Walk into any fast food restaurant and you’ll see the same glossy menu boards advertising Big Macs, Whoppers, and Chicken McNuggets. These are the items corporate wants you to order. Yet behind the counter, employees are quietly creating wildly different meals using combinations and tricks that never get advertised. It’s a whole hidden culinary universe that only comes to light if you know the right things to ask for.
The truth is that workers discover these combinations through sheer repetition and boredom. When you’re making burritos five days a week, eventually you start experimenting. Some of these creations are now so popular that they’ve earned their own unofficial names, passed along through word of mouth, TikTok videos, and Reddit threads. Let’s be real: once you try some of these, your regular order might never feel the same again.
The Chipotle Quesarito That Takes Forever to Make
The Chipotle Quesarito is considered the Holy Grail of the Chipotle secret menu, and it’s a burrito where the shell is actually a cheese quesadilla. Think about that for a second. Instead of wrapping your burrito fillings in a plain tortilla like everyone else in line, employees will make a quesadilla by sandwiching a heaping amount of cheese between two tortilla shells and heating it in the warmer while you wait. Then they use this melted cheese creation as your burrito wrapper. The quesarito is a quesadilla laid flat, then filled with rice, meat, beans, and rolled like a burrito, similar to stuffed-crust pizza, Chipotle style.
Here’s the catch: workers often dread making these. Since this dish takes considerably more time to cook and assemble compared to the rest of Chipotle’s menu, some locations might deny your request based on their busyness. I’ve heard stories of employees visibly annoyed when someone orders this during the lunch rush. They don’t like when people order them because they take longer to make. However, the flavor payoff is massive. The melted cheese creates gooey layers between crispy, browned tortilla that’s honestly hard to resist. The cashier will likely ring it up as a burrito with an added charge of around three dollars and fifty cents, though this price may vary by location.
McDonald’s Spicy McCrispy Loaded With Secret Add-Ons
Fast-food workers swear by ordering the Spicy McCrispy chicken sandwich with extra spicy pepper sauce and extra crinkle-cut pickles, plus the additions of cheese and bacon. This transforms what’s already a pretty solid sandwich into something that could legitimately compete with higher-end fast-casual chains. It’s basically taking McDonald’s standard spicy chicken offering and turning it into a fully loaded masterpiece that wasn’t originally on anyone’s radar.
The Spicy McCrispy was already a favorite at McDonald’s, but this hack takes the sandwich to a new level with added flavor and texture. A viral foodie even rated it a perfect ten. One reviewer called this “probably the best idea any employee has ever had” and urged McDonald’s to put this on the menu immediately. The extra pickles add a vinegary crunch that cuts through the richness of bacon and cheese, while doubling up on that spicy pepper sauce brings legitimate heat. Honestly, it’s hard to understand why McDonald’s doesn’t just make this official.
The In-N-Out Flying Dutchman for Low-Carb Lovers
An In-N-Out Burger employee’s favorite secret menu item is the Flying Dutchman: two slices of cheese melted between two burger patties. That’s it. No bun, no lettuce, no tomato unless you specifically ask for those additions. It’s a good choice if you’re on a low-carb diet, and you can add crunch with pickles and onions. The whole thing is basically pure protein and fat, which makes it popular among keto dieters and people who just really love meat and cheese without all the bread getting in the way.
Despite its flashy name, this variation of In-N-Out’s classic cheeseburger is quite simple, consisting of just two hamburger patties and two pieces of cheese. It sounds almost too basic to be exciting, yet there’s something oddly satisfying about the stripped-down purity of it. In-N-Out is actually one of the few chains that openly acknowledges many of their secret menu items, so ordering a Flying Dutchman won’t get you strange looks from the cashier. In-N-Out posts its secret menu online, and you can add chopped chiles to any burger for extra flavor.
Starbucks Secret Menu Drinks Built By Baristas Themselves
Inspired by the popular Starbucks Not-So-Secret Menu broadcast channel on Instagram, the Starbucks secret menu in the app allows Starbucks Rewards members to easily order featured, popular drink customizations at participating stores. In July of 2025, Starbucks officially acknowledged what had been an underground phenomenon for years by adding secret menu drinks directly into their app. The beverages are listed in the offers tab in the Starbucks app, and selecting the drink adds it to the cart with all the customizations already populated for a seamless ordering experience.
Before this official recognition, baristas had been concocting wild drink combinations for years. The Starbucks secret menu is arguably one of the best secret menus with an array of combinations to choose from, and these unofficial menu items are inspired by die-hard fans of the coffee chain and shared widely on social media, including popular options like the Nutella frappuccino, strawberries and cream refresher, and Snickerdoodle latte. The creativity is genuinely impressive. Some baristas even love making these drinks because it breaks up the monotony of making the same vanilla lattes over and over again. For example, one barista-created Vanilla Bean Crème Frappuccino with strawberry puree walls, raspberry syrup, sweet cream, and white mocha truly tastes just like a slice of strawberry cheesecake.
Burger King’s Frings Combo That Should Be Permanent
A cool secret for Burger King fans is that you can order a mix of fries and onion rings together called Frings, which is half fries and half onion rings, all in one container. This might sound like a small thing, yet for people who genuinely can’t decide between the two sides, it’s a game changer. This secret menu item was so popular that Burger King even started testing it as a regular menu item in some places in Florida.
The genius of Frings is its simplicity. You’re not asking for anything complicated or time-consuming. You’re literally just asking them to split the container between two items they’re already making all day long. Next time you’re at Burger King and can’t decide between fries and onion rings, you can have both. It’s one of those hacks that feels so obvious once you know about it that you wonder why it isn’t just standard everywhere. Some employees have mentioned that this is one of the easiest secret menu requests to fulfill, which probably explains why Burger King was willing to test it as an official item.
