Here Are 14 Burgers You Can Only Find On Secret Menus

The good ol' American burger is no longer as simple as it was in decades past. While the meat, bread, and cheese components remain a constant, today it seems as if every fast food outlet is trying to outdo the others with the biggest, best, most complex combo possible — and the reality is that we eat it up, every single time.

But sometimes there are burger fantasies that even the biggest menus can't satisfy. That's where secret menus come in. Over the years, dedicated foodies have come up with their own clever customizations using ingredients and items already available to order. Some of these probably would've been better left to the imagination, but others are so tasty and popular that even fast food chains themselves acknowledge their fan-given names (shoutout to the In-N-Out approved Not-So-Secret Menu). Here are 14 of the best secret menu burgers — plus instructions on how to actually ask for them — to jazz up your next fast food order.

The Flying Dutchman was designed by and for meat lovers. The usual bread bun is swapped out for two of In-N-Out's famous, fresh, hand-shaped beef patties, which encase two slices of melted American cheese. Some also recommend asking for your patties to be mustard-grilled (in which they are slathered with mustard before hitting the flat top) for an extra dose of flavor.

Between those who have a gluten intolerance, follow a keto diet, or are just really, really carnivorous, there's an avid fanbase for this burger. Technically, it may not even count as a secret menu item anymore, as even casual In-N-Out patrons are familiar with the concept, leading to the restaurant giving it a slot on its aptly-named Not-So-Secret Menu.

Despite its widespread infamy, In-N-Out fanatics are still finding new ways to jazz up the burger. In the summer of 2023, a TikTok trend saw swarms of customers flock to order a Flying Dutchman wrapped in a whole grilled onion. You need to be both a hardcore meat and onion lover to find this appetizing, but if you are, this is a next-level kind of treat you won't find elsewhere.

If you can't bring yourself to call this burger a McGangBang, you'll be pleased to know that it has another name: the Bababooey Burger. Both names are a little monstrous, but then again, so is the burger itself, given that it's a McDouble with a McChicken sandwiched in the middle.

It absolutely shouldn't work. That's two beef patties, a chicken burger, and a boatload of pickles, onions, ketchup, mustard, and cheese. It all comes out to a lot of flavor — perhaps too much flavor. Yet somehow, it's a meaty miracle. Plenty of McDonald's customers construct their own McGangBang burgers on a regular basis — because, yes, you will need to order the elements separately and build it yourself. Most of us just can't look a McDonald's worker in the eye and ask for a McGangBang. The depths of secret menu Reddit are extremely pro-Bababooey, with one diehard fan declaring, "It doesn't look good, doesn't smell good ... but man does it taste delicious!"

Anyone harboring a secret dream of chowing down like a tyrannosaurus rex needs to head to their nearest Wendy's as soon as possilbe. The T-Rex Burger is quite possibly the meatiest meal out there (which is saying a lot in the world of fast food).

Back in 2013, one Wendy's outlet in Brandon, Manitoba, went rogue and added a nine-patty, nine-cheese burger — topped with a single lettuce leaf and tomato slice because, you know, fiber — to its menu. Wendy's HQ pulled the plug pretty quickly, insisting that it "neither condones nor promotes the idea of anyone consuming a nine-patty hamburger in one sitting," (via TODAY). But despite the chain's best efforts to cover it up, the legend lives on to this day.

Sadly, very few Wendy's workers will let you order this burger by name. Instead, you'll need to order three Dave's Triples and construct it for yourself. Once you do, remove the bread and cheese from two of the burgers and stack it on the patties of the third. The result is a gravity-defying feast that's definitely more of a novelty than a regular order.

Big Macs earned their name because they're just that: big. The Monster Mac got its name for a similar reason. Taller, denser, and even meatier than a Big Mac, this is a truly gargantuan fast food burger designed for only the most ambitious of McDonald's customers.

To order a Monster Mac, all you need to do is ask for a Big Mac with eight beef patties (yes, eight) — or, if the McDonald's worker isn't down to fulfill that request, a Big Mac with three Double Cheeseburgers, or three extra Big Macs, either of which you can deconstruct to create your own monster. In the end, four patties sit atop the middle slice of bread while the other four sit beneath. Optionally, you can also ask for eight slices of cheese to break up each layer of meat.

