17 McDonald's Menu Items From The 1980s You Probably Forgot About

The 1980s were quite a golden decade for the Golden Arches, thanks to executive chef René Arend. Under his tenure at the McDonald's corporation, which began in 1976 and lasted until 2004, the test kitchen was rife with experimentation and innovation. One of Arend's biggest hits was, of course, McDonald's famous Chicken McNuggets. Yet for every home run, there were plenty of big swings and misses in the 1980s. Corporate employee-turned-franchisee Gary Eckmann told The Bangor Daily News in 1988: "Only one idea in 200 ever gets to the point of being tested in the marketplace by consumers."

Some menu item ideas that made it into brick-and-mortar McDonald's restaurants in the 1980s are lovingly revered to this day. But many are long-forgotten, like the Styrofoam clamshell containers they once came in. To help remember them, we took a time machine back to the '80s to see what we missed out on. These items sought to bring freshness to breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus. They included stabs at unique dipping sauces, gourmet salads, Latin-inspired dishes, and even pizza. McEnjoy!

In 1984, McDonald's went big with its first-ever ⅓-pound patty burger: the Cheddar Melt. The burger was topped with melty cheddar cheese sauce, grilled onions, and — in another Golden Arches first –housed in a rye bun. This whopper was tested in Indianapolis and Milwaukee, of which Robert Keyser, McDonald's public relations director, told The La Crosse Tribune: "People seem to like it, even though we have done no advance advertising."

After further testing in locations such as Utah and Canada, McDonald's was ready to take the item nationwide in 1988. But now, the patty was reduced to a ¼-pound size. During Super Bowl XXII, McDonald's bought air time to make a big announcement with a nearly silent commercial. The advertisement put the Cheddar Melt on display, letting the visuals and some text do all the talking. At the end of the ad, the last text line said: "Thank you for listening." Tom Shales, a television critic for The Washington Post at the time, called it the best ad aired during the entire night. 

By the end of that first quarter of 1988, McDonald's saw an 18% increase in business from the year before, due in part to the success of the limited run of the Cheddar Melt. Customer demand brought it back several times, including a 1992 version that included bacon. The last known sighting was in 2014, for lucky eaters in parts of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

During the 1980s, Nelly and Dominic Quijano owned a Houston McDonald's. As owners, they noticed that McDonald's wasn't exactly catering to the tastes of the local Hispanic community. So, in 1985, they began testing a breakfast burrito for customers. Three years later, building on this trend, McDonald's released its Chicken McNugget Fiesta menu item. In July 1989, McDonald's went a step further, hoping to bring the party to lucky eaters in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Texas, and West Virginia. Those test markets served up ham or sausage burritos for breakfast, as well as a Mexican-inspired version of the Quarter Pounder for lunch and dinner. 

The Quarter Pounder was first introduced in 1971 by Fremont, California, franchisee Al Bernardin. The Quarter Pounder Ranchero, which retailed for $1.79, started with the typical bun, beef patty, and lettuce, but was decked out with a tostada chip and red taco sauce with bits of pepper. One review in The Pittsburgh Press by Ann Butler noted: "It's too subtle. It needs zing." But she then added: "The Ranchero isn't bad. Spice it up, and it'd be better."

While a burrito eventually found a permanent place on McDonald's breakfast menu, the Quarter Pounder Ranchero proved to be a one-time wonder. The word "Ranchero" did resurface on McDonald's menu in 2001 with a Ranchero Bagel.

In August 1986, Madonna and Sean Penn starred in the film "Shanghai Surprise." Around the same time, Chicken McNuggets Shanghai launched. McDonald's spokesman Lana Ehrsam told The Miami Herald of the item: "We were just looking for another way to have some fun with McNuggets." The new McNuggets first saw the light of day in West Germany and Spokane, Washington, before going nationwide for five weeks. The McNuggets were housed in a red and black box. They came with a goodie bag that included chopsticks, a McFortune cookie, and special sauces (Teriyaki, Sweet and Sour, and Hot Mustard).

Seven different bakeries produced over 40 million McFortune Cookies for this run. The paper fortunes contained McWisdom such as: "All the world's a stage. Right now, it's intermission." Others said things like: "It is better to have loved a short person than never to have loved a tall," according to the Gannett News Service. An equal amount of chopsticks were also produced. This was reportedly about as much as would have been produced for all of McDonald's locations in South Korea at the time. In some locations, these McNuggets were so popular locations would run out of sauces. 

This campaign flew north to Canada in the summer of 1987 and across the pond to England the year after. Its packaging earned its place (not in a positive light) at New York's Museum of Chinese in America, and even spawned a 1986 "Saturday Night Live" spoof.

When it comes to the holidays, McDonald's has long gotten into the spirit of the season to either warm up or cool down its customers with its food and drinks. Starting in 1987, the chain released its Holiday Chicken McNuggets, complete with an ornate box that appeared to have been gift-wrapped with a red bow. To truly differentiate these McNuggets, two new sauces were also introduced: Apple Spice and Cranberry Orange, which were also featured in the box's artwork.

