The Ultimate Fast Food Comparison
You know that really big fast food project that I mentioned I’ve been working on? Well, it’s done… and it’s F’ing awesome!
What it is, is a side-by-side comparison of the most popular foods from over 20 popular fast food restaurants to see how each restaurant’s version of the same food stacks up against all of the others.
I call it Fast Food Restaurants and Nutrition Facts Compared.
So, for example, you’ll see the nutrition facts of the French Fries from McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, White Castle and a dozen more side-by-side to compare which has the most/least calories, fat, saturated fat, trans fat, carbs and sodium.
Like I said… it’s quite awesome. Go check it out.
Have any questions or feedback about it? Leave it in the comments here. Also, if you have suggestions for other fast food items you would like to see added to the comparison, feel free to leave them in the comments as well. I can’t make any promises, but if you know of a similar type of food that is sold at 2 or more fast food restaurants, I’ll do my best to put it all together and add it to the comparison.
Hope you guys like it. My eyeballs almost exploded while putting it all together.






78 Responses to “The Ultimate Fast Food Comparison”
Holy crap… that’s crazzzzy! Great job!
By Sean on Nov 6, 2007
How about KFC crispy chicken dinner and KFC original dinner. Both white and dark meats?
Also, the subs from Subway, Quiznos, Hungry Hobo, those types of sandwiches that we see all the time touted on TV as the best to eat?
Thanks a really great article and comparison. I’ve already sent it to 5 different persons.
Ross
By Ross on Nov 6, 2007
Definitely include Chik-fil-A in the next version, if you can. They’re a not-entirely-evil company, as far as fast food goes, and at the very least they’re good about publishing their nutrition info (I’d link to it here, but they’ve gone to an obnoxious flash-based website).
By Jen on Nov 6, 2007
Phenomenal job on the charts – well done, thanks.
By peter on Nov 6, 2007
This is incredible. Thank you!!
By anne on Nov 6, 2007
Sean: Glad you liked it.
Ross: I’ll add those foods to my to-do list. And about the restaurants you mentioned, Quiznos does not provide any nutritional info, and, this is the first time I’ve ever even heard of Hungry Hobo.
Glad you liked it though, and thanks for sending it around.
Jen: Thanks for the suggestion. Chik-fil-A is another place I don’t think I’ve ever heard of (I’m in NY, I don’t think we have any here) or else I definitely would had already included them. Consider it added to my to-do list.
Peter: Thanks a lot, glad you liked it.
Anne: Incredible is exactly what I shoot for.
Glad you liked it.
By aCalorieCounter on Nov 6, 2007
Wow, amazing job! I’ve been looking for something like this!
By Jason on Nov 7, 2007
Great job! This will save me so much time when I know I’m going to run out and grab a quick bite to eat. Now I can take a look at whatever I’m craving and then decide to grab a veggie sandwich from the local sub shop instead.
Here’s another vote for Chik-fil-a too!
By kelly on Nov 7, 2007
Thanks for all the hard work that went into this! I am trying to gain weight and find here, that the sodium and trans fat excess will still keep me away from “fast foods”. The only thing I buy is the occasional milkshake from Carl’s with a whopping 30 something grams of fat. The sugar content makes me too crazy, so that one’s history now too. Thank you for the awareness this brings to the subject.
By Paula on Nov 7, 2007
OMG.. I don’t think I will eat any FAST FOOD after this list… =P
Thanks for the great post. Keep it up!
By B on Nov 7, 2007
Beautiful chart! I don’t eat much fast food but I was pretty well horrified at that fact that my most favorite foods are all well over 1000 calories! Ugh!
As a suggestion, didn’t see it in the other comments but how about mexican places (High Tech Burrito, Taco Bell, what have you).
By Stefan on Nov 7, 2007
Jason: Thanks man. Glad you found it useful.
Kelly: Thank you as well. Consider an asterisk placed next to Chik-fil-a on my to-do list.
Paula: You are quite welcome. And you are definitely doing the right thing not using fast food as a quick and easy high calorie source. For weight gain, you really want to eat the same type of foods you’d eat if your goal was weight loss… just more of it.
B: You are welcome as well, glad you liked it.
