The Fast Food Chain That's Had A Tumultuous History With Its Breakfast Menu
There was once a time when people couldn't even imagine stopping at a fast food place for breakfast. But our collective morning habits have now shifted toward speedy breakfasts on the go — and the quick-service restaurants are more than happy to indulge us. For one popular chain, though, transitioning to serving breakfast has been anything but smooth. Wendy's has tried and failed to do so many times in the past four decades, creating a long, complicated history with its (perhaps unlucky) breakfast menu.
The chain first launched breakfast on July 1, 1985. What was expected to be a massive success ended up being an epic fail, and despite millions of invested dollars, Wendy's pulled breakfast from most of its locations within nine months of the launch. The reason for the setback was apparently the omelettes — they were all made-to-order and slowed down the service so much the customers were left waiting for too long. It turns out that high-quality meals and fast food service aren't always an intuitive match. To Wendy's credit, the chain chose to remove the breakfast menu rather than lowering the quality of its product for efficiency's sake. The whole ordeal was a big learning experience for the company, which vowed to do things better the next time around — but unfortunately, it didn't.
Mistakes were made and lessons were not learned
After the first failed breakfast launch, Wendy's refused to dip its toes back into the morning day-part for two whole decades. So when the long-awaited return of the breakfast menu finally happened in 2007, expectations were understandably high. The rollout was fairly small, though, as only 500 (out of more than 6,000) locations initially introduced the new menu. By the end of 2009, breakfast was pulled back once again. This time around, the fault was (ironically enough) in low product quality — the menu items didn't live up to the customers' expectations. Wendy's went back into the proverbial think tank, promising to return with better options.
Come 2011, the chain gave breakfast another optimistic go. Once again, the attempt was to differentiate itself from the competitors by promoting high-quality ingredients, such as freshly cracked eggs and bacon cooked on-site. The menu had very affordable prices, and it all looked to be going well ... until it wasn't. The third time was still not the charm. In 2013, Wendy's unceremoniously bowed out from the breakfast market yet again. The diplomatically worded reasons for the failure were an inconsistent performance of the menu and the desire to refocus on other offerings. After this failure, Wendy's licked its breakfast-inflicted wounds for seven years.
The surprisingly fortunate 2020 relaunch
When Wendy's finally returned with a breakfast menu in early 2020, a worldwide pandemic was likely not on its bingo card. The menu was rolled out on March 2, and by the end of the month, the world was firmly in lockdown. But surprisingly, this turn of events actually worked in Wendy's favor.
The key element of breakfast 4.0 was the drive-thru — it was the first place to serve the morning menu, nearly three hours before the main doors opened later in the day. As COVID-19 forced restaurants to prioritize convenience, many of them struggled. But Wendy's already had a good rhythm going, so while the other chains were barely scrambling about, Wendy's was casually scrambling the morning eggs.
The massive, overnight change in people's daily routines also made them more susceptible to trying something new. This had previously been a sore point for Wendy's — the chain could never quite entice people to diverge from their ironclad breakfast habits. Then, the pandemic swiftly accomplished in a matter of months what the restaurant had been attempting for years.
At the time of writing this, in June 2025, Wendy's breakfast menu is still going strong. It has the classic morning sandwiches with different types of buns, the breakfast version of the iconic Baconator, breakfast burritos, and even french toast. It's fair to give credit where credit is due — Wendy's best breakfast sandwich gets everything right.