12 Discontinued Fast Food Items That Actually Made A Comeback

There's nothing like a discontinued favorite fast food item to bring on the cravings, but sometimes they end up making a surprise comeback and making your whole year. The good news is that many discontinued items that have been gone for decades are finally making menu reappearances as more chains realize it's a good way to get customers in the door. However, the bad news is that they're not always back to stay.

The majority of the items on our list first appeared on menus in the last century, in either the 1970s, 1980s, or 1990s. So, for many customers, these discontinued fast food items represent tastes of childhood and happy memories with family and friends. Three on our list were gone for nearly 20 years before their return. Meanwhile, another item that had been around since the 1980s caused such a fan uproar when the chain announced it was going to be discontinued that it returned before its official discontinuation date.   

Interestingly, only a few comeback items landed back on the permanent menu after their return, with limited returns being a trendy marketing play for fast food chains these days. However, when comeback items do really well, they tend to stay longer or make multiple comebacks. When you take a look at our list of discontinued fast food items that made a comeback, you'll likely see a few favorites — as well as a few you might want to try for the first time and see what all the fuss is about.

The oldest discontinued fast food item on our list that has made a more recent comeback is Taco Bell's Enchirito. While Enchiritos weren't on Taco Bell's menu on opening day in 1962, it was a menu staple in the 1970s. If its name didn't clue you in, the Enchirito was a mash-up of an enchilada and a burrito, featuring a ground beef, onion, and bean burrito covered in red sauce and melty shredded cheese.

It was a standard menu item all the way until 2013, giving it a run that spanned five different decades. As you can imagine, the nostalgia factor was strong with this one. In 2022, Taco Bell polled its customers to find out whether they'd rather see the discontinued Double Decker Taco or the Enchirito return, and the majority winner was the Enchirito.

So, when it returned in November of 2022, customers were thrilled. However, that excitement was tempered by the fact that it was only back for a brief two weeks. Since then, the chain has brought back several discontinued menu items for short times — including the Enchirito again in May 2023 — only to put them right back in the vault. Of course, it works to get people back to The Bell if they haven't been in a while. But it also feels like a big tease each time, too.

Fond memories of Hardee's Cinnamon N' Raisin Biscuits go all the way back to the 1980s, when the chain first introduced them. In a world where many of us had never heard of scones, they were often the first scone-like confection we'd experienced, with the raisins and icing lending a little sweetness to the otherwise savory biscuits. Sadly, for those who'd loved them, they'd been gone for decades before their eventual return. So, the nostalgia factor was a strong component for purchases once they made a comeback.

It was way back in 2002 when customers enjoyed their last Cinnamon N' Raisin Biscuits before they were discontinued. So, it's the item on our list that was discontinued the longest before its official comeback over 20 years later. Fans with a Hardee's nearby could finally get them again for two months between November 2024 and January 2025 as part of the chain's holiday menu. Plus, instead of just being available for breakfast, you could order them all day for snacking, and they also came with candied bacon this time around. Unfortunately, after those two months, they went back into the vault. Hopefully, it will be fewer than two decades before they end up back on the menu again.

Taco Bell first introduced its Mexican Pizza in 1985 with the name Pizzazz Pizza, renaming it plain old Mexican Pizza by 1988. Fans were so outraged when it disappeared from the menu decades later that the chain realized it needed to bring pizza back to stay.

The Mexican Pizza had a few changes over the years, losing its olives in the early 1990s and its green onions around 2006. However, those changes weren't as world-crushing as when they disappeared from the menu altogether in 2020. With a 35-year run, you can imagine the loss of this long-beloved menu item sent fans into a tizzy, writing petitions and doing everything to get it back.

After being missed for two years, Mexican pizza returned to Taco Bell's menu with much fanfare in May of 2022, but with fans swearing it tasted different. Plus, the chain wasn't ready for just how many people were going to want one, and it sold out. It wasn't until fall of 2022 that Taco Bell felt confident enough in its supply levels to put the pizza back on the menu permanently.

Chick-fil-A's Side Salad is the only discontinuation on our list that created such an uproar that it was returned before it ever had a chance to leave, with a promise that it was on the menu to stay. If, like the Powers That Be at Chick-fil-A, you thought a little side salad wouldn't be that important, you'd be wrong. While the other side items are nice, customers like their fresh choices. Plus, the little packet of dried tomatoes and bell peppers that comes with it gives it a crunch that makes it that much more crave-worthy.

