tots retained some crispness, and the jalapeños contributed acidity and heat. However, the chili tasted more like sauce than substantial meat-based chili and contributed little identifiable flavor.
- Sonic's Extreme Tots defeated the Purple O in the restaurant's internal comparison. Neither was considered worth making a special trip for, but the tots were the stronger choice. One taster gave them 6/10, partly because his previous Sonic experiences had been so disappointing.
- Whataburger faced particularly high expectations because the host considered it one of America's most overrated fast-food chains. He hoped its unofficial customization would finally justify the chain's popularity.
- Whataburger's honey-butter chicken sandwich hack recreated the idea of its breakfast-only Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit. Customers could order a barbecue chicken tender sandwich and replace the barbecue sauce with honey butter, producing a chicken-and-cheese sandwich on toast.
- The Whataburger customization failed despite a wait of nearly 15 minutes. The toast tasted bitter and burnt, which the tasters attributed to accumulated cooking oil on the griddle. The chicken was poorly seasoned and excessively breaded, while the honey butter was unpleasantly heavy.
- The Whataburger experiment demonstrated that an appealing concept cannot compensate for badly prepared ingredients. Both tasters believed the sandwich could have been excellent in principle, but the actual preparation made it one of the day's disappointments.
- Nine restaurant chains were disqualified after no suitable secret-menu items could be identified. The chains named were Freddy's, Raising Cane's, Pollo Campero, KFC, Carl's Jr., A&W, Dunkin', Church's Chicken, and Wienerschnitzel.
- The disqualification process involved asking restaurant employees about off-menu options and looking for notable online customizations. Restaurants were excluded when employees could not offer a secret item and the hosts found no significant customer-created alternative worth testing.
- Arby's Meat Mountain was a genuine off-menu item available in the restaurant's ordering system. Although it was not displayed on the regular menu, the hosts successfully ordered it without assembling the sandwich themselves.
- The Meat Mountain contained nearly every meat offered by Arby's. Its ingredients included chicken tenders, ham, roast turkey, corned beef, Angus steak, brisket, roast beef, and bacon, together with Swiss and cheddar cheese. The meat was measured at approximately 320 grams.
- The hosts recommended requesting au jus alongside the Meat Mountain. The sandwich contained no conventional sauce, relying on melted cheese to bind the meats together. The additional liquid was suggested to make the substantial sandwich easier to eat.
- The Meat Mountain was flavorful but somewhat salty and dry. It received a rating of 7/10 in the spoken assessment without the au jus, and the hosts declared it the new competition leader at that stage.
- Arby's result reversed the hosts' previous negative experiences with the chain. They had repeatedly given Arby's poor ratings during earlier visits, making the successful secret-menu sandwich a significant improvement over its normal offerings.
- Zaxby's was tested with a modified Big Zax Snak meal. The hosts added Tongue Torch sauce and ranch to chopped chicken strips served over fries, producing another version of the increasingly common loaded-fries combination.
- The Zaxby's customization was criticized for being barely different from an ordinary menu order. The chicken was not particularly crispy, and the sauce made the fries soggy. Excess salt and the absence of a distinctive flavor prevented the combination from standing out.
- Kevin tested Del Taco's Stoner Burrito in Los Angeles after finding the combination praised on Reddit. Although it was not a formal secret-menu item, the employee immediately recognized the name, accepted the order, and said it was good. The burrito cost $3.99.
- Del Taco's Stoner Burrito could be ordered as a bean-and-cheese burrito prepared Bold Style. This modification added fries and the chain's white sauce, described in the conversation as a mixture of mayonnaise and lime juice.
- Online recommendations suggested improving the Stoner Burrito with Del Taco's green, mild, or hot sauces. Kevin tried additional sauces and specifically noted Reddit recommendations to combine green and hot sauce.
- Kevin rated the Stoner Burrito 7.7/10 despite serious texture problems. He disliked the tortilla and found the fries limp and soggy, but considered the overall flavor unusually good for fast food. He estimated that better fries and a better tortilla could raise it into the low-to-middle 8/10 range.
- Kevin also tested Rally's Funnel Cake Fry Cheesecake Sundae combination. The unofficial hack required ordering funnel cake fries and a strawberry cheesecake sundae, then either dipping the fries into the dessert or mixing them together.
- Rally's funnel cake fries had a pleasantly brittle exterior but an excessively sugary interior. Kevin preferred the cheesecake sundae on its own and believed adding the fries made it worse. He awarded the combination 5.3/10.
- Shake Shack's unusual frozen-custard sandwich came from a customization demonstrated by the creators at Jolly. Olly had previously tried the combination, which involved placing a scoop of frozen custard between the halves of a sliced, toasted potato bun.
