Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

"Secret" menu items?

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • "Secret" menu items?

    I'm sitting here drinking a crunch berry frap and I started thinking about the secret menu item lists you can find across the web. Some of the things totally work if you know how to order them - the crunch berry frap, for instance, is just a strawberries and creme frap with hazelnut and/or toffee nut syrup blended in. A couple baristas even know what they are if you just say captain crunch or crunchberry frap.

    How many of the supposed secret menu items can you really get? I have a hard time believing that some places will actually do some of the things that appear on these lists, like blending a pie in with a McFlurry. Any of you wonderful people who work in a place which is said to have a secret menu, what can you tell us?

  • #2
    I've never worked in 'real' food retail, just at my college campus's little food place when I was in school. My senior year we got a Friendly's ice cream station (just a few flavors of ice cream, Fribble mix, and toppings), and I used to make chocolate-cherry Fribbles for myself. Chocolate Fribble with a generous scoop of maraschino cherries blended in. Yum.

    Also a friend taught me to make a faux-Orange Julius. Basically a vanilla milkshake made with orange juice instead of milk, a bit of vanilla extract, and a little sugar. (Leave out the sugar and it's more creamsicle than julius, which is how I usually make it.)
    Last edited by BookstoreEscapee; 09-17-2011, 12:25 AM.
    I don't go in for ancient wisdom
    I don't believe just 'cause ideas are tenacious
    It means that they're worthy - Tim Minchin, "White Wine in the Sun"

    Comment


    • #3
      A local Key West wings and hot dogs place (which is sadly temporarily closed, but I hope it will reopen soon) had such a secret menu item. It wasn't listed on the menu, but they had "Happy Endings" wings, which were two of their best sauces blended....as I recall, it was hot mixed with sweet thai. It was incredible....but if you didn't know about it, you would never experience it.

      Also, I know of a few other "secret" (or I guess unlisted) menu items around town, but the only one that comes to my mind at the moment is pretty much borderline legality wise (liquor license issues, yada yada), and frankly, it's not that great anyways.

      Okay....back to my exciting vacation, where my best friend, her husband, and myself are going to sit down on a Friday night to watch a movie. Hey, I can't be out at the bars EVERY night! (Especially not tonight, suffering as I am from my first ever case of jet lag.) But the youngster is in bed, and we have plenty of beer and booze, so we're not being totally boring and lame.

      "The Customer Is Always Right...But The Bartender Decides Who Is
      Still A Customer."

      Comment


      • #4
        There's lots of them at Jamba Juice. Of those I've tried are:
        Strawberry Shortcake
        Blue Fruity Pebbles
        Red Fruity Pebbles
        White Gummy Bear

        You can look up the list online, not all locations have them all.

        Comment


        • #5
          As far as "secret" items go, the only thing I do is request the Big Mac sauce with my chicken nuggets or dip my fries into it.
          The best professors are mad scientists! -Zoom

          Now queen of USSR-Land...

          Comment


          • #6
            I don't get how some of these are 'secrets'...for Olive Garden they list asking for extra sauce or less cheese as secret menu items. Is there any restaurant (especially sit-down places, fast food might be more difficult if they make things ahead of time) where you can't ask for more or less of an ingredient that is added when they make your meal?
            I don't go in for ancient wisdom
            I don't believe just 'cause ideas are tenacious
            It means that they're worthy - Tim Minchin, "White Wine in the Sun"

            Comment


            • #7
              Quoth BookstoreEscapee View Post
              I don't get how some of these are 'secrets'...for Olive Garden they list asking for extra sauce or less cheese as secret menu items. Is there any restaurant (especially sit-down places, fast food might be more difficult if they make things ahead of time) where you can't ask for more or less of an ingredient that is added when they make your meal?
              I know, some of them seem a little...lame? Like on the McD's list, they had a cheeseburger meal, which was, well, ordering two cheeseburgers, fries, and a drink. No, it's not one of the numbered meals, but it doesn't seem all that "secret" either.

              Some of the others are interesting, though.
              "Enough expository banter. It's time we fight like men. And ladies. And ladies who dress like men. For Gilgamesh...IT'S MORPHING TIME!"
              - Gilgamesh, Final Fantasy V

              Comment


              • #8
                Define "secret" item - like something that isn't on the menu but they all know how to make? Does it have to be in the system?

                I worked in a grocery store (seafood and deli) and we did platters as well as custom platters. While the custom ones were a complete ripoff (they'd charge an extra $6-$15 just for the platter (plate) itself and an extra charge for making it), we (I) had a few "secret" ones that we never let corp know about but were big sellers (until one corp person "discovered" it and then made it part of the normal process - at a much higher price).

                The most popular (that corp never discovered) was 1 pound of seafood salad (in a container in the middle), 2-1/4 sides of it had about 1.5-2 pounds (total) of 26-30 cooked shrimp, 1/4 of it would be one of the potato salads (regular, egg& potato, or red potato - usually about 1 pound), and usually the last 1/4 was some crab product (either about a pound of snow crab clusters, crab claws, or even king crab claws) and a container of cocktail sauce. I usually charged $4 over what the total was which by far offset the price of the actual platter.

