Fast food in 2024 has been, well, kind of disappointing. Hell of a way to start a Best Fast Food of 2024 article, right? But if you’re a hardcore fast food eater, you know we’re not telling you anything that you don’t already know. Fast food’s slump year started at the beginning of the year when article after article proclaimed that fast food was way too expensive and people were turning away from the drive-thru in favor of sit-down restaurants.
And truth be told, we did it too! One of our most popular articles of the year is this ranking on Cheesecake Factory’s 35 best menu items. But chicken sandwiches? People couldn’t care less this year! And the big brands know it too, that’s why they spent most of the year trying to find creative ways to bring people back to the drive-thru like bringing back old classics or offering new value meals.
But it wasn’t all doom and gloom. Which is why for the third year in a row we’re launching our annual Golden Bag Awards, celebrating the best in fast food. Because it’s been such a strange and troubled year for fast food, we’re going to be hitting you with a lot of surprises and hopefully, giving you a few good reasons to hit up the fast food restaurants that are still killing it right now.
Best New Burger: Shake Shack — Smoky Classic BBQ Burger
Why It Deserves The Award:
This burger was pure decadent indulgence at its finest! On top of a sumptuous smashed patty you have American cheese, bacon, pickles, and a layer of fried onions on a BBQ sauce-slathered bun, resulting in a burger that is crunchy, smokey, beefy, and packs a powerful umami punch.
It’s the sort of burger that makes your mouth water while you eat it. It’s hard for a single patty cheeseburger to achieve that, but the Smokey Classic BBQ Burger makes it happen. We named it the best BBQ burger in all of fast food back in June and now six months later, we fully stand by that!
Unfortunately, like all truly delicious burgers at Shake Shack, this one was only available for a limited time. But at least you can order the Black Truffle Burger right now which kind of hits similar complex umami-rich notes.
Find your nearest Shake Shack here.
Best New Chicken Sandwich: Chick-fil-A — Maple Pepper Bacon Chicken Sandwich
Why It Deserves The Award:
Yeah, we know, it’s not fried, but hear us out for a second — the Maple Pepper Bacon Chicken Sandwich is easily the best chicken sandwich that was released this year, and it’s not even close. There was a depth of flavor with this sandwich that no fried sando could compare with. It had an addictive charred flavor joined by herbal, and lemony notes, some mild heat via the pepper jack cheese, and a sweet, smokey, fragrant peppery aftertaste courtesy of the maple bacon (I haven’t even mentioned the brioche bun or pickles yet, well, there is that too!).
That bacon was rendered so that the smokey and sweet flavors melted in your mouth while still providing some crunch. It’s a crime that Chick-fil-A has decided that this will be a seasonal summer item instead of awarding it permanent menu status, but it has us hyped for its eventual return.
Find your nearest Chick-fil-A here.
Best New Fried Chicken Order: KFC’s Original Recipe Tender Box
Why It Deserves The Award:
For years we’ve been begging KFC to bring its Original Recipe (arguably the brand’s best contribution to fast food) to its chicken tenders, and the brand finally listened. As a result we got the best chicken tenders in all of fast food.
Yes, that’s right, we said “best.” These things have dethroned Raising Cane’s in every way. The chicken is complex, you can taste herbaceous hints of thyme, oregano, and celery salt, some floral bite via black pepper, a savory hint of onion and garlic powder, all housing juicy tender chicken. Add to that some of KFC’s Secret REcipe fries and a biscuit and you have a meal that dunks on Raising Cane’s in every way except the sauce.
We even tasted the meals side by side and graded each element. KFC came out on top. All hail the Kentucky King.
Find your nearest KFC here.
Best Celebrity Meal: Jack In The Box — Deadpool & Wolverine Sauced & Loaded Mini Chimi Bang Bangs
Why It Deserves The Award:
Visually, this dish is an absolute mess. We’re fully aware of how unappetizing this dish seems, and the visual coupled with its ridiculous name is enough reason to never eat it, but that would be a mistake! This dish is sort of like an elevated take on the Jack in the Box taco, so if that dish is a guilty pleasure of yours, you’re going to love this.
We’re not sure what exactly it has to do with Deadpool & Wolverine, but a Loaded Mini Chimi Bang Bang certainly sounds like something Deadpool would eat, so we’re not going to think too deeply about it.
The dish features shredded chicken, corn, black beans, and cheddar cheese stuffed into three mini flour tortillas that are then deep-fried, and topped with cheddar cheese sauce, taco sauce, and a random sprinkle of lettuce. The result is a medley of salty cheese notes, earthy herbal tones, and a zesty aftertaste.
