Fast Food Desserts That Aren't Worth The Price

We don't know about you, but we don't feel like a fast food meal is complete without a sweet treat at the end. Thankfully, it seems many fast food establishments agree: Desserts are available at virtually every chain you care to mention, and most of them represent the same value for money that your main meal does. For just a few dollars you can get something sweet, which may not necessarily be totally nuanced or groundbreaking but will almost certainly satisfy those sugar cravings.

However, every now and again, fast food restaurants drop the ball on their desserts and serve up something that feels like a total waste of money. Some fast food desserts can be surprisingly expensive, with options from Domino's, Pizza Hut, and Dairy Queen costing up to $10 (or sometimes way more), and yet delivering a result that lacks flavor or is poorly cooked. In other situations, fast food restaurants can deliver desserts which just outright suck, and even if they barely cost anything, they're still not worth buying. There are so many discontinued fast food desserts out there that used to stick the landing at a reasonable price, and we can't understand why the ones we've picked out here are still around. Let's check out the worst offenders.

Wendy's made a pretty cool move back in 2022, when it announced that it was going to start offering French Toast Sticks. It was added to the Wendy's menu as a breakfast item (for obvious reasons — French toast is a breakfast dish, after all), but considering that it's included in the chain's "Sides and Sweets" section, we're gonna go ahead and presume that it's intended as a sweet treat after you finish your main breakfast item.

The problem is that you'll be paying a decent amount for not a lot. When this dessert launched in 2022 it was priced at $3.99 for six fingers of toast, and as of 2025 people have reported paying well over $5 for it. For that price, all you're really getting is some fried bread slices and a tiny cup of syrup. That's it. It may taste good, but this really isn't changing the world. The price may have snuck up over the last couple of years but Wendy's hasn't done anything new with it or improved the quantity or quality of the product. Frankly, that feels like we're getting ripped off.

KFC hasn't been doing so well with the quality of its fried chicken recently, and unfortunately its dessert offering isn't much better. Well, at least when it comes to the Chocolate Chip Cake. The Chocolate Chip Cake from KFC should be a winner: The promotional images for it promise a Bundt-style cake drizzled in white frosting, which looks both substantial and appetizing. The price for this dessert, which is around $5 or $6 depending on the location, seems to confirm that it's gonna be a sweet treat of sizable proportions.

Then, it arrives, you open it ... and your mouth drops open in disappointment. The cake is utterly tiny. It's more like a puffed-up cookie than a cake, and you can fit the whole thing into the palm of your hand. When you're paying that much for a dessert, you kinda want it to fill you up, right? Well, that's not the case here — and considering that other fast food restaurants give you sizable portions for the price, this one's hard to justify buying.

Domino's Marbled Cookie Brownie is in a bit of a sorry state. When this dessert launched in 2015, it immediately felt like a bit of a gourmet offering from the pizza chain. Domino's makes it by combining two different batters, swirling them together, and then baking them to order. This slightly more laborious preparation method seemed to justify its $6.49 price point, which for a fast food dessert isn't exactly cheap.

The problem is that as of 2025, its flavor just isn't hitting the spot. Multiple people have commented on the cookie brownie's decline in quality, which may not be due to a recipe change but in corners being cut in its preparation. Back in the day they used to be more firm and gooey. The center would be cooked. Absolutely delicious," said one person on Reddit, who appears to work in a Domino's store. "These days it never looks like it cooks right. Even pushing it back in further. It has the consistency of batter more than brownie or cookie." The commenter went on to say that the belt speed or oven temperature might be the issue here. This isn't gone unnoticed by others, either, who have also lamented that they're way too gooey. We're not paying that much for goo, folks; it seems like this menu item is as in trouble as Domino's itself. 

We have to give it to Jollibee here: This is an admirably ambitious treat. When it brought its ube pie back in 2024 (after an initial run in 2021), it was making its intentions very clear. The chain wasn't just going to stick with the classic flavors many people in the United States associate with desserts; instead it was going to offer something different. Stuffing its pies with a filling made of ube, a starchy tuber that originated in the Philippines and is known for its bright purple hue, was a bold flex, and the $2.99 price point (which has since crept up) felt like a small price to pay for something so unique.

Well, that feeling changes when you try it. Sadly, the ube pie seriously lacks on the flavor front, and it has virtually no ube taste at all. Although it wins prizes for its flaky crust, any individuality that this dessert could have had is wasted. If that wasn't bad enough, it's also pretty darn small, and you'll be able to eat it in two or three bites. With all that in mind, it just doesn't feel worth the spend.

It's not enough for fast food restaurants to make a simple milkshake anymore: These days, it seems like they're all trying to make dessert drinks that feel like gourmet dishes. This is certainly true of Chick-fil-A's Cookies & Cream Milkshake, a thick, hearty drink that comes in at just under $5. Chick-fil-A's milkshake piles a blended ice cream base mixed with cookie pieces into a tall cup, and tops it with whipped cream and a cherry. It looks, if we may say so ourselves, pretty classy, and while it's far from Chick-fil-A's best-selling item, we'd imagine a lot of people order it. 

