In the United States today, there
are nearly 200,000 fast food joints,
and if you’re getting a burger, you might
as well get some ice cream to go with it,
right? Dessert is important, after all: you need
to know who has the very worst and absolute best.
When it comes to popular desserts
available from a fast food restaurant,
opting for a Chocolate Shake from Burger King
would undoubtedly go down as a decision you
fully regret. Theoretically, a cold, sweet
treat with chocolatey goodness is exactly
what you want to satisfy your sweet tooth.
Sadly, a Chocolate Shake won’t fit the bill.
First of all, the texture of this shake is all
wrong. Instead of being thick and luscious,
it’s super thin and liquidy: you’ll be
surprised by the milkiness of it and the
fact that it barely has any chocolate flavor at
all. To top off this disappointment of a dessert,
the Burger King’s Chocolate Shake is topped
with whipped cream that tastes like regret.
On your way home from a long day at
work or an extended night of partying,
you catch a glimpse of the iconic Golden Arches
in the distance. It hits you that some ice cream
would be a perfect way to wind down, so you drive
toward the alluring golden hued fast food oasis.
When you get to the drive-thru intercom,
you place your order for a Vanilla Cone.
That’s when the McDonald’s worker utters the seven
words you’ve heard far too often in your life:
“Sorry, our ice cream machine is down.”
While there might be a legitimate reason for
why McDonald’s ice cream machine is seemingly
always broken, in retrospect, you realize you
were wrong to head to the Golden Arches for a
Vanilla Cone in the first place. The soft
serve ice cream is described as vanilla,
but it doesn’t have much discernible flavor.
To make matters worse, the cone sometimes has
an unappetizing texture that leads you to
believe that it’s stale. In a word? Pass.
While it’s been drilled in our
heads that Arby’s has the meats,
sometimes you will want a dessert to go
along with all that protein. If you order
Arby’s Cherry Turnover as a fast food dessert,
prepare yourself to be completely underwhelmed.
When this pastry first catches your eye,
you will be hopeful. It looks like a treat
that will tickle your taste buds with sweetness.
But on your first bite, you’ll realize that your
assumption is a mistake. The Cherry Turnover is so
flaky that it’s unpleasant to have in your mouth,
making it difficult to swallow. With a
minimal amount of cherry filling and a
skimpy amount of icing on top, this thing
lacks the sweet goodness you expected.
The dessert options at KFC are limited. You
can either order cookies or a chocolate cake.
The cookies don’t look that good (and they aren’t
good, for the record), so the chocolate cake is
the default choice. Unfortunately, you will soon
learn that this cake isn’t worth ordering either.
KFC calls its chocolate cake “The Big Finish”,
but a more appropriate moniker would be
The Big Letdown. While it has a chocolate
flavor to it, unlike Burger King’s shake,
the cake itself is way too spongy and airy. When
you bite into it, this thing has an elasticity
that is totally off-putting. Instead of a
cake like your grandmother used to make,
it has a processed taste and feel that will
fill you with a sense of disappointment.
The icing on top is also overly sweet,
which is another strike against KFC’s cake.
If you’re getting pizza delivered to your home,
it’s always tempting to add fast food dessert
to your order. Domino’s Marbled Cookie Brownie
sounds like it’d be scrumptious. The description
says this bad boy is a marriage between a fudge
brownie and a big cookie with chocolate chunks.
Unfortunately, the Marbled Cookie
Brownie turns out to be more of a
marriage of culinary convenience
than a marriage of true love.
The biggest issue with this combo
dessert is the texture. It’s not
quite the texture you want for a cookie,
nor the texture you’d prefer for a brownie.
Instead, the texture lands
somewhere in the middle.
To give Domino’s some credit, the Marbled
Cookie Brownie was a good attempt,
as the result is so sweet that you won’t
hate it. Although you won’t be too impressed,
it’s just good enough that you will eat it all.
White Castle has a dessert called
Fudge Dipped Cheesecake On-a-Stick,
and there are some things to like about it. First
of all, it’s undeniably cheap and convenient.
You just hold it by the stick and shove it into
your face. It’s also unique enough that everyone
has an excuse to try it once — if only to boast
that you gave this fast food dessert a shot.