Stefan: Thanks. I too was surprised at the number of foods with 1000+ calories. Also, good suggestion. High Tech Burrito is another place I’ve never even heard of. I don’t know where it’s food would rank nutrition-wise yet, but I think it easily takes first place for dumbest restaurant name.
By aCalorieCounter on Nov 7, 2007
One thing I wonder is a Value Per Gram comparison. Take the hamburgers. Sure, White Castle wins but that’s because they’re smaller. It’s not really a fair comparison to the other burgers, because it’s not a realistic purchasing scenario. If I’m hungry, I’m going to get a double cheeseburger from McDonald’s or 3 burgers from White Castle. Sure, sure, I’m not saying it’s healthy, but my point being is that for me and most situations I’ve seen, a person is going to eat X grams of food, and that may be multiple orders of an item, or even half an order of an item. So, I think a Value Per Gram ratio would be more enlightening than just a raw comparison. Could you put that in?
By Steven on Nov 9, 2007
Steven: A couple of people have brought this up to me. Here’s the reply I gave to one of them…
“The idea was to compare similar products rather than products of similar weight. One restaurant’s burger VS another’s, and one restaurant’s burger VS another of that same restaurant’s burgers.
When people get fast food, they usually think in terms of “Should I get this burger or this burger?” rather than “Should I get this 100 gram burger, or should I get this 300 gram burger and eat 1/3 of it?”
People tend to only buy fast food in terms of Burger A vs Burger B, Chicken Nuggets A vs Chicken Nuggets B, etc. and this comparison was done with that in mind.
I included weight so people could still see the difference in serving size. But to me, comparing them in terms of X grams of each product wasn’t going to be much use to anyone who was just going to eat 1 full order of whatever they ended up ordering, which I felt was most often the case.
Unless people are bringing their digital food scales to McDonald’s, the only real level playing field for a comparison like this is burger vs burger, fries vs fries, etc.”
With all of that being said though, I still actually agree with you and see how a per-gram comparison could also be useful. Rather than add it in, I may just put a whole second separate per-gram comparison together at some point in the future.
Thanks for the suggestion.
By aCalorieCounter on Nov 9, 2007
How bout Arby’s Sandwiches.
Also, I think you need to take on the sub sandwiches found at Arbys, Subway, Jimmie Johns, Panera etc… I think people think they are being good by eating “non-fried” food. But those sandwiches with the works, potato chips, soda, end up being no better than their fried counterparts.
Sad but true…
By aw on Nov 12, 2007
The first thing I thought when I saw the tables is “why are they comparing total weight instead of per unit weight?”
The I realized you don’t buy fries by the gram. And it’s really hard when you sit down with a bunch of food in front of you to figure out how much you should leave on the plate (to say nothing of the resolve necessary to actually leave it on the plate and not eat it.)
But I will second the request to break these tables down by gram because it would be very interesting to see if DQ really has worse food than everyone else or if their terrible results are a side effect of their enormous serving sizes.
By metoo on Nov 12, 2007
…Without having to import the tables into excel and do the work myself, that is.
By metoo on Nov 12, 2007
This is a great list. I’m almost surprised that going to some of these places might not be that bad. How about adding ice cream and milkshakes to this list?
By Dan on Nov 12, 2007
As a southerner who could stand some better eating habits, I’d like to see more fried chicken comparisions. I don’t know if it is common everywhere but where I live there are a lot of fast food-style chicken finger places, a la Zaxby’s, Guthrie’s, Jim Bob’s, that all serve literally the same meal, french fries, fried chicken fingers, and a piece of toast so coated in butter that it is essentially itself fried. Anyway, you said you were looking for suggestions.
By BP on Nov 12, 2007
I really appreciate all the work you’ve put into this–SUPER helpful. Thank you very much.
One thing I would like to see, though, is a comparison of a typical meal any one of us would make at home. It’s great to know how terrible the fast food is for us but it doesn’t mean as much unless I can compare that to a dinner of grilled steak, baked potato, and salad (for example).
One way this might be accomplished (if the information is even available) is to compare an 8oz grilled chicked breast with an 8oz grilled steak with an 8oz grilled fish filet with etc. Then maybe do the same with broiled, pan fried, deep fried, baked, etc.
Then come the veggies…
Yes, I’m making a ton more work for you. Why don’t I just stop talking and appreciate the work you’ve already done.
Thank you!
