Wendy’s is known for a few things: their famous chili, their Frosty drinks (especially when you dip French fries in them), and the impressively sassy social media team behind their official Twitter account.
As a fast food restaurant, Wendy’s has been around for a very long time, with a classic menu that doesn’t change too often and fan favorites that they’ll probably always keep.
Still, unless you work at the place, there are probably a lot of things going on behind the scenes that you don’t know about and wouldn’t know about if it weren’t for employees spilling their secrets on the internet.
In various Reddit threads, Wendy’s employees and former employees talk about all sorts of things.
They mention how certain menu items are made (hint: the chili may not be exactly what you expect), how clean the stores are, which menu items should be avoided at all costs, and which menu items are really underrated.
They sometimes even spill on combos you probably never thought to order, but should. It’s basically a list of employee confessions that any Wendy’s fan should hear ASAP. One thing to keep in mind, though? Wendy’s is a franchise organization, meaning that each store has a different owner and will be run a little differently.
So all of these secrets won’t be true for every single location, but that doesn’t make them any less interesting!
Test some of these Wendy’s secrets next time you drive through for a Frosty.
1. The chili is made of old hamburger meat.
Reddit user sweetshiznity, who works as a shift manager at Wendy’s, recommends avoiding the chili because of the cooking process.
“The only thing that I wouldn’t eat my self is the chili. The meat comes from the leftover meat on the grill that dries out,” the shift manager said. “It’s then cut up, frozen, and bagged for later use in the chili.”
“It’s not unhealthy and it won’t make you sick or anything, it just doesn’t quite sit right with me.”
We guess it is a good thing that Wendy’s is cutting down on food waste and using up as much food as possible instead of tossing it.
Need more proof?
Another Wendy’s employee, Luvdechub, shared:
“Fmr Wendy’s employee here: When the burger patties time out of use for a burger, they are frozen to be used as chili meat. Everything else comes dry in a bag, is placed in a pot with the meat and water and cooked until the beans are tender, usually about 4 hours. Voila!!! Watery, leftover-meat chili!!!
And who doesn’t love the sound of watery meat chili?
2. The Frosty mix might be a little questionable in terms of freshness.
Think a frozen milkshake type of drink is safe? Maybe not.
User zebra_herder explained the process behind the Frosty drinks, and it’s a little sketchy:
“The Frostys come in a plastic bag and look like chocolate milk. This was before any vanilla or whatever flavors. It was poured into a machine that froze it and pumped it out like ice cream. The machine itself was cleaned thoroughly every single night.”
Okay, so far, so good. But wait.
“The part that bothered me was the leftover mix would get poured into a bucket and set on the floor of the fridge overnight, then reused in the morning. It wasn’t a sealed container either. If you want a Frosty, I suggest getting one after the lunch rush when the old stuff has been used and new stuff put in the machine.”
We are going to have to keep that in mind for next time.
3. Make sure you ask for fresh fries.
Like many other fast food places, Wendy’s employees admit that fries can sit for a while, making them less than appetizing.
User zebra_herder explained:
“Cooked fries would sit for hours, so would baked potatoes. Nothing unsanitary about this, it just makes for some limp fries and dry potatoes. Like others have said, you can ask for fresh fries and we’ll passive-aggressively make you a new batch.”
We’ll deal with the passive aggression, thanks.
4. You might want to avoid ordering the spicy chicken nuggets.
Apparently, they aren’t quite as fresh as some of the more popular menu items.
User pink_peaches said, “They aren’t very popular so chances are we cooked them like six hours ago and left them to become hard nasty little raisins and they’ll taste like ass because no one orders them.”
They suggest asking for fresh ones if you do order them.
5. You can save a little money by not ordering a Crispy Chicken Sandwich with cheese.
Want a Crispy Chicken Sandwich with cheese on it? Change the way you order, and you could save a few bucks.
User FrogCannon said that asking for cheese on a Crispy Chicken Sandwich results in an upcharge, and they suggest:
“Instead, order a Monterey Crispy, substitute the cheese with something else if Monterey isn’t your thing, and specifically ask for mayo and lettuce on the sandwich.”
6. The meat really isn’t frozen.
Wendy’s boasts that their meat is always fresh and never frozen, but many find this hard to believe.
Still, users insist it is, in fact, fresh. One user said, “True, the meat is never frozen, comes in off a truck, and into a cooler. Most busy stores were getting new shipments of beef every two days.”
User employee227 said, “I have been working at Wendy’s for over a year and have never seen frozen beef.”
8. You can order melted cheese for dipping.
Want some extra cheese? User ffandmmfan said:
“I have never, ever come across a person outside of my family (who has been doing it for years) that knows you can order a cup of melted cheese at both Wendy’s and Arby’s and dip your fries, nuggets, whatever in it.”
Um, how did we not know about this until now?
9. You can always feel free to ask for your meat fresh, as long as it isn’t busy.
A lot of people don’t realize that you can ask for fresh menu items when ordering — you just have to wait a bit.
User NedryOS said:
“Our store didn’t mind making fresh meat for customers as long as it wasn’t lunch time. If you can see 10 people or four cars and you ask for a fresh chicken, it likely won’t be made well.”