Chick-fil-A has had its Side Salad on the menu since 1989, meaning that it had been on the menu only four years less than the chain's popular Waffle Fries. Thus, it had been a quiet staple for many longtime customers for over 30 years. It was around March 24, 2023, when Chick-fil-A announced that it was planning to remove the salad from the menu for the sake of simplification. Customers were not happy with the idea and let their feelings be known loud and clear, taking to social media to express their displeasure with the decision.

The doomsday projection for the Chick-fil-A Side Salad had been set to April 3, 2023. However, a mere week after its discontinuation announcement, Chick-fil-A announced that the salad would not leave the menu after all because of the feedback it had received from its customers. Too bad restaurants don't always respond this quickly to discontinuation outcries.

Another blast from Taco Bell's past that made a brief comeback was the Volcano menu. Back in 1995, when the movie "Congo" came out featuring gorillas and an active volcano, Taco Bell created a fiery Volcano Burrito in conjunction with the movie. A spicy nacho cheese sauce called Lava Sauce made this burrito hotter than anything else the chain had yet offered, and the crushed nachos inside gave it texture and extra flavor. It was loved well enough that the chain decided to make a red-shelled Volcano Taco with Lava Sauce for a limited time in 2008.

The Taco Bell Volcano went dormant in 2012, with the discontinuation of these two menu items. It was over a decade before they finally rumbled into action again, with both the burrito and taco showing back up on menus again in June of 2023. With the Lava Sauce available, many customers realized they could customize other orders to be Volcano-themed, especially using the kiosk or online ordering options. Unfortunately for those who were starting to add items from the Volcano menu to their regular order rotation (like us), the Taco Bell Volcano menu return was a short-lived one, and we long to see the day it returns.

Another discontinued fast food item with a long history is KFC's Potato Wedges, which first appeared on the menu alongside other sides in the mid-1990s. Potatoes come in lots of forms, but there's just something special about potato wedges. They provide the softness of a baked potato fried into a crisp and convenient bite-sized wedge that's easy to dip into your favorite KFC sauce.

Despite its long history, KFC decided to remove potato wedges from its menu in 2020. As you can imagine, people who had been ordering them with their fried chicken for decades were distraught and many signed online petitions to bring them back.

It took five years, but KFC potato wedges finally made a comeback. The first comeback in March 2025 was in Tampa, Florida, for a couple of weeks. After that rollout went well, the wedges made a comeback nationwide in August of 2025. Unfortunately, just like in Florida, the chain only brought them back for a limited run, with only limited amounts available. While it wasn't the long-term comeback fans were hoping for, perhaps they were popular enough to convince the chain to bring them back for good later.

As of August 2025, Cini Minis have officially made their most recent comeback. These mini cinnamon rolls are an easy, on-the-go version, with four mini rolls coming with a side of icing dipping sauce.

Cine Minis first rolled onto the Burger King menu in 1998. While their 14-year run made them feel like a permanent menu item, they were discontinued in 2012. Fans of the buns once enjoyed them during their morning commutes or as a special treat, and having been around for so long, they held a lot of nostalgia for those with memories of enjoying them with family members or as a kid. It's one of many discontinued fast food items with a cult following and fans petitioning for a comeback.

After being gone for six years, the chain finally brought them back in 2018, but they were only an exclusive for Grubhub orders before mobile ordering had become as popular as it is today. However, for most people, it's been 13 years since they had their beloved Cini Minis. While they're the star of Burger King's website for their return, the small print indicates that the 2025 return is for a limited time only. So, it seems like they may turn into a marketing pawn, coming and going off the menu when the company wants to get people back in the restaurant. Luckily, they're available all day long this time around. 

Another beloved item that first appeared in 1998 was McDonald's Szechuan dipping sauce for its Chicken McNuggets. And, while this spicy sauce did make a small comeback after a long disappearance, the comeback was painfully brief.

The Szechuan sauce was never meant to be a permanent menu item. McDonald's first introduced this Chinese-inspired spicy dipping sauce to coincide with its rollout of "Mulan"-themed Happy Meal toys when the movie came out that year. So, for a long time, everyone's memories of this beloved sauce were ones from a brief period in 1998.