Find your nearest Jack in the Box here.
Most Viral Fast Food: Crumbl Cookie
Why It Deserves The Award:
Fast food didn’t have its Grimace Shake moment in 2024, and since so many people turned away from fast food, the big brands spent more time playing it safe and trying to bring people back rather than taking a chance with a weird menu item. Crumbl on the other hand, constantly made headlines and dominated internet chatter and while it’s not technically fast food, we’re going to go ahead and award the brand for keeping things fun.
Find your nearest Crumbl here.
Biggest Swing And A Miss: Jack in the Box — Ice Cube’s Munchie Meal
Why It Deserves The Award:
Last year, we named the Snoop Dogg Munchie Meal the Best Celebrity Meal of the Year because it perfectly married Jack in the Box’s brand of stoner food to one of the most famous stoners of all time. The Ice Cube Munchie Meal doesn’t have that same anchor, and as a result it feels random and chaotic. Nothing about it says “Ice Cube,” and with its collection of throwaway dishes (except the curly fries), this one left us incredibly disappointed.
The meal consisted of a Chick-N-Tater Melt, a heavily processed chicken and bacon sandwich that featured a one-dimensional salty flavor. In addition to the sandwich, you’ve got curly fries, a taco, and mini churros. There is no harmony to this dish, no real connection to Ice Cube. It feels random, take it from a West Coast kid from the outskirts of LA, Cube deserved better.
Find your nearest Jack in the Box here.
Best Brand Collaboration: Hot Ones x Panda Express — Blazing Bourbon Chicken
No, this dish wasn’t quite as spicy as we expected given Hot Ones’ reputation and the fact that Panda Express dubbed this its “spiciest dish,” but just because it didn’t deliver the heat, doesn’t mean it wasn’t delicious.
Featuring white meat chicken breaded in a crispy corn-starch-based breading (the ideal sponge to soak up sauce), this chicken dish delivered a sweet honey and maple flavor with subtle fruity notes and a mild heat that builds between bites. On addition to the chicken, this dish came with some wok-fried bell peppers and onions, which helped to add a vegetal counterbalance to all the sweetness.
Find your nearest Panda Express here.
Worst New Dessert: Starbucks — Summer-Berry Refresher
Why It Deserves The Award:
No single fast food item made me feel like I was burning money like the Starbucks Summer-Berry Refresher, and yes, we fully consider Starbucks fast food at this point. They have a drive-thru, the quality control is at an all-time low (the food is especially horrendous), and the prices are higher than they should be — everything about Starbucks screams fast food.
The Summer-Berry Refresher featured a mix of blueberry and blackberry syrups shaken with ice and cut with water. Yes, you read that right, this is just a syrup-flavored water. It’s soda without the fizz, and the result tasted like a watery and muted mess. To add insult to injury, Starbucks tried to get into the boba market by adding boba-like pearls to this drink, but instead of chewy tapioca balls, Starbucks thought it would be a good idea to put some edible raspberry syrup-filled plastic bubbles.
Just thinking about this drink makes me angry.
Find your nearest Starbucks here.
Most Surprising New Menu Item: Jack In The Box — Smashed Jack
Why It Deserves The Award:
If you had told us at the start of the year that Jack in the Box would release one of the best burgers of the year, we straight up wouldn’t have believed you. And then sixteen days later, we would’ve been proven wrong.
Dropped at the beginning of 2024, Jack in the Box’s smash burger-inspired Smashed Jack blew us away with its mix of savory, salty, smokey, and tangy flavors. The beef patty is juicy, the grilled onions are perfectly carmelized, and the sauce wraps everything together nicely. It’s not just one of the best burgers of the year, it’s the best burger Jack in the Box has ever released, and though it initially sold out, now the Smashed Jack is a permanent part of JiB’s menu.
If you haven’t had it yet, remedy that sh*t ASAP.
Find your nearest Jack in the Box here.
Best Overall Brand: Taco Bell
While all the other big brands shied away from taking chances this year Taco Bell has quietly been putting in a lot of work. Not only did they launch the delicious Cantina Chicken Menu, a slightly elevated take on the brand’s usual fare, but the brand kept prices low with its new Cravings Value Menu, launched several new dishes, including the Cheesey Street Chalupas, and they brought back coveted menu items from decades past like the legendary Meximelt with its nostalgic Decades Collection.
It seems like Taco Bell is the only fast food brand that didn’t get the memo that people were ditching fast food. The brand kept things fresh in 2024, a sentence we never thought we’d say about Taco Bell.
Find your nearest Taco Bell here.