However, there's no denying that this is a pricey fast food treat. Alas, while the Cookies & Cream Milkshake isn't the worst dessert out there, it doesn't quite feel worth the cost. Reviews of this shake have been positive but not exactly rapturous, with middling scores and tepid language used to describe its flavor. Some people have also pointed out that its sweetness is just too much. It might be okay to order in a pinch, but if you have any concerns about what's in your wallet, we wouldn't rush to do so.

So, we know that a lot of people aren't gonna agree with us on this one, but bear with us. The Oreo flavor is arguably the most ultimate of all the McDonald's McFlurries, and one of its most recognizable desserts full-stop. On its menu, McDonald's promises a heaping cup of vanilla ice cream swirled with an impressive amount of Oreo cookies, with a delicious sprinkle of Oreo crumbles on top. It also doesn't charge an outrageous amount for this: Depending on where you are, the Oreo McFlurry will set you back around $2 or $3, with a Mini McFlurry on the lower end of that range.

However, given that McDonald's items are generally fairly reliable, it's surprising how inconsistent this dessert is. Problems with Oreo McFlurries are discussed widely on social media, with a lot of people suggesting that the preparation has gone downhill. "They literally just throw a spoonful of Oreo crumbles on top and call it a day. I used to look forward to them as a kid," said one sad customer on Reddit. Others have dubbed it as overrated, which we don't disagree with.

Plus, we can't escape the feeling that we're being ripped off with the Oreo McFlurry. It must cost McDonald's pennies to make, given that it's literally just soft serve and cookie dust. Even at its price point, it feels a little too expensive for what it is.

As fast food desserts go, Dairy Queen's Banana Split Royal Treat may well be the priciest out there, depending on where you buy it. Although this combination of bananas, ice cream, and toppings is officially listed as $5.29 plus tax (although that's before extra nuts or add-ons), some folks have reported spending $12 or $13 on it. That kinda makes sense, considering how much you can load this up to your heart's content, as well as how big it is. DQ's Banana Split is absolutely huge ... or, at least, it's meant to be.

Unfortunately, it seems that the Banana Split Royal Treat is suffering from a serious case of shrinkflation. People have been noticing recently that this famously massive dessert has looked a lot smaller, but the price hasn't reduced. Dairy Queen is far from the first fast food restaurant to be accused of this, but when you're spending as much as you might on a banana split at a boutique ice cream parlor, you should expect something pretty substantial. Additionally, while it's a classic, there's no getting around the fact that the flavors in this dessert are unrelentingly sweet and cloying, without any real nuance. Oh, and do the cost of these ingredients really justify its price? We're not convinced.

If you really want to feel as though you're not getting your money's worth, you should probably order Pizza Hut's Cinnamon Sticks. As with so many other fast food desserts, the item that Pizza Hut promises on its menu doesn't quite match up to what you get. The cinnamon sticks are depicted as decadent-looking, deep-brown pieces of dough that are coated liberally in cinnamon sugar. Priced at $8.99, you can expect something delicious, well-cooked, and big.

Sadly, you may not get any of those things. People who have ordered Cinnamon Sticks from Pizza Hut have been left utterly baffled by what they've ended up with, which is often pale, undercooked bricks of dough with virtually no cinnamon whatsoever. Judging by Pizza Hut's preparation process, these sticks are also harder to cut than it seems, leaving customers with a solid mound as opposed to individual fingers. When one individual posted their Cinnamon Sticks on Reddit, the world responded with horror. "The whole thing looks disgusting," said a commenter. "The cinnamon things look undercooked and wet. The bread sticks look dry and hard. The quality has really fallen."

Wingstop's always prided itself on promising a level of freshness and quality you might not expect from a fast food spot — and it charges you slightly more than other places as a result. That extends to its dessert options, too. Its Triple Chocolate Chunk Brownie is priced at around $3.09 before tax, and while it offers maximum chocolate for your money, it's hard to deny that's a lot to spend on a simple item.

Especially considering that a lot of people aren't that impressed with it. Wingstop's brownie has been accused of being both greasy and dry, which aren't exactly qualities most people seek out in desserts. What's more, all of that chocolate may not be the best thing in the world, with some saying that it has an overpowering flavor.

The biggest issue we have here, though, is the price. We doubt that Wingstop is baking each of these brownies fresh, and given that you can get an amazing brownie for the same price from a neighborhood bakery, we know where we'd rather go. Save your cash, and buy local.

Fast food restaurants just love to bring back old products to drum up sales, huh? If they're gonna do that, though, they better make sure that the food they're reviving is worth the spend. Sadly, Taco Bell's Caramel Apple Empanada doesn't make the cut. The sweet empanada was originally on the Taco Bell menu in the 2000s, and when the chain brought it back in 2024 it was relying on a hefty nose of nostalgia to drive people through the door. It priced the empanada at $2.99, on the higher side for its desserts — especially when you consider that it used to be $1.

A couple dollars extra isn't the end of the world, but people are only happy to pay that if the product is bigger and better. Well, this product is neither of those things. Multiple people have pointed out that the increased price just doesn't make sense, when you consider that you're getting exactly the same item, and have dubbed it not worth it. This is particularly true given that you can get an apple pie from McDonald's for half the price, which is basically the same dessert, just in a different shape. Want our opinion? Save your money.