While you might like the Fudge Dipped Cheesecake
On-a-Stick enough to finish it with a smile on
your face, you won’t be itching to order it again.
Truth be told, it’s a little underwhelming. The
fudge is thinner than you’re imagining, and the
cheesecake is lacking in rich flavor. The stick
gimmick is handy, but that alone is not enough
for you to make a special trip to White Castle.
If you’re already at White
Castle and have never tried it,
it’s good enough to order.
But don’t go out of your way.
Ordering the Cinnamon Twists from Taco Bell is a
gamble. If you’re unlucky, they may be too hard,
too soft, or too light on the cinnamon
and sugar coating. But if you’re lucky,
you’ll be happy. At their best, Cinnamon Twists
are a really good fast food dessert —
but it’s certainly a roll of the dice.
And they’re not difficult to make: they’re just
rice noodles put into a basket, fried in oil until
they’re crispy, and then blessed with a blend
of cinnamon and sugar. Though it looks easy,
you never know what to expect until you
insert the first twist into your mouth.
If you want a fast food dessert from In-N-Out
Burger, you have three choices: a strawberry
shake, a chocolate shake, or a vanilla shake.
The vanilla shake is the best of the bunch — but
it’s still not overly impressive. While watery
shakes are disgusting (we’re looking at you,
Burger King), shakes can also be too
thick. That’s the issue with In-N-Out
Burger’s dessert offering. It’s impressive that
they make their shakes with real ice cream,
but it’s a bit of a buzzkill when you
can’t even use a straw to sip your shake.
If you order a shake from In-N-Out Burger,
there’s a trick you can do if you want to avoid
disappointment. All you need to do is get a spoon
and pretend that you ordered vanilla ice cream.
Looking at this dessert as ice cream instead
of as a shake will leave you satisfied,
as it has a rich vanilla flavor that is
the perfect way to finish off any meal.
“I state my regret.” “You couldn’t have memorized
that?” “I could not, because I do not feel it.”
If you’re in search of a ridiculously
cheap fast food dessert, go to Subway
and order the cookies. For less than a
buck per cookie, you can stop your sweet
tooth from shouting at you. While the types
of cookies available at Subway can vary,
safe choices include Oatmeal Raisin, White
Chip Macadamia Nut, and Double Chocolate Chip.
All of these cookies are soft
and overflowing with flavor.
As good as these cookies taste, it’d be impossible
for us to rank them any higher. Although these
goodies are an inexpensive treat from Subway that
are friendly to your taste buds and your wallet,
at the end of the day, they’re still just cookies.
We’ve all had so many cookies in our lives that
it’s difficult to be overly impressed. Besides,
if you know the way around your kitchen and have a
handful of necessary ingredients at your disposal,
you can probably make similar cookies at home.
For those individuals with a demanding
sweet tooth, Pizza Hut’s Cinnamon Sticks
are a fine option. These things have
a healthy amount of cinnamon on them,
but it’s really the sweetness from the sugar that
stands out. The sweetness doesn’t stop there,
as Pizza Hut also gives you a tub of icing for
dipping purposes. After you dip these sugary
sticks into the sugary icing and bring it to
your lips, your sweet tooth will be in heaven.
These Cinnamon Sticks aren’t perfect, though.
Some people will find that this dessert is
actually too sweet, and who knew that was
even possible? It is, and they can be.
Shake Shack has a host of quality menu items that
are worth spending your hard-earned dollars on.
If you’re looking for a filling dessert,
you can’t go wrong by ordering a Concrete.
This dessert is made from Shake
Shack’s tasty frozen custard,
which is a combination of hormone-free milk,
cage-free chicken eggs, and cane sugar.
The cool thing (no pun intended) about
these Concretes is that they are completely
customizable. You pick either vanilla frozen
custard or chocolate frozen custard as the base.
From there, you select which mix-ins
you feel like eating at that moment.
Available mix-ins can differ depending
on the location and the time of year,
but you can have confidence that everything
Shake Shack offers is of pristine quality.
