Fast Food Items You Should Avoid Ordering, According To Employees

Let's get honest here: The people who know the most about every item on a fast food restaurant's menu aren't the people from the corporate offices who develop those items, or decide what's on offer. The people who know the most are the employees, who work on the front lines every day and know that even the ideas that seem the best aren't necessarily great in practice.

There can be all kinds of reasons for that. Maybe something isn't as popular as corporate expected, and tends to sit around all day. Maybe restaurants are required to install machines that are impossible to clean or break all the time, or there's logistical issues with getting food out in the required time frame. Maybe some locations take shortcuts that make an otherwise perfectly fine idea into something less appetizing.

We're going to talk about all of those things. (But first, a disclaimer: Before anyone says that these employees' experiences don't apply to their own experiences, remember that even in franchises, practices and policies can vary greatly.) We wanted to know what fast food employees say they'd never order from their own restaurants, so we headed to Reddit to get opinions in a forum that employees could feel confident in speaking out about their workplaces in an anonymous way that was going to let them share some behind-the-scenes information, while still knowing they could keep their jobs. They didn't disappoint, and they didn't hold back, either.

Many of us do might order a fast food soda without thinking twice, but plenty of employees on Reddit sayyou might want to rethink this. While some places seem to be diligent when it comes to cleaning soda machines, guns, and lines, others? Not so much. 

Some employees were quick to share stories of either teaching clueless staff to clean machines or being that clueless staff member, and some of the descriptions are ... well, not great. One Reddit user shared, "As a bartender, I can confirm. I clean the gun on my shifts because I've seen soda gun snakes. That's a term I made up. Imagine a tube shaped like kombucha mother. This is all a guess, but I think it's the sugar, yeast, moisture, and neglect. It was horrific."

That mention of yeast isn't restricted to bars, either: One Reddit user was quick to note that pizza places often have active yeast in the air, which can make matters worse. Others say the same of any machine that's dispensing those delicious Slurpees, Icees, or any other kind of slushie, with some calling out Sonic in particular. In that case, they're quick to note that part of the problem is that the machines are very, very hard to clean, and that seems like a massive oversight.

When we here at Tasting Table ranked Subway's sub offering from worst to best, it was the cold cut-style subs like the All-American Club that took the top spots. The chicken subs came in at the middle and bottom of the pack, and that's in line with what one Reddit user had to say about skipping these particular subs.

They noted that while their New Zealand-based Subway went above and beyond when it came to food safety, hygiene, and cleanliness, they still found the chicken suspect. Why? They explained: "The only thing I wouldn't recommend? The plain chicken strips ... The moment you open the bag, it hits you with a smell like a fart that's been vacuum-sealed for freshness."

Well then, that's something we'll never forget, and if we have to know it, then you do, too! It's not an isolated incident: Other commenters shared that when they started working at Subway, the smell was one of the first things their managers told them about, before assuring them it was perfectly normal. 

No matter the temptation, you might want to skip restaurants' offerings and make your own favorite homemade soup recipe. According to employees, there's a few reasons. First, some Reddit users don't trust the fact that soups tend to sit around in warming stations all day, while others note that as long as it's kept at the proper temperature, it's fine. 

Unfortunately, others have a different, temperature-related issue, with one Redditor saying, "I'd avoid most soups, they're typically prepped in large batches then cooled rapidly, but the batches are too large to cool effectively and sit at temps ripe for bacteria." Well then, that's a very valid concern that we hadn't thought of, so thanks for that, dear Reddit user.

Still others say that the soup is the place where some product goes to die. Think of leftovers, food that's too badly cooked to be served on its own ... and in the soup it goes. Finally, others have issues with soups that come frozen, and are reheated in a bag. Would you like plastic in your soup? Because that's how you get plastic in your soup (they warn).

While we here at Tasting Table are of the belief that there's one milkshake you should never order at Steak 'n Shake (which is the cotton candy shake), what do employees have to say about them? In an elderly AMA on Reddit, one of the chain's milkshake makers noted that its shakes are so good because they're hand-dipped and made with strict guidelines in place. All good things come to those who wait, sure, but we all know that customers at a fast food place don't like to wait.

Here's where the caveat comes in. In another, more recent thread, a Reddit user explained that literally no one wanted to be on milkshake duty. Why? Scooping the base for those milkshakes is back-breaking work, and they explained, "It was almost impossible to scoop out, and you have 2-3 minutes to get the shake made. Attention to cleanliness isn't prioritized when you have backed up shake orders and an establishment that's short staffed." Puts things in perspective, doesn't it? 

