The Top 17 Fast Food Value Menus, Ranked

Value menus and fast food restaurants go hand in hand — they've been around for some time, starting when Wendy's first introduced a value menu in 1989. If experience is any indicator, the brand has certainly learned a thing or two about offering a quality value menu over the years.

Several other restaurants would follow, with McDonald's coming out with its Dollar Menu in 2003 and Burger King launching its value menu just a little earlier, in 1998. However, not all value menus are created equal. While some do a fantastic job of offering you quality savings, others are simply an uninspiring list of inexpensive items. 

Curious about how the various fast food value menus matched up against one another, I got to scouring menus and quickly realized an excellent value menu has a few key factors. I ranked these fast food establishments' value menus based on savings, quantity of items, diversity of items, and accessibility. If I could only order from the value menu online, it tended to rank a little lower on our list. I found that while some fast food restaurants do an excellent job offering great fast food deals on value menus, others leave a lot to be desired. As you check out these deals, please note that prices and availability often vary from location to location.

We remember the days of the $5 footlong quite fondly. Long gone are such luxuries, now replaced with deals and offers, even at Subway. One deal that jumped out at us right away was an offer that got you a sub for a dollar. The catch? It's a members-only deal for MVP Rewards members. The only other deal I saw advertised was a $6.99 meal. Each day, there's a different featured sandwich, and when pairing it with chips or a cookie and soda, you can get a meal for $6.99 or add an additional $3 to make it a footlong sandwich instead.

While this is a creative deal, it locks customers into a particular sandwich. Subway has a long way to go when it comes to its value menu, and requiring that customers join up to get a great deal feels a little sketchy. This was one of our least favorite value menus for how little it actually offered and how minimal the savings were. With the unfathomable number of Subway locations, this is a real shame.

Dunkin' is another fast food chain without a true value menu. However, at the time of this writing, there's a $6 meal deal that includes a medium coffee, breakfast sandwich, and hash browns. This is a pretty great deal considering that these items are $10.57 (depending on your location) if purchased a la carte. A breakfast sandwich alone is $5.19, an iced coffee is $3.75, and hash browns are $1.59. Even if you were to add the items on their own to your cart, the cart will automatically alter to $6 to account for the deal.

We wish there were more value menu choices that had a guaranteed availability, and it's the biggest reason this is one of the worst value menus we've come across. Even if there are some decent savings here, it doesn't even include a donut (the very item that was once part of the chain's name).

One of the best parts about value menus is that they're a quick place you can look to save a few bucks. Since most fast food places seem to have them, there's some amount of consistency here too. You can count on the options being there for you. However, at Burger King, there doesn't seem to be a value menu in the way we've come to know them; rather, online, you can find options for digital exclusives. This means they're only available through an order ahead fashion, so you wouldn't be able to use the menu in store.

At the time of writing, the options were largely focused on wraps and "How to Train Your Dragon" combos. This seems to be a rotating space for Burger King to focus attention on current partnerships, promotions, and maybe even limited items.

As a value menu, it's not great. We wish there was more of it, that it was available to anyone ordering, and that the options allowed for more variability between different choices. So, while the items look delicious, this is easily one of our least favorite value menus out there.

One of our favorite chicken spots is Popeyes since the chicken tastes so good. Instead of a value menu, the chain has a section of its page called "Offers." Here, you'll find what amounts to bundles and meals. Essentially, it's a value menu, but this one comes with stipulations, and we wish this wasn't the case. Some of the offers require delivery, others are a pick-up-only deal, and two of them are welcome deals. In fact, there's only one offer on the menu that doesn't have such a caveat, and it's 25% off a tender combo with chicken, a side, biscuit, and a drink.

We love the assortment of items on this value-menu-esque offering, but the pick-up or delivery requirements just really tear down the quality of this value menu. We don't like jumping through hoops for our value menus, and the offerings at Popeyes seem to promote this variety of deal slinging, putting it toward the bottom of our list.

It's hard not to love a pizza night. Tasty and comforting and highly customizable, it's one of the best carryouts, and with pizza chains' value menus, it becomes a lot more reasonably priced. Unfortunately, Domino's doesn't have a value menu in the purest form. Instead, it offers deals and discounts that manifest as coupons, plus there's definitely a best week to order Domino's.