A slush as a dessert? Absolutely! The Cherry
Limeade Slush from Sonic Drive-In is worth
going out of your way to get your hands on. If
you’ve never had this must-try fast food drink,
prepare to be thrilled. The cherry flavor
is delightful, and things only get better
when the lime aftertaste kicks in. You’ll
be thoroughly impressed by each and every
sip. This slush is definitely worth being in the
top half of our list of best fast food desserts.
Want to kick things up a notch? First,
go get your Cherry Limeade Slush from
Sonic Drive-In. Make it a Route 44 size
so you’ll have more to work with. Next,
bring it home. If you drink a few
sips on your journey, that’s okay.
Once you’re in your house, add some vodka to it,
and you’ll have a world-class cocktail to enjoy.
Be warned that if you do this once, you’re
going to want to do it over and over again.
One of Chick-fil-A’s most popular
items on its menu is the Icedream Cone,
and essentially, it’s exactly
what you’re expecting.
The Icedream Cone is like the aforementioned
Vanilla Cone from McDonald’s, except that this
dessert is actually tasty — and you don’t have to
worry about dealing with McDonald’s ever-iffy ice
cream machine. Chick-fil-A’s version has a deep
vanilla flavor that you can taste in your soul.
It’s smooth and isn’t prone to melting
right away. Once you make it to the cone,
you’ll be surprised just how good it
tastes — it’s good enough to eat by itself,
in fact. The cone’s crunchy texture is
also a joy, especially when you compare
it to the fast food dessert that McDonald’s
offers. If you look closely, you will see
that it says “Eat It All” on the cone, and
you won’t hesitate to oblige that request.
Was Burger King forced to repent before the
gods of chocolate after creating the fast food
dessert disaster that is its Chocolate
Shake? Taste the Hershey’s Sundae Pie,
and you may believe that’s
a plausible explanation.
While Burger King’s shake lacks anything remotely
chocolatey, this pie is the exact opposite.
First, the crust of the Hershey’s Sundae Pie
is made with a generous amount of chocolate
and a serious amount of crunch. Next, the cream
filling is made with rich chocolate. Thirdly,
there are Hershey’s chocolate chips
added to the mix. Last of all,
as if that weren’t enough chocolate, whipped
cream and chocolate syrup are added on top.
It may sound like this could be too much of a
good thing, but it works. It absolutely works.
If you want a little bit of a break from
the chocolate, just hack your Burger King
order by adding ice cream to it. Hershey’s
Sundae Pie a la mode is as good as it sounds.
“Somebody take my pulse because I think
I’ve died and gone to chocolate heaven!”
At Popeyes, the Cinnamon Apple Pie is the king
of fast food desserts. This pie is served warm,
and it smells amazing yet tastes even better.
While McDonald’s has sold its Hot Apple Pie
since the 1960s, Popeyes took everything great
about the McDonald’s pie and improved upon it.
What makes the Cinnamon Apple Pie from Popeyes
superior to similar pies other fast food joints
peddle? Their advantage starts with the cinnamon.
While competing pies have a hint of cinnamon,
Popeyes went all the way — and the result
is glorious. Beyond the cinnamon, the crust
is the perfect texture and seemingly never
gets soggy. Inside of the Cinnamon Apple Pie,
the fruit filling is dense and explodes
with flavor each time you bite down.
Despite all the flavor and all the goodness,
Popeyes’ dessert pie has fewer than 300 calories.
That means you can eat one (or even two) without
feeling an ounce of guilt for ruining your diet.
The honors don’t stop when discussing the
Cookies & Cream Milkshake that’s available
at your local Chick-fil-A. Not only is this
shake the most popular flavor at Chick-fil-A,
it’s the best fast food milkshake in
America. If you doubt that opinion,
order one of these shakes, take a big,
chilly swig, and you too will be convinced.
Everything about the Cookies & Cream Milkshake
is a grand slam. It’s thick but not too thick.
The crumbs of the Oreo cookie are the perfect
size, as they fit through your straw but aren’t
so big that you need to waste time chewing. The
vanilla-flavored cream is ever-present and rich.
Sometimes the cookies can overshadow the cream in
similar milkshakes, but that’s not the case here.