The brief comeback happened after a 2017 "Rick and Morty" episode had Rick time-traveling back to 1998, going to McDonald's, and stocking up on Szechuan sauce when he made his McNugget order. With "Rick and Morty" fans not having access to their own time machines to bring sauce back from the future, they implored McDonald's to bring it back for them. So, for a hot minute in February of 2018, 20 years after it had disappeared, you could order Szechuan sauce with your McNuggets again. The catch was that McDonald's only made 20 million packets, and when they were gone, they were gone. Luckily, they made another comeback in 2022. So, we're crossing our fingers that this is one of McDonald's discontinued sauces that might finally be back on a return rotation.

It was 1999 when Pizza Hut started regaling everyone watching television with its ads for The Big New Yorker Pizza. If you'd never been to New York before, it might have been your first chance to try New York-style pizza. And those who missed that style held out a little hope that they'd be close to the pizza of their memory. The pizza and the pieces were huge, with slices that you practically had to fold to keep everything intact unless you attacked it with a fork. Plus, it had double the normal amount of pepperoni, including the type that curls and cups as it cooks.

The Big New Yorker was only on the menu for a few years before it slipped quietly in the night, only remaining as a memory. But it was somewhere around 20 years and many social media demands and petitions later before Pizza Hut finally brought it back in February of 2023. It didn't quite taste like a real pizza from the streets of New York because of its sweet sauce and use of Parmesan oregano seasoning. But, it does represent a good deal, and so far, it seems to be on the menu to stay.

Pizza Hut created its version of the calzone, the P'zone, in 2002. Its unfortunate spelling required watching a commercial to pronounce correctly ("piz-zone"). The P'zone, was essentially a Parmesan-dusted pizza crust folded in half around cheese and toppings, with its sides crimped. Rather than the sauce being inside, it came with marinara sauce for dipping, and there were three different available flavors, including pepperoni and supreme, as well as a version with five different meats.

The P'zone came and went in the early part of the 2000s. One comeback was in 2007, but it seemed to be gone forever after being discontinued in 2011. However, now it seems to be coming and going off the menu again, with one comeback in 2019 just in time for NCAA March Madness games. So, never fear. If you don't see it on the menu, keep looking until it reappears again because, at this point, it seems inevitable.

McDonald's Snack Wraps were much beloved and lamented when they left the menu, especially once salads were gone, too. It generally represented a lower-calorie, fat, and sodium choice than McNuggets, the McCrispy, or other chicken sandwiches.

The Snack Wrap had a 10-year run from 2006 to 2016 nationwide, with some locations keeping them on the menu for a few years longer until 2019. The announcement about the return of the Snack Wrap happened in late 2024, months before it finally returned. However, fans started getting hopeful as soon as McCrispy Strips showed up on the menu in May of 2025 that the return of the Snack Wrap might be right around the corner. Once they returned in July of 2025, you could get them in either a Spicy or Ranch flavor. After giving it a try, we declared that the new Snack Wraps were even better than they'd previously been. Hopefully, they're here to stay, but it likely depends on how well they do this time around.

A recently released fast food item that fans were thrilled to see make a comeback was Wendy's Spicy Nuggets. For those of us who only got the Spicy Chicken Sandwich for the chicken, we suddenly didn't have to worry about bread getting between us and our Spicy Chicken anymore. So, after the nuggets blipped in and out of existence for a while, fans have continued to be thrilled that they've made a comeback.

Anyone who's a fan of spice pretty much always gets Wendy's Spicy Chicken Sandwich instead of the Classic. Just like with the spicy version of the sandwich, once you'd tasted the spicy version of the nuggets, the original version just wasn't the same anymore. Everyone's Spicy Chicken Nugget dream first became a reality when Wendy's introduced them in 2010. However, the tasty nuggets disappeared in 2017.

Chance the Rapper got the ball rolling for the nuggets' return two years later in 2019 after Tweeting a positive affirmation about his hope of Wendy's bringing back spicy nuggets. Wendy's replied by saying it would bring them back if its own post got 2 million likes. Two days later, Wendy's Tweeted that the nuggets would be coming back, resulting in an increase in store sales upon their return. They seem to have become a permanent menu item since then, even sticking around while the company tries out a saucy version.