The Most Disappointing Way McDonald's Menu Has Changed Since The '90s

By many metrics, the 1990s could be considered the golden days of McDonald's. The McFlurry was invented, you could buy a Big Mac meal for $2.99, and Happy Meals contained the famous Teenie Beanie Babies. And when you take a look at the current McDonald's menu and compare it with all of the things the restaurant has tried in the past few decades, it's easy to see that one of the most disappointing ways McDonald's has changed since the '90s is its loss of creativity and experimentation with menu items.

And sure, a lot of the foods McDonald's tried in the '90s were epic flops. I mean, let's not forget the scrapped menu items like the McSpaghetti, or the McLean Deluxe, which was such a flop that it gained the nickname "The McFlopper." However, you can't create great things unless you're willing to take risks and accept some failures, and no one can deny that the '90s saw a McDonald's menu that was creative, versatile, and exciting with things like Chicken Fajitas, Mighty Wings, Mini Pancakes, and the Kahuna Burger.

One of the most missed 1990s McDonald's items is the Chicken Fajitas. During that decade, this chain quickly — and we mean very quickly — dipped its toes into Tex-Mex by bringing Chicken Fajitas to its menu. Even though this was a short-lived endeavor, the collective energy online wants this menu item back for good. For instance, people on TikTok are creating homemade recipes for the Chicken Fajitas to satisfy their cravings until McDonald's brings them back (if it ever does), and Reddit users share a nostalgic love for this menu item. Many past employees even took to Reddit to confess how much they loved these fajitas.

But the list doesn't stop at the fajitas. Customers say they miss things like McDonald's individual pizzas, which were released in 1991 and discontinued around 2000 because the cook time was too long compared to other menu items. Customers also miss the chicken wings, which were released in the early '90s and discontinued by 2003.

So, gone are the days of '90s McDonald's, where you could enjoy fajitas, pizza, and wings along with burgers and fries, or, according to a Reddit user, you could have the variety of a kahuna burger, curly fries, and a wild berry pie. Hopefully one day this chain will get some of its creative spark back, but until then, we'll have to stick to the standard menu items we know and love.