14 Discontinued McDonald's Menu Items We Don't Miss At All

There's no shortage of culinary creations born at the Golden Arches worthy of a spot in the fast food hall of fame. From McDonald's breakfast-time Egg McMuffin to the iconic Big Mac and Chicken McNuggets — a bite-sized food adults and kids alike can always agree on, McDonald's has consistently delivered comfort food at lightning speed. Then, there are the dearly departed favorites that we either want back or have made a miraculous comeback due to relentless customer demand. Snack Wraps or fried chicken McCrispy Strips, anyone?

But for every beloved menu item that's had a positive impact on our taste buds, there are others that ... well, we don't miss. At all. These are the black marks on McDonald's otherwise golden timeline — items that came and went in a flash, rarely sparking any real love or loyalty. Some quietly vanished, forgotten because they simply didn't stand out or align with the fast-paced, flavor-packed identity McDonald's is known for. Others were big-time blunders — bold experiments that missed the mark by a mile.

Today, we're digging into these curious rollouts that were left in the past for good reason — the flops, the fails, the infamous McMisfires that never earned a spot on the chain's permanent menu. Here are 14 discontinued McDonald's items that we definitely don't miss and that we're unlikely to see in the U.S. anytime soon ... or ever again.

Diet-friendly foods and low-fat options were a major fad in the '90s — even at notoriously non-nutritious fast-food joints like McDonald's. So in 1991, alongside Big Macs and Chicken McNuggets, the chain began selling something called the McLean Deluxe, a burger better known now as the "McFlopper."

By most measures, the McLean was a standard hamburger topped with lettuce, tomato, pickles, ketchup, and mustard on a bakery-style roll. The differences (and problems) all revolved around the patty itself. Advertisements touted its 91% fat-free makeup. But the fine print reveals that this was only achieved because the substance was only about 90% real meat. The rest was made up of carrageenan, a chemical extracted from red seaweed. It comes as no surprise that this Frankenstein beef was not well-received, commonly criticized for being dry, flavorless, and nothing like the signature Big Mac. It subsequently flopped right off of menus in 1996.

Slurping pasta in the car sounds like a colossal mess just waiting to happen. Perhaps that's why McSpaghetti didn't last very long at the Golden Arches. The Italian-inspired dish of long noodle pasta and marinara sauce with optional meatballs and shredded cheese was introduced in the 1970s. Sold in a box similar to what chicken nuggets come in today, but flatter, the meal may have seemed like a good idea at first, given spaghetti's vast popularity. But because of its long prep time and inability to fit into the fast food model, it was met with more annoyance than intrigue.

Most McDonald's locations said ciao to McSpaghetti in 1980. However, there are still a few places where you can get a saucy taste. One is known as Epic McD in Orlando, Florida, one of the coolest McDonald's locations in the U.S. Reviews of this location (the world's largest entertainment McDonald's and playplace) reveal that pasta is still a cuisine option there to this day. In addition, the chain's Philippines locations also serve McSpaghetti. But it looks a little different — made with linguine pasta and a Filipino-style spaghetti sauce with ground meat and hot dog sausage.

McDonald's bid adieu to all its stateside salad options in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. But it's been over 20 years since any of us have shaken things up with one of the chain's Salad Shakers. That's right. At one time, the burger joint was serving up greens in a cup rather than a bowl for optimal dressing distribution through a couple quick flicks of the wrist — an idea that was admittedly ahead of its time, not to mention, much more suitable for on-the-go eating than the previous McSpaghetti.

The innovation came in three different varieties. First was the Grilled Chicken Caesar with greens, grilled chicken, and shredded Parmesan cheese. The other option was the Chef Salad featuring leafy green mix, julienned ham and turkey, chopped egg, tomatoes, green onions, and a blend of cheddar and jack cheeses. Lastly, not to be forgotten is the Garden McSalad Shaker with leafy greens, tomatoes, green onions, a cheddar and jack cheese blend, and hard-boiled eggs.

The idea of a salad, shaken not stirred, caught customers' attention when it was released in 2000. But it quickly lost its appeal, evidenced by its discontinuation just three years later.

For those of you who can't stand the thought of pineapple on pizza, you'd better brace yourself for this McControversy. In 1962, the fast-food chain introduced the world to the Hula Burger. It was created with the Lenten season in mind, a time when many Catholics abstain from eating meat on Fridays, and therefore stood as a meatless burger option. But instead of fish as the main attraction, as we see at most fast-food restaurants today, the sandwich contained a thick cut of none other than pineapple flanked by two slices of American cheese on a bun.

