6 Best And 2 Worst New Fast Food Items Of 2026 (So Far)

Throughout the year, fast food chains release a variety of new items. Some of those offerings celebrate viral flavors or trends, while others simply reflect the changing seasons. As I look back on the first half of 2026, it's clear there were some delicious, major additions to fast food menus, but a couple of unexpected flops, too. Having sampled my fair share of new fast food items, I've collected the best and worst of the bunch in 2026, so far at least.

Most of my favorites for the year have been beverages, while some of the worst bites have been spinoffs of already enjoyable menu options. By and large, what sets the best apart from the worst is a chain's willingness to offer something brand new and not just a slight tweak to food or drinks already on the menu. I find it easier to enjoy innovation more than complacency. Though there are certainly exceptions, I have found that chains that offer minimal, uninspired changes, but then attempt to advertise an item as brand new and different, end up with something of a flop.

It's not often I watch a movie to research for a tasting, but McDonald's KPop Demon Hunters menu items had me doing just that. Lyrics still running through my mind, I visited my nearest McDonald's, wholly unaware of just how tasty the menu would be.

The KPop Demon Hunters'-inspired menu offered items for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. While the breakfast sandwich, dips for the nuggets, and McFlurry were tasty, the Ramyeon McShaker Fries stood out. With the success of McDonald's Pickle McShaker fries celebrating the Grinch, I wasn't terribly surprised that these french fries were fabulous, but the flavor had an absolutely perfect ramen taste. It wasn't overly salty, just perfectly umami and everything you would want in a highly seasoned french fry. After my initial tasting, I enjoyed them so much that I attempted to purchase them again on another trip, but they sold out very quickly at my location. Between these Ramyeon McShaker fries and the pickle ones, I look forward to seeing how McDonald's elevates fry flavoring in future partnerships.

Typically, when I visit Arby's, it is for the beef and cheddar sandwiches, overflowing with cheese and positively smothering that seasoned beef in saucy goodness. Admittedly, I wasn't expecting much from Arby's Peach Cobbler Rolls, which looked more like a fried egg roll, something you would find as a side to your fried rice. However, the sweet treat ended up being one of my favorite desserts I've had from a fast food restaurant in a long time.

The peach cobbler rolls come out at the beginning of the year, even though peaches are much more of a summer food, but they're just in time to honor an annual digging out of preserved peaches from a yearly crop, just waiting to be made into cobbler. The flavor was a nice mix of ripe fruit and spices, and with the crunchy exterior, each roll had a crispiness that easily represented the cobbler dessert.

The dirty soda trend has been very hit or miss for me. Generally, companies that have attempted to put their own spin on the fad have fallen a little flat. Taco Bell, however, took its already delicious Baja Blast, froze it, and added creamer. This change-up from the typical frozen Baja Blast drink is absolutely one I can get behind.

As of March, you can order your dirty sodas from Taco Bell, meaning with vanilla creamer added to them. Though the chain advertises the dirty sodas as a particular set of beverages, the addition is available for any soda you typically order. Still, I found that regular options weren't quite as enjoyable as the frozen Baja Blast. In regular soda, the creamer sat at the bottom of many of the cups, but it played much nicer with frozen mixtures, making for a more enjoyable drinking experience. In fact, I liked this dirty soda so much that I've ordered it on subsequent trips to the Bell.

 As part of its post-Christmas winter releases, Starbucks introduced Dubai chocolate-inspired drinks, cashing in on the viral Dubai chocolate obsession that's made its way through social media and even into Costco. Starbucks Iced Dubai Chocolate Mocha takes a regular mocha, removes the whip, and replaces it with a pistachio cream cold foam and a salted brown butter topping. I sampled them the first day they were available and easily stumbled upon a new favorite offering from the coffee siren.

In my initial taste test, the Dubai chocolate mocha was my favorite of the two options. I enjoyed the way flavors mixed in the earliest sips and felt the addition of the pistachio with the mocha deepen as I continued sipping. Although I made some swaps in subsequent Dubai chocolate mocha orders, the original offering remained one of my favorite new fast food offerings of the new year.

