The Most Disappointing New Fast Food Items Of 2026 (So Far)

Let’s be realistic. When talking about fast food, you shouldn’t get your hopes up too much. It can certainly be good but more often than not creativity in the fast food industry is going to fall flat. It’s an expansive foodscape that has to try to appease as many people as possible. That means that there’s a good chance it’s not going to blow you away.

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That’s fine. We get it. It’s just that we didn’t know some of these items could be such stinkers. Man, were we surprised. And to a degree, impressed. It’s shocking how some items can make their way out of the test kitchen and into our hands through a drive thru window. Yet here we are. Gathered to take stock of the most disappointing new fast food items of 2026. Strap in for the ride ahead.

Burger King Maple Bourbon BBQ Whopper

I really have to hand it to Burger King. I never thought I would read the description “is too sweet” for a burger. Yet here we are. Sporked’s Justine Sterling noted that the sauce on this maple bourbon BBQ Whopper better belonged on ice cream than a cheeseburger. So sweet in fact that you can’t taste the crispy onions, jalapeños, and bacon that were also found on the burger.

McDonald’s Caramel Apple Iced Coffee

It’s not often that you find something that’s so disgusting that you can only manage one single sip. McDonald’s did the impressively impossible with their caramel apple iced coffee back in August. The artificial flavor of the apple combined with watered down iced coffee and a lacking amount of creamer made a drink that we just couldn’t finish no matter how hard we wanted to.

Culvers Fried Pickles Pub Burger

It really pains me to include Culvers in the list of most disappointing fast food items of the year. I can’t cover for them and their mistake with the fried pickles pub burger though. The good news is the main problems with this version of their burger don’t actually stem from the burger itself. The fried pickles that they added into the mix disappeared under the incredible flavor of the Butterburger. This is why we stick with the classics.

Sonic Banana Pudding Cream Slush

Sonic really saw that someone declared bananas to be the next food trend and fully committed to creating a whole new set of menu items around the subject. And boy, do we regret their decision to do so. Sonic’s banana pudding cream slush was as bad as it sounds. They somehow managed to make it taste sour and I really don’t want to think how they got to that result.

Wendy’s Minions Banana Frosty

Bananas should get a little credit. They were at the center of not one, but two, of the worst fast food items of the year so far. That’s truly impressive. I owe whoever started this “trend” a sock in the teeth for what they’ve brought our way. The second banana fast food flop of the year was Wendy’s minions banana frosty. It was just a gloopy mess that was so sweet, we feared for our lives at the first sip. Not even a minion could love this vile creation.