It doesn't quite reach the towering heights of Wendy's T-Rex Burger, but some diners consider it superior anyway. "This is way better than Wendy's," food TikToker The Glass Sniper declared. "I applaud you, McDonald's!" The Monster Mac definitely requires an extra-large soda to wash it all down afterward. It also doesn't hurt to request extra Big Mac sauce to make sure your burger's flavorful enough to stop it from getting dry or boring.

Like The Flying Dutchman, the Animal-Style Burger is so open a secret at this point that it may as well join the regular In-N-Out menu. You'd be hard-pressed to step into any buzzing outlet of the fast food chain and not find a handful of patrons chowing down on mustard-grilled beef patties, heaps of caramelized onions, an extra serving of In-N-Out spread, and a crispy layer of sliced pickles. Stomach rumbling yet?

It's impossible to over-stress the popularity of this secret menu item. Reddit is packed with threads hailing it as the best thing you can get at In-N-Out, on or off menu. As one eloquent fan put it on Reddit, it's "perhaps the sexiest burger alive." It's so popular you don't need to worry about how to order this secret menu item. Instead, just head to the counter at your local In-N-Out (or on your next West Coast fast food pilgrimage) and ask for any burger to be done Animal-Style. To take it to the next level, you can also ask for your fries to be done Animal-Style, too. It's nothing short of the ultimate combo.

If a place has "the meats," it's inevitable that someone will try and put them all together at some point. The same year Arby's came up with its carnivorous tagline, the concept of the Arby's Meat Mountain was created. Unlike most secret menu items, this was an inside job; when customers saw the restaurant's new posters featuring a stack of ham, pastrami, roast beef, turkey, chicken tenders, and bacon, they started asking for Arby's to make it a reality.

While it's technically never been added to the menu, plenty (but not all) of Arby's restaurants and employees are game to whip one up by request. Rumor has it there's even a specific option on the cash register, making this one of the more legitimate options on this list. If your server doesn't know it by name, you can instead try asking for a sandwich containing every type of meat (plus cheese) available 

Those who've climbed the mountain for themselves confirm that it's an endeavor in and of itself — one that will likely use up your salt intake for that day and maybe the next — but that the flavors blend together surprisingly well. In fact, food bloggers Freezy Boys proclaimed that "the glorious meats of this sandwich opened my third eye. I was in a state of ecstasy for 30 minutes." Top tip: request plenty of sauces as it can get pretty dry.

Five Guys is already pretty flexible with its burgers, allowing you to pick and choose your favorite toppings (usually for free!) while placing your order. The restaurant is proud of this variety, boasting that you can make over 250,000 combinations in total. If you don't feel like dropping a few million dollars to find which of these combos is your favorite, then let us introduce you to the Patty Melt.

This means the cook will grill the burger bun upside down in butter before slotting a meat patty (or two, depending on your preference) in with all the melted cheese. In other words, it's a Five Guys Grilled Cheese with beef, but that name doesn't capture just how good the Patty Melt tastes. Think of it as the next level of cheeseburger — the kind you get when you're in a lousy mood, and anything less than a spectacular meal will set you over the edge.

Grilling the bread upside down crisps up the edges, while the extra slice of cheese takes it from tasty to indulgent. As a bonus, it comes in slightly cheaper than a Five Guys Little Cheeseburger, and considerably cheaper than the full-sized Cheeseburger. "It's better than just a Cheeseburger," said one patty melt lover on Reddit. "Extra gooey cheesy toasted perfectly."

If there's one thing we can discern from these secret menu items, it's that fast food chains are often too cautious — or, dare we say, cowardly? — to commit to what the people want: multiple kinds of meat smushed together between two pieces of bread. Anyway, let's get to the Chicken Stuffed Super Star. Like the McGangBang and the Arby's Meat Mountain, this combines chicken and beef to create the perfect treat for anyone who's not just hungry but positively ravenous.

Ordering this secret menu is pretty straightforward. Next time you're at Hardee's (or Carl's Jr., depending on where you are), you just need to ask for a SuperStar Burger and a Spicy Chicken Sandwich. The latter is then slotted between the SuperStar's beef patties, bread and all. That leaves you with a total of three pieces of meat, four slices of bread, and heaps of cheese and mayo, also known as a complex carbohydrate dream.

Until the dawn of the McPlant — which we reviewed and liked when it first came out — there wasn't exactly much of a vegetarian reputation to the McDonald's menu. Some unsung hero decided to amend that when they came up with the McGrilled Cheese — letting you enjoy all the fixings of a McDonald's Cheeseburger without the actual meat.

