THEN AND NOW: How fast-food menus have changed over the years

At the original McDonald's Bar-B-Q restaurant in San Bernardino, California, customers could pull up to the restaurant for carhop service. Future locations would switch to the walk-up model to order from the restaurant's large menu.

The new menu included hamburgers, cheeseburgers, soft drinks, milk, coffee, potato chips, and a slice of pie for dessert. In 1949, potato chips were swapped with french fries and McDonald's began selling milkshakes.

The new item, called Triple Thick Milkshakes, was made using Multimixer.

After Multimixer salesman Ray Kroc visited the original McDonald's brothers to sell them more mixers, he became intrigued in the business. He would go on to purchase the small business and become the tycoon and leader of the fast-food giant for 30 years.

Today, McDonald's still serves milkshakes, as well as McFlurries.

According to Smithsonian Magazine, it was created in 1962 by Lou Groen, a McDonald's franchise owner in Cincinnati, Ohio, after he realized hamburger sales were declining on Fridays during the season of Lent.

Groen then decided to create a sandwich featuring fish instead of beef. Three years later, it was made available nationwide and has remained on McDonald's menus ever since.

The first "Big Mac" featured a triple-decker burger and sold for 45 cents.

Initially, there was a lot of deliberation over what the iconic burger would be named. However, Esther Glickstein Rose, a 21-year-old secretary for the company's advertising department in 1967, had the winning name — "Big Mac." Despite the name originally being ridiculed, according to AP, it's now known as one of "the best-known product names of all time."

According to USA Today, many diners in the 1980s were looking to reduce their fat intake and were shaking up their diets by introducing more lean protein and poultry and cutting out red meat. For McDonald's, adding chicken to their menu was a no-brainer.

McDonald's stopped serving all-day breakfast and removed its chicken tenders, grilled chicken sandwich, a few burgers, and salads from menus nationwide.

"To simplify operations in our kitchens and for our crew, and ensure the best possible experience for our customers, we are working with our franchisees and local restaurants to focus on serving our most popular choices and will begin temporarily removing some items from the menu," Bill Garrett, McDonald's senior vice president of operations, said in a statement to Business Insider.

While some items, like the Bacon McDouble, are back, others have been permanently cut from the menu.

The chain, which quickly grew to be the second-largest fast-food chain in the country, behind McDonald's, served 18-cent flame-broiled burgers, milkshakes, and fries.

The Whopper was 37 cents compared to Burger King's original burger, which cost 18 cents. The Whopper came with sauce, cheese, lettuce, pickles, and tomato, all piled on top of a larger patty.

Today, Burger King still broils and flame-grills its burgers.

Burger King's Impossible Whopper was hugely successful for the chain. According to CNN, Burger King reported a 10% increase in sales following the launch of the Impossible Burger in 2019.

However, while the burger is plant-based, Burger King received criticism after a customer sued the company for serving the burger that's not actually 100% vegan. Since the patties are cooked on the same grills as traditional meat burgers, they may come into contact with meat by-products. Burger King responded saying the chain never advertised the burger as vegan or promised to cook them in a particular way.

The business, owned and operated by founder Truett Cathy, started off by selling standard items like waffles, breakfast foods, sandwiches, and burgers.

According to Chick-fil-A, Cathy tested hundreds of recipes for the original chicken sandwich before landing on a winner — a fried chicken fillet with two pickles on a toasted butter bun.

Though Chick-fil-A has expanded immensely since then, the chicken sandwich has remained virtually the same.

Introduced as a "health-conscious option" for Chick-fil-A customers, Cathy introduced the original grilled chicken sandwich alongside the deluxe grilled chicken sandwich, which included the same pickle-juice-marinated grilled chicken, pickles, and white bun, along with lettuce and tomato.

In 1993, Chick-fil-A added the grilled chicken club sandwich to its menu. Then, in 2017, the chain announced it would be releasing a gluten-free bun option.

The menu is continually shifting gears to appeal to customers, but the chain's most famous item is undoubtedly still its original chicken sandwich.

In 1958, In-N-Out replaced its bottled drinks with fountain service, offering customers beverages like Pepsi Cola, Nesbitt Orange, and Hires Root Beer. According to In-N-Out, a 12-ounce soda cost just 10 cents at the time.

The first Animal Style burger hit menus as a response to overwhelming customer requests. The recipe is still the same today as it was in the 1960s — a mustard-cooked beef patty, lettuce, tomato, pickles, extra spread, and grilled onions.

In 1975, In-N-Out began serving milkshakes. A few years later, In-N-Out opened its first location with a dining room in Ontario, California.

However, while some new items have been added since 1948, the menu is still pretty similar to the original menu, offering basic fast-food items like burgers and fries.

Founded by Billy Ingram as a family-owned business, the fast-food establishment originally sold 5-cent, small, square hamburgers by the sack. They would come to be known as "sliders."

In 1943, White Castle would sell hot dogs and fried eggs instead of its iconic burgers as a result of the war's beef rationing.

This addition came 15 years after the chain secured a patent for its "holy" burgers — each burger is still grilled with five holes punched into it to add more flavor and help them cook faster.

The sliders are also sold in grocery stores nationwide, meaning you can get your White Castle fix right at home. In 2018, White Castle revolutionized its menu by offering the plant-based Impossible Slider.

Each item cost just 19 cents, and the menu featured traditional Mexican favorites like frijoles, tostadas, burritos, and tacos.

In 1984, Taco Bell introduced the Taco Salad and Taco BellGrande and, in 2004, Taco Bell began selling Mountain Dew Baja Blast.

It was the brand's largest marketing campaign to date and has proven to be successful year over year.

However, the coronavirus pandemic has caused fast-food breakfast sales to plummet, leaving the future of breakfast foods at giants like Taco Bell and McDonald's uncertain.

Countless different varieties of tacos and burritos make eating the entire menu a tall order.

However, the menu is getting a tad smaller. In July, the fast-food chain announced it would be removing 12 items from its menu, including fan-favorite items such as Cheesy Fiesta Potatoes, Nachos Supreme, and Loaded Grillers. Some fans were outraged by the decision to ax potatoes, calling it the chain's "worst idea to date."

The restaurant originally served traditional, Southern-style fried chicken. However, after the restaurant faced lackluster sales for a few months, founder Alvin C. Copeland Sr. changed the restaurant's name to "Popeyes" and began selling spicy New Orleans-style chicken.

The biscuits are now regarded as one of Popeyes' most iconic menu items and come with the chain's combo meals.

The chain launched its Butterfly Shrimp Tackle Box in 2009, while Chicken Waffle Tenders and the Cajun Surf & Turf hit menus in 2013.

The chicken sandwich was so popular, it quickly sent restaurants into chaos before selling out entirely in just two weeks. A few months later, the menu item finally returned, much to the satisfaction of chicken and fast-food lovers nationwide.

• Read more:
• This is what it was like to go to McDonald's in the 1950s
• I just went to In-N-Out for the first time in years. The burger was better than I remembered, but the fries were hugely disappointing.
• THEN AND NOW: How the McDonald's menu has changed through the years
• THEN AND NOW: Photos show how McDonald's has changed through the years, from its menu to its mascot