Although the mocha was my early favorite between the two Dubai chocolate drinks, Starbucks Iced Dubai Chocolate Matcha quickly became my go-to matcha order. In fact, it was so delicious that my mom even fell in love with the beverage. The drink adds pistachio syrup to a typical iced matcha latte and tops it all off with chocolate cream cold foam. It's like the inverse of the mocha version, with the chocolate on the top and pistachio throughout the drink. The best part? The pistachio flavoring will stick around for the whole year, officially joining the permanent menu.

Whether this addition was the direct result of the success the Dubai chocolate drinks sparked is anyone's guess, but my mom and I are both thrilled that Starbucks is keeping the option on the menu. While the mocha may have been a more logical Dubai chocolate offering, the layered brown and green colors of the matcha rendition are more similar in appearance to a typical Dubai chocolate treat.

I was eager to sample Starbucks' 2026 summer drink menu, but was ultimately surprised to find that the coffee options were far less enjoyable than the new Butterfly Refresher lineup. As a Refresher drinker who typically requires the lemonade component, I was pleased to find that the chain finally released a Refresher that didn't taste overly watered down or bland.

Starbucks Tropical Butterfly Refresher is bright, sweet, and everything you would want in a summer drink. It even has boba popping pearls to add extra texture to the experience. I tried the drink with coconut milk, lemonade, and water, and ultimately found that I preferred the regular Tropical Butterfly Refresher over either of the two other offerings. The combination of flavors is already sweet enough and doesn't need the help of lemonade to be enjoyable.

In April, Wendy's released its spring menu, a collection of items aimed at bringing a little spice to the other offerings. Most of the flavors centered around jalapeño and (or) bacon in various forms. For the most part, the menu was rather forgettable. I found that most of the items simply seemed like the basic orders you would get from Wendy's, with an additional two slices of canned and pickled jalapeños. The breakfast menu wasn't bad, but it wasn't very exciting either. Lunch and dinner were a different story.

For the rest of the day, Wendy's offered a jalapeño ranch cheeseburger as part of the menu release. It was your everyday Wendy's cheeseburger, but instead of classic condiments like ketchup, mustard, and mayo, the chain had the great idea of swapping them out for a jalapeño ranch and some pickled sliced jalapeños. It was as if all the good stuff had been taken off the burger, and the jalapeño and (allegedly) jalapeño ranch couldn't do enough to sell the missing profile of that tangy mix of ketchup, mustard, and mayo. Though I typically love a unique cheeseburger, this one was one of the worst I've had in a while. For something that was supposed to be spicy, it was a total letdown.

I find it's awfully difficult to mess up dessert, but a new addition to Taco Bell's menu, released in late May, did just that. In a review for The Daily Meal, I sampled Taco Bell's Strawberry Cinnabon Delights and found that they tasted okay but smelled odd. In general, they stunk.

I was hoping for a mixture of a donut hole and a cinnamon roll, but the dessert turned out to be a piece of dough coated in strawberry sugar, offering something akin to a strawberry cheesecake experience. Though the flavor wasn't bad on its own, paired with the off-putting, even funky cheese smell, it was easily one of my least favorite fast food bites of the year. It's especially disappointing considering it was a dessert. I assumed before the tasting that these would be some of my favorites. Alas, what could have been.

One of the best parts about being a food writer is having the opportunity to sample new foods right before (or as) they come out. As a result, I have sampled my fair share of new items on various fast food menus over the last few years. I typically look for menu items that are flavorful, tasty, and have a reasonable texture. However, to me, the most important indicator is whether I would want to order the item again. For this piece, if the answer was a resounding yes, I considered it one of the best fast food items of the year so far. If the opposite is true, it fell to the depths of some of the worst bites I've sampled so far this year.

Static Media owns and operates The Takeout and Daily Meal.