14 Of The Oldest Fast Food Menu Items You Can Still Order Today

Fast food is thought to be a thoroughly modern invention, but the truth is that it's way older than you probably think. Although fast food first took off in the middle of the 20th century, thanks to better road systems that encouraged more car travel (and more people who needed delicious grub while on the move), the first fast food restaurant, White Castle, is over 100 years old. Many of the most beloved fast food franchises we still have today, from McDonald's to KFC, soon followed — and all of these restaurants still have items on their menus that they were selling on their very first day in business.

Why have these fast food items stood the test of time? For one key reason: They're delicious. Fast food brands build up their reputation on offering the same grub whenever you are in the country, and when they stumble on a menu item that they know their customers love, they'd be foolish to give it up. That's why some of the most popular and iconic fast food items, from the Big Mac to the Double-Double, have been around since before you were born. Sit back, relax, and take a bite of fast food history with us.

Burger King sells a lot of burgers every year — the clue's in its name, after all — but of all of its sandwiches, the Whopper is the most iconic. It's also the most popular: In 2009, the burger chain claimed to sell more than 1.3 billion Whoppers per year, according to Creative Foods Corp. So it's little surprise that Burger King has kept its Whopper around for so long, with this burger actually premiering way back in 1957, making it almost 70 years old.

The very first Whopper debuted in Burger King's first restaurant in Miami, a couple years after its flagship branch was opened. Back in the day it came in at 37 cents. Now, this may sound cheap, but that's more than double the price of the standard burger that Burger King was selling at the time. The Whopper soon rose to the top of the pack, though, and through the years it's become Burger King's most prominent product. BK hasn't been afraid to experiment with its Whopper, either. While the beef version has remained consistent, around the world Burger King has also tried out a Chicken Whopper, Shrimp Whopper, Pork Whopper, and even a Whopper containing Brussels sprouts. We'll give that last one a miss.

If you're eating at Chick-fil-A, it's likely you're ordering the Original Chicken Sandwich. The chicken chain has been pumping these out daily since 1964, when it was invented by S. Truett Cathy, the former chairman and founder of Chick-fil-A. The story goes that S. Truett Cathy was trying to figure out the right sandwich for the chain, working through hundreds of recipes, until he decided to keep things simple. He popped a chicken filet inside a toasted butter bun, crowned it with a duo of pickle slices, and the rest is history.

Interestingly, Chick-fil-A's Original Chicken Sandwich was actually invented before the restaurant itself was. Chick-fil-A was first opened in 1967, three years after the sandwich debuted. Before this, the business now known as Chick-fil-A was instead called The Dwarf Grill, the restaurant that Truett opened with his brother way back in 1946. Truett then took his success to the first Chick-fil-A branch, and the Chicken Sandwich went with it. With more than 2 billion guests ordering food at Chick-fil-A in 2023, and many of them chowing down on the chicken sandwich, it's fair to say that Truett was onto a winner.

There's something about ordering your burger Animal Style at In-N-Out that feels incredibly modern. Maybe it's the sheer messiness and indulgence of the burger, and its tangy, layered flavor, both of which feel as though it must have been invented recently. Well, we're here to tell you that Animal Style burgers are way older than you think. In fact, they first debuted way back in 1961, the year when the first human ever went into space and Six Flags Over Texas opened to the public for the first time.

In-N-Out's Animal Style Burger wasn't an innovation made by the company itself. Rather, the menu item first appeared due to customers requesting their burgers be cooked in that way, leading In-N-Out bosses to sniff out a gap in the market. Before then, the restaurant chain was churning out way more standard burgers, but it's clear that the Animal Style craze skyrocketed its size, taking it from being a small drive-thru hamburger stand to an enormous chain with over 400 outlets. Its other burgers and fries of course had a hand in this massive growth, but let's be honest guys: We're all about the Animal Style here.

If you had to name the most recognizable burger in the world, it's likely that the Big Mac would be the first one that sprung to mind. The fast food chain sells millions upon millions of Big Macs every year, and its inimitable center bun has allowed it to stand out in a world of lesser burgers. For something to build up such a strong reputation, it has to have been around for a while — and the Big Mac has definitely done its time. This burger was invented in 1967, by an enterprising franchisee called Michael "Jim" Delligatti.

Delligatti's philosophy when it came to the Big Mac was simple: If people like one of everything, they'll definitely like two of everything. As such, he came up with doubling-up the standard McDonald's burger, adding an extra patty, more cheese, and the bun in the middle. The bun made the burger even more towering, as well as more delicious, but it was also an act of necessity. The middle bun gave the Big Mac more structural integrity, and stopped everything from being sloppy. The secret sauce, meanwhile, gave it a distinctive taste, and the combination of both of those things birthed a legend.