- Shake Shack's toasted potato bun worked unexpectedly well with frozen custard. Toasting created a caramelized flavor and crisp texture that complemented the cold, soft dessert. The hosts considered it balanced and appealing rather than an awkward novelty.
- The Shake Shack customization was sufficiently successful that the host said he would specifically return for it. He normally did not seek out dessert at fast-food restaurants, making this a notable endorsement. The order also felt like a properly prepared item rather than a cumbersome do-it-yourself hack.
- Chicken Express had no genuine secret menu, so the hosts tested seasoning added to gravy. The customization involved mixing the restaurant's Serendipity seasoning into its regular gravy before dipping chicken tenders.
- Chicken Express's seasoning failed to transform its otherwise bland gravy. The chicken tenders themselves were considered reasonably good, at approximately 6.5/10, but the gravy improvement was minor. One host gave the overall experience 5.9/10 and estimated the hack itself at roughly 4/10.
- Popeyes' Sweet Heat Chicken Mac combined nuggets, macaroni and cheese, Sweet Heat sauce, ranch, and Cajun Sparkle seasoning. The ingredients were mixed together in a separate container, following the same basic approach as Chick-fil-A's chicken-and-macaroni bowls.
- Popeyes had better macaroni and cheese than the hosts expected, with a pronounced cheddar flavor. Its Cajun Sparkle seasoning was also praised and singled out as a worthwhile addition to other food.
- Poor chicken lowered the overall rating of Popeyes' Sweet Heat Chicken Mac. Although some individual ingredients outperformed Chick-fil-A's equivalents, the hosts generally preferred Chick-fil-A's complete combination. The Popeyes dish received mixed assessments, including one score around 5.2/10.
- Wendy's Barnyard Burger combined beef, chicken, and pork in one sandwich. The hosts ordered bacon cheeseburgers and requested an additional fried chicken patty, effectively creating a Baconator-style burger with chicken added.
- A Wendy's employee provided what the host called the best fast-food hospitality he had experienced while filming. She offered an additional cookie for 99 cents and specifically asked the customers to inspect their unusual burgers before leaving to ensure the orders were correct.
- The Wendy's Barnyard Burger was surprisingly flavorless despite containing three types of meat. The tasters struggled to detect sufficient seasoning or even much bacon flavor. They attributed the failure to combining several individually bland ingredients, rather than to the concept of mixing meats.
- Taco Bell's Superman Burrito was constructed from a Cheesy Double Beef Burrito. Additional potatoes, sour cream, guacamole, and crispy tortilla strips were added, and the burrito was pressed and grilled.
- Taco Bell's Superman Burrito was adequately salted and moist, but lacked textural variety. The potatoes were its strongest component, while the tortilla strips quickly became soggy and the warm guacamole tasted strange.
- The Taco Bell result divided the hosts between mediocre and below-average assessments. One thought it could satisfy a late-night craving, while the other regretted taking a second bite. Both recognized that other Taco Bell menu items offered better eating experiences.
- Burger King's secret-menu modification attempted to recreate the discontinued or previously limited Rodeo King. The hosts ordered a Bacon King without ketchup and added onion rings, barbecue sauce, and jalapeños.
- Burger King's barbecue sauce briefly improved the burger before the underlying meat flavor became apparent. The beef was considered poorly seasoned, the onion rings were mushy, and the bacon had an artificial liquid-smoke character.
- Both hosts unanimously rated Burger King's reconstructed Rodeo King 3/10. They concluded that additions could not overcome the quality of the underlying burger. They also discussed whether Burger King had deteriorated since childhood or whether their tastes had simply matured.
- Dairy Queen's Banana Split Blizzard was reportedly a discontinued menu item that employees disliked preparing. The customer-created version involved ordering banana-split ingredients with vanilla ice cream and requesting that they be blended or swirled into a Blizzard.
- Dairy Queen's Banana Split Blizzard successfully combined banana, peanuts, and strawberry. The banana flavor remained prominent, the peanuts provided crunch, and the strawberries added sweetness and acidity without dominating the dessert.
- The Dairy Queen dessert scored 7/10 and 7.5/10 from the two tasters. Their main complaint was that it was too thin and runny for a Blizzard, with one also wanting a larger serving. Both considered it enjoyable and worth ordering again.
- Culver's was tested with a loaded chili-and-cheese-curd combination. The dish brought together chili, cheese curds, cheese sauce, and pickled jalapeños, despite the chain having no formal secret menu.
- Culver's combination succeeded because its individual components performed different functions. The chili supplied heat and substance, the beans added texture, the cheese curds provided crunch, and the sauce contributed richness. The pickled jalapeños balanced that richness with acidity and spice.
- The Culver's dish needed to be eaten promptly to preserve the crunch of the cheese curds. The tasters found that the warm chili and cheese sauce created an appealing texture, but the curds would become less distinctive as they softened.
