These 15 Menu Items Should Be Avoided at All Costs, According to Workers at Popular Fast Food Restaurants

Fast food is tasty and very convenient, but if you’re looking for high-quality food, it’s no secret that the drive-thru probably isn’t your best choice.

Reddit user u/Skylion72 wanted to know the dirty secrets of some of the most popular types of fast food. So he asked current and former employees to share the menu items “people should definitely stop ordering in” at their restaurants.

Here are some of the most shocking – and joke-worthy – responses:

1.“I worked at Einstein Bros. Bagels, which is basically fast food. Don’t order anything with eggs: they’re not real eggs, and if business is slow, they could have been sitting in a container for hours after being microwaved.”

2.“Don’t get decaf coffee at Burger King. Maybe it was just the one I worked at, but we didn’t make decaf coffee. Every time someone ordered it, my manager would just ask me to dilute the regular coffee.”

—u/halnation

3.“Waffle House cooks here. The grits can sit for hours and the managers will try to keep them fresh even though they cost next to nothing to buy.”

—u/TCSongun

4.“Panera’s cupcakes/coffee cakes are all frozen. The best items are the real sandwiches and salads. They have real ingredients and are usually fresh.”

—u/President_Pancake

5.“I worked at Jack in the Box. I don’t know why anyone orders Bacon Cheddar Potato Wedges. It’s fake cheese with fake bacon on fried potatoes. I try to remember the ingredient list on the cheese, but I clearly remember the package didn’t say it contained dairy. It also smelled like feet.

6.“Don’t order any of the Coffee Bean drinks from Krispy Kreme. They never, ever change the cooler.”

—u/borednangsty

7.“I worked at Panda Express. Don’t buy shrimp dishes if you actually want a full meal. They purposely use a smaller serving spoon to make it look like you’re eating a lot of food. I believe six shrimp per maximum portion was the policy.”

—u/noodlez5120

8.“Tropical Smoothie Cafe. All smoothies except detox ones have so much sugar.”

—u/serpentmurphin

9.“I worked at Long John Silver’s in 2006. We microwaved ‘baked cod on a bed of rice’ on a paper plate.”

ten.“Sheetz burgers are microwaveable. The grill marks are fake. Bacon is also microwaveable. And don’t drink those damn peanut butter shakes either. One peanut butter shake in particular contained almost 2,000 calories.”

—and/Charbarzz

11.“I worked at an AMC theater for two years. Don’t buy coffee unless it’s early in the morning when we first open. Otherwise, you’ll be drinking coffee that’s been sitting out for at least less than five o’clock.”

—u/intelligent system

12.“Here, former Applebee’s employee. It’s not really fast food, but fast casual dining. Much of the food is packaged in frozen, vacuum-sealed packages that are thawed in vats of boiling water or microwave. Things that need to look nice are spent a minute or two on each side on a grill for appearance, but they are NOT fresh (think steaks, burgers and chicken breasts ).”

—u/Releigh17

13.“I worked as a server at Outback Steakhouse. The Bloomin’ Onion costs about 70 cents to make, and they sell it for about $8.”

14.“I worked at Starbucks. No one who cares about their health should order a white mocha. That crap white mocha is also disgusting to work with.”

—u/majortom12

15.“I work at Chick-fil-A. The only thing I’m unsure about is the chicken salad sandwich. We cool some of the chicken after its shelf life is up, troubleshoot it, and use it in chicken salad.”

—u/toxlab

Note: Some answers have been edited for length and/or clarity.