Fast-food restaurants not as good now

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Do you think many top fast food franchises are not as good as they used to be? I think that is the case for many places I used to love going and eating at. For example Wendy's back in the 90's was awesome. I used to love the saled bar and the grilled stuffed petas. They also had lots of great stuff on the dollar menue and get five things for five dollars. Now there are very few things that are actually 99 cents, stuff that isn't that great, and even those things are like 1.25 - 1.35 which initially seems close to 99 cents but is actually a huge difference in cost when you buy severial things. KFC used to be very good, I used to love the honey bbq chicken wings, and the dollar snackers. Now they don't have any of that and everything's expensive. This also leads me to the next point, everything is so much more expensive now on top of it and doesn't tast as good anymore. What's your thoughts on this? Do you agree or disagree and why?

Agree 100%.

And the portions are shrinking alarmingly.

Kentucky Fried Chicken was great in the early 1970s. Burger King was pretty good in the 1970s.

Right now, the only "fast food" I like is Wendy's. The burgers seem more "real" than the other burger places.

I'd rather go to a diner or a "greasy spoon" for a burger--where you could actually see the cook making the burgers. Those burgers are really good, especially with bacon, mushrooms, and Swiss cheese!

I forgot all about the dollar menu. A meal at Burger King around here now costs about the same as a better meal elsewhere, $5-6.

I also remember the dollar menu. BK had a lot of good things on that menu.

I like Whataburger

I'm still pissed off that Dairy Queen no longer does buffalo chicken strips, at least not in Canada. You used to be able to order them and they would come drenched in this awesomely spicy buffalo wing sauce, but after a while they switched to just supplying the sauce on the side (which is not nearly as good IMO), and eventually they phased them out in favor of these other spicy chicken strips, that just have the spice in the batter. I haven't tried the new ones, but going from my experiences with "dry" hot wings, there's no way they would be as good as the sauce-drenched ones I used to love.

I remember Burger Chef and Frisches Big Boy and actual grilled meat. And McDonalds was like Dominos. get your meal in 60 seconds or its was free. Now at McDonalds I don't know what those slimy sodium patties are they pull out of that drawer and stick between buns but I don't think its beef.

During the late '70s and early '80s I worked in the used machinery business for a fella named Bill Barr. I didn't know it when I was hired, but Bill's father's money (from machinery sales) had paid for the building of the first McDonalds franchise in Des Plaines, IL. In return Bill got the franchise rights to Northern Chicago and Northern Cook County from his new associate Ray Krock (but disdain of Krock and political infighting eventually made Bill and Ray go separate ways).

Through the years Bill had a lot of McDonalds stories to tell and one I remember well had to do with the evolution of the McDonalds menu. He remembered the really fast food service, that he loved so well and he described the process that slowed things down. The reasons had to do with profit and the stock market.

After the initial franchise expansion McDonalds was looking at ways to increase profits as stock market prices were beginning to look a little flat. The way they choose to increase customer spending was to add more expensive items to the menu, which slowed down production and increased customer wait times. To keep up,all the other similar fast food operations followed. Profits increased and stock market prices increased and people wait and wait and wait......................

At least that was Bill's story.

denny

McDonalds doesn't taste as good as it used to because they changed something about their grease after a lawsuit years ago. I wish they still had supper-size but when any meal was ordered one taking the order would ask if they wanted to supper-size it & some did when they didn't really want to because they were morons who couldn't think for themselves & they got mad & sued. & there was also that misleading movie called Supper Size Me where the guy gained a bunch of weight eating nothing but McDonalds because he quit getting as much physical activity when he started because he wanted to be no more active than the average American. Suddenly taking cabs everywhere instead of walking everywhere would cause anyone to gain weight but he pointed the finger at McDdonals & his viewers were morons who fallowed along with the blaming so McDoanlds had to get rid of supper-size due to bad publicity instead of just telling employees not to ask customers if they want to supper-size.

I used to hate Burger Kings fries but I like them after they changed them afew years ago(it may of been longer) & I'm going there tomorrow. It's been awhile sense I ate there.

I remember McDonald's fries were better at one time, until they had to cut down the salt content. Apparently you can still order ones made the old way by asking for "deep fried salt sticks".

Also, here in Canada, as far as I know servers here are still allowed to ask you if you want to supersize your order. Most of the time I do anyway, though I hardly ever eat at McDonald's since I've never lived in a town or city that had one.

They changed something about their grease here too years ago. I heard some religious got upset when they found out there was some kind of animal product used in it because the religion didn't allow consumption of animals or at least one used in the grease & there may of been a lawsuit. Others were upset with McDonalds because the animal stuff was more unhealthy. I heard they still did super-size in other countries but I haven't seen it at any here in America sense I was in high-school which was over 13 years ago: I lived in Louisiana but live in Vermont now & heard they quit doing it along time ago here too.

In my country every fast food chain's (be they local or international) standards have dropped.

Now I don't eat at any of them. Fast food is essentially a service you're paying for, and like most services you're expected to pay a lot and get very little in return, and I mean in quality although portion sizes are decreasing as well.

The amount of stories i've heard of people getting alarmingly sick after eating out of these places, is quite scary. The overall hygiene habits can only be very low, and if you add this to food that just doesn't taste good, i can't understand why people buy from these places at all.

I agree. Today, I spent approximately $5.50 on a White Castle breakfast combo.

For some fast food, maybe it is because they use a dough conditioner that is also used in yoga mats and soles of shoes. See
www.cnn.com/2014/02/06/health/subway-bread-chemical.

You could argue that they need chemicals to keep bread together or "fresh" but I noticed the chains that use this chemical have terrible bread that crumbles and does not taste good. I remember a long time ago when Subway switched breads. Their bread used to taste good.

I used to enjoy fast food but now I rarely get it.

You know why this is? It's because America is becoming obsessed with health. Have you noticed that excersize is actually looked on with a positive note, and that sugar and fat are looked down upon? Wow. Just wow.

I don't think that the fast food companies are purposefully trying to drive away customers to encourage them to eat healthier, because that would be bad for business. Rather, I think they're just trying to maximize their profits by lowering their standards, and while an effect of this is that the food isn't as good, I don't think they're purposefully setting out to make it terrible.

What I would like to see is a paradigm shift in the fast food industry, where restaurants *actually* use fresh, local ingredients, and take a bit more time with preparation. Now, this won't please the people who want to shove $2 cheeseburgers down their gullets, but it'll please people like me who want to be able to grab a decent meal on the run.