By Jerod on Nov 12, 2007
Incredibly cool and comprehensive list. I can’t imagine how much time that must have taken to compile. Good work.
By Jason A Clark on Nov 12, 2007
This is awesome. Thank you.
Since you are taking requests, I would love to see Whataburger on here. I know they don’t exist where you are, but down here they are everywhere.
By iamsofaking on Nov 12, 2007
Have you considered adding Wendy’s Breakfast? They are pretty new, and I am not sure if they are everywhere yet.
By Rae on Nov 12, 2007
Could you add information on Marco’s pizza> http://www.marcos.com/?
By Leonardo on Nov 12, 2007
Suggestions to add: Chipotle, Taco Bell, Subway.
By tablespork on Nov 12, 2007
What about milkshakes? A standard vanilla, chocolate. or strawberry milkshake is found at nearly every fast food store.
By Eddie on Nov 12, 2007
Hi there,
What about fish burgers? I often try to get these if I get stuck for food and need somethign half-way ‘healthy’. I often go for a McDonalds Fillet of Fish (minus the tartare sauce), how ‘good’ is that really, I’d love to know.
By Marie on Nov 12, 2007
One thing that should be added to the list is salads. People always think of these as good alternatives at fast food restaurants, but they can be deceiving in the size and the toppings that are presented as choices (and don’t get me started on the dressings).
Great article (came here via Digg, like most people). Keep up the good work!
By Cesar on Nov 12, 2007
This list is phenomenal! Thank you so much!
A few suggestions for your next list. Feel free to use or ignore at your discretion, I’m just throwing stuff up against the wall here to see if anything sticks:
Quiznos, Togo’s, Blimpie, Schlotzsky’s and Subway sandwich shop comparisons. Many people are on the Jared Fogle-Subway diet bandwagon and it’d be interesting to see how other sandwich shops stack up.
Taco Bell, Del Taco, Chipotle, and Green Burrito comparison. Many of them have the same, or similar items. Out here in Cali, it’s almost impossible to go longer than 2 weeks without some sort of Mexican foodstuff, and such a list would be a big help.
KFC, El Pollo Loco, Popeye’s, Church’s and Albertson’s (or similar grocery store) chicken comparison. I get the idea that El Pollo Loco would win in most of the categories, but it could be surprising.
By Brandon on Nov 12, 2007
Nothing more shocking than facts. Great job! I would love to see some numbers on the so-called “healthy alternatives” to fast food such as Quizno’s, Samurai Sam’s and all the sandwhich shops.
By Justin on Nov 12, 2007
you should really add salads as that is a very popular alternative to most foods at a fast food resteraunt. Many salads, such as the salads at mcdonalds, arent too bad nutrition wise but when you get to the dressing and additional toppings it becomes just as bad, if not worse than many other foods on the menu.
By Jordan on Nov 12, 2007
Awesome work with the charts. I appreciate that you took the time to put this together!
You have made me curious about some of the other chains out there. For example: Taco Bell or Panda Express (huge out west)…
Is it possible to check out some of the sit down restaurants, i.e. Applebee’s, Outback Steakhouse, T.G.I. Fridays, Chili’s etc.?
Thanks again! Keep up the good work!
By Ryan on Nov 12, 2007
Great job, I will be sending this out to all my friends. I have to suggest one thing that all my friends from NC (and the southeast) will want to have compared. It might be to regional, but bojangles are every where down here.
p.s. please put another * by Chik-fil-a
By Kevin on Nov 12, 2007
I’m not sure what depresses me more: the apathy America seems to have about what it eats (and how that is done: as quickly as possible), or that more of the ‘disnutrition’ — yes, I made that up — is showing up here in Paris, where I moved to escape all of that madness. It seems like another Starbucks pops up every day. Compared to a ‘normal’ Parisian cafĂ©, it’s like entering a damn pharmacy: triple non-fat vente sugar-free mocha pumpkin soy latte, no foam, and please make it glow in the dark while your are at it.
By richard on Nov 12, 2007
Am very surprised that you didn’t have Chick-Fil-A in your original lists, but am looking forward to the updated lists that include Chick-Fil-A, whose nuggets and sandwiches are fried in peanut oil.
Someone has suggested salad comparisons, and I think that would be excellent. Please don’t forget Chick-Fil-A’s salad options; they’re the only salads I ever eat.