Chick-fil-A also has chocolate,
strawberry, and vanilla milkshakes,
but there’s really no need to switch up your
order. Stick with the Cookies & Cream Milkshake,
and you will always end your
yummy meal on a high note.
There must be something magical about Jack in the
Box’s NY Style Cheesecake. It’s so, so good that
it doesn’t even make sense. Compared to the Fudge
Dipped Cheesecake On-a-Stick from White Castle,
it lacks the fudge and the handy stick. Jack
in the Box’s dessert offering isn’t even that
big and isn’t aesthetically pleasing enough to
stand out from the crowd of fast food desserts.
But take a bite of the NY Style
Cheesecake, and you’ll understand.
Start with the humble graham cracker crust. It
doesn’t look like anything to write home about,
but it’s satisfyingly crunchy
and packed with flavor.
The cheesecake itself is unbelievably creamy
and equally as tasty. The combination will
make you savor each bite. When you’re done,
you’ll be tempted to get another slice.
The Dairy Queen Blizzard fast food dessert
comes in a wide array of flavors — from Lemon
Meringue [muh-RANG] to Turtle Pecan Cluster and
Choco Cherry Love to Peanut Butter Cookie Dough.
However, the most popular Blizzard flavor is
the Oreo Blizzard — and for good reason. This
thing is a phenomenal dessert. For as wonderful
as Chick-fil-A’s Cookies & Cream Milkshake is,
the Oreo Blizzard is similar, but
it’s an unmistakable step above.
The Oreo cookie pieces are blended
perfectly and retain their great taste.
The ice cream, as is the case with all
Blizzards, also tastes really good.
Though it’s hypothetically possible to make
your own Oreo Blizzard, let the experts at
Dairy Queen handle the heavy lifting. Your job
should just be to chow down on the final result.
“Oh, we’re also gonna need two ambulances to wheel
us out of here when we’re done.” Stare…. “Hehe.”
Many McDonald’s patrons looking for a fast
food dessert make the mistake of picking
the Oreo McFlurry, but the best dessert by far
is the M&M McFlurry. Real milk chocolate M&Ms
are taken for a ride in a blender along with
vanilla soft serve. The resulting deliciousness
will blow your mind — and your taste buds.
If you’ve only known the Oreo McFlurry,
make the switch and never look back. Yes,
it’s worth the trip, even if your local
McDonald’s might have a malfunctioning
ice cream machine. That’s how good it is.
There was a time when the M&M McFlurry almost
disappeared from McDonald’s menu. Mars Inc.,
the candy company that produces M&Ms, thought
about pulling the plug on their partnership.
Thankfully, they thought better of
it. That would have been a tragedy.
Although Jollibee [JOLLY-bee] is
primarily known for Chickenjoy,
its delicious fried chicken that is
expertly marinated and breaded by hand,
what you’ll remember most about your visit is the
fast food dessert. The Peach Mango Pie is so good
that you will be left in a state of shock. What’s
Jollibee’s secret? Maybe it’s that this Filipino
fast food company imports the mangoes for this
pie directly from the Philippines. Whatever the
case may be, American fast food companies can
learn a thing or two from this luscious dessert.
If you like McDonald’s Hot Apple Pie or
the previously mentioned Cinnamon Apple
Pie from Popeyes, you will totally love
this pie. The peaches pop with flavor,
and the mangoes add a layer of gentle
sweetness that is a joy to experience.
What is the best dessert in the fast food world?
The answer to that question is surprisingly easy.
Wendy’s Frosty is head and shoulders above
the competition. This relatively simple treat
doesn’t rely on any gimmicks or trickery.
It’s just the perfect fast food dessert.
These days, you can either order a Classic
Chocolate Frosty or a Vanilla Frosty. While
the Vanilla Frosty is good in its own right, the
Classic Chocolate Frosty is what you should order.
It’s the real deal. When people speak about their
love for the Frosty, it’s the chocolate one that
they’re talking about. Besides, the Classic
Chocolate Frosty is actually made by combining
chocolate and vanilla together, so you’re
getting the best of both worlds in the same cup.
What are you waiting for? Go
treat yourself to another Frosty,
and experience the best fast
food dessert in all its glory.
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