Is McDonald's McRib one of the most overhyped fast food items ever? Yes. We haven't pulled any punches in our history of talking about this unnecessary monstrosity of a "sandwich," and we're not the only ones. Plenty of McDonald's employees who take issue with this thing, too, with one Reddit user describing it as having "Weird-looking pork patties sitting in old BBQ sauce for HOURS without being cleaned or changed."

Trust us when we say there are entire Reddit threads dedicated to employee hate for this thing, and we're going to paraphrase because a lot of it is expletive-filled and NSFW. Employees condemn the smell of the sauce with some saying that it's turned them off BBQ for life, with others saying the sauce is so relentlessly gross it doesn't come off trays without being run through the dishwasher several times. Others add that when the McRib is on the menu, the sauce gets everywhere like some weird ectoplasm, while others say that they feel bad having to serve this nightmare fuel every time someone orders it.

There are a number of fast food chains that don't use 100% chicken in their sandwiches and tenders, but don't worry, it gets worse. Check out Burger King's chicken sandwiches, and you'll find a weird number of social media posts from people who have gotten raw sandwiches. It happens enough that it's raised questions about what's happening, so what do employees have to say?

Some suggest it's entirely possible that it's a fryer temperature issue, or add that it might be down to employee carelessness. Others note that because different BK chicken products are different thicknesses they have different cooking times, and mistakes could be made. Another Reddit user offered a second-hand opinion that came to them via an acquaintance who worked at BK: "[They] said when they are busy they pretty much never temp them to make sure they are fully cooked, and after having raw ones returned, they didn't bother to fully sanitize the work stations."

For those who look forward to a McDonald's Filet-O-Fish, you might want to start rethinking that. Don't take our word for it, though. Take some advice of a number of McDonald's employees who are all saying the same thing about these sandwiches, summed up by one Reddit user who explained that they recommended skipping this particular sandwich, "Not because of bad product or anything, but because no one orders it so it usually sits in the heating cabinet far past its fresh window."

We found that being said a lot, and if you think you're being clever asking for a fresh one to be made, you're not: Another Reddit user said that fish patties would simply be put back into the fryer for a few seconds for a lil' freshen-up before being served, so there's a thing you can think about now. Finally, there's one more thing to consider. Although McDonald's officially denies that the fish sandwich has been a victim of the so-called shrinkflation, even employees who say that yes, there's something fishy going on here. (See what we did there? Sorry-not-sorry.)

If you've been keeping an eye on restaurant news, there's a good chance you've heard that Subway was involved in a massive legal battle over the quality of its tuna. The good news is that yes, Subway does use completely real, legitimate tuna in its tuna fish, but some employees still recommend staying away from it. It's not the tuna that's the problem, it's the mayo. One Reddit user explained anything with mayo was suspect, saying that it's not uncommon to see jugs improperly stored. 

You could argue that improper storage can be a problem anywhere with anything. Don't worry, there's another reason that employees hate on Subway's tuna, and that's the oft-repeated opinion there's just way too much mayo. One Reddit user said their store halved the amount of mayo to make it palatable, while another Redditor noted, "When I worked at Subway, it was 1 to 1 ratio of mayo to tuna by volume. That's a lot of mayo."

Others say the tuna varied greatly depending on who was making it that day, and nothing was really standardized. Even those who love mayo, you have to admit there's a point where it's just too much.

Here's where our footnote from earlier comes in: This can depend a lot on your local Wendy's. It's no secret that Wendy's chili is a) delicious, and b) made from unsold and repurposed hamburger meat. Food waste is a massive problem, and we agree with those Reddit users who say that this is actually a really smart, efficient way to minimize waste, and more places need to take a page out of Wendy's playbook.

Done by code, it's great. However, some Reddit users and Wendy's employees confirm they've seen some questionable things. One Reddit user stated, "The part that grosses me out is if we have a piece of meat that's been sitting out too long, it is also chili meat." That's ... not ideal. Others say that while there's officially a time limit that meat can sit out before it's prepped for chili, it's not unheard of for those guidelines to be bent and outright broken. One Redditor claimed, "I know my store, sometimes it would be sitting in the drawer all day and get super hard and discoloured." 

We're always proponents of learning new things, but admittedly, some things that can give you the absolute "ick" in retrospect. Hindsight is 20/20, the saying goes, and if you love ordering supreme pizzas, we're going to apologize in advance. This one involves supreme pizzas in particular, and we will add that it's likely a practice that depends on the franchise. However, we did find a few employees that noted they were required to make supreme pizzas in a way that made them uncomfortable.