By Jimbo on Nov 12, 2007
I can understand your rationale in expressing values per-serving as opposed to per-gram. As you said, people choose between different meals, not between 100g of different meals.
But it’s not a complete comparison. The problem is clear with the cheese sticks. This example sticks out (apologies for the pun) as a pretty clear sign that you’re sticking (I’m sorry!) too close to your per-serving methodology at the expense of a comparison that actually makes sense. I mean, I don’t need your table to know that two cheese sticks are more than one cheese stick.
A table with all values expressed as ratios of the total weight would be the most useful. All your current comparisons are basically saying is that a Whitecastle burger is healthier than a Triple Whopper. Well, this is certainly true. But when I’m hungry at Whitecastle, I’m going to be ordering more than one minuscule burger. Since presumably it’ll take the same amount of grams of either food to satisfy my hunger, so I want to know which one I should be stuffing my face with with, per gram. Therefore the ratios are very relevant. They could be simple as additional columns using a divide-by-serving-size formula in the spreadsheet.
Your research and work here is really amazing, and I really applaud it. Which is why I felt compelled to urge you to consider to make it even more informative.
By nano on Nov 12, 2007
I’d like to second that comment my nano. I most often eat fast food at lunchtime, and it’s all about getting enough to feel full. So when I go to Wendy’s, for example, I get the baconator and an order of chicken nuggets. It’s not a choice between which two burgers, but which combination works for me.
Granted, I eat too much at lunchtime, but the example stands. If I go someplace else, I get approximately the same quantity of food.
Perhaps a button on the page to toggle between ratios and values would work. A little javascript is all it would take.
Other than that, I loved the table. Very informative.
By Ray Kelm on Nov 12, 2007
I think it’d be more useful if you normalized the grams of each serving. It’s not useful to know that a tiny white castle burger has the least [whatever] because no one can eat just one of those
By Jim on Nov 12, 2007
Excellant job on your work. About the only fast food I eat regularly is Taco Bells bean burrito with onions and green sauce. Thats it, no drinks,just water.
By Fred on Nov 13, 2007
i was wondering something though… the first thing i thought while looking through the nutrition facts was the fact that the serving size had something to do with the high intake of crap. now i know that portion control is one of the biggest problems america has, but would the ratio of size to nutritional information be affected? meaning, if all the sizes of all the objects were the same would there be such a huge difference between everything?
say for instance the fries, since it was first. if all the fry size and count was the same, but the recipe different, would the fat content and all the info differ?
what i’m really trying to figure out is if there’s a mathematical equation to calculate the ratio of serving size to nutritional content? am i making any sense?
By beth on Nov 13, 2007
This is great! I’d love to see the much snickered at fish sandwich family of menu items included. Also, desserts would be great.
By m in athens on Nov 13, 2007
I’d like to see another set of numbers showing calories/g, fat/g, etc.
If a 100g item has half the fat of a 300g item it should not win the prize for best.
Thanks
By Joe on Nov 13, 2007
When looking at the Trans Fat columns in these tables, everyone should keep in mind what is explained in the Trans Fat section of the article “Reading Food Labels – Nutrition Facts Explained”. In short: any 0 (zero) in the trans fats column could be (and, imho, most likely is) a lie, on the part of the fast food restaurants.
By john douglas porter on Nov 13, 2007
Your article was great the only problem that I could think of is normal intake. Say I go to McDonalds and order a meal thats the sandwich fries and drink. When you compare that to White Castle or KFC things get hazy because you don’t eat just one slider or snacker. The comparisons would be a lot better and more accurate if you included an average on how many of the sandwiches it would normally take to become full. At Burger King it might be just the number 1 but at White Castle it might take a sack of 10, fries, and a drink.
By Matt on Nov 13, 2007
Just a quick response about your “Carb insanity” comment. It’s important to distinguish between healthy complex carbs (fruit, whole grains, etc.), which the body can efficiently into energy from “junk carbs” (high-fructose corn syrup, processed white flour, did I say high-fructose corn syrup?), which overwhelm the pancreas and lead to a fat-generating insulin response. It drives me nuts to see so many foods advertised as “fat-free” that are loaded with unhealthy sugar replacements.