For instance, there's a carryout deal that makes pizzas with one topping cost only $7.99. There's also a deal for two single-topping pizzas, Parmesan bread bites, and cinnamon twists all for $19.99. While these are great deals, we just wish there was a collected place for a value menu or more consistent offerings for saving money. One of the nice parts about a value menu is the ability to count on it being there, and the Domino's discounts just seem too disjointed to feel like something you can count on, making this a value menu that needs some improvement to be one of our favorites.

While other restaurants don't truly have a named value menu, Arby's does. It has a whopping 23 items on it too. However, not all of these items are all that exciting. In fact, over half of the options are different flavors of fountain drink. In my mind, these aren't true value options.

Deciding if the food items are true value options needs something of a trip back to math class. Never fear: we did the calculation for you. Let's look at the value menu's roast beef slider, as an example. This value menu item is just over a third of the price of a classic roast beef with Swiss cheese added. The theoretical value of the value menu is there. However, since you can't order a half of a slider, you'd need to overshoot the calories by ordering three sliders, thereby paying $6.57 for the three sliders, more than the classic roast beef with Swiss.

So, while there is a named value menu, and it does save you some money in theory, the value isn't necessarily there when you're actually paying for your meal. It's one of our least favorite options and we really are not a fan of the fact that it feels more like an afterthought than anything else.

Kentucky Fried Chicken has a slew of deals on its menu, but curiously, there's not a dedicated area on the menu devoted to collecting this savings in one place. Admittedly, there's a section on the menu labeled as "Deals," but even this area of the menu doesn't collect all of the deals on the menu. Instead, I stumbled upon the deals while perusing the menu.

The Deals section of the menu, which seems to rotate fairly regularly, has several members only and exclusive offerings, but nothing just labeled as a deal. For those, you'll go into the specific menu areas and look for the words "deal" or "combo." On the fried chicken menu, for instance, there are a few Taste of KFC deals and many combos.

While we like the different ways KFC recommends making combos of the menu items, we're not a fan of an exclusively online discount or one available only to members. We also wish there were a more definite space for value items; the discombobulated feel of the experience is not enjoyable when searching for a good deal.

Welcome to the land of butter burgers and custard. Though you won't find a value menu at Culver's, value baskets abound. These meals include an entree with a side and a drink. You also have the option to upgrade your value basket with a different side, like cheese curds, for instance.

The value basket menu offers burgers (grilled up by cooks with months of training), chicken sandwiches, melts, chicken tenders, and other sandwiches, like a pot roast, grilled cheese, or pork loin. The savings for the value meal isn't terribly significant, but you'll be able to pocket a few dollars. Take a mushroom and Swiss basket, for instance. Ordered a la carte, the sandwich is $8.99, medium crinkle cut fries are $3.49, and a medium drink is $3.09, with a sum of $15.57. As a value basket, the total for those items is $13.49, making the savings $2.08. With that savings, you could invest in a scoop of custard. After all, visiting Culver's without a sweet treat is frowned upon.

While we appreciate the couple of dollars in savings and the many options on the value basket menu, the value here is minimal. We'd like to see more of a dedicated menu where items actually feel like a value, and this missing savings means that we rate the value menu at Culver's on the lower range. Perhaps this could include discounted burgers or other sandwiches. Even on a rotating basis, this would be nice.

It may not always come to mind when we're seeking reasonably priced food, but Dairy Queen actually has some pretty substantial savings with its meal deals. Unfortunately, there are only two options at Dairy Queen, which is the biggest disappointment with the restaurant's meal deals. I found as soon as you get a little fancier than the base items, the price starts to rack up quickly.

The two options included in the meal deals are a chicken strips meal or a cheeseburger option. I did the math on the cheeseburger meal, which comes in at $7 and includes fries, an original cheeseburger, a sundae, and a medium soft drink. Those items purchased a la carte come to $12.66. 

