Whatever Happened To McDonald's Breakfast Buffets?

Everyone knows that McDonald's breakfast slaps — we're still mourning the fact that the chain decided to stop serving all-day breakfast. Which is why the idea of a McDonald's breakfast buffet is absolutely spellbinding. Benson Boone, bard of our time, might call it mystical magical, even. AYCE Golden Arches brekkie? Come on. When we heard whispers that such a thing actually existed, albeit around 30 years ago, you know we were intrigued.

Most fans of McDonald's breakfast have a favorite item, like the sandwich that features a fresh-cracked egg. Imagine, if you will, a buffet table groaning under the weight of platters of fresh hotcakes, scrambled eggs, sausage patties, and home fries (not to be confused with hash browns). According to anecdotes from social media site Reddit, it was an actual thing ... no matter how many folks will try and dismiss it. Concrete information is hard to find nowadays, but the Reddit collective recalls that McDonald's breakfast buffets were a product of the '90s. They may only have been available on weekends, as yet another post with pictorial evidence from '94 seems to indicate.

McDonald's breakfast buffet seems to have been a product of a time when many fast food chains were experimenting with similar offerings, like Wendy's Superbar. Changing times have all but eliminated the fast food buffet, even if not all KFC buffet locations are totally discontinued. There's an overwhelming reason why buffets in general have been on the decline entering the 21st century, and that's rising food costs. It's feasible to imagine that McDonald's wasn't making money off its breakfast buffet.

In fall 2025, Facebook was rocked by a post that purported that McDonald's was test-driving a lunch/dinner buffet. For the low price of $12.99, diners could allegedly fill their bellies with unlimited burgers, fries, Chicken McNuggets, and desserts. One claim held that the buffet concept was opening in Tampa, Florida, while another stated that a Branson, Missouri location would be the home of the experiment. 

Some social media users even claimed – hopefully in jest — that they were planning their vacations around visiting these bountiful McDonald's buffets. Alas, however, a good look at the image in the Facebook post in question makes it obvious that the "photo" of the buffet has all the hallmarks of AI generation, and comments all back up the fact that it's a (sad) hoax.

In recent years, McDonald's has struggled with accusations that its corporate price hikes go far beyond what's been necessary to keep up with inflation. The chain has even engaged in some well-publicized combo deal price cuts to try and counteract the backlash. It seems patently unlikely that the company would bring back a breakfast buffet at any price point that would be palatable to value-conscious consumers at this point in time, although hope springs eternal and maybe the idea will be something McDonald's reconsiders in the future.