6 Discontinued Fast-Food Sides That Californians Think Deserve a Second Chance
Arby’s brought its Potato Cakes back permanently in February 2025, backing the promise with a pledge to hand out $1 million worth of free food if the chain ever pulls them again.
Many abandoned fast-food sides don’t get that kind of ending.
These are the fast-food sides Californians think deserve one more shot.
1. Jack in the Box Cheesy Macaroni Bites
Jack in the Box, headquartered in San Diego, introduced its Cheesy Macaroni Bites in 2008, breading and deep-frying mac and cheese into a portable, dippable side.
The chain eventually pulled them from the menu.
Customers didn’t forget the flavor.
Jack in the Box brought a similar version back in 2021 under the name Mac and Cheese Bites.
That comeback only lasted a limited run before the bites disappeared again, and California locations lost them the same day the rest of the chain did.
Fans are still posting about the loss.
Business Insider named the bites on a list of discontinued fast-food items readers still wish would return, years after the first version disappeared.
A one-year comeback wasn’t the fix fans wanted.
2. Wienerschnitzel Shaker Fries
Wienerschnitzel, the Irvine, California chain that’s been serving hot dogs since 1961, sold Shaker Fries in the early 1990s: An order of fries went into a bag with a seasoning packet, and the customer shook the bag until every fry was coated.
Longtime customers remember the exact flavors.
Ranch, Cajun, and original were the choices, according to former regulars who left the details in the comments on Wienerschnitzel’s own social media.
A Change.org petition asking Wienerschnitzel to bring the fries back has collected 82 verified signatures since 2020.
Wienerschnitzel keeps bringing the fries up on its own page, in nostalgia posts and fry-related trivia.
It won’t bring them back.
3. Burger King Shake ’em up Fries
Burger King rolled out Shake ’em up Fries, a shake-on-seasoning fry side, nationwide in 2002, packaging a bag of fries with a seasoning packet in Nacho, Ranch, and BBQ flavors.
California Burger Kings sold the same three flavors everyone else did.
Sales didn’t hold up, and the chain dropped the idea within about a year without much fanfare.
An iPetitions campaign asking Burger King to bring them back has run since 2019, with a 2023 update noting corporate still hadn’t responded.
Fifty-two signatures won’t move a company this size.
Not yet, anyway.
New comments keep landing on the petition, the most recent one from last year.
Why Arby’s Potato Cakes Prove “Discontinued” Isn’t Forever
Arby’s pulled its own Potato Cakes from the menu in 2021, then put them back nationwide for good in February 2025.
Inspire Brands backed that promise with a pledge to pay out $1 million worth of Arby’s food if Potato Cakes ever disappear again.
KFC and Jack in the Box wedges followed a similar arc: Both chains pulled their potato wedges years ago, tested limited comebacks, and now sell wedges again at California locations.
A “discontinued” claim is worth checking against a chain’s current menu before assuming an old favorite is gone for good.
4. McDonald’s Side Salad
McDonald’s stopped selling side salads at every U.S. restaurant in 2020, California locations included, folding the item into a broader pandemic-era menu cut aimed at speeding up kitchens.
The chain gave franchisees a choice in 2022: bring salads back locally if they wanted to.
Many didn’t.
McDonald’s USA’s president said flatly in 2024 that the demand for a national return just wasn’t there.
Customers disagreed enough that a Change.org petition asking for salads kept collecting signatures.
Instagram comments under this summer’s new Caesar sauce launch kept begging for salads to come back too.
A sauce with nothing to dress isn’t much of a consolation prize.
Psst! How much do you know about the California roots of your favorite drive-thrus? Take our quiz and see how many you can get right.
Quiz
California Drive-Thru History Quiz
These fast-food giants all trace back to California street corners. We bet you can’t place every one. Prove us wrong?
Which California city is home to the original McDonald’s stand, now preserved as a museum?
5. Taco Bell Mexi Nuggets
Taco Bell, headquartered in Irvine, California, sold Mexi Nuggets in the 1990s: Breaded, deep-fried potato nuggets seasoned to go alongside a Nacho Bell Grande or a stack of tacos.
They've been gone for decades.
A Change.org petition asking Taco Bell to bring them back has pulled in 59 verified signatures since December 2019.
A Facebook group with several hundred members exists for the same reason.
One supporter wrote that "the world started changing for the worse when Mexi Nuggets left the menu."
Fifty-nine signatures won't reverse a menu decision from three decades ago, but the requests keep coming anyway.
6. Long John Silver's Corn on the Cob
Long John Silver's phased out its foil-wrapped corn on the cob around 2017, replacing the side with plain kernel corn at its restaurants, California locations included.
Customers noticed the difference right away.
Reddit and TikTok posts from the past two years show customers asking for the recipe and mourning corn they say used to melt right off the cob in butter.
It's not the same corn.
One commenter put it plainly: It was cheap, it wasn't fried, and now it's gone.
Long John Silver's still runs 14 restaurants in California, including stores in Los Angeles and Sacramento, just without the cob.
The Shake-the-Bag Fry Fad That Never Quite Left
Wienerschnitzel and Burger King both sold a nearly identical fry side: Plain fries went into a bag with a seasoning packet, and the customer shook the bag until every fry was coated.
Wienerschnitzel got there first, selling its version in the early 1990s.
Burger King followed roughly a decade later, in 2002.
Neither idea lasted long in the United States.
McDonald's has kept a version of the concept alive mostly overseas, running McShaker Fries as a recurring promotion in markets from Japan to Malaysia, with an occasional U.S. appearance tied to seasonal meals like a Grinch promotion in December 2025.
The gimmick never fully disappeared.
It just stopped showing up at the two California chains that tried it first.
California's Head Start on Getting Sides Back
Three of the six chains on this list are headquartered in California: Jack in the Box in San Diego, Taco Bell in Irvine, and Wienerschnitzel also in Irvine.
That matters when a corporate team decides whether a side dish earns its spot back.
Executives testing a comeback don't have to guess how it will land with Californians.
They can walk into a restaurant near their own office and watch the counter.
Taco Bell and Wienerschnitzel sit close enough to compare notes over lunch.
Neither one has.
Both companies still leave their own regulars' favorite off the menu.
McDonald's, Burger King, and Long John Silver's don't have that same hometown advantage.
Their headquarters sit in Chicago, Miami, and Louisville, Kentucky, a couple thousand miles from the California customers deciding whether each comeback was worth the wait.
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