But that's just half of the story. This fruity burger creation was actually released concurrently with McDonald's Filet-O-Fish to see which would fare better. The story goes that McDonald's founder and creator of the Hula Burger, Ray Kroc, was so sure of his creation that he bet his first grillman a new suit that it would prevail. But, after one full day of business, the tally stood at 6 Hula Burgers sold to 350 orders of the Filet-O-Fish. We'll let you do the math on which became a permanent menu option.

So, Kroc lost his bet (and some of his cooking credibility). But at the very least, the notorious Hula Burger played a major part in McDonald's history and prompted the rise of a fast-food legend.

Chicken McNuggets have obviously been a worldwide hit since their inception. But McDonald's earlier Onion Nuggets? Not so much. The chain has never sold traditional onion rings like the ones found at Burger King or White Castle. But it did introduce these fried bite-sized onions in the 1970s as a vegetarian option. They were bulky in size, much like today's nuggets or chicken poppers, and were advertised as "chunks of real onion deep-fried to a golden crunch."

In this format, it can be assumed that the onion-to-breading ratio was wildly skewed. There's a reason fried onions typically come in the shape of rings, strings, and thin petals instead of blocks. Not to mention the name "Onion Nuggets" simply doesn't inspire much confidence or whet your appetite. With these notes in mind, it's not surprising that McDonald's pulled them from the fryer for good in 1979, just four years before the much more enticing McNuggets arrived on the McScene. It could be said that Onion Nuggets paved the way for one of McDonald's most notable food innovations. 

Fish McBites only enjoyed a three-month stint on the McDonald's menu back in 2013. Clearly, they didn't make a splash. The bites were the first marine item to arrive at the chain since the introduction of the Filet-O-Fish a mere 50 years earlier. They took after their fishy predecessor as fried fish chunks made from wild-caught Alaskan pollock, and even came with their own jingle, the "Fishy Fishy Groove." You may recall commercials of a Fish McBite that had arms, legs, and a face, jiving along to music pouring out from a boombox.

But alas, even with this piscine mascot cheering them on, the McBites didn't reel in enough sales to earn themselves a full-time spot on the chain's roster. There is a small group of people (less than 1,000 to be exact) who resent this decision and have even drafted and signed a petition to bring back the tartar sauce-accompanied morsels. But for most of us, the Filet-O-Fish is more than enough to keep our fast food seafood cravings at bay.

When most of us hear the word "sophisticated," our minds don't wander to a dining experience at McDonald's. This is presumably why the chain's attempt at a more premium burger in 1996 didn't go as planned. The Arch Deluxe Burger was the brainchild of fine dining chef Andrew Selvaggio and was specifically formulated to appeal to a more grown-up palate. To do so, it featured a quarter-pound beef patty, peppered bacon, lettuce, tomato, American cheese, onions, ketchup, and a Dijonnaise sauce (a blend of mayonnaise and Dijon mustard), all on a gourmet split-top potato bun.

It does sound rather tasty, we have to admit. But customers wouldn't bite. As it turns out, McDonald's core target market would prefer a more humble Big Mac or classic cheeseburger over something more complex, posh, and expensive. That realization led to the Arch Deluxe Burger's discontinuation in 2000, a sad ending after a long journey of recipe development, market research, and more wasted marketing dollars than the fast food giant would care to admit.

We know what you're thinking, and no, this creation wasn't just some sort of B.L.T. remake (although lettuce and tomato were involved, and that is in fact what the "L" and "T" stand for). The McD.L.T. was actually a Golden Arches item released in 1985 to compete with Burger King's Whopper. Ingredient-wise, it was nothing out of the ordinary. It stood as a quarter-pound beef patty with lettuce, tomato, cheese, and condiments. But the kicker was that it came disassembled. In a split to-go box, the bottom bun and burger sat on one side while the top bun, lettuce, tomato, and cheese sat on the other. This was done in order to "keep the hot side hot, and the cool side cool," as Mickey D's advertisements stated.

This was a good idea in theory. No one likes a warm, soggy tomato slice or leaf of lettuce. However, some would argue that the cheese was banished to the wrong side, where it would never become perfectly melty. In the end, though, it wasn't this minor oversight that led to the McD.L.T.'s demise. It was the styrofoam packaging that was ultimately deemed inconvenient, wasteful, and bad for the environment.

Such an iconic creation like the Big Mac is bound to elicit a few succeeding spinoffs. Most, like the Double Big Mac or Grand Mac, add to the recipe with bigger or larger patties. But the Son of Mac (also referred to as the Baby Mac, Mini Mac, or Mac Jr.) stripped ingredients away instead, which is perhaps the reason it never took off. The sandwich took out one of the standard Big Mac's beef patties and its most identifiable attribute, the supplementary middle bun. This left just one patty, a slice of American cheese, pickles, lettuce, onions, and the chain's signature Big Mac sauce.