You could also go for a couple of items on the 2 for $5 menu. This may include a cheeseburger and soda, fries and ice cream, or pretzel sticks with chicken strips. The Dairy Queen meal deals get major bonus points for being quite good on the wallet, but there are even more competitive value menus out there. 

While not necessarily the value menu, Papa John's offers deals that include pizza as well as several side dishes. For example, the Papa Pairings deal is just shy of $14, and you'll get a medium pizza with one topping as well as a side like wings, some breadsticks, or desserts. This is an ideal option for a small family or even just an inexpensive date night.

There's also a deal called the family special for $30 that includes a large pizza with specialty toppings and another with two toppings on the original or thin crust. If your family regularly gets two pizzas, this would be a great option.

Our only concern about these deals is that they could change as new items come in. Several of the deals feature items that are new, like the Crispy Cuppy 'Roni Papa Bite, which features stacked pepperoni and something like a pillowy dough for just under $5. While I like what Papa John's offers, I wish it felt like there was a little more consistency across these options, and for that primary reason, it's less of an ideal value meal to us.

Not much feels more nostalgic than rolling up to a Sonic. With its drive-up ordering stations and retro style, the price is just about the only thing that breaks that otherwise old-school feel. That is, unless you're ordering off the $1.99 menu.

Sonic's version of the value menu offers a selection of food and drink for, predictably, $1.99. Granted, the menu options are pretty sparse. At the time of this writing, I could have chosen between a few junior chicken sandwiches, a queso wrap, fries, or some floats. While we'd love to pair these items together, it's hard to get too excited about a menu that isn't terribly large, even if the price is low. With more items, the Sonic value menu could soar in our ranking. But with limited choices, it falls toward the middle.

The Golden Arches has seen many iterations of its value menus throughout the years. We distinctly remember a time when certain items appeared on what the chain called a dollar menu. Later, that dollar menu evolved to include a few more dollars, and now, you'll find the McValue menu.

As some chains do, this is the place for McDonald's to collect its less expensive items, like a basic cheeseburger, french fries, and even small McFlurry treats. These individual items just don't feel like a great value because you're not saving anything by choosing them. Instead, they're just less expensive options. However, the meal deals under this same menu offer more savings. For instance, at the time of this writing, for $5, you could buy a meal that had a McDouble, four chicken nuggets, small french fries, and a small drink. With the pricing structure at my closest McDonald's, that's $9.76 if the items were purchased in an a la carte fashion. Funny enough, when I added all items to my order online, it immediately registered the meal as a $5 deal, so it's actually impossible to order them as solo items. Pair these deals with some McDonald's ordering hacks, and you'll be in for a good time.

The meal deals under the McValue are a good savings, and while we appreciate the defined section for less expensive items, the real reason we love this value menu has everything to do with the McValue meals offered. It's almost half off the food, and when you're looking for that buck to stretch far, it surely does that. Among others, it's one of our favorite value menus. Our only wish is that there were even more menu options to beef up the menu even further.

Pizza Hut, like Domino's, also specializes more in deals than a value menu. These deals include easy options like large or medium pizzas, melts, or even bundles of items. While it is not the most traditional of value menus, there are quite a few items with something ideal for nearly any family that is looking to order from Pizza Hut.

One of the deals is on a pizza from the chain's line of Lover's Pizzas. One of the available choices is a Spicy Hawaiian Lover's Pizza with bacon, ham, pineapple, jalapeño, and red pepper flakes over a bed of cheese and spicy marinara, all for $12.99. If you order this pizza away from the deal section of the webpage, you'll pay $20.29 for the pizza. That's an impressive amount of savings, and a whole bunch of pocketed change to put to another pizza, breadsticks, or another appetizer.

While it might not be the most traditional of all value menus, and the deals certainly rotate and don't offer a lot of consistency, it's hard not to be impressed with the savings and range of options. Even if the items rotate, the Pizza Hut value menu sits toward the top of my list, though not at the summit.

One of the more impressive value menus that we've come across hails from non other than Taco Bell. This pretty extensive list of items has choices under $3, and with some creative arranging, it's certainly a place for which you could build a delicious meal. 