And this is how long you will wait for that fresh meat:
“Grilled chicken typically takes 12 minutes, spicy and regular take 8, 6 for wings, 4.5 for nuggets, and 3 for fries. Meat is 45 seconds for junior and 115 for the quarter.”
10. You can make your own chicken Caesar salad.
Want to create your own delicious menu item? User grammar_party says to order:
“Caesar side salad and chicken nuggets, tear up the nuggets into the salad and you’ve got an awesome and cheap chicken Caesar salad.”
Someone give this person an award because this is genius.
11. It’s not that hard to get free food.
If you’re less than satisfied with your order, speak up — you’ll probably get something out of it.
User wendystho said:
“Wendy’s will pretty much bend over backwards for a customer. I’d say if your nice about it, and explain what happened, you could probably get a free burger without trying too hard. It’s all about customer satisfaction.”
Just make sure you’re not a nightmare customer when you make a complaint!
12. The busiest time is actually the best time to order.
If you were wondering when you should order your food, wonder no more.
To get the freshest batches, order when the store is really busy, not when things are slow. A user who has since deleted their account said:
“When I worked at Wendy’s, peak hour was the best time to order…”
“All stations were manned by the fastest and most experienced employees during the lunch rush. We’d be running that place like a machine. Fresh food was constantly being made and sold so everything was straight out of the fryer or fresh off the grill and it was rare to have a customer wait over two minutes.”
It makes sense when you think about it.
13. If you want the most bang for your buck, add on to a BLT sandwich.
Feeling really, really hungry? User happymcderpison said:
“At Wendy’s, get the BLT (The Sandwich) and ask for a piece of beef and (if you prefer) cheese, on there. You get six FULL pieces of bacon, quarter-pound patty, and cheese for under $3. Worked there for seven years. Manager for four. You’re welcome.”
Definitely trying this next time.
13. The employees might not be wearing gloves when handling your meat.
This is pretty gross, but user employee227 says that sometimes the people handling your food aren’t wearing gloves. They explained:
“Well in company training the person on grill (someone on grill makes burgers, all chicken, chili, bacon, cookies etc.) are not allowed to wear gloves when handling meat of any kind…”
How does this happen?
While all employees are required to wash their hands (duh) I personally would prefer if they wore gloves. However, it is company policy.”
Hmm – we’re not really sure why that’s company policy, but it’s good to know.
14. Food can end up sitting under the heat lamps for hours.
Not all of the food at Wendy’s is fresh. User xorilla noted:
“Hold time is an hour and usually they’re good within that hour but from my experience, no one (not even managers) really follow those hold times so sometimes they end up sitting there for upwards of three hours. Most of the time they’re tossed when they’re hard or visibly stale.”
15. Menu items that cost less may not be up to your standards.
Wendy’s employee, wellimashley, let people know the “quality of meat” wasn’t necessarily up to par. She shared:
“The dollar ones are a dollar because a bag of them (about 40), only costs us a dollar something. The larger ones are somewhere around 4 dollars for 25.”
And that’s not all.
In fact, the chicken quality varies too. Take the $4 chicken sandwich; that uses real poultry. However, the $1 chicken sandwich is composed of machine-separated chicken parts. N0 thanks.
One last thing from wellimashley:
“[The Wendy’s] regular 5-piece has better breading [than the other options] hence why it’s 39¢ more.”
16. The soda machines can get pretty gross.
And when former Wendy’s worker VSF2 worked there, he saw some pretty shady things:
“I can tell you our Coke dispenser produced way more syrup than the suggested ratio, which caused the dispenser heads to clogged easily. and the cleaning process was a joke. The heads were supposed to be replaced every so often, but I can’t remember that happening unless one would break.”
Yeah, we’re suddenly no longer thirsty.
“I can honestly say that I would clean the drink machines anytime it was my position to do so, and more thoroughly then the procedure stated, but I can’t say the same for all of my fellow coworkers.”
Not even the nozzles got a proper cleansing.
VSF2 also noted that employees were supposed to at least wash the soda spouts. However, that measure was “rarely enforced.”
17. Not all employees are adequately compensated.
In fact, Redditor VSF2 went on to mention that some Wendy’s employees feel stuck and never receive advancement opportunities within the company.
Apparently, this poster “saw too many people who didn’t have a good direction, went into management thinking, “Oh, it’s just a way to make some better money right now until I figure out what I want to do.” Three years later, [some of them were] still shift supervisors, making the same money, but working stupid hours that prevent them from going back to school.”
And why don’t they just quit?
“They [rely] on the money they make and can’t just quit to start new path. several of the older managers started off working there when they were 17 and just never left.”
The former employee had some more rather disheartening info:
“Unless you can become a district manager or at least a GM of a store, it is not worth it to enter management at all with Wendys. Sh*tty and excessive hours for not a lot of money, same terrible customers and unreasonable bosses.”
But hey, sometimes that’s life.
Did you find these Wendy’s confessions shocking?
And are you looking for even more fast food employee secrets?
Wendy’s employees aren’t the only ones who have a few trade secrets they’re willing to share. If you’re a fan of the golden arches, you’re going to want to read these McDonald’s employee secrets. We wouldn’t have known they didn’t use real onions on their burgers before these confessions.
