The Best "Secret Menu" Fast Food Hacks, All In One Place
If you like messing with your fast food order, a new website takes it way beyond Animal-Style.
I'm a sucker for secret menu items. During the few times I've visited In-N-Out, ordering Animal-Style fries (a huge upgrade on the chain's otherwise crappy fries) made me feel like I was part of a clandestine club. Maybe not as secretive as the Illuminati, but close. I realize that the In-N-Out secret menu is far from secret, but there's still a thrill to it. And if In-N-Out has a widely known secret menu, are there many more out there to be discovered? Turns out, yes—and they're all in one place.
TODAY reports on Hack The Menu, a website that consolidates secret menu items from big restaurant chains and puts them in one easy-to-access resource. It features 20 major chain restaurants from Arby's to Whataburger.
Hack The Menu has actually been around since 2013, but people have recently become interested in it again due to a viral TikTok video (of course) from a user named Matty McTech. McTech gives viewers the scoop about "powerful websites you should know about." He explains that you can click on one of the site's fast food logos for a description of the secret menu items, as well as where to find them.
Here's something I didn't realize: maybe I'm just naive, but I had no idea you could order a combination fries and onion rings at Burger King just by asking. It's not an option on the app, however, so keep in mind you'll probably have to talk to a human. Hack The Menu also includes other hacks that are DIY (do it yourself), like the McCrepe, which involves the customer manually filling a Hotcake with the Yogurt Parfait. Would I do that? No. But it's a nice reminder that screwing around with fast food items is pretty fun.
The TikTok video has been viewed more than three million times now, but some commenters are taking issue with the recommendation of Hack The Menu, including fast food employees. One wrote, "This is a great way to make every employee at any of these establishments to hate you as a customer. Order from their official menu, people."
So, take Hack The Menu's database how you will, and if you've got any tried-and-true restaurant hacks, let us know in the comments.