Wendy's Breakfast Menu Items, Ranked

When it comes to fast food breakfasts, most customers have long gravitated towards the Golden Arches for all the McItems that dot McDonald's morning menu. While breakfast hasn't always been the order of the day at rival Wendy's, that hasn't stopped the excellent burger chain from trying over the years, ranging from an attempt in 1979 to another in 2001, and its latest nationwide push starting in 2020.

In just a handful of years, Wendy's has continued to expand its vast breakfast portfolio with an array of savory sandwiches housed in all kinds of baked goods, such as biscuits, muffins, and croissants, as well as serving up a few treats to sweeten the deal. With so many items to choose from, it's almost too hard to figure out what stands out from the crowded menu. The Takeout took up this challenge, unwrapped 15 of Wendy's breakfast items, gobbled them all up, and, after careful digestion, is ready to give guidance to help start your day with this ultimate ranking. Let's get (egg) cracking...

Biscuits have long been a great standalone option for any breakfast, and that has also been the case for Wendy's. When it introduced breakfast back in the late '70s, breakfast biscuits dotted the menu, and when it relaunched breakfast in 2020, it was naturally included.

While Wendy's biscuit acts as bread for a few breakfast sandwiches, it is essentially a vegetarian option by itself. The biscuit was a decent size and arrived pre-loaded with a maple butter spread slathered on its split inside. The warmth of the biscuit turned the butter into a bit of a mess, softening any strength the breading once had.

While the spread had a standard buttery taste, the biscuit rolling solo didn't have much flavor, making this perhaps not the best breakfast option. Also, at a hair under $3, it's a bit much to spend on essentially buttered fluffy bread. However, this biscuit is there if you need it, especially since Popeyes and its superior biscuits aren't available during breakfast hours.

One way to spruce up a plain biscuit is to put something in it. Add a scrambled egg disc, a slice of American cheese, and a meaty protein like bacon, and you get the Bacon, Egg & Cheese Biscuit.

First and foremost, it's an edible sandwich. The egg isn't runny, and it pairs nicely with the melted cheese. The problem starts and ends with the bacon — a recurring issue across many breakfast sandwiches. When I pried open the biscuit, I found two sad, limp strips in the cheese. In fact, they were so thin there wasn't much to bite into, and even when eaten with the rest of the sandwich, the bacon barely registered.

If it were thicker, crunchier, or simply more plentiful, the sandwich might have had a memorable bite. On the plus side, Wendy's Bacon, Egg & Cheese Biscuit is about $1 cheaper than its other breaded companions.

Wendy's is really giving its all with the breakfast options, especially when it comes to breads. English muffins joined the party in late summer 2023. It makes sense when you consider the fact its main rival, McDonald's, is all about its McMuffins.

Sadly, Wendy's hasn't nicknamed its competitor Wenduffins. Regardless, Wendy's American take on the "English" muffin is actually a pretty impressive product. Its tops were less grainy and drier than expected, but the softer interior carried the same spongy nooks and crannies one would expect. It would have been nice if the muffin had been slightly toasted, but regardless, it was of good size and substance.

The muffin was certainly an upgrade over the biscuit when it came to housing bacon, egg, and cheese, and it had a really nice garlicky seasoned butter taste to it. But the knock on this one was the same as before: the scant and too lean bacon. Perhaps the name of the sandwich should be reordered to read: Egg & Cheese Muffin... with Bacon?

The thought of a croissant conjures up images of French boulangeries, with piles of the boomerang-shaped, flaky yet soft delights. When Wendy's relaunched breakfast in 2020, it included its own square take on a bakery standard as sandwich bookends. I'm not sure whether Parisians would consider Wendy's croissants the genuine article, but alas, you can't blame the chain for trying. Also, this is arguably the better choice over bagels.

From the surface, this square croissant looked more like a biscuit, and its taste had a hint of a croissant's buttery flake, too, with the rest of it coming off more like a potato bun. It all actually adds up to a tasty bread option. Since this one evokes a more European nature, the American cheese was replaced by a creamy Swiss cheese. I actually wish there was more of it, as it added a tasty glue to bind the other elements together (which also reportedly included bacon, even if it was once again light on that front).

Burritos are one of Wendy's newer bread options, having launched in early 2024. Again, this breading was another surprise win for Wendy's. This one, like the muffin, was free of dust and grain, and instead felt soft and chewy.

Wendy's burritos are definitely a good size. Before taking a bite, I cut it in half to see what was inside. This one contained as much bacon as the Breakfast Baconator, but you could hardly tell by looking at it, or tasting it. I thought there was a hash brown tucked in there, but it turned out to be a piece of Wendy's wonderful potatoes.