The ‘insanity’ you mention is typical of our culture in that everyone seems to want (or need) an overly simplified explanation to what ails them: “Fat = bad” or “carbs = bad”. What’s insane is that we are all fooling ourselves – or worse – letting ourselves be fooled by food marketers (not to mention politicians), who are only interested in playing to our weaknesses and making money. ‘Nuff said…
By JWW on Nov 13, 2007
Speaking as a representative of the oppressed east coast, we need to see how Dunkin’ Donuts breakfast sandwiches fall into the breakfast sandwich list.
By Jason Braley on Nov 13, 2007
I would suggest Starbucks is added to your list. They are quickly becoming a fast food outlet for the yuppy set (to borrow a term from the 80’s). I quite sure their new breakfast sandwiches would be high on your list.
By Lance on Nov 13, 2007
Might be interesting to add fatburger to the list; I went to their site after seeing this list, and was disappointed to find that while their fries don’t have transfats, their burgers do. *sigh*.
http://www.fatburger.com/menu/Nutrition_Facts.pdf
By Sandy on Nov 13, 2007
Starbucks breakfast sandwiches (and other things)
http://www.starbucks.com/retail/nutrition/Zone002_SBUX_Food_Nutrition.pdf
By Lance on Nov 13, 2007
I this mentioned but there is no way White Castle hamburger can win anything because no one – and I mean no one – eats just one White Castle burger. The whole point of the place and their advertising is to see how many you can eat. This includes a “crave case” of 15 burgers or a “sack of 10″.
I know for a fact that their are people that eat this amount by themselves. I just find it so ironic that your award for most healthy burger is probably eaten in a way that would make it the worst burger by far!
By aw on Nov 13, 2007
Could you add a column and list the calories per gram for the item? I’m really curious
By Kris on Nov 13, 2007
I second (third?) the Starbucks idea. Since I travel a lot for work, I find myself grabbing coffee and an inevitable croissant/scone/donut more than I’d like to. Love a comparison of what they offer… rather than “coffee”
By blackbrrrd on Nov 14, 2007
Thanks for the great site. My health teacher finds this to be really useful. How about the numbers for the fish sandwiches out there?
By Sharon on Nov 14, 2007
Very interesting list. It pointed out some things I need to avoid that I have had frequently in the past. One suggestion I have is to do a comparison of the kids meals at these places. As a parent I’d be very interested in finding out what the best/worst choices are.
Thanks,
Paul
By Paul Eck on Nov 14, 2007
Could you make the tables sortable?
http://cssjuice.com/16-sortable-table-techniques/
By Lance on Nov 14, 2007
How about Salads? I’d like to see how these “healthy” dishes really aren’t.
By Jaimie on Nov 16, 2007
What a wonderful thing you have done! Now my family does not have to listen to me berate the fast food staff for not having a listing of nutritional informationavailable. I am a diabetic who is controlled for 10 years with diet and exercise.
I would love to see McDonald’s “chicken snack wrap” the grilled version (a favorite lunch of mine)
AND the Hardy’s ham and cheese.
By Donna on Nov 16, 2007
I first want to say what a great job you did putting this together. I can’t imagine the amount of time it took to compile all the info and sort through it.
I want to just put in my vote for the Mexican food info — Taco Bell and Chipotle are everywhere in my hometown, but I know that there are tons of other Mexican fast food places around.
I also agree that we need info on all of the sandwich restaurants that have popped up — Subway, Blimpie, Quiznos, Jimmy Johns, Penn Station, Izzy’s, Potbelly, Schlotzky’s, etc. etc. etc. People tend to think they are doing better by getting a sandwich, but I’m sure some of these places are probably out of control too.
The coffee idea would be great too — Starbucks, The Coffee Beanery, etc.
THANKS again for putting this together! It’s very helpful!!!!
By Emily on Nov 17, 2007
Please do the fried chicken places, mainly KFC and Popeyes. Both have several variants on chicken and other things (like biscuits) that are a fast food staple. Thanks
By Celia on Nov 17, 2007
GREAT JOB!
Please add comparisons of standard Beverages (soda, juice, milk etc) AND Deserts.
FYI – Two new ones in competition are McDOnald’s new Cinamon Melts and Burger King’s Mini-Melts. I bet the data on those would wipe out any effort to eat their better breakfast snadwich by far!!!
