Bizarre and beloved McDonald's menu items you may never see again

mighty wings

McDonald's has tried offering a variety of foods in the past.
William Wei/Business Insider
  • The McDonald's graveyard is filled with both crowd favorites and items you may not have even known existed.
  • Throughout the years the chain has added and removed certain menu items for a whole range of reasons.
  • Take a look back in time at some of the menu items you can no longer get your hands on.
  • Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

The McDLT was first introduced to customers in 1984.

The McDLT advertised as a fresh sandwich.
McDonald's/Business Insider

The name — similar to that of the well-known BLT sandwich of bacon, lettuce, and tomato — reportedly stands for McDonald's, lettuce, and tomato.

The McDLT was a way for the fast-food chain to offer customers the freshest version of its burger possible.

Here you can see the cold ingredients on the left and the hot ingredients on the right.
Business Insider

It was essentially a deconstructed sandwich served in styrofoam to keep the hot parts (the patty) hot and the cold parts (the lettuce and tomato) cold.

Environmentally-conscious customers — and environmental activists in general — didn't like the fact that the burger was being served in styrofoam.

The styrofoam container is pictured above.
McDonald's/Business Insider

Because of the packaging backlash, the item was discontinued from US restaurants in 1991.

McDonald's took another stab at revamping its original burgers in 1991 when it announced the McLean Deluxe.

Advertisements said the McLean Deluxe was 91% fat free.
Al Freni/Contributor/Getty Images

This was a proposed healthier alternative to the regular McDonald's hamburger and was marketed as being 91% fat free.

The low-fat patty was made using beef, water, and a seaweed extract called carrageenan.

You can see the breakdown of the patty here.
Business Insider

Water replaced the original patty formula's fat content and the carrageenan was used to bind the water to the beef.

The on-trend, lean burger wasn't much of a hit when it came to orders, though. It was pulled from US menus in 1996.

Previously failed attempts at amping up traditional burgers didn't stop McDonald's from trying again and again.

Two of the burgers are pictured here.
Jamie Rector/Stringer/Getty Images

A collection of burgers called the Angus Third Pounders first appeared on the menu in 2009.

Reportedly a victim of high consumer price, the line was cut from the US menu around 2013. The lineup featured options with bacon and red onion, Swiss cheese, and a more classic version with red onions.

McDonald's didn't just experiment with burgers, though. The chain put Mighty Wings on its US menu in 1990 and took them off in 2003.

One order was a box of five bone-in wings.
test

After being regionally tested around 2013, the wings re-appeared on menus across the country but quickly proved to be a failure yet again. The Street cites high prices and high levels of heat in the breading as reasons why customers weren't buying this bone-in chicken option.

McDonald's began offering Buttermilk Crispy Tenders in the US in 2017.

Buttermilk Crispy Tenders pictured here. They are available in a 10-piece order.
Dennis Green/Business Insider

One reviewer said they're basically "Chicken Selects 2.0," but the company has said it's made improvements regarding the quality of the meat and the sauce options.

Rather than abruptly pulling the three-piece order of Selects from nationwide menus, though, McDonald's tried to ween customers off of them by subtly replacing the option with Snack Wraps — a small wrap made with a single chicken select.

The Times reported that the Snack Wrap took off in Europe, which prompted McDonald's to develop a larger, more substantial version. Enter: the McWrap.

There were several different versions of the McWrap released.
Vince Talotta/Contributor/Getty Images

McDonald's tried to bring the newer, bigger wrap to the US, but it didn't go over well with the American audience.

It took roughly 60 seconds to assemble, whereas McDonald's hamburgers take closer to 10 seconds. Prep time slowed down the drive-through process.

Not only did people refrain from ordering the McWrap, but experts say the wait time contributed to McDonald's actually losing out on existing customers, who likely weren't there for the wrap at all.

In addition to tortillas, McDonald's has also been known to cloak some meals in bread.

Ads for McStuffins said the bread was baked on-site every day.
McDonald's/Business Insider

In 1993, McDonald's baked French bread, stuffed it with different filling combinations, and called it McStuffins, Complex reported.

There were several flavor varieties, including pepperoni pizza and chicken teriyaki.

They looked like Hot Pockets.
McDonald's/Business Insider

Eat This, Not That reported that they weren't popular with customers and were taken off of US menus in less than a year.

While adding pineapple as a pizza topping for McDonald's may have been worth a try, the Hula Burger — a sandwich featuring a slice of grilled pineapple and two slices of cheese — was not.

The Hula Burger is pictured here.
McDonald's/Business Insider

This sandwich was first introduced in the '60s. It was supposed to solve the problem of slow business on Fridays in Catholic areas of the US where customers abstained from meat for the day.

One Cincinnati McDonald's proposed the Hula Burger and another meatless option, the Filet-O-Fish, as a solution. The two sandwiches were pit against one another, and ultimately the fish variation sold more than the pineapple.

The Hula Burger was discontinued immediately, and the Filet-O-Fish is still on the menu today.

Another fleeting, mainly-meatless menu item was the McSalad Shaker — the line of salads made its menu debut in 2000.

Customers could shake up the ingredients with one hand.
McDonald's/Business Insider

McSalad Shakers were essentially to-go salads that were served in a plastic cup.

It came in three varieties: chef salad, grilled chicken Caesar salad, and garden salad. All of them were discontinued in 2003 to make room for a regular salad-in-a-bowl option.

The McDonald's stateside graveyard also includes well-known options like the Super Size — the biggest size option for certain menu items like fries and drinks — the Big N' Tasty burger, and Orange Hi-C soda.

Super Size fries, seen here, were the largest size customers could order.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The McDonald's menu online shows that the orange drink is unavailable nationwide.

But it also features some more bizarre attempts at variety like McSpaghetti, Eggs Benedict McMuffin, and even McSoup.

McSpaghetti, seen here, is no longer available in the US.
imwaltersy/Shutterstock

According to Popsugar, McSpaghetti is still available in the Philippines.

The Eggs Benedict McMuffin was similar to the regular Egg McMuffin but featured hollandaise sauce.

There are some McDonald's legends that have gone by the wayside. But others, like the original Dollar Menu, have gotten a bit of a face-lift and reappeared.

McDonald's value menu was called the Dollar Menu.
Jeff Greenberg/Contributor/Getty Images

McDonald's menus now feature a $1, $2, $3 Dollar Menu. As the chain has proven, just because a menu item has been discontinued, doesn't mean it's gone for good.

Jessica Tyler contributed reporting on an earlier version of this article.

Loading Something is loading.

More: Features Food Fast Food Menu

Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options.