The latter added much-needed crunch that the bacon couldn't supply. It made this burrito a mighty filling option, and a solid bargain, slightly under $1 less than its muffin or croissant brethren. It can be dry, so be sure to give it a kick with a dash of Wendy's Hot Chili Seasoning Sauce.

It's time to finally meet some options that involve Wendy's sausage patties. These pork-based sausages are seasoned with unspecified spices and salt and grilled onsite.

Wendy's sausage is a stout square, with very crisped ends. Taking a bite into the patty by itself, it's a nice piece of protein, juicy and super savory. It had a smokiness to it, and it was enhanced by what seemed like a healthy amount of salt and pepper.

Housed in a round biscuit, this square fellow could not contain itself, sticking out from the sides. By that sight alone, it proved a much better option than its puny bacon counterpart. At the same price point, no reason to even bother with the bacon one. However, there are slightly better breaded options. This one, too, can feel a little all-encompassing and could use something like ketchup or a spicy mayo to break things up a bit.

You're going to notice an order pattern here with the order of Sausage, Egg & Cheese offerings, as you did with the bacon ones, based on how they partner up with the breading. Again, Wendy's English muffin was a slightly better home for the salty sausage than the biscuit, as it was with the bacon.

Somehow, this muffin didn't have the same amount of additional butter and garlicky seasoning as the bacon version. I'm not sure if that was a mistake or if it just didn't stand out as much. Regardless, since both the bacon and sausage muffin sandwiches are sold for the same price, it is a no-brainer to choose between the two.

While some people think Wendy's Sausage, Egg & Cheese English Muffin simply doesn't compare to the McDonald's McMuffin, I personally think this hockey puck is close enough to hitting the same notes. Does a version with a slab of Canadian bacon lie in our future?

It's truly amazing what a slab of sausage can do to make one sandwich look grand and one without it look minuscule. That's easily the case here with the Sausage, Egg & Swiss Croissant over its bacon counterpart. Again, at the same price point, why even bother with the bacon one, unless you must have bacon in your morning life?

Now, versus all the other breads that keep the sausage in place, the croissant works best. It has a fun, fluffy texture and a nice, soft squishiness, juxtaposing the more rigid, crispy, heavily seasoned slab of meat. Also, the croissant has a hint of sweetness, which helps to cut down on the super savory aspect of the sausage. The Swiss cheese sauce is an added bonus, and going forward, I'll be sure to order the sandwich with an extra dash of it.

There are sadly only two burrito options on Wendy's breakfast menu. I say "sad" because this is such a nice and well-priced breakfast item that it's a crying shame there aren't more of them. The Bacon Breakfast Burrito was one of the better standard bacon options available, and the sausage version is rightfully one of the best in its own subcategory.

Cutting this burrito in half, you could already see there is meat aplenty. Sure, some bites seemed to be missing morsels, but most had that nice crunch patty rolled up with bits of seasoned potatoes, soft egg, and lightly gooey cheese. It was a tasty mouthful, but I would definitely spice things up with some squirts from Wendy's Hot Chili Seasoning packets.

Now that I'm all on board with these budget-friendly, bodacious burritos, can we please get an expansion on the line? Throw in some thin strips of chicken into a tortilla with the other ingredients, and you essentially have a buzzy chicken wrap making waves in the a.m.

Fast food is filled with amazingly novel names that become so ubiquitous they later sound like household staples. One of the best names I'd put high on that list is the Baconator. The original sandwich, introduced in 2007, features a double cheeseburger decked out with six strips of applewood-smoked bacon. It proved so popular that it not only begat the Son of Baconator but also a morning iteration. The Breakfast Baconator rose to the occasion in 2020, utilizing the same soft and comfy buns as its daytime sibling, along with that familiar sextet of bacon strips. In lieu of burger patties, though, it swaps in a sausage patty topped with an egg and a yummy, creamy Swiss cheese sauce.

At $5.99, you're paying a premium for a breakfast menu item, but Wendy's delivers something that easily backs up its promise. This was a big old sandwich that almost requires two hands to grapple. Every bite delivered a symphony of breakfast flavors and textures. While the bacon was indeed abundant, it didn't quite bring the crunch it should. Honestly, I wish you could sub the sausage for a hamburger in the morning — burgers all day, every day!

Just when you thought every croissant sandwich had been crossed off the list, one rears its head: the Maple Bacon Chicken Croissant. All the praise for this breading still applies. It's a soft, slightly sweet spin on the French pastry. Here, it houses a plump chicken filet that fits perfectly within the roomy croissant. It's joined by a few strips of bacon and the return of the maple honey butter spread, which most of the other sandwiches lack.

The chicken filet wasn't uniform in shape, but it was thick, with a nicely crumbly fried skin that gave way to juicy, tender white meat. It delivered the crunch that the bacon didn't, though the strips here played better as partners than in the other sandwiches. The maple butter tied it all together, adding a slick, flavorful sweetness that elevated every bite. Altogether, I thought that this was a wonderful sandwich — rich, balanced, and absolutely worth its nearly $5 price tag.