The story of White Castle Sliders is the story of fast food itself. While burgers were around before White Castle was invented, this humble restaurant is renowned as the very first fast food joint in America. It all started back in 1921, when an enterprising businessman named Billy Ingram opened the first White Castle (which got its name from a nearby building). The idea Ingram had was to specialize in sliders, and so he put these small square burgers on his menu, pricing them at five cents apiece. Customers would come in, order a sack of sliders, and take them to eat at home. In doing so, Ingram changed the way Americans ate forever.

Nowadays, sliders remain as beloved as ever, and while White Castle has become a struggling chain restaurant that may soon be disappearing, most people have a soft spot in their hearts for these mini-burgers. Regardless of how the restaurant's doing, though, White Castle is still committed to keeping the same recipe as it used over a hundred years ago. In each slider, a 100% beef patty is paired with onions and a pickle, with the combination of sharp and meaty flavors making each bite totally delicious.

There are a lot of fast food chicken places fighting for attention these days. While you might have a new favorite every month, there's no denying that KFC has stood the test of time, and is arguably the best-known chicken restaurant of them all. Its fried chicken has largely remained consistent through its entire existence, too.

Good old Colonel Sanders opened his first KFC in 1952, when he was at the grand old age of 62 years old. He hadn't been wasting his time before this, though. He had previously owned a service station where he sold fried chicken to folks on the road. When the service station went out of operation, he recalibrated, and in doing so developed his secret blend of 11 herbs and spices (just one of the things that makes KFC chicken so good). He opened KFC, placed fried chicken on the menu, and the rest is history. New menu items may have come and gone, and suppliers and processes may have changed and modernized over the years — but no matter what KFC you've gone into over the last six decades, you've been able to grab that timeless chicken.

When you think of McDonald's, you probably think of its beef burgers, right? The Quarter Pounder with Cheese, the Big Mac, and the humble Hamburger. Well, spare a thought for the Filet-O-Fish, which is one of the oldest items on its menu. This burger came into existence a good few years before the Big Mac, and debuted on menus in 1965. In truth, though, it was invented a couple years before that.

It all began in 1962. Lou Groen, a franchisee based in Cincinnati, had the idea to sell a whitefish sandwich on Fridays because his largely Roman Catholic customer base was avoiding the restaurant on that specific day of the week, due to observing Lent. With a hefty dose of persistence, Groen managed to get McDonald's to try out the burger. They did so while also trialing another burger, the short-lived Hula Burger, which McDonald's founder Ray Kroc was certain would be a smash hit. Well, dear reader, we think you know the result of all of that. The Hula Burger failed spectacularly, while the Filet-O-Fish was a roaring success. By the time 1965 rolled around, it was a permanent fixture at McDonald's stores around the country.

McDonald's, Burger King, KFC ... and Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs. Let's be honest, the last restaurant isn't quite as famous as the others, despite what its name proclaims it to be. However, there's no disputing that as hot dogs go, Nathan's is pretty well-known, and it's been serving them up since 1916, smack bang in the middle of the First World War. How's that for old?

As with all fast food stories, the legend of Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs begins with a person with a dream. Nathan Handwerker, a Polish immigrant who had come to the United States, started up his very own hot dog stand in Coney Island. Using a bespoke spice recipe tailored by his wife, he began selling his hot dogs to the masses — and pretty soon people started to take notice. Word spread, and Nathan's outfit expanded. Nowadays, Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs sells hundreds of millions of hot dogs per year, with locations across both the country and the world. Nathan's never forgot its roots, though: The original hot dog joint still proudly sits on Coney Island.

Where do you get your donuts from? Dunkin'? Yeah, we thought so. Dunkin' has been the go-to spot for these sweet treats for generations, and its original Donuts have graced the menu since shortly after the Second World War. In 1948, entrepreneur Bill Rosenberg began selling coffee and donuts from his restaurant, which was then called "Open Kettle." You've gotta admit that the original name for this joint wasn't quite as catchy as it could have been — and Rosenberg agreed. Two years later, the restaurant was renamed "Dunkin' Donuts," and the donuts from the original menu were carried over. They've remained on Dunkin's menu to this day, while the size of the franchise has ballooned to encompass thousands of stores.

Although donuts have remained a mainstay at Dunkin', the chain hasn't been afraid to experiment with them every now and again. Dunkin' has expanded its flavor offering significantly, while it kept a little more simple back in 1948. It also has donut holes on its menu, the adorably-named Munchkins. It's the donuts, though, that keep people coming back for more.