By Cheryl on Nov 17, 2007
Hey, great calculator! Impressive amount of work, much better done than anything provided by Center for Science in the Public Interest, that’s for sure. It would be great to download to ta PDA or similar device for those people who eat a lot of fast food (not me) but do try to choose well.
I would love to see data for Rubio’s (fish taco chain in So Cal, based in Carlsbad, CA) and Chipotle Grill.
The other info I would like to see (if it’s there I missed it) is what frying fats are used. That is far more useful than the trans fats grams. For instance, I would love to know which restaurants are still using/have gone back to using traditional, stable, and healthier beef tallow for frying instead of unhealthy vegetable oil. Then trans fats would be a moot point.
Also, it would be useful to know if the new trans fat-free techno oils are being used as some people might want to completely avoid these (me).
Thanks for including the carb counts, though I know you did it defensively, not because you consider it relevent. But consider that just about all the carbs in typical fast food meals *are* the highly refined junk sugars and starches with no redeeming value at all (the pitiful amounts of anemic veggies excepted), and that is *very* significant.
And majority of the calories of a fast food meal are from junk carbs not fat or protein It is glucose and fructose that run up triglycerides and skew the cholesterol levels in a less healthful manner (lower HDL and raise small, dense LDL), not dietary protein or naturally saturated fats. That is what did in the liver of the Supersize me guy, not the burger patties. All that fructose went right to his liver for processing and started to damage it.
So when you think about it, and I can see you are a thinking person, a low carb burger option with tomato, onion, pickle, lettuce wraps instead of bun, minus catsup and mayo and the fake cheese, with water (or at least a non-sugar sweetened beverage) is a far better meal option, no matter what the fat grams and total calories are (and the calories will be far lower in this meal anyway. If you don’t believe me, spend less time on this calculator and more time on learning what happens to with high levels of sugars, especially fructose, in the body (fatty liver, elevated tryglicerides, inflammation, weight gain, AGEs (advanced glycosated endproducts), etc.
Anyway, thanks again for your compilation of the data in a very user friendly format.
By Anna on Nov 20, 2007
Oh one more point, the carb counts are very useful for people with glucose metabolism issues (hypoglycemic, diabetic, etc.), whether they use medications and insulin to counter carb intake, or no meds/insulin but with carb restriction. it is much harder to keep tight glucose control when eating out because of all the hidden sugars. Unfortunately, there is also a lot of fructose in fast food items, which doesn’t measure on the glucose meter after the meal, but still causes a lot of cellular damage.
By Anna on Nov 20, 2007
Hello! I _loved_ your documentation on fast food items! I greatly appreciate your efforts in this endeavor!
Rather than suggest _more_ fast food items for comparison, I was wondering if you would be able to implement a comparison of only select fast food restaurants. For example, in my general area, there is really only Burger King and McDonalds, with Arbys and Wendys on the outskirts. As far as Sonics and Hardees and the rest–they’re simply not anywhere near my area (I don’t even know if they’re in my state!).
Because of this–it’d be great if your detailed information could be streamlined to only compare items like the “big ones” (MCD and BK, with Wendys and Arbys in close second (at least from my experience those are the big two and the big two runners-up)). Not to say “throw out the rest of your data”–of course not!!! But offer an option to view ALL data or select data.
Obviously I could search through the other restaurants that are foreign to me, but since you’ve established such a wonderful resource–I think it’d be a great idea to allow visitors to view the entire fast food comparison chart–as well as a simplified version with only a few of the most popular and most frequented fast food joints.
I applaud your efforts! Thank you!
By Fast_Food_Eater on Nov 26, 2007
On the other hand, adding Subway, Blimpies, Jimmy John’s, etc–like other posters have suggested, might be nice.
I would also be greatly interested in how Taco Bell compares to the burger-joints. It’s difficult to make a comparison, but if an item that fills me up at Taco Bell is incredibly more healthy than an item that fills me up at MCD, I’m sure I wouldn’t be the only one interested!
As far as those requesting coffee–I think that’d be a lot of work (wouldn’t it?) since pretty much EVERY place serves coffee, and it all depends on how you make it (sugar, milk, creamer, etc)?
Not to say that what you’ve done so far ISN’T hard, because of course, we all appreciate this work you’ve done!
By Fast_Food_Eater on Nov 26, 2007
I noticed that you have an unknown quantity listed for Sonic’s Mozzarella sticks. Well I just wanted to let you know, they come in a serving size of 5.