This first one comes from a former Domino's franchise employee, who said that the toppings for the supreme pizzas at their location would come from the tray under the line. They explained on Reddit: "That's whatever fell off other pizzas, sitting in a room temperature catch tray all day, marinating in the juices of a thousand dead pizzas. It was VILE." Similarly, a former Papa John's employee chimed in to say this had been common practice when they worked there years ago. That "years ago" caveat could be important, but maybe just make your own supreme pizzas?

In an /unpopularopinion Reddit thread denouncing the quality of McDonald's Chicken McNuggets, things didn't go the way the OP planned ... mostly because there were a ton of people claiming that was not actually an unpopular opinion, and McD's nuggets are terrible. Every so often, employees have chimed in to explain why, like one Reddit user who explained that while nuggets are only supposed to be kept on hand for 20 minutes, "many franchisees ignore that and just keep resetting the timer and keeping the old nuggets."

More than one person has said that, too, with another noting if your nuggets have a distinctly chewy texture, they may have been sitting for upwards of an hour. Others noted employees they knew recommended steering clear of the nuggets in particular, while others claimed that the oil in the fryers might not be changed with the kind of frequency that you might hope. Again, we're sure that there are plenty of perfectly responsible franchises out there, but it's certainly food for thought.

Here's a strange one, but admittedly, it makes sense. Those who have worked in fast food know that when cars pull into the drive-thru and customers order, employees are on a timer to get food out as quickly as possible. It's fast food, after all, but some employees have headed to Reddit to suggest you might want to rethink ordering chicken through the drive-thru because of the narrow window those timers give.

According to one Jack-in-the-Box employee, the 3 minute and 45-second cook time on a chicken patty means the drive-thru timer is guaranteed to run out. If that happens too often, employees and management can be reprimanded, and they explained on Reddit, "There were a lot of chicken patties that went out only cooked for about a minute and 30 seconds."

Add in the fact that because they're expensive, managers might be loath to pre-cook them and it's kind of a recipe for disaster. And that's not just the case at Jack-in-the-Box. One Steak 'n Shake employee explained that it was the same for the chain's chicken tenders, but in that case, they were pre-cooked and sat until someone ordered them.

If you do opt for sodas or iced teas, maybe skip on the ice. It's a cleanliness factor, and you may have seen headlines suggesting that ice machines are a nightmare. You'll often hear reports that ice machines aren't properly cleaned, but some employees say that's just the start. Reddit is full of threads of employees discussing ice machines, with some saying it's not even a question. Most are harboring some kind of nastiness. 

Just as bad as the threads from restaurant employees are the ones from HVAC professionals posting photos of machines they're called to clean or service, only to find them overflowing with mold and muck. On one post from a Dunkin customer who said they found funky-looking mold in the ice cubes of their iced coffee, another Reddit user replied that in order to get truly clean, ice machines needed to be serviced by professionals, before adding, "... and they're never called. Ice in fast food is always so dirty. Managers don't do anything about it." 

Think that's bad? This one turns up in a /AITA Reddit thread, when a customer asked if they were in the wrong for getting a member of staff fired after dropping a glass in the ice machine, then serving ice. Admittedly, we're talking about fast food here, but just in case you wanted something else to worry about, you're welcome!

We all know it's an ongoing joke that McDonald's ice cream machines are never up and running, but according to some employees who have taken to Reddit to share some horror stories, that might be for the best. The problem is similar to what others have noted about the ice machines, and one Reddit user summed things up by simply calling the machine one of the most disgusting things they'd ever had the misfortune to come into contact with. 

Surely, that's involving mold, mildew, or other gunky buildup, you might be thinking. Can it get worse? Of course, it can get worse, because we also found this stomach-turning little tidbit from a Reddit user who said they were a five-year McD's veteran. They claimed, "Our machine was covered in roaches, (and I mean hundreds, they lived in the drain underneath) ... The number of roaches people must've eaten from our store that got blended in and went unnoticed was definitely not 0. Had a few customers bring back cups with roach parts in them." So, there you have it, friends and readers: Maybe those times you were disappointed by a non-functional ice cream machine, it was just the universe looking out for you.

In order to get fast food employees' opinions on what you should be avoiding, we headed to Reddit for a few reasons. First, anonymity means that employees can speak freely without fear of reprisals, which seemed the best way to get the most honest opinions. We also looked to see if we could find multiple people saying things about the same items, and we also checked the dates of the threads. Why? We wanted both recent comments, and to see a pattern of problems over the years.