The Best Fast Food Desserts You Can Order Right Now, Ranked by a Food Editor

• Price: $7

I’m all for pizzerias making good use of leftover dough with items like cinnamon sticks, cheesy bread and garlic knots. These weren’t as golden-brown or well-coated as the image online shows them to be, but they were soft, buttery and sweet. They’re at the bottom of my list compared to the other desserts, but at the top compared to the rest of the treats from Pizza Hut. (Seriously—the Cinnabon mini rolls were cloying and borderline mushy, the chocolate doughnut bites were dry and bland and the apple pies, despite their enticingly crisp texture, had a strange-tasting filling.)

• Price: $2.50/four

As a sweet-and-sour lover, I was so excited to try these. The filling was sweet-tart and bright, but I wished there was more of it. The bites were also tender, flaky and buttery, but I expected them to be a bit crispier (at least at the edges) from having been freshly fried. I also ordered the chocolate chip cake which, to my surprise, was a full-sized cake, not a single-serve one. It’s a nice option if you’re ordering a family-style combo of chicken and sides.

• Price: $1

Am I imagining things, or did these used to be more tightly wound and darker in color? I was surprised by how pale they were. That said, they were airy and as crispy as can be. I thought they could have been better coated in cinnamon sugar, but I appreciate Taco Bell having a lighter fast food dessert available. (It’s like they know I’m going to order my weight in beef and cheese or something.) As for the Cinnabon Delights, I’m not a fan. They’re one-note and a bit too sweet for my liking.

• Price: $7

I enjoyed these twists way more than I thought I was going to. They were crunchy on the outside, doughy on the inside and the topping was just a touch salty in the best way. Their texture changed quickly as they sat though, so I’d dig into these ASAP. In terms of the other dessert options, the chocolate lava crunch cakes were too sweet and very greasy, and the marbled cookie brownie was fine but unremarkable, besides its fudgy texture.

• Price: $1

I ate a lot of Subway as a kid and admittedly have a soft spot for the chain’s chocolate chip and white chip macadamia nut cookies. While I thought the latter would take the crown, the raspberry cheesecake variety won me over at first bite. It struck a stellar balance of sweet and sour and had a soft-yet-crisp texture. Since I know you’re wondering, I’d skip both the Oreo and chocolate chip footlong cookies. The first had that signature salty Oreo aroma, but the cookie fell flat and the “cream” trench down the middle turned stretchy in a flash, like lukewarm melted marshmallow. The chocolate chipper was simply too soft, chewy and sweet.

• Price: $1

I don’t live near a White Castle, but I wanted someone to experience their unconventional desserts on my behalf. So, I enlisted the help of PureWow VP of Editorial Candace Davison. “This was my favorite, but then again, I love rich, decadent desserts,” she said. “This is like an ultra-thick, store-bought brownie with nice crunch from the chocolate coating. Flavor-wise, it kind of reminded me of a Cosmic Brownie, minus the rainbow candy bits, and my inner child was down with it.” She described the gooey buttercake as dense, spongy and like coffee cake minus the cinnamon. As for the strawberry cheesecake, she liked the tanginess but not the berry flavor; she found it to be more syrupy than fruity.

• Price: from $1.50

I’ve had a *lot* of Wendy’s Frostys in my day, and that’s not counting the SpongeBob-inspired Pineapple Under the Sea and Thin Mints varieties that I tried on the job. While it isn’t the superior fast food soft serve IMO (more on that later), it hits every time. It was creamy, fluffy and notably aerated. Personally, I prefer the vanilla because of its subtle, simple flavor, but I do like the chocolate’s maltiness and Ovaltine-like qualities. If you like sugar cookies, theirs are very buttery, soft and chewy. But skip the Cinnabon pull-apart, OK?

• Price: $3

I’d be in trouble if I lived close enough to a Jollibee to go there on the reg. Their impeccably seasoned chicken sandwich, complete with umami mayo, is reason enough to make the trip, but I’d never leave without ordering one of these tropical pies. The dough was flaky and soft with a crackly outside. This one was arguably a touch underdone, but I loved how nuanced the filling was and that there was actual fruit in it. The mango provided a touch of tartness, but a little bit of salt or acid in the filling would’ve made it even tastier.

• Price: $2

This was a total sleeper hit. The Arby’s menu is all over the place (it’s like a deli that also sells burgers, gyro, crispy chicken and fish?), and the dessert section is no exception. That said, this cookie…kind of slapped. I loved the crunch of the toffee-like puddles of caramel, as well as the just-sweet-enough chocolate chips. The cookie itself could’ve been crisper at the edges, but I feel like the texture of the mix-ins made up for its softness. It’s also comparatively big to other fast food chains’ cookies.

• Price: from $2

My go-to Burger King dessert as a kid was the strawberry milkshake with Oreo pieces. I’d had the Hershey’s sundae pie plenty of times, and this time around, I still found it to be just…fine. But the limited-time churro fries? I did *not* see their deliciousness coming. The pastry dough was delectably crunchy on the outside and supple on the inside. They were evenly fried, generously coated in cinnamon sugar and plain irresistible. I’d skip the chocolate sauce that comes on the side (it’s runny and the churros don’t need the help).

• Price: $2

Confession: I’m a total Popeye’s stan. The fries! The mac and cheese! The biscuits! Heck, even the pickles on the spicy chicken sandwich are revelatory, if you ask me. I was a Mardi Gras cheesecake (RIP) girl back in the day, but now, I recommend the cinnamon apple pie as the chain’s best fast food dessert. It was just a touch acidic, which is how I prefer fruit fillings, very crunchy and thoroughly coated in cinnamon sugar. I wanted to like the LTO strawberry cream cheese pie more, but I thought the fruit tasted very artificial, like a lollipop. The chocolate chip biscuit was also a pass for me due to its excessive sweetness.

• Price: $5

I had Chick-fil-A for the first time last year (for a story, of course) and had to try the peach milkshake, an annual delicacy that gains traction on social media every summer. It was very worth the hype, but what’s a girl to drink when it’s off the menu? My answer is the frosted lemonade, a hand-spun mix of the store’s lemonade and soft serve. The results were creamy, but not too thick to sip from a straw. It was also bright with citrusy flavor, yet sweet and milky from the soft serve. (Honestly, I wouldn’t have minded more lemonade, even if that made the texture a bit thinner…but my fatal flaw is wanting everything to be sourer, so take that with a grain of salt.)

• Price: from $2

When it comes to fast food desserts, I’m betting I’ve had more from McDonald’s than anywhere else. As a kid I was absolutely infatuated with the since-discontinued strawberry sundae. (The caramel one is OK, but nowhere close to as good.) I’ve also had too many of their chocolate chip cookies to count; I’d be lying if I said I didn’t used to UberEats myself 13-count cookie totes and milk jugs in the wee hours of the night. But time and time again, I come back to the Oreo McFlurry. McDonald’s soft serve is plain flawless—creamy, flavorful, but more substantial than competitor equivalents (read: not half air). I used to order extra Oreo pieces so they would be at the top and bottom of the cup, but now that the shockingly adorable mini size exists, you can nail the perfect ratio for less. Just hope the ice cream machine is working when you arrive.