The Arby's Roast Beef Sandwich is so keenly associated with the fast food brand that it's often assumed that it gets its name from the menu item. Arby's = R.B.'s, for Roast Beef. Get it? Well, that's not quite true — but what is true is that its Roast Beef Sandwich is one of its most successful items of all time, and has been beloved enough to stick around since the very first Arby's was opened in 1964.

The Arby's Roast Beef Sandwich was put center-stage at the restaurant because the Raffel Brothers who started the chain (and whose initials, R.B., are truly behind the Arby's name) saw that they needed to stand out. Instead of promoting hamburgers like everyone else, they'd instead champion their sandwich. "We wanted to do something different. Nobody was doing roast beef and that's what we did," said founder Leroy Raffel in an interview with Metro Monthly. Paired with its adult-focused image, this set it apart. Despite the roast beef sandwich being way pricier than the average burger, people still flocked to Arby's to get it. Its massive success made it a mainstay, and it hasn't moved from the menu since.

We just love customers, y'all. When it comes to fast food restaurants, customers have the power not just to make or break a business — they also have the power to get them to introduce entirely new menu items that then become some of our favorites. Look no further than In-N-Out's Double-Double for proof of this point. This burger has been around since 1963, but it wasn't originally on the In-N-Out menu. However, when customers started requesting a double burger, the franchise listened, and duly put the Double-Double in pride of place in its offering.

Well, we'd have to say that was a smart move. These days, the Double-Double is one of the most popular burgers available in the restaurant, and it's managed to stand the test of time on In-N-Out's slim menu. The introduction of the Double-Double even forced In-N-Out to reassess how it makes its burgers, with the restaurant creating a new patty-making process to ensure that it could churn them out quickly enough.

No trip to Wendy's is complete without a Frosty, and the sweet treat is as old as the restaurant itself. It all started in 1969, the very same year that Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the Moon. The first Wendy's was opening up, and founder Dave Thomas was considering his menu options, and decided that he needed something sweet to put on there — but he wanted something distinctive, and slightly different from the regular ice creams that other restaurants sold.

So he got in touch with Fred Kappus, the CEO of Kappus Company. Kappus Company specialized in distributing ice cream machines, and Thomas had a sense that Kappus might know what to do with his menu. Luckily, Kappus had just the recipe for him, and the Frosty was placed in the Columbus-based restaurant. As Wendy's expanded, the Frosty went with it. Kappus and Thomas continued to refine its formula and the process for making it as time went on, ironing out the kinks and ensuring that customers would get a consistent result every time. We'd say that they nailed it.

Taco Bell's Crunchy Tacos changed the game. When Glen Bell, founder of Taco Bell, elected to put tacos with a hard shell on the menu at his hamburger stand in San Bernardino, California in 1951, he stumbled upon a formula that would alter the face of Mexican fast food forever. When he later opened a string of fast food joints that specialized solely in tacos, the Crunchy Taco was the flagship product, and its popularity exploded.

Here's the thing, though. Glen Bell may have made the Taco Bell Crunchy Taco famous — but he didn't invent it. Instead, he stole it. Bell's hamburger stand was across the street from a restaurant called Mitla Cafe, opened by Salvador and Lucia Rodriguez. Lucia's hard shell tacos were the talk of the town, and folks would flock from miles around to try them. Watching from across the street, Bell realized that if he took the idea and applied it to American sensibilities, he could have a fast food empire on his hands that could rival the biggest in the country. He did just that, started churning out Crunchy Tacos, and the rest is history. It's not a particularly noble history, though.

It all started with the burger. Before McDonald's was selling the Big Mac, the Filet-O-Fish, and the McRib, it was specializing in pure beef hamburgers. These burgers were on the menu at the very first McDonald's back in 1940, and we can't believe how cheap they were – each McDonald's Hamburger would set you back just 15 cents a pop. We'll order a dozen, please.

Although the name Ray Kroc is most commonly associated with McDonald's and its world-conquering status, the restaurant was actually first opened by its namesakes. Richard and Maurice McDonald opened their very first burger restaurant in 1940, and operated it with their distinctive "Speedee Service System." This system allowed them to deliver food to the masses quickly, refining the fast food process that has allowed so many people to enjoy McDonald's food since. The Hamburger was the flagship product, and the star of an incredibly simple menu. Apart from the burger, the first McDonald's also offered a cheeseburger, its fries, and a wide selection of drinks (including a glass of milk, priced at just 12 cents). It was a much simpler time, guys.