On the choices, you'll find everything from vegetarian options like a cheesy bean and rice burrito or a spicy potato soft taco to more hardy options like a cheesy double beef burrito. The menu's heaviest hitter, loaded beef nachos, ring in at only $2.99 depending on location. 

Taco Bell's Cravings menu definitely makes ordering a little less expensive, and with a decent number of items, you'll have plenty to choose from. With as many impressive options are on the menu, and the decent price for each item, Taco Bell's value menu is definitely one of our favorites. Not to mention, it's available at a drive through or online order, making savings widely accessible, even for those who abstain from eating meat.

Even more impressive than the Taco Bell value menu is the Biggie Deals selection of options from Wendy's. On this list, you'll find a whole slew of options for all under $4. The least expensive items on this list ring in at $1.79: a Jr. Hamburger. For something a little heartier, you can also order a bacon double stack for just under $4 and even a crispy chicken BLT for under $3.

Not to mention, there's a whole section of the menu offering meal deals. These range from burgers to chicken and even a Jr. cheeseburger. These biggie bags max out at $7 and include a sandwich, fries, nuggets, and a fountain drink. Another thing that puts Wendy's near the top? Its limited-time breakfast value meal, which for $3 gives customers a breakfast English muffin with seasoned potatoes.

The reason this is our favorite value menu is that it makes savings easy to enjoy the classic square burger patty Wendy's is known for, while also ordering items that won't break the bank. You just don't get many value menus anymore that offer the kind of inexpensive food Wendy's has here. There's a generous number of options on both the Meal Deals and Biggie Deals to choose from here, and although there are no sides like a sign of french fries or even baked potato, adding these on as a side wouldn't be too much more.

While still being fast food, Panera Bread also has the feel of a local deli or fast-casual restaurant. It's the ideal place to meet friends for coffee and pastry or even lunch. One of the ways to catch a great deal is through Panera's Value Duet menu. This grouping of items only costs $6.99, but you are unable to make customizations to any of the options. Those looking for classics, like grilled cheese and tomato soup or Caesar salad with chicken noodle soup will love this deal.

To check on the true quality of this deal, I created a you-pick-two and added a grilled cheese and a tomato soup. The total was $10, but you also get to pick an extra side, like chips, an apple, or a baguette. Even with this additional item in mind, you're still saving a few dollars with the value duets.

Panera also offers a menu called the family feast value meals. There's a variety of offerings, but the premium family feast with cookies is a great option for hungry families. With $46, it serves between four and six people with four half sandwiches of your choice, a quart of your chosen soup, a French baguette, and four chocolate chip cookies. There's also group soup meals, pastries, and even one for macaroni and cheese lovers.

We love these different types of value menus, but we wish these value duets offered the side like the pick-two options do. Even still, the selection is reasonable, easy to access, and a good value. We're also a big fan of the savings for the larger group meals. For these reasons, it's one of our favorite value menu selections at fast food restaurants.

What's better than one value menu? Two! While Jack in the Box doesn't call either one a value menu, both are savings opportunities. On the menu, we found a deals page and another highlighting food under $4. This is the ideal combination of value menus: You have inexpensive a la carte options to choose from and deals that really help pull in that savings.

On deals, there are meals for more than one person and bundle and snack boxes. On the Jack's munchies under $4 page, find junior-sized burgers, grilled cheese, French toast, fries, nuggets, tacos, and soda. With all of these options between the two menus, Jack in the Box claims our spot for the best fast food value menu you can find. Even better? While the deals may change, the under $4 seems pretty steadfast. We love consistency in fast food value menus, and many other chains could learn from how Jack in the Box has structured savings for its customers.

The overall ranking of these value menus came from a close examination of available restaurant menus. When it came to ranking, I prized a variety of items, quantity of items, savings, and availability of savings as the primary factors.

I looked at the number of items each menu offered, whether the deals actually saved you money, and the availability of the savings. If I found that the menu was pretty extensive, offered quality value, and was easy to access that savings, the menu tended to rank very high. I definitely gave preference to having choice in our savings with menus that offered a la carte and meal deals as some of our favorite menus. As those factors fell away, the menus would drop lower and lower.