18 McDonald’s Menu Items Employees Hate The Most

Working in the food industry can be pretty interesting, to say the least. Even if you’re working in a restaurant that you absolutely love, being around the food all the time and seeing how it’s really made, stored, and put together can make it a huge turn-off for you. You might start out excited to eat all of your favorite things all of the time, only to completely change your mind within a few weeks time. You’ll probably also develop preferences on your favorite foods to prepare, as well as the ones you really can’t stand. This is true for any kind of food establishment, including a fast food restaurant like McDonald’s.

While the chain is known for having food that tastes good, there are still plenty of menu items McDonald’s employees hate.

Sometimes employees start to dislike the food because they realize exactly what it’s made of, which is usually a ton of calories and sodium. Sometimes it’s because the food is particularly annoying to put together. And other times, the worst times, is because they’ve seen how gross it actually can get, which is a scary thought for the rest of us. If you want to know which menu items you should avoid the next time you’re ordering McDonald’s, read on to find out exactly which ones employees hate the most.

1. The Filet-O-Fish Sandwich is really, really low on almost everyone’s list.

If you read through Reddit threads on McDonald’s food, you’ll notice that most employees avoid the Filet-O-Fish like the plague. Reddit user not2scale said, “I always told people to stay away from Filet O’ Fish. They just didn’t smell right after sitting for 10 minutes.”

User MajorTomMkay explained, “Barely anybody orders them, so they don’t get made too often and depending on what manager’s on shift, yours probably wont be fresh.”

That’s not exactly comforting!

2. The McRib is another universally disliked item.

Although the McRib was brought back because it was once popular, many, many employees say they can’t stand it. Reddit user lioninacoma said, “The way it looks before we put the sauce on it is absolutely revolting. It doesn’t look like meat at all, it looks like a scab.”

User mister_self_destruct added, “You don’t want to know what the McRib station smells like by the end of the night. So foul.”

That definitely does not sound even close to appetizing.

3. The Sweet Tea is a little too sweet for some.

If you think the Sweet Tea is less sugar than a soda, think again.

User Tag860 said, “I recommend that you don’t get the sweet tea. They add sooooooooo mucccch sugar to the sweet tea.” If you don’t mind a ton of sugar, then go for it!

4. The grilled chicken in general was another item many employees seemed grossed out by.

McDonald’s offers grilled chicken in sandwiches and salads, but a lot of employees are less than impressed with it, mainly because it’s not as healthy as it seems.

Reddit user HagityPaktig said, “A lot of people choose to be healthy and order our grilled chicken instead. Not a lot of people realize that they’re eating at a fast food joint and we WILL find a way to make anything unhealthy. Anything grilled chicken, on principle, I wouldn’t eat and here’s why: to keep it from sticking to the grill, we use three squirts of liquid margarine on the bottom of it. To keep it juicy, once we’ve lain the frozen blocks of chicken, three more squirts of liquid margarine are applied to the tops.”

5. Some employees are not a fan of the scrambled eggs.

Ordering breakfast? You might want to avoid the scrambled eggs. User Cheddar_Soup said, “The scrambled eggs are absolutely revolting. It’s just a orange liquid you pour on the stove that instantly becomes a solid.

Up close it looks like a very spongy material. Eggs is one of the several ingredients.” Stick to the round egg instead, which is actually a real egg.

6. The Steak Egg and Cheese sandwich is another breakfast food you might want to avoid.

Some employees are turned off by the cooking method for the steak bagels.

Reddit user TH3ROCK3R said, “The seasoning we put on the steak patties eats the teflon coating off the grills… Anything that can do that to a grill must work wonders on your digestive system.”

7. And the oatmeal is yet another one.

Oatmeal might seem pretty innocent — after all, how much can you mess it up? But several employees complained about how much they dislike it. User shaed9681 said, “Yes it’s healthy, yes it’s hygienic etc. It’s just a f***ing ballache to make it, if you use milk that isn’t right from the fridge it overflows and makes a mess in the microwave — and needs making again.”

And user grab29 added, “There is literally no difference between ours and the stuff you use at home, except ours somehow manages to taste like sh*t, even though we use the same packets that you have in you cupboard. Then, we pour too much hot water over top, stir, add packaged cranberries, raisins, apple pieces and give you yet another packet (of brown sugar) on the side.”