It could be argued that this stacker didn't belong in the Big Mac family at all as more of an average, everyday cheeseburger, just with Big Mac sauce slathered on. With both a lack of originality and resemblance to McDonald's big-shot burger, the Son of Mac only stuck around from around 2016 to 2018 in the U.S., New Zealand, and Australian markets.

You'd think the fast-food giant would steer clear of Italian cuisine following its McSpaghetti mishap. But by the late-80s, McDonald's was back at it again with the launch of McPizza. This new venture was meant to help the chain compete with major players in the pizza industry like Pizza Hut and Domino's, while also making a bigger name for itself in the dinner space — a considerable and risky feat no matter how you slice it.

At one point, the McPizza manifested as a family-sized pie that was served on a pizza rack at diners' tables. Smaller personal pizzas were also tested, as well as multiple flavors, including cheese, pepperoni, and a deluxe with pepperoni and veggies. The pies stuck around for several years and made their way to many locations, but were eventually tossed off the menu in the early 90s due to a lack of popularity.

Just like the McSpaghetti, you can still find slices of McPizza at Epic McD in Orlando despite its discontinuation elsewhere. Additionally, international McDonald's locations, like those in Italy and Germany, house much-loved pizza pockets. We guess we'll just have to wait to see if they ever roll their way over to the U.S.

We love a good pop culture collaboration, but this Mickey D's Super Hero Burger was anything but super (aside from being super-sized). It held the title of McDonald's largest handheld for the single month it was available in 1995. It came with not one, not two, but three beef patties piled on in addition to two different slices of cheese and classic garnishes including lettuce, tomato, onion, and mayonnaise. Swapping a standard circular bun for a hoagie-style roll (like the one used for the McRib) further solidified the burger's unique status.

The colossal super sandwich was released in conjunction with the premiere of the movie "Batman Forever" —customers could find Batman imagery on their accompanying fry holders and cups. But it was also a "Taste of the Month" installment. Every month in 1995, McDonald's featured a new menu item or meal. The Super Hero Meal stole the limelight for one month, but by the next, it disappeared swiftly into the night and hasn't made a comeback since, of epic or even normal proportions. It seems that customers have yet to trip the Bat Signal.

Okay, so you've heard of a stud muffin, but what about McDonald's McStuffin? This '90s product was essentially a fast-food hot pocket and, needless to say, a major failure. The interesting innovation, much different from McDonald's existing lineup of burgers and fries, started with essentially a loaf of baked French bread that was carved out to make room for four kinds of fillings. These included chicken teriyaki, barbecued chicken, pepperoni pizza, and cheesesteak. Each one sold for around $2.

Mouthwatering close-up images of the McStuffin and promises that the new creation was the "best thing since sliced bread" in McDonald's commercials really raised customer expectations. Expectations that evidently weren't met, given the fact that the specialty item both came and went within the same year of 1993.

McDonald's has never been a stranger to beef. Pure beef hamburgers have been on its menu since the very beginning, and the variations have only burgeoned ever since. But in 1979, the chain experimented with a different kind of beefy handheld — one that didn't fare nearly as well.

The Chopped Beefsteak Sandwich was a limited-time item only ever introduced to a few test markets. It was made from select cuts of 100% pure grilled beef, topped with real onion slivers and an in-house chef's blend of tangy steak sauce. As a dinner promotion, it was only available after 4 p.m. and was even served with cutlery and often advertised with a side of crisp Onion Nuggets —we already know how those pungent chunks worked out, and unfortunately, the sandwich suffered a similar fate. Chopped Beefsteak never roamed nationwide because it cost more than double the price of regular burgers.

It's clear by now that McDonald's has historically been willing to try its hand at nearly any kind of grub, from Italian entrees to fruity burgers. But the category of hot dogs was one that the chain steered clear of for quite a while. It turns out that McDonald's founder Ray Kroc was adamantly against the idea because of hot dogs' reputation for containing questionable, low-quality meat. So the American favorite was boycotted for years ... that is, until Kroc's death in 1984. Just one year after his passing, in 1985, the United States was introduced to the McHotDog. And it turns out, the chain should have continued to follow Kroc's advice.

The McHotDog — essentially just a regular ole hot dog in an average bun — failed to become a hot menu item and tucked its tail and disappeared almost as quickly as it arrived. It has made a few seasonal, limited-time returns, but by most accounts, McDonald's was barking up the wrong tree with its frankfurter venture.