                The worst was when I had small shrimp platters (usually 12 26-30 shrimp ) and a little cocktail sauce. I used to charge for the shrimp plus $1 for the sauce (price was usually around $6-$7). Corp got wind of this and made it a standard but with smaller shrimp (40-50's - cheaper shrimp) and charged $10 for them.
                Quote Dalesys:
                ... as in "Ifn thet dawg comes at me, Ima gonna shutz ma panz!"

                Comment


                • #9
                  Most of them seemed pretty lame to me, like the White Castle Surf & Turf. Order a fish sandwich and a burger. Stack them together. That is what they will charge you for. Do you really need the guy in he back to assemble it for you?

                  And it is really complicated to get Denny's to drop a slice of cheese on your hash brown. Ask real nice and they might even add onions. Or you can go to Waffle House.

                  To me, a REAL secret menu item is not just an unusual combination of items already on the menu or asking for extra of something.

                  Now all you have to do is hold the chicken, bring me the toast, give me a check for the chicken salad sandwich, and you haven't broken any rules.
                  Life is too short to not eat popcorn.
                  Save the Ales!
                  Toys for Tots at Rooster's Cafe

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Quoth Arwyn Q View Post
                    I'm sitting here drinking a crunch berry frap and I started thinking about the secret menu item lists you can find across the web. Some of the things totally work if you know how to order them - the crunch berry frap, for instance, is just a strawberries and creme frap with hazelnut and/or toffee nut syrup blended in. A couple baristas even know what they are if you just say captain crunch or crunchberry frap.

                    How many of the supposed secret menu items can you really get? I have a hard time believing that some places will actually do some of the things that appear on these lists, like blending a pie in with a McFlurry. Any of you wonderful people who work in a place which is said to have a secret menu, what can you tell us?
                    At my Starbucks, a Captain Crunch is a Toffee Nut White Mocha because it tastes like the milk left behind from regular Captain Crunch. Crunchberry is the strawberries and cream you mentioned.

                    We've also got a White Lightning (venti cupfull of ice + six pumps of white mocha + five shots of espresso shaken in a tumbler and topped with just a bit of cream), the John Wayne (layered from bottom to top: Vanilla, cream, and two shots. To be drank all in one go), Frozen Hot Chocolate (Syrup cream frappuccino made with whole milk and heavy whipping cream and mocha and vanilla), and many others that I don't see on that list.

                    The biggest problem with most secret menus you find off the internet is that they're oftentimes made by customers and usually not standardized. Just because you saw it on a list doesn't mean the person you're ordering it from will have any idea what you're talking about.


                    Except for In-N-Out Burger. Their whole gimmick is their secret menu. They've only got about five things on the normal menu, but if you go to one, ask for a Two-by-four Animal Style with a Neapolitan Shake and Fries Well-done. My own personal artery-clogging heaven.
                    Flood

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Quoth Kogarashi View Post
                      Like on the McD's list, they had a cheeseburger meal, which was, well, ordering two cheeseburgers, fries, and a drink. No, it's not one of the numbered meals, but it doesn't seem all that "secret" either.
                      Not true. It's usually the second or third extra value meal...at least here in WI and in NJ. Now, the HAMBURGER one is the one not listed on the menu.
                      Unseen but seeing
                      oh dear, now they're masquerading as sane-KiaKat
                      There isn't enough interpretive dance in the workplace these days-Irv
                      3rd shift needs love, too
                      RIP, mo bhrionglóid

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        My boyfriend is the head cook at a small restaurant/bar that his family owns. They don't really have a 'secret' menu as such, but the standing policy is that if the kitchen has the ingredients, then they'll make whatever the customer orders. Since at least half the cooking in the restaurant is homestyle done from scratch, that means there is a LOT of leeway there for having ingredients. Of course, the flip side to that is that since it's a small place and not part of any franchise or chain, if people keep ordering something not on the menu, that item will likely wind up being added.
                        You're only delaying the inevitable, you run at your own expense. The repo man gets paid to chase you. ~Argabarga

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Quoth BookstoreEscapee View Post
                          I don't get how some of these are 'secrets'...for Olive Garden they list asking for extra sauce or less cheese as secret menu items. Is there any restaurant (especially sit-down places, fast food might be more difficult if they make things ahead of time) where you can't ask for more or less of an ingredient that is added when they make your meal?
                          No. Which means these really aren't secret menu items.

                          Quoth csquared View Post
                          Now all you have to do is hold the chicken, bring me the toast, give me a check for the chicken salad sandwich, and you haven't broken any rules.
                          And just where do you expect me to hold the chicken? Between my legs?

                          Quoth Flood View Post
                          Except for In-N-Out Burger. Their whole gimmick is their secret menu. They've only got about five things on the normal menu, but if you go to one, ask for a Two-by-four Animal Style with a Neapolitan Shake and Fries Well-done. My own personal artery-clogging heaven.
                          And just what IS a Two by four Animal Style? Details, please.

                          Quoth Kittish View Post
                          They don't really have a 'secret' menu as such, but the standing policy is that if the kitchen has the ingredients, then they'll make whatever the customer orders.
                          Honestly, a lot of restaurants has that as their basic policy, including many chain restaurants.

                          "The Customer Is Always Right...But The Bartender Decides Who Is
                          Still A Customer."

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Since when is Taco Bell's "Cheesy Gordita Crunch" a secret item? I order it all the time as a box meal.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Does the Chili Cheese Burrito from Taco Bell count? It's been off the menu for YEARS, but you can still order one.
                              "You are loved" - Plaidman.

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X