What did fast food taste like in the 60's & 70's - Was it better than it is today

I can only speak for the 80's, but:

I have heard of a time when Arby's used to sell actual Roast Beef, not that organ meat hive they carve off of now. I'm told it was quite good.

However, they're better these days with Angus, Corned Beef and other primer cuts.

McDonalds used to use Lard blend to cook their fried items and yeah, it tasted world's better and gave everything better texture.

Taco Bell used to:

Pressure cook real pinto beans with lard
Cook Grade A ground beef on premises and season it
Personally fry each and every corn tortilla shell or nacho
Personally shred cheese (No aluminum)
Shred heads of lettuce
Chop whole tomatoes
When they first introduced a steak burrito, it was made with real grilled, marinated steak and was fantastic.

It's all real horrible now, even the sour cream is fake or "lite" ("LIte" = Cheaper and worse for you)

KFC used to be sublime, they actually used 12 herbs and spices. Now their breading tastes like salt and flour with a little bit of pepper. Their mashed potato gravy (again, actual spices) and biscuits were way better too.

Pizza Hut used to be better, with a real buttery crust.

Burger King chicken sandwiches were way better.

And as everyone mentioned McDonalds french fries were a lot better, as it was laced in beef fat.

It tasted like real meat.
In the 60's there were car hop places like A&W with babes who actually delivered food to your car on roller skates. Juice dripping off your chin real meat burgers. Burger Chef had a special 10 real meat buger bag for $1.50....that's 15 cents a peice. I never saw a square burger until I went to Wendy's around '80. I'm convinced whatever they call a burger now is not real meat....doesn't resemble it in any way. Better living through chemicals.

or Castle

YES it tasted more like real food with real flavor.

A&W had the best hamburgers and fries.
Dairy Queen had the best ice cream.


Now they all taste plastic and fake.

Last time someone fed me KFC I thought the bird was about the size of a pigeon. A 10 piece meal is now $21. Saw that on the sign as I drove by.

last McD milkshake I had I hurled minutes later. I wouldn't go there if the food was free.

Their current mashed and gravy taste just exactly like cancer.

I know people who claim to really like it. I don't understand. It tastes like dying.

Since the mid 80's, if I've had to at eat McD's....it flys through me like shit through a goose. Only place that does it. Must be the secret sauce.

Yep, crispy french fries fried in real oil. That was the stuff. Plus, real meat in hamburgers and lots and lots of grease.

There used to be a lot of mom & pop food stores around. They had good food, all gone now.

I remember how salt in all restaurants had sugar in it. It was like half sugar. This I was told was to make the food taste better.

no shit?

Yes it was much better!

They would do 4 am prep of food thats what made it fast and convenient!

No they use less early morning prep and a lot more half cooked processed food with heave preservatives!

Yesteryear was the bomb!

Fast Food in this day and age just kills you slow.

It was organic with out the organic label and organic prices.

Anyone remember the commercial jingle 'Don't cook tonight da da da da call Chicken Delight'

And they were at the door in no time! That juicy crispy real fried chicken and french fries were so good, my mom would call for it when we needed a treat. Not at all processed. It was delivered on paper plates.

Yes it is all completely different today OP. I like how you said you wanted to hear from the 'old timers' ha!

Great thread, I read the whole thing, and it brought back so many memories. I was a little kid in the 70s, but fast food was still much better even in the 80s. Shakey's pizza, check. Better burgers and fries, check. MUCH cheaper, with MUCH better quality, check.

Not much more I can add, but anybody remember Godfather's Pizza? I don't think it was the best pizza ever, but you got a huge, cheesy pizza for a reasonable price, and you could gorge on that, swill Coke (up to a time with real sugar), and play Pac-Man and Galaga to your heart's content...this of course would have been the early 80s.

actually we had pizza king that was kinda like casanos and london bobbys which was fish chips but it was before delivery. also i can remember arbys burger chef mcdonalds and good ol dairy queen was around and burger king and i say the food was better and your portion wasnt smaller than the condiments that came on it a hamburger patty from mcd's is almost the size of a 50 cent piece and as thick too dont understand why other than greed!

well, white people who knew how to run a business properly worked there back then. that should explain alot.

I had forgot about Shakee's Pizza, fun place.

One of the first jobs I had back in the 60's was at KFC. You got 3 pcs. larger potatoes and coleslaw with two dinner rolls for $1.25, and yes it was better. The chicken was fried in lard, the potatoes and gravy mix came from KFC. The coleslaw, potato salad were made with local produce. As a side note I made a $1.10 an hour with no overtime pay.

One fast food outlet that has not been mentioned yet was the guy who had the hot dog pushcart with the Sabretts umbrella. They've been round since the early 1900's. Boiled franks with sauerkraut or onion sauce and sharp German style mustard.

5o years ago as a kid one of these "chefs" told me how he put his three kids through collage by selling the tube steaks.

A&W served root beer in a glass mug that had been kept in a freezer, so it was very cold and frosty when they brought it to your car. loved that!

I worked at McD's for a few months in the early 1970's. There was also Burger King up the road.

The shakes were made of unknown stuff then too. Fries were great esp. when I intentionally overcooked them. Burgers were probably better because the buns were made of natural materials and the meat was not (to my knowledge) pink slime.

But it was basically the same as now. BK precooks their stuff then microwaves it to warm it up, then and now. BK flame-broils, McD uses a flat griddle.

Geeee.... see what eating fast food did to me. It made me spell college wrong.

Shakee's was great!

When i was young, fast food was a treat. Every once in a while we got a mc Donald's happy meal. In my opinion yes it did taste better. If I remember correctly, I was mainly after the toy.

No. Grease didn't coat your mouth and make you sick afterwards. Beef used to have flavor before they started feeding the cows chicken shit and chicken feathers. Nothing tastes as good as it did back in the 60's. Not soft drinks, cigarettes, meat. Now I have to sprinkle a ton of seasoning on stuff just to give it some flavor.

KFC used to be wonderful. I really don't believe that the Col used MSG in his original mix that I ate in the early 60's and it was delishish. The pieces were bigger too. The pieces I get today look like pieces of a pigeon.

When I was a little kid - under 6 we used to go to Kentucky Fried Chicken aka the Colonel.

They were drive up, eat in car. I used to get a box with a piece of chