Chick-Fil-A's Spring Menu 2025 Review: Which Items Should You Try?

While many fast food chains are concentrating on all things "swicy" these days and endlessly partnering up with Mike's Hot Honey for another collaboration, Chick-fil-A is breaking out on its own this spring, simultaneously heating up and cooling down its menu with items "sweet & smoky." The Smokehouse BBQ Bacon sandwich first graced menus in 2017, returned again 2022, and is coming back for a third appearance. This time the smokiness will be spread on all three varieties of Chick-fil-A's chicken filets. Joining them this spring are a quartet of beverages infused with a Pineapple Dragonfruit flavoring: frosted lemonade, lemonade, iced tea, and its take on the Arnold Palmer ... the Sunjoy.

"As warmer weather approaches, our guests are craving flavors that are reminiscent of longer, brighter days and time spent outside with family and friends," Allison Duncan, director of menu & packaging at Chick-fil-A, said in a statement. "We're thrilled to bring back the Smokehouse BBQ Bacon Sandwich, with an expanded lineup of options for our guests, alongside our new Pineapple Dragonfruit beverages, which offer a deliciously sweet and refreshing balance to the smoky BBQ flavors."

With the smokehouse flavor back in the house, accompanied by a new set of Pineapple Dragonfruit drinks, the real question is whether these items are a spring forward in taste or perhaps a step backward. The Takeout was treated to a sneak peek of all these new and returning items. After trying them all, we are ready to speak the truths in this chew & review and sip & say.

Recommendations are based on firsthand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer.

Chick-fil-A's spring menu launches nationwide at participating locations on Monday, March 17, and will remain in stores while supplies last until June 7. The new items include the Smokehouse BBQ Bacon Sandwich, which can be ordered with an original, grilled, or spicy chicken filet, and four drinks — Pineapple Dragonfruit Frosted Lemonade, Pineapple Dragonfruit Lemonade, Pineapple Dragonfruit Sunjoy, and Pineapple Dragonfruit Iced Tea. The sandwich can only be ordered from lunchtime until closing time, while the drinks are available anytime Chick-fil-A is open ... which, of course, does not include Sundays.

The Smokehouse BBQ Bacon Sandwich comes in one size, but it is completely customizable. Standard issue sauces and toppings can be removed, and others can be added. Additional bread options include an unbuttered white bread bun, multigrain brioche bun, or a gluten-free bun, or you can have it wrapped in lettuce. The Pineapple Dragonfruit Lemonade, Iced Tea, and Sunjoy drinks will be served in 24-ounce cups. The Pineapple Dragonfruit Frosted Lemonade will come in 16-ounce servings. While prices will vary per location, the starting prices include $8.19 for the grilled sandwich, $7.25 for the original one, and $7.65 for the spicy one. The frosted lemonade starts at $4.75, lemonade is at $3.25, the Sunjoy is for $3.25, and iced tea is for $2.89.

The items can be ordered in-store at the counter or from the drive-thru where available. Advance ordering for pickup, delivery, and even catering from some locations can be found within Chick-fil-A's app or on its website.

For no particular reason, I started with the grilled chicken filet in the Smokehouse BBQ Bacon Sandwich. Visually, the three versions of the Smokehouse BBQ Bacon Sandwiches looked pretty identical. A pillowy yeast bun, with a cross hatch on the top that's lightly toasted, houses a thin, non-melty slice of Colby-Jack cheese, a few slices of bacon, green leafy lettuce, and, of course, this special BBQ sauce applied for just this occasion. This one stands out a bit more as its chicken filet is not breaded, but grilled, with the marks to prove it.

This stacked sandwich was soft from top to bottom. Normally that would be a welcome thing, but that means for some reason that the slices of bacon that top the grilled filet didn't have the expected crunch. The grilled chicken is lovely if you've never had it — not too giant in size, but juicy and tender. It also clocks in at 520 calories, the lowest of the three sandwiches. While my mouth detected the presence of the BBQ sauce, somehow its virtues didn't exactly pop in this version of the sandwich. Regardless, it's a tasty one.

In the two previous runs of the Smokehouse BBQ Bacon Sandwich in 2017 and 2022, guests only had the option of ordering an original chicken filet. It must have worked well enough that it's back for a third time along with more choices. This sandwich has the same appearance as the grilled one, but with a filet that is beautifully brown and encrusted — with just a bit more girth. That probably helped to push this one to a grand total of 670 calories.

From the first bite, the BBQ sauce made its presence far more well known in this sandwich compared with the grilled version. I'm not sure what was different with the bacon here versus the grilled chicken sandwich's set of strips, but it too seemed to show off a bit more of a crispy texture here. The bacon was very thin, but pairing it with the crispness of the chicken's fried skin seemed to help its cause.

From the naked eye, well at least my naked eye, I had trouble at first figuring out which Smokehouse BBQ Bacon Sandwich had the original filet and which was the spicy version. For those who somehow run into this issue of having both of them in front of you, the spicy filet's thick skin is outfitted with black pepper flakes, and its brown coloring has a bit of an orange tint to it.

In terms of taste, it's truly a night and day difference between the original and the spicy sandwiches. Labeling something "spicy" actually doesn't help to clarify anything, as the level of its spiciness is not at all defined. Chick-fil-A's take isn't going to set any eater's mouth on fire, and for that, the chain should be thanked. Its filet has a nice fiery pep to it that is both easily digestible and straight-up tasty. Here, the spicy filet sandwich, which clocks in at 690 calories, works wonders as the protein that perfectly ties this version of the Smokehouse BBQ Bacon Sandwich together. The spice enhances the BBQ sauce, making it feel both warm and smoky.

When tasting four beverages, you have to start with whichever one you think is going to lose its luster the quickest. Since three of them were iced drinks and the fourth was ice cream-based, there was no other option than to put the Pineapple Dragonfruit Frosted Lemonade first in the lineup. This cool-looking customer looked like a light pink strawberry milkshake, with shades of white swirls weaving their way through the clear plastic cup.

My first sip sent the interior of my mouth into a flavorful overdrive while the exterior broke into a wide smile simply because it made me happy. While the two main flavors this drink is hoping to push are spelled out in the product's name, I'm not exactly sure that pineapple and dragonfruit were what sprang to mind when they touched my tongue (for those wanting to try to make your own version at home, start by learning how to peel, cut, and eat dragonfruit like a pro). This new Chick-fil-A drink had a full fruity flavor that felt like some sort of tropical mixture, creating a vibe similar to the beloved Key Lime flavored beverages that Chick-fil-A launched earlier this year.

Regardless of whatever flavors the Pineapple Dragonfruit Frosted Lemonade was exuding, there's no doubt about its greatness as a creamy and dreamy dessert. It's no surprise that indulgences have their drawbacks, as this drink clocks in at 360 calories.

I chose the Pineapple Dragonfruit Lemonade as the next drink up, assuming it was second in sweetness, so that I could try to work my way down from there. This vibrant and hot pink drink looks like it glowed in the light, which would make a nice contrast to those new Capri Sun Moon Punch pouches that glow in the dark.

My first impression, probably due to its coloring, led me to believe this was some sort of pink lemonade concoction. Further sips debunked that, as a subdued flavoring of dragonfruit kicked in. As for any signs of pineapple, its presence seemed very far and few between sips, with only hints of it occasionally poking through. It all added up to a super-sugary, and almost overly sweetened beverage, which nets a drinker 260 calories. For someone with a sharpened sweet tooth like me, I quite enjoyed it, but for many others, this Pineapple Dragonfruit Lemonade could prove to be too much, like guzzling down a liquid version of Pixy Stix.

As I move through the drinks that contain less sugar and sweetness, I find that they also somehow darken in color. Not sure if that's food science, purposeful color grading, or just an easy way for an employee and customer to differentiate these drinks from one another. The Pineapple Dragonfruit Sunjoy broke from the bright drinks with its odd coloring that kind looked like a shade of burnt sienna.

After sipping over-sweetness with the lemonade, I was kind of taken aback at how levelheaded the Sunjoy was, which blended the talents of the Pineapple Dragonfruit Lemonade and Iced Tea. It also delivers 230 calories. The more I sipped away at this one, the more I grew to love it. It was smooth, in its sweetness and light fruit-flavoring, and most importantly, it proved to be the perfect drink out of the four to pair with any of the three new sandwiches.

After having gone on a whirlwind tour of sweetened and fruity drinks, I ended my Pineapple Dragonfruit drink experience with the iced tea version. This one had a more purple bent to its hue, and in some ways, it oddly resembled Barq's Root Beer.

For this drink, the flavor profile didn't really offer much, and thus I actually don't have a lot to say about it. It just tasted like ... regular old iced tea. I was wondering whether it was even sweetened at all. And after I was informed that it was — chiming in at 180 calories — I started to imagine what the non-sweetened version tasted like. Imagining is one thing, but wanting to try it is another. So I'll take a pass on that, like I would with this Pineapple Dragonfruit Iced Tea that won't spring to my mind going forward.

After tasting all the new menu items, I wanted more direct contact with the BBQ sauce. While you may not be able to order an extra side of sauce through the app, if you ask kindly, you may be able to procure a cup from the fine folks at the counter. Outside of the sandwich, the sauce has a lovely burgundy hue, speckled with pepper flakes. It also has a real, winningly sweet and lightly smoky flavor that lingers. It kind of ran similar circles, although perhaps not as zesty, as the slam-dunking Bold BBQ sauce that McDonald's rolled out in February.

I like a lot of sauce, so I proceeded to dip each of the three sandwiches in it. The grilled one's taste disappeared within the sauce, but the crispier filets came more alive when lathered up. I wish there was still a spicy grilled chicken filet option just so I could see how it would play with this winning BBQ sauce. The bacon is certainly a nice add to these sandwiches, but I wish the slices were a little thicker to perk up their crisped texture a bit more.

While the four Pineapple Dragonfruit beverages certainly speak for themselves, in terms of taste, their true value spoke volumes when used as a chaser for the sandwiches. The lemonade was a sweet deal maker but probably best enjoyed as a standalone afternoon refresher. The frosted lemonade brought out the best fruit flavor of the four, but it should probably remain a dessert-only treat. The surefire one to go for here as a food companion is the Sunjoy. I surprised even myself with this one, as I kept reaching for it again and again between bites.

This taste test of Chick-fil-A's new spring items was conducted at an actual location in Manhattan, New York. The food and drinks were supplied by the chain and tested on site, in advance of their release in stores across the country. After I did an initial round of tasting, further tastings were taken in various orders to come to a final conclusion on the merits of each menu item as well as figure out which sandwiches and drinks best paired together.

The ultimate criteria used for this chew & review and sip & say are flavor, texture, smell, sweetness, smokiness, playability, value, overall lovability, and chances we'd want to order the item again. The short answer is ... order a Smokehouse BBQ Bacon Sandwich with a Spicy Filet and wash it down with a Pineapple Dragonfruit Sunjoy.