The Worst Fast Food Chocolate Chip Cookie We Won't Be Ordering Again

Every now and then, a chocolate chip cookie at a fast food restaurant hits the spot. Other times, it's the most disappointing cookie you've ever had. Chowhound took the time to rank 13 fast food desserts, and there was one item that we won't be getting again any time soon. The chocolate chip cookie from Jimmy John's was not the gooey, delicious treat we were hoping for. It was incredibly dry and lacked any special flavor aside from the chocolate chips, which weren't enough to save the cookie from being a desiccated disaster overall.

We thought we may have gotten an old batch of the dessert, but it seems other customers have noticed Jimmy John's cookies aren't as good as they used to be. One employee even commented on a Reddit post, "We've gotten lower-quality cookies recently for sure. The nutritional facts are the same, but the calories are different and it tastes bad now." Jimmy John's claims its cookies are made with Ghirardelli chocolate chips, but even with seemingly yummy ingredients, this cookie was too dry for it to matter. You may be better off making a chewy chocolate chip cookie at home.

While Jimmy John's chocolate chip cookie was a fail, it doesn't mean there are no good fast food cookies out there. Chains like Chick-fil-A, McDonald's, and Starbucks are known for having some seriously delicious chocolate chip cookies — gooey, warm, crispy on the outside, and moist on the inside. People especially rave about Starbucks' chocolate chip cookie, and there are even recipes out there to mimic the dessert at home. Subway is also a common contender for a good fast food cookie, but in our experience, its chocolate chip cookie was subpar. Maybe fast food cookies are a hit-or-miss situation, or we just have bad luck. 

Jimmy John's offers a few other dessert options and occasionally a specialty cookie, such as the Lemon Sunshine cookie that was available for the summer of 2025. Many customers seem to like the chain's limited edition cookies, so maybe chocolate chip just isn't its specialty. There may even be some store-bought chocolate chip cookie brands that offer a better chocolate chip cookie than what we experienced. You can't always expect top-quality desserts at a fast food restaurant, but there are certainly some good ones out there. Still, we'll pass on this Jimmy John's cookie.