Favorite now-defunct fast food/chain restaurant item?

[Tommy_Carcetti]

What is your favorite long gone items at fast-food or chain food restaurants that you've been missing? I've got a few I'd like to pay tribute to. (Soft yet emotionally stirring music, please):

1. Bacon cheeseburger burrito, Taco Bell--Not only was it a burrito, but it was also a burger burrito. Not only a burger burrito, but a cheeseburger burrito. Not only a cheesburger burrito, but a bacon cheeseburger burrito. Ground beef, lettuce, tomato, bacon bits, and thousand island dressing. In other words, "Hell yeah!" Spent a good part of my high school youth indulging in these babies. RIP, Taco Bell Bacon Cheeseburger Burrito.

2. Superbar, Wendy's--A concept like no other. Put a buffet in a fast food place. Have a salad bar, taco station, and pasta bar (oh yes, especially the pasta bar) where you can go up and have your fill. I believe there was supposedly a limit of one serving per customer, but I never listened. Sure, now I know the garlic bread was simply half of a toasted burger bun with garlic power sprinkled on it. It doesn't matter. The memories are still all the same--of a young 8 year old who managed to pile as much pasta onto a plastic plate as was humanly possible. Wendy's Superbar, where art thou?

3. Carolina Baby Back Ribs, Chili's--This one pains me most of all, because it is so recent. Chili's has removed the Carolina flavored Baby Back Ribs from their menu in favor of some fang-dangled "new" flavors. I can only say, "How dare you." I demand baby back ribs covered not in some cheap Kraft ketchup-based barbeque sauce, but rather a delightful mixture of vinegar based tang and cayane pepper spice, with a touch of mustard and brown sugar to bring in the sweetness. These were baby-back ribs to be sung about. And now, they are gone. Chili's, why have you foresaken me?

(Cut music)

(For the purposes of this post, it is my hope it can stay on the intended topic. That fast food is ridiculously unhealthy and bad for you--I know that. That giving in to fast food and chain restaraunts is giving in to all the big corporations--I know that. That chain restaurants cheapen all the authentic mom-and-pop restaurants out there who serve food that is better than the mass-produced food of the chain places--I know that. That the owner of X restaurant chain is golfing buddies with Dick Cheney and we as good liberals shouldn't be patronizing them--I know that. That meat is murder/involuntary manslaughter/negligent homicide--I know that. But damn it, I have needs and cravings, and part of those needs and cravings involve enjoying good old fashion junk food, any where, any time. So humor me and my query, I beg of you. Please.)

[Giant Robot]

1. The McRibwich

Or The Wachamacarcus.

[MrCoffee]

7. that processed pre-formed rib meat burger was the shiz-nits!

love me some McRib

[Sweet Freedom]

2. The real apple pies from McDonalds

Not those disgusting baked ones, but the truly disgusting deep fried ones.

[TommyO]

15. Good answer, those fried pies were damned tasty

If they still had them, I probably wouldn't eat them today, my 40-something palate is very different than my teenage palate.

[LSdemocrat]

3. This may be due to the hazy memory of youth, but I recall liking McDonald's McLean hamburger

If I tasted one today, I might think it sucks but I seem to recall liking it when I was 12 or so.

[Dr. Strange]

5. I remember those--I bet it goes good with Crystal Pepsi! n/t

[Tommy_Carcetti]

6. Crystal Pepsi

Now that's a memory!

Ahh, the 1990s....

[Shakespeare]

4. Taco Bell's "taco light" (made with a fried flour tortilla shell)

It was AMAZINGLY good. I still don't know why they stopped making it. :cry:

[Aristus]

8. I liked McDonald's McD.L.T.

It was essentially a Quarter Pounder with lettuce and tomato. The L&T were kept in a separate compartment until ready to eat, to keep the cold cold, and the hot hot. It was good! :9

[KatyMan]

9. Back in the early 90s

Mcdonalds had a Michael Jordan burger: Quarter Pound BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger complete with 2 onion rings on it. I think it also had BBQ sauce. Loved it.

And Mcribs. Awesome.

[Richard Steele]

10. That bacon cheeseburger burrito was awesome.

Yes, I know how horribly unhealthy it was. But man, was it tasty!

The Wendy's suberbar, I gotta agree with you on that as well.
I suspect they got rid of it because it was TOO POPULAR, and
they were losing money with so many customers choosing it over
the higher-profit items.

Back around '92, I was working "out of town" construction, and
the crew hit that superbar every night for supper.
One-trip limit? No problem there- I used to build & roll my
burritos right at the bar, and stack them. Got a TON of food
in a single trip.

For awhile there, BK made a Big Mac ripoff called the "big King";
do they still have those? I loved them- better than the original!

[Lyric]

11. Wendy's Bacon Mushroom Melts and Hardee's Fried Chicken

I'm still mourning over Hardee's chicken. Their new burgers stink--they're grainy and taste like they're full of filler instead of meat. They don't even have roast beef sandwiches here anymore--nothing on the menu but burgers, chicken sandwiches, and breakfast stuff.

As for the Bacon Mushroom Melt at Wendy's--I think they still make those like once a year, but I never seem to "catch" them, and I haven't had one for 3 years. Argh!

[Tafiti]

12. The pre-reformation Hardee's menu.

I was a big fan of the Frisco Melt and Monster Burger back in the day. It's sort of ironic that the old Monster burger probably wouldn't be big enough to make it on their new menu.

Plus, Hardee's breakfast menu was also fantastic. Their jelly biscuits were the shiznit (soft and butter-soaked), and I recall their biscuits 'n' gravy being pretty good as well.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

14. Oh, Hardees....

I loved Hardees growing up as a kid.

They had an item called the Big Cookie, and it was like...well it really was....it reminds me of.....well, actually it was...a big cookie. I loved, loved, loved the Big Cookie.

Plus they had great seasoned curly fries. Now that I think about it, they were a lot like Arby's curly fries, but because my town didn't have an Arby's at the time, all I knew was Hardee's curly fries.

[lildreamer316]

18. Oh! I ate a TON of those big cookies!

During one part of my high school years, it was a ritual..

[Generic Brad]

13. The Big and Tasty

McDonald's made them big and they made them tasty.

[TommyO]

16. KFC Rotisserie Gold

KFC's answer to Boston Chicken's rotisserie chicken - pretty darned tasty.

Yes, I said Boston Chicken, the Rotisserie Gold was introduced in 1993, two years before the name change to Boston Market.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

17. Didn't they include cornbread with that?

I think they did.

I love the cornbread.

[China_cat]

19. What we lived off of in the later 60's

Hardee's Huskies, Scuppernong wine and Baskin Robbins mandarin fudge sherbet.