The 7 Best New Fast Food Items Of 2025 (So Far)

Whether you live in Maryland, the state that eats the most fast food per capita, or make your home on the other side of the world, the rotation of takeout food items is a subject that often fascinates. From hot limited-time offerings to exciting new additions to core menus, we eagerly observe the wheel of fast food turning through the seasons ... and it's arguably better than a daytime soap opera. Now that we're most of the way through 2025, we thought we'd take a look back at the fast food items that shook, rattled, and rolled us this year at our favorite drive-thrus and fondly recall what made them so special. 

While we have mad love for the best local fast food chains that rock our world, we're focusing this list on the heavy-hitters that have many American locations from coast to coast. After all, it would be a shame if you were hit with FOMO that few can reasonably satisfy! We won't pretend that this is an exhaustive list ... just a brief, glorious ode to the finest new specimens that some beloved fast food giants have debuted this year.

Mountain Dew Baja Blast is the quintessential accompaniment to Taco Bell's cuisine, and it's our favorite way to wet our whistle while scarfing a Mexican Pizza. We about lost our minds when the Bell announced Baja Blast Midnight back in March and counted down the days until it rolled out in August. With its irresistible purple color and passionfruit tang, Baja Blast Midnight thrilled us while it chilled us, proving the perfect way to wash down Taco Bell's other 2025 highlights, like the returning tortilla-crusted chicken nuggets and its Y2K Decades nostalgia menu. 

We, too, got excited when McDonald's announced the return of its long-discontinued chicken tenders, but the real 2025 standout at the Golden Arches was a sauce. In early September, McD's launched its own take on North Carolina's signature BBQ sauce, which is long on vinegar and smoke. It tastes like a more grown-up twist on the sweet workhorse BBQ that McDonald's always serves, and we're scooping up as much as we can before it leaves menus. McCrispy Strips are okay as a vessel for more dipping, we guess. 

Everyone knows crispy pizza is the superior choice — that's why we use a pizza stone with our frozen pies to achieve restaurant-quality results. Pizza Hut's personal pan pizzas are an oldie but goodie, loaded with the nostalgia of Saturday nights in the 1990s for adults of a certain age ... but they are awfully doughy. Enter the Hut's Crafted Flatzz, which are individual thin-crust pizzas absolutely laden with delicious toppings. We don't know what we love more ... the promotional pricing (which may vary depending on location) or the craveable Nashville Hot Chicken flavor. Holy yum. 

Sometimes Starbucks surprises us. We've become accustomed to the seasonal shift in the Siren's LTO drinks, from raspberry pearls in the summer to the almighty PSL in late August. This past spring, however, your favorite mass-market coffee shop debuted a pick that sounded like it came off the list of the best international Starbucks menu items we covet: a horchata-based spin on an oatmilk shaken espresso. Bracingly caffeinated, just the amount of sweet, and kissed by cinnamon, this drink was a welcome change from the normal routine. 

We love experimenting with the list of the best vegetables to add to our smoothie, but sometimes, we crave the convenience and delicious taste of Smoothie King's signature drink. Up until August, however, Smoothie King was never a one-stop-shop for a meal, as its food offerings were meager. That all changed when it rolled out its Power Eats menu, packed with protein-filled goodies. We especially went gaga for the whole wheat Peanut Butter Toast, which is thick with all-natural PB, fruit, and honey for the perfect salty-sweet bite. 

If you know the tenuous difference between fast food and fast casual, you may be stumped by the mere existence of Panera, with many locations having drive-thru windows. None of that matters when we head into a café at breakfast time and order a CinnaScramble. It's an ideological descendant of McDonald's famous McGriddle, taking a sweet brekkie treat (in this case, a cinnamon roll) and turning it into a surprisingly craveable sandwich. The fact that it's only available during breakfast hours is the only bad thing about it, in our opinion. 

Reddit reviews agree that Culver's Butterburger is the best fast food burger, but we go to bat hard for its cheese curds ... and we freaked out a little while ago when the Wisconsin-based fast food chain debuted its new Jalapeño Cheese Curds, which take those same ooey-gooey chunks of squishable cheese and stud them with bits of spicy hot pepper. Perfect for dipping in ranch sauce and scarfing alongside a mushroom-Swiss burger or simply inhaling as a snack, these poppable treats will occupy our minds and hearts until they disappear later in October.