I tried not to bring any bias into this taste test and ultimate ranking, but I had previously become very friendly with the Honey Buddy Chicken Biscuit. It first launched in 2020, but only got its chummy modern name four years later. It wasn't that long after then that I personally had my first taste. Before a morning flight, I grabbed one at an airport location, and it was literally lust at first sight. And also a greasy mess for my hands. Bless that mess!

The Honey Buddy Biscuit is essentially a stripped-down version of the Maple Bacon Chicken Croissant, ditching the bacon and going with what I thought was one of the weaker breadings. Funny enough, the soft and overly buttered biscuit didn't stand well on its own, but throw one of these fantastic chicken filets in, and guess what — you have the best sandwich that Wendy's offers during the morning. At just under $4, I think this sandwich offers amazing value, as it was super filling. This is such a great product; it rivals what Chick-fil-A offers, and should honestly be available to order morning, noon, and night.

From here on up, we've entered a sandwich-free zone in the rankings. First on the docket is Wendy's Seasoned Potatoes, which comes in three sizes — small, medium, and large — and can be ordered à la carte, or as the suggested side item in any breakfast combo.

These warm spuds, which have been around since 2020, come housed in a paper cup. My medium order had almost 20 pieces of various shapes and sizes, from flat half moons to puffed-up boomerangs. I know this sounds rather obvious, given their name, but they do look like actual potatoes, and do in fact have a good deal of seasoning applied to them. 

If you've never had the pleasure of biting into Wendy's Seasoned Potatoes, you're in for a real treat. Everything about them was excellent, from their exterior crunch, soft potato-y underbelly, and lovable flavor, which included the perfect amount of salt, as well as hints of garlic and onion. These are not only a must-order for morning, but are another item I wish I could order all day long. I really like Wendy's French fries, which I think are vastly underrated, but the Seasoned Potatoes are even better than the fries, and are some of the best fast food spuds around, period! 

If you're looking for something starchy but perhaps not as heavy as the Seasoned Potatoes, that will also add a dash of sweetness to your day, look no further than Wendy's Homestyle French Toast Sticks. These French toast sticks joined the line-up in August 2022 and come in either servings of either four or six, with a side cup of syrup.

On the surface, these sticks looked like limp, perhaps mushy pieces of toasted white bread, but I soon discovered that their awesomeness lies in their taste. I realized after the fact that my promised cup of syrup was missing from the order, but it actually mattered little in the enjoyment of these sticks. The more toasted areas added a bit of crispness to the whole affair, and the sticks had a robust, great eggy flavor. I thought that the real key here, and why they are able to stand alone as a delicious item sans syrup, was the infusion of brown sugar vanilla flavoring in this French toast's batter.

Part sweet, part savory, and wholly fantastic, the Homestyle French Toast Sticks are an easy home run for breakfast. Batter up!

The one breakfast item that stood apart from the rest and pulled at my heartstrings the most was the Cinnabon Pull-Apart. Yes, this feels like a bit of a cheat, as this isn't strictly just a Wendy's item, but nobody said you couldn't jump on the bandwagon of another famous brand's signature sweet treat to bolster a breakfast menu. After all, McDonald's did the same thing by peddling Krispy Kreme, even if it has since pulled the plug on that experiment.

If you've ever had a Cinnabon, you know what an outrageously delicious, almost guilty pleasure treat it is to have. Wendy's is giving its customers permission to indulge as early in the day as possible. This version has all the signature Cinnabon sensations, from the alluring warm cinnamon aroma to the soft, pillowy texture, and the luscious cream cheese frosting, which is truly the glue that holds it all together.

Wendy's knows that this is such a winner that one can order it at any time of the day. I recommend paying the extra $1 for a second helping of the cream cheese frosting. The Wendy's app actually allows you to add up to a fifth helping of the icing, which sounds like a dare I may have to pursue tomorrow morning.

There are more than 15 items currently on Wendy's breakfast menu, but I selected 15 of the most unique ones to compare and contrast. The ones omitted from this taste test and ranking were essentially meat-free versions of the sandwiches. As 15 items is a lot to try and compare in one sitting, the items were divided into two groups and sampled over the span of two mornings in October 2025 at the same Wendy's in Manhattan, New York.

The items were ordered in-store, photographed, and consumed on-site to maximize quality for all aspects of this ranking. Leftovers were taken home and rewarmed if necessary for further analysis and comparison between the two eating sessions. All foods were consumed by me alone, and the rankings reflect my personal opinions and past experience with Wendy's breakfast lineup, taking into account my own tastes and preferences. The final criteria included flavor, freshness, texture, design, uniqueness, size, value, and overall awesomeness to start one's day.