Holiday Chicken McNuggets returned for the following two years. Canadian diners were lucky enough in 1988 and 1989 to have not one, but two truly festive dessert options to finish off their meals. The first was an Eggnog Shake, which McDonald's had introduced for a limited time as far back as 1970. The other was a Peppermint Sundae with a syrup so red that it could pass for fake movie blood.

Many of McDonald's best and long-lasting innovations to its menu have come thanks to the experimentation of its franchise owners. One of the more prolific experimenters was Al Bernardin, who sprung the Quarter Pounder out of his Fremont, California, locations. While that was a big hit, there were of course some misses, like his ground turkey McGobbler, and a diet version of the Big Mac called the Lite Mac.

The Lite Mac was first put into mouths in November 1983. Compared to the Big Mac, it contained one less piece of bun, went lighter on the signature sauce, had a leaner single patty, and was 40% lower in calories. A spokesman for Bernardin's management then told The Cincinnati Enquirer: "People are looking for lighter foods and this may be one answer for us." 

The Lite Mac was tested in five San Francisco area McDonald's and retailed at the same price as the genuine article ($1.29). It received mixed reviews from eaters and lagged in large sales, taking up only 3-8% of each location's totals. After a year, it didn't move beyond the initial test phase. McDonald's spokesperson Terri Capatosto then told The New York Times that it "just wasn't the taste our customers wanted."

In 1985, McDonald's finally gave in to rolling in the dough — pizza dough that is. A Wilmington, Delaware, McDonald's was selected as one of the first locations to serve McPizza, along with nine other locations that tested it. This first iteration of the McPizza wasn't even in the shape of a typical pizza. This 99-cent item was more like a Hot Pocket or a calzone, filled with provolone and mozzarella cheeses, ground beef, pepperoni, onions, oregano, and tomato sauce, and housed in a paper box that resembled a pie or hash brown holder.

The initial goal was to see if the McPizza was a tasty hit with customers and if it could work within the McDonald's system without slowing down the production of other items. Speaking on this, McDonald's spokesperson Terri Capatosto told The Chicago Tribune: "We're basically testing to see if we can make a product like this. We're fundamentally a hamburger business and we want to see if our customers will want this in a big way."

The McPizza pies arrived frozen and were fried up on-site in slightly over four minutes. If they sat around longer than 10 minutes, they had to be thrown away. By 1986, testing had expanded to 60 McDonald's. But the brakes were slightly applied by Edward Rensi, president of McDonald's U.S.A. He told The Chicago Tribune: "In the long run, we're going to expand McPizza, but in the short run, we're going to concentrate on salads."

In 1989, McDonald's locations in Evansville, Indiana, and Owensboro, Kentucky, were tapped as the pizzaiolos for a set of new 14-inch pies. However, this third incarnation, tested in those select stores by the chain, had a new name. Instead of McPizza, it was called McDonald's Pizza. 

The pizzas were only available to order for dinner and came in four varieties: Cheese, Pepperoni, Sausage, and Deluxe. Crushed red pepper flakes and parmesan cheese were also available for sprinkling on top. They took five to 10 minutes to make and cost $5 to $9 per order. Test locations were remodeled to have pizza-ready ovens. The drive-thru windows even had to be lengthened so the pizza boxes would fit through them.

While the tests were localized, buzz started to build across America about the product that sold over 100,000 units in just four months. Even Pizza Hut took notice and ran snarky "McFrozen" ads to try to talk the air out of McDonald's crust. It seemed a nationwide release was in the cards in the 1990s. But only Canada got the full green light in 1992. While it was officially discontinued in 1996, a McDonald's in Spencer, West Virginia, and another in Pomeroy, Ohio, continued to serve the pies, until the ovens were forced off in 2017.

One particular breaded item served as a canvas for multiple trial products for McDonald's breakfast: biscuits. Food technologist Ginnie Judd of Griffith Labs helped come up with the recipe. She told the Kingsport Times-News: "Well it's pretty much your normal biscuit recipe with flour, baking soda, and shortening. We just kept tinkering with it to get it just right."

In 1980, looking to branch out from biscuits just being used as buns for breakfast sandwiches, McDonald's tried out Breakfast Biscuits. They came with Southern-style ham or a pork sausage patty. And notably, they came without cheese. Bacon later joined the menu as a McDonald's biscuit meat. To this day, both sausage and bacon biscuit sandwiches can still be found on the menu.

By 1987, McDonald's attempted to do something with its biscuits outside of the sandwich realm. States like Indiana and South Carolina hosted the new Sausage Gravy and Biscuit, as well as the Cinnamon Raisin Biscuit. The homestyle gravy contained pork sausage, while the sweeter one had a light glaze to keep the raisins and cinnamon in place. These days, if you're looking to recapture these bygone sweet and savory biscuit offerings, your best bet is to head to a Bojangles or Hardee's.