- Culver's earned one of the highest assessments of the competition and became a new leading contender. The hosts believed the finished combination was better than the ingredients individually, particularly because the cheese curds alone had not impressed them.
- Culver's strong result contrasted with the hosts' mixed earlier experiences. The host remembered enjoying the chain in the distant past but said more recent visits for filming had generally been disappointing.
- In-N-Out entered the competition with an established secret-menu reputation. Rather than relying entirely on internet-created combinations, the chain already had widely recognized options such as the Flying Dutchman, Animal Style burgers, and Animal Style fries.
- In-N-Out's Flying Dutchman was considered clean, well-seasoned, and suitable for people avoiding buns. However, the hosts did not believe it offered anything especially exciting beyond the familiar In-N-Out flavors.
- In-N-Out's Animal Style fries benefited substantially from their toppings. The hosts liked the completed dish but continued to consider the underlying fries relatively weak.
- The Animal Style Double-Double was selected as In-N-Out's competition entry. The hosts valued its dependable seasoning and familiar burger flavor, with the host acknowledging considerable nostalgia for the chain.
- In-N-Out received a strong but not exceptional assessment. The host said its burgers usually rated between 7/10 and 8/10 for him, but that this particular result did not quite deserve an eight. He considered In-N-Out consistently reliable without believing it served the world's best burger.
- Long John Silver's entered with an obscure customization involving Crumblies. These are small, crispy pieces of fried batter produced during fish preparation, rather than a conventional secret-menu meal.
- The Long John Silver's hack involved coating fried fish or hush puppies with Crumblies. The hosts first dipped the food in tartar sauce, then into the loose fried-batter pieces, creating an additional crunchy coating.
- The hosts were surprised by the quality of Long John Silver's fried fish itself. They described the fish as moist, flaky, tender, and properly cooked, without the chewiness or dryness they had encountered elsewhere.
- Long John Silver's Crumblies delivered both texture and flavor. The batter pieces were airy and crunchy, with salty, garlicky, umami-rich seasoning. The tasters also credited MSG as contributing to the savory flavor.
- The tartar sauce was an important part of the Long John Silver's result. Its creaminess, acidity, and small pickle pieces balanced the salty fried batter and prevented the combination from becoming monotonous.
- Long John Silver's Crumblies became the new competition leader. Both hosts responded enthusiastically, judging the combination more successful than the previous contenders. They also noted that Long John Silver's had won one of their earlier fast-food competitions.
- Jollibee was regarded as a particularly strong competitor because it had won several previous videos. The hosts expected its underlying food quality to give it an advantage, even though the chain did not have a conventional secret menu.
- Jollibee's unofficial combination was a chicken-skin, adobo-rice, and mashed-potato wrap. Customers were instructed to remove a large piece of crispy chicken skin, add mashed potatoes, adobo rice, and chicken, then wrap the ingredients together like a taco.
- The hosts originally wanted spicy Chickenjoy for the Jollibee customization. The restaurant had run out the previous day, and an employee said spicy chicken would return on Thursday. The hosts therefore used regular chicken and considered the substitution disappointing.
- Jollibee's chicken-skin wrap delivered an excellent flavor combination. The crispy chicken, rice, mashed potatoes, and gravy complemented one another, with the gravy receiving especially strong praise.
- Jollibee's hack was less innovative than its flavor initially suggested. The hosts realized they normally ate chicken, mashed potatoes, rice, and gravy together anyway. Wrapping the ingredients in chicken skin merely made the existing eating experience more convenient.
- Jollibee did not win because the judges distinguished restaurant quality from the value added by a secret-menu modification. They loved the underlying food but did not consider the new assembly sufficiently transformative. The unavailable spicy chicken also prevented them from testing their preferred version.
- Long John Silver's Crumblies won the overall fast-food secret-menu competition. The hosts considered the added batter and tartar-sauce combination the most successful transformation of an existing fast-food product.
- Several poorly regarded chains achieved better results through unofficial menu items, but others remained disappointing. Arby's substantially improved its standing through the Meat Mountain, while Whataburger and Burger King failed to overcome problems with their basic ingredients.
- The strongest customizations tended to combine contrasting textures and complementary flavors. Successful examples included sweet-and-salty maple-bacon cheesecake, spicy and acidic Culver's chili cheese curds, and crunchy Long John Silver's Crumblies with creamy tartar sauce.
- Repeatedly adding sauces and toppings to chicken, fries, or macaroni and cheese did not reliably produce better food. Several bowls became salty, soggy, or texturally uniform, demonstrating that quantity and ingredient variety alone were insufficient.
- The final judging emphasized whether a customization improved the normal restaurant experience, rather than whether the restaurant already served good food. This distinction allowed an obscure Long John Silver's addition to defeat better-known secret menus and established favorites such as In-N-Out and Jollibee.