8 New Menu Items That The Internet Tore Apart Worse Than The Big Arch

When McDonald's rolled out its newest burger in early 2026, the Big Arch was met with ridicule. The burger itself didn't match up to the advertising, for one. Consumers said it was both bland and too salty at the same time and many made specific mention of the flavorless cheese. The Takeout's own reviewer suggested casting this burger into the fast food abyss and just ordering a Big Mac instead. McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczewski made it even worse with his promotional video where it looked like he was barely able to choke down the product.

McDonald's wasn't the only fast food restaurant to take chances on new products in 2026. From Taco Bell to Dunkin', fast food chains have introduced a number of new menu items that have aggravated customers this year. Some chains have also disappointed longtime fans with reformulations of classics which have been on the menu for years. Each new release has had its own problems, but customers shared many of the same complaints across the board. These new and supposedly improved menu items aren't worth the price tag: The quality is terrible, the toppings skimpy, and the flavors are uninspired. Here are eight new fast food menu items which have drawn terrible reactions from customers in 2026.

Wendy's Jalapeño Ranch Cheeseburger made customers wonder if the fast food giant put any effort into its development. In fact, Wendy's entire 2026 spring menu should go back into hibernation. It's an underwhelming attempt at bold flavors that seems like a regular burger with extra toppings instead of a whole new menu item.

Dunkin' joined the dirty soda trend in 2026, putting its own twist on the viral drink by combining coffee milk with Pepsi. It didn't add as much sugar as other chains (here's the astounding amount of sugar in Crumbl's new dirty sodas), but the drink still didn't go over well. "I think it might just be too weird to work," wrote one reviewer. People say the drink tastes more like cream than soda and the artificial flavors clash into altogether something off. "First you taste the coffee, then you taste the Pepsi, and then you taste Windex," another customer said. "Absolutely disgusting."

Panera Bread launched its sandwich-salad hybrid called Salad Stuffers in April to a chorus of complaints about food waste. The company takes an Italian roll, tears out the center, and smashes a bunch of salad into it to make the Salad Stuffers; and there's still way too much bread. They've been called a failed rip-off of Bread Zeplin's salad-stuffed baguettes, and even employees hate them.

Taco Bell added a dynamic duo to the menu in 2026, a two-pack of sweet empanadas featuring fudge and caramel. The marketing was beautiful, but the empanadas were mediocre at best — and that's if you got them fresh. "It's like chewing on a rock," one customer wrote. The texture was only the beginning of the problems: There wasn't much filling in some of the empanadas, the flavor was bland, and there were reports of the filling being curdled. Luckily these were a limited time offer.

Taco Bell's summer styling of its Cinnabon Delights put a strawberry twist on the regular menu item. Instead of cinnamon sugar, the little donut hole pastry bites are coated in strawberry sugar, and they were immediately hated by those who don't like fake fruit flavors. As one Redditor put it, "They taste okay but when we make them the flavored sugar has such a strong smell it's a little nauseating." They're also a bit expensive at $2.29 for two bites of pastry.

There's simply not enough stuff inside Papa John's Oven-Toasted Sandwiches to make them worth the money. They're smaller than what you get at other pizza chains and the bread is extra chewy, making the whole sandwich a miserable experience. Adding insult to injury, the bread is super salty, too. "You could give the bun to a calf if you didn't have a salt block," writes one Redditor.

Burger King reformulated the Whopper this year for the first time in a decade, and customers are disappointed. Many people are calling it a downgrade particularly due to the new burger bun, which now has an egg wash, but people are also complaining about there not being enough meat and toppings. "What Burger King did here was pulled an ole switch-aroonie on us and shrunk the Whopper sandwich and tried to disguise it in a new bun & packaging," one reviewer explains. "It's noticeably smaller."

Wendy's restructured its classic chicken sandwich earlier this year and the new version didn't fly with fans of the original. The restaurant switched out the chicken breast in the sandwich for something else, and as one Redditor put it, "The New Wendy's Chicken Sandwich is a Paper Thin Suckfest." Others have been pointing out the breading has also changed for the worse. To top things off, instead of a piece of lettuce the new sandwich has shredded lettuce that falls out of a bun that is itself too sweet.