Secret Menus: It's not just McDonald's - here's how to get the special off-menu items at Burger King, KFC, Subway, Nando's and more
The fast food specials you can only get if you know to ask
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Your support makes all the difference.After the furore following the revelation that McDonald’s has a “secret menu”, speculation has been rife that there must be other unusual treats available at UK restaurants if you only knew what to order.
The website Hack the Menu has a whole section dedicated to helping fast food customers go off-piste, while Cosmopolitan and other lifestyle magazines have been scrambling to test out various different tips.
Here are some of the best “secret menu” items on offer.
McDonald’s
Starting with the concoctions revealed recently when a McDonald’s manager did a Reddit “Ask Me Anything”, the fast food giant has officially denied having a secret menu and can be notoriously difficult to negotiate with for irregular items.
But if you’re lucky with your server, creations that have been made for people in the past include the "The Land, Sea and Air", combining beef, fish, and chicken in one monstrous burger. It is a Big Mac with both a Fillet-o-Fish and a chicken burger placed inside it.
The "Monster Mac" is a BigMac with eight burgers in it and more of a challenge than a choice. You can wash it down with a Neopolitan Shake – a three flavour milshake of chocolate, strawberry and vanilla.
The "McGangBang", a McChicken Sandwich inside a Double Cheeseburger, is the most well-known "secret" order.
KFC
The leading chicken chain offers such unusual delights as the “Ultimate Zinger” – a combination of its Ultimate Burger with a Zinger fillet thrown in.
The “Zinger Stacker” is on menus in Australia but not the UK. It involves two Zinger Fillets with cheese, lettuce, and extra-spicy sauce and chilli relish.
The “Double Down” – available around the world, but only by request in the UK, this involves bacon, cheese and secret sauce as a filling and two Original Recipe chicken fillets as the bun. As it is a menu item internationally, it doesn’t feature on the Hack the Menu site – but they do list the “Triple Down”. It’s the same, but with three fillets. Obviously.
Subway
The sandwich chain already offers a large degree of customisation so it’s no surprise it does well on the “secret menu” front. There are reports that many staff know how to make these items, which don’t feature on the lists in store, without further explanation.
The “Pizza Sub” is a toasted sub with pepperoni, tomato sauce and cheese – which tastes like pizza. Other toppings available.
The “Old Cut” is listed on Hack the Menu as the way Subway “once cut their sandwiches” – slicing down through the top instead of in from the side.
Nando’s
The “Peritamer Chicken Breast” is an adult-sized quantity of chicken served with the extra-mild Peritamer sauce only explicitly offered on the children’s menu. It’s apparently delicious, and very easy to ask for.
The “Hawaiian chicken chilli melt” doesn’t feature on the official menus but deploys straightforward ingredients – a chicken burger with added chilli jam, pineapple and cheddar cheese. It got rave reviews by the Mirror’s secret menu reviewer.
Burger King
Like with McDonald’s you may have some issues with Burger King staff getting items through the menu.
The “Suicide Burger” is BK’s answer to McDonald’s “Monster”. With four burger patties, four slices of cheese, bacon and special sauce, it’s all a bit of a mouthful.
“Frings” are a simple affair but a nice test to see if your server knows their stuff. It’s simply a side order that comprises of half chips (or “fries), half onion rings. If they just do a portion of each and stuff them in one big bag then they are doing it wrong.
Starbucks
If you need an extremely calorific drink to help your massive serving of fast food go down, Hack the Menu has a whole list of special “secret menu” Starbucks offerings – some of which are so popular they are served up without question by many baristas.
The champion has to be the “Butterbeer Frapuccino”, a Harry Potter-inspired affair which combines a Vanilla Bean Frabuccino with caramel syrup, toffee nut syrup and a drizzle of caramel on top. Just try not to think about the sugar content.
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