10 Fast Food Sandwiches You Could Get In the 80s and 90s but Not Now

Your go-to order might be a Big Mac and fries, but for every menu staple, there are others that find fleeting fast-food fame. 

These items debut with a big marketing push, and then they’re gone in a flash when it turns out the public’s tastes didn’t necessarily align with the market research that inspired the latest dish.

If you’re old enough to worry about saving for your retirement fund, you’ll definitely recognize these fast-food misses. Here are some of the sandwiches you could get in the 1980s and 1990s but now have been lost to the fast food archives.

The McDLT is a strange concept to grasp now — which might be why it didn’t last. It was essentially a classic burger with lettuce and tomato, except the burger side came hot, and the topping side came cold. 

When you got the sandwich in hand, you could combine the two for a crisp take on a burger. Unfortunately, it didn’t catch on, and it was retired in 1998 after 14 years on the menu.

Wraps had a moment, and nearly everyone got on board, including fast food joints. Wendy’s launched the Chicken Caesar Pita in the late 1990s, and it was a hit thanks to its warm bread and low-fat dressing (it was the 90s, after all!). The sandwich survived for only three years, but you can still find dupe recipes online from fervent fans.

Chicken Littles were KFC’s answer to the slider. These petite pieces of beer-battered fried chicken were served on a small bun, and you could buy 3 of them for just over a dollar. After their original 1980s debut, they were relaunched in 2012, this time for good.

Have you ever wished a fast food restaurant served calzones? Pizza Hut did! In 1982, they started selling the P’Zone, which was a huge calzone stuffed with all your favorite Pizza Hut toppings. It had a good run, but it was retired by the 2000s.

Let’s not get into a debate over whether a hot dog is a sandwich. McDonald’s briefly tried to introduce a classic hot dog in 1995, but the effort was short-lived. The original founder had vowed never to sell a hot dog, so perhaps his legacy was too strong.

For those who like their burger with multiple beef patties, bacon, Swiss cheese, and an onion ring, the Frisco Thickburger was a dream. This Hardee’s burger debuted in 1992, promising to deliver the best of San Francisco to the American public, thanks to its sourdough bun. It was a fast food fan favorite, but by the late 2000s, it had been retired.

Does it actually count as a retired fast food sandwich if it comes back for occasional cameos? That’s the existential question of the McRib Burger, which first debuted in the 1980s and has popped up here and there over the past four decades. 

This boneless take on pork ribs served on a bun with onions, pickles, and barbecue sauce, is a flavor combination that the public just can’t quit.

Burger King’s first venture into the breakfast game was a breakfast burger in the 1980s. They combined breakfast staples, including a sausage patty, egg, and cheese, with the classic sesame burger bun. This burger didn’t last, but breakfast at Burger King is still a staple.

You love Taco Bell for its chalupas and crunch wrap supreme, but did you know they once had a burger? And did you know it survived on the menu for nearly two decades? From the 70s to the 90s, there was a Mexican take on a sloppy joe at Taco Bell. It had seasoned ground beef, onion, lettuce, and their signature Border sauce.

One of the biggest fast food marketing pushes of the 1990s was the Arch Deluxe, a quarter-pounder that was essentially a riff on the Big Mac. It had a mustard-mayo sauce, cheese, bacon, tomato, lettuce, and onion — on a sesame bun. Truly, it could have been the fraternal twin of the Big Mac, but with a higher price tag. It didn’t last long.

While we think of the classics — like the Whopper or the Big Mac — the fast-food world is a constant churn of hits and misses. Fast food chains are always looking for new items to push out to the public to generate buzz and convince consumers to go out to eat more.

Some will fade away slowly. Some will become permanent fixtures. And some will make intermittent comebacks to keep the mystique going for years (McRib, anyone?).