Fast-food joints primarily serve the people during the lunch and dinner hours of our lives, but sometimes you need a quick breakfast, and you’ve found yourself in the drive-thru line yet again. Wendy’s breakfast menu is a bit insane, offering almost 20 individual items on its colossal breakfast menu (albeit many of them separated by a single ingredient). I made my way through some of the biggest and baddest hits. Want to know what to order next time you find yourself in the Wendy’s drive-thru during breakfast hours? Here’s what I thought.+-
Best: Honey Buddy Chicken Biscuit
Is it annoying of me to give the title to a piece of fried chicken on a biscuit? Yes, probably. Will I hear about it in the comments when everybody acts like my opinion of a fast-food restaurant personally attacked them? Undoubtedly. But despite these sad truths, I cannot change the inevitable.
The chicken is decently seasoned, crispy, and comes alive with the time-tested combination of honey and a biscuit. The size is perfect. It didn’t crumble. The Honey Buddy just does everything right. I’m glad to be your buddy, Honey.
2. Bacon, Egg & Cheese English Muffin
Your keen eye can probably detect this, but my “English muffin” was hard as a diamond. I’ll admit there’s an unavoidable cooldown period on these things as I take photos of everything, but it shouldn’t solidify into a piece of granite this way, in my opinion. No matter. I assume this was a fluke, and they’re not all served this al dente.
Wendy’s probably has the best fast-food bacon in the game. Alleging that all of their eggs are fresh and cooked to order, this gives them a significant leg up on a lot of chains. Between the cheese, the crispy bacon, the fresh egg, and a hopefully-not-stale muffin, this is upper-tier fast-food breakfast.
3. Seasoned Potatoes
I know, I know, these are a side dish. Cool down. They’re so good they deserve recognition, and they deserve it twofold. For starters, seasoned breakfast wedges are a killer idea; they remind me of home fries at a diner. Secondly, most chains season their fries to death when they get seasonings involved. Looking at you, Bojangles. These are well-seasoned and crispy.
Oh, and the deal with the spooky lettering? It’s a “Wednesday” promotion. Wendy has not gone goth of her own accord.
4. Bacon Breakfast Burrito
Crunchy, smoky bacon, fresh eggs, and melty cheese are really all you need for a good breakfast burrito. And then on top of it, you’ve got potatoes. This is superior to the McDonald’s burrito in a way that should send Micky D. crawling back to the lab to start over.
5. Maple Bacon Chicken Croissant
This is a battle of opposites, with a bun that’s disgusting enough and insides that are tasty enough to keep this sandwich anchored directly in the middle. Crispy chicken, crunchy bacon, and maple butter are a great combo. But that bun? Good grief. I hate it.
The thing feels like a croissant only in name. It reminds me of a hamburger bun wearing a children’s Halloween costume, with cheap drawstrings coming undone across the upper back. It’s not flaky, but rather spongy and sweet, like the sweet, yellow bread at a Chinese buffet.
If you like the chicken, stick with the biscuit.
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6. Homestyle French Toast Sticks
Imagine a churro, but not that crispy, and with no cinnamon-sugar. That’s what Wendy’s French toast sticks are. With some better syrup, this might have placed higher, but it’s so thin and lacking in maple that it’s a waste of my time. And what am I, gonna eat the sticks dry? No damn chance.
7. Breakfast Baconator
There’s always somebody out there who wants a bunch of different meats on their breakfast sandwich. If that’s you, welcome to the Breakfast Baconator. We’ve got sausage, we’ve got cheese, we’ve got bacon, and we’ve got Swiss cheese sauce for a reason well beyond my comprehension. It’s not like this is disgusting, but damn, it’s so heavy. You’re in for quite a day if you kick it off with a Breakfast Baconator.
8. Cinnabon Pull-Apart
I love Cinnabon, but something is off. It’s definitely similar to a Cinnabon, but there’s a ghostly egginess to the icing. It’s a little wetter and yellower, and the pastry itself is a little less moist and chock-full of cinnamon. It’s not doing for me what I’d hoped it would.
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9. Sausage, Egg & Swiss Croissant
The sparknotes from the previous croissant sandwich: I hate that croissant. Good, now we’re caught up. Wendy has gone and stuck a sausage patty (square, I might add, which I respect), an egg, and some mentally challenging Swiss cheese sauce onto that croissant I was just complaining about. The sweetness of the bun… the funkiness of the Swiss… this is chaos, and I want no part of it.
More Fast-Food Breakfast Rankings From Cheapism
- The Best Fast-Food Breakfast Sandwiches, Ranked — Which ones are worth your money? Which breakfast sandwich will give you fuel without grossing you out? I tried eight popular fast-food breakfast sandwiches and ranked ‘em from best to worst to find the answer.
- All 10 Chick-fil-A Breakfast Sandwiches, Ranked —Chick-fil-A’s breakfast menu is surprisingly extensive, so you have some choices on your hands. What are you going to order, provided you get there before 10:30 a.m.?
- McDonald’s Breakfast Menu, Ranked — There may be no fast-food restaurant more famous for its breakfast than McDonald’s. Here’s what to order.