You can probably already guess how to order this. Ask your McDonald's server for a Cheeseburger without the meat. This leaves you with the bread, cheese, diced onions, ketchup, and mustard. In essence, it's a jazzed up grilled cheese (hence the name), but we prefer to think of it as the restaurant's lightest veggie burger. To take it to the next level, you can also add extra cheese, pickles, tomatoes, or even Big Mac sauce.

The bad news is that, unfortunately, it costs exactly the same as a Cheeseburger with meat. That feels pretty unfair, but such is the price to pay for cheesy goodness.

As you might imagine from something nicknamed The Barnyard Burger, there's a whole load of different meats in this secret menu item. Beef, bacon, and spicy chicken are all stacked together between two slices of bread to quite literally give you the whole farm in a sandwich.

While it has a lot in common with the Arby's Meat Mountain and The Monster Mac, the spicy chicken puts The Barnyard Burger in a whole other ballpark. Flavorful, sweet, and with just the right amount of crunch, it hits every single time. To order it, ask for a Spicy Chicken Sandwich and a burger with bacon. Remove the chicken patty, put it in your burger, and you're done. If spice isn't for you, you can also make The Barnyard Burger with the Homestyle Chicken Burger, which will give you just as much flavor (just without the added kick).

Shake Shack's origin story doesn't start with flipping burgers, but rather a hot dog stand in New York City's Madison Square Park. Today, it's a global chain known for crispy beef patties and its top-tier Shack Sauce, but it hasn't totally forgotten its roots and still serves a solid hot dog.

The best is (or was) the Shack-cago Dog — a Chicago-style hot dog loaded with relish, onion, cucumbers, pickles, and tomates. This is harder to order than it was back in the glory days. Since the pandemic, Shake Shack has discontinued the hot dog from its permanent menu. However, it's still possible to get one custom-made with everything but the cucumber and relish by requesting the other add-ons separately.

Even better, you can get a Shack-Cago Burger made in almost the exact same way. Simply ask for your burger with onions, tomatoes, cherry peppers, and pickles, and you've made a burger tastier than some of those actually on the menu.

The Big McChicken isn't, as the name suggests, a supersized McChicken (although that would also be pretty spectacular). Instead, it combines two of the chain's most iconic menu items (the McChicken and the Big Mac) to create one big, meaty feast. A Big McChicken is built like a regular Big Mac, just with McChicken patties in place of the sesame seed buns. This is no small bite.

Alternatively, some people interpret a Big McChicken as a Big Mac made with chicken, not beef — something that's available as an actual menu item in countries like the UAE, Kuwait, and Qatar (and which is something that McDonald's has also trialled in the U.S. in the past). This is even easier to order than the other definition of a Big McChicken; just ask if you can swap your beef patties for chicken to make it happen. (As a side note, this is something you can actually do with any McDonald's burger).

Ham and cheese sandwiches aren't limited to just your childhood and the evenings where you can't be bothered to do much more than open the fridge. If you're bored of Whoppers, then Burger King has everything you need to make a grown-up version of the nostalgic lunch staple.

A BK Ham & Cheese isn't complicated, nor does it have a witty name that will garner you strange looks if you brave asking for it directly at the counter. Instead, all you have to do is ask for ham and cheese on the regular sesame bun. It's similar to the iconic Yumbo Hot Ham & Cheese Sandwich that was offered by the chain back in the 1970s — and which was so popular that Burger King brought it back for a limited time in 2014 — but with the same chargrilled flavor offered by the rest of the menu. Unlike the Yumbo, however, you have the freedom to request other veggies or sauces as add-ons if you so wish.

Like the Patty Melt, this takes the best of the Five Guys Grilled Cheese and combines it with the chain's iconic Cheeseburger. The difference here is that the Double Grilled Cheeseburger goes bigger and tastes (if it's possible) even more luxurious.

This is the product of not one but two Grilled Cheeses, with the four slices of bread that have each been toasted in a light layer of mayonnaise. These are stacked with beef patties and any other Five Guys toppings you want to pile into this ooey, gooey collision of carbs. For a touch more flavor, former Five Guys employees recommend asking for a sprinkle of Cajun seasoning on the buns (preferably before they hit the grill, to develop the flavor even further). 

However, you may also want to note that employees have also complained that Grilled Cheeseburgers are irritating to make — especially if a restaurant is packed and you notice that the kitchen is a little hectic. If that's the case, be polite and save this particular order for a quieter time.