By Bob on Nov 29, 2007
Arby’s roast beef sandwiches. People will go to Arby’s for those sandwiches rather than to McD’s for a burger. It would be good to see the comparison there.
Also, (this was mentioned earlier) some of your “healthiest” choices do not take into account serving size…do you really think people will stop at one mini-burger?
By Jim on Nov 29, 2007
I would like to see Whataburger’s information included on this list. Here in Texas it’s about the best burger you can find.
By Tankueray on Jan 3, 2008
Could you compare milkshakes? Or Flurries/ice cream etc?
Or even ice cream chains like Haagendaz v. Ben and Jerry’s scoop shops, v. Coldstone Creamery v. Tasti D-lite and such?
By rachel on Feb 19, 2008
Just found your website and found it very useful. One thing I would like to see a comparison on is salad at fast food places. I know some people think they are eating healthy if they have a salad, but some are worse than the other menu items. I also like to eat salads and would like to know the “best” and the “worse”
By Lou Ann Smith on Feb 20, 2008
This is a really great list, thanks so much for compiling it. I agree with the many others who ask for taco bell and whataburger information. They’re everywhere here in Texas. I also wanted to say that your pizza comparison isn’t fair. The type of crust at Pizza hut that is comparable to the rest of these is hand-tossed not pan. Pan would have to be compared to the other restaurants’ deep dish/thick crust versions.
By LauraAnna on Apr 9, 2008
Your are awesome. I love reading your website. It makes me smile:)
By Rachel on Jun 3, 2008
How does Long Johns Silver’s compare? ie. fish, chicken, fries. I thought I heard that they used “0 trans fat” oil.
By Lisa on Jun 25, 2008
Hi,
Super article. May I suggest looking into calories etc for the convenience store industry? For instance, what about 7-11- they carry breakfast sandwiches, burgers, hotdogs, taquitos.. and more. I also would like to see a site which looks at calorie counts etc. for chinese foods.
Thanks!!
CK
By Cheryl on Oct 22, 2008
The chart was very helpful. It may be useful to mention that some of these restaraunts have started offering better options for those in the position of going to them. Many of them now offer salads that are decent. (I really like Chick-fil-a’s Santa fe Chicken, the spice of the black bean and corn salsa really cuts into the need for dressing!) Also, Wendy’s has their chili, with the addition of beans kicks up the health notch.
By Lanie on Jan 2, 2009
This is a great site. I agree i would like to see the salads and dressings compared. I like the Iced coffees that they have @ a lot of the fast ffo chains. Some of them offer them sugar free,ect. I would just like to know, how they stack up. Thanks.
By Heather on Feb 9, 2009
wow, love this. it’s brilliant. tbh good job i don’t eat out at fast food places very often!
how about adding on the crazy salads you can get? with all their ridiculous fatty dresssings, etc. it’s amazing how many times you go for a salad and it’s cooooooovered in crap!
i’m from the UK so only BK, McDonalds and Subway are relevant to me, really. and tbh i bloody love subway but i always either get a salad, veggie delite or a veggie patty (rarely) and i skip on the cheese.
but yes, this website is fantastic. keep up the good work :] and i love the dialect! it isn’t all like “oh la de da i’m awesome and this is what you shouldn’t be eating you fat wobbler”, it’s readable and friendly and a brilliant WARNING to those who love fast food. my boyfriend would hate this site ;D!
keep up the great work x
By Polly on Mar 10, 2009
and, sorry to double post, but although BK, McD’s and Subway are the most relevant to me, i find it extremely interesting (and slightly cathartic) to see all the other rubbishy junk food there is out there – makes me feel like i can do no wrong, ’cause i don’t eat meat anyways and the veggie burgers you can get are mainly grossssss C:
again, very well done :]
By Polly on Mar 10, 2009
Various entities have rated Wendy’s the best of the big 3 fast food chains. I strongly disagree. After working wt Windy’s for 3 mondths I was disgusted and appalled. The youth employed there never wasthed their hands more than once or twice a shift, I know as I did clean up. Dropped hamburgeer patties were frequently dropped to the flor and put back on the grill. It was all totally unsanitary. I am surprised they have not been banished by the food and drug administration.
By G. Ray Cox on Mar 31, 2009