8. The Angus Mushroom Burger sits around too much for most employees.

If you want something fresh, you might want to rethink the Angus Mushroom Burger. User pholleeey said, “The mushrooms are cooked just before lunch starts at 10:30 and often we don’t need to make more until 5:00. They turn a dark brown almost black color.” Other employees backed this up. Yuck.

9. The ice cream is something they usually avoid.

How bad could ice cream be, right?

As it turns out, pretty bad. Most employees complained about the ice cream at McDonald’s on various Reddit threads. One user who has since deleted their account wrote, “I always hated filling the ice cream machines. It is some greasy mixture that smells like vomit and rotten milk and if you spill it have fun cleaning up for like a hour and smelling like it for the rest of the shift.”

10. Salads are basically a nightmare for employees.

A salad might seem like your best bet, but just know that the employee making yours is probably feeling pretty annoyed about it.

User SUCK_MY_DICTIONARY explained, “I used to work at McDonald’s and making salads was the worst. They were never prepped, and we had to find the cutting board and sh*tty dull knife and chop the chicken up. Then you pick it up with your greasy gloves and have to mess with the stupid salad bowl lids. It was a nightmare. They should not have sold them, in my opinion.”

11. Anything with onions grosses them out.

If you’re thinking of putting onions on something, maybe get them somewhere else. Reddit user mattyj said, “I have a buddy who worked at McDonald’s years ago. He said that it was the onions. Those chopped onion that are on your McDouble. They come dehydrated in a bag.

They would pour them into a vat of water and I guess the smell was just horrible.

He said he quit because of it.” That’s pretty serious!

12. The Spicy McChicken is one employees recommend avoiding.

You may not want to opt for the extra flavor in the spicy chicken sandwich.

Or, if you do order it, user Mudfire4 said to ask for it fresh, otherwise: “The meat sits in the holding trays for a long time because hardly anyone gets a spicy chicken, so it’s usually incredibly dry, and probably pretty chewy. If you ask for it to be fresh though, it’ll be fine. Also, don’t ask for less mayo. It’s impossible for us to do that. We can give you extra mayo, or no mayo, but not less. It comes out in a preset amount that we have absolutely no control over because of the device that’s used to apply the mayo.”

13. The round eggs aren’t safe either, apparently.

Although some employees have recommended getting the round eggs over the scrambled eggs, one user says those aren’t great either. The user, who has since deleted their account, wrote, “Do not get any product that has eggs. The egg rings don’t get washed at all.

They claim to wash it but when it gets busy they don’t. All the burned pieces get stuck to the rings and they just cook over them.

Yet again they stay in heat tray for over 30 min before serving if it is not busy, sometimes longer. If you see the condition of the egg rings and the egg ring cover you will regret ever eating in McDonald’s.”

14. They hate it when you ask for fries with no salt.

You know that trick to get fresh French fries at McDonald’s that’s all over the internet? You’re supposed to ask for them without salt. Well, employees know exactly what you’re doing.

User McBurger said, “If at McDonalds you want your fries made fresh, please just ask! I will gladly just make a new batch for you. A popular pain-in-the-ass ‘lifehack’ is to ask for your fries with no salt. This forces us to make a fresh batch, then dump the burning oil fries directly out from the fryer and into a bag, burning my hands as I try to juggle the container, scoop, and basket. All for the customer to then ask for salt packets on the side. I would have just made a new basket if that’s what you were after.”

15. Employees hate drinking the iced coffee.

If you need your caffeine fix, you may want to get it elsewhere.

User NytmareChaos said, “I used to work at a McDonalds, and at closing time, we just put all of the leftover hot coffee in the iced coffee canister and left it overnight. In the morning, we just brewed hot coffee and added it to last night’s leftover coffee. I worked there for an entire summer break, and only saw the canister rinsed once.”

16. Anything with bacon on it is something they would avoid.

Not even the bacon at McDonald’s is safe! User Bladesz said, “Don’t order anything with bacon (or at least order it fresh). Besides breakfast, we never cook bacon unless it is required. We literally leave the bacon out when we need it, so bacon could be up for like 12 hours and nobody would care.”

17. The dipped cones are something employees would avoid.

Maybe just skip the ice cream at McDonald’s altogether. User Evie566 said, “Don’t order the dipped cones, they leave the chocolate out all day. The top layer will congeal and they just mix that sh*t back up and still use it.” On top of that, she added that they spray “the trays off next to the chocolate so God knows how much chemical gets into it.”

Doesn’t sound that appetizing!

Remember: McDonald’s is a franchise, so all the stores are owned by different people who set different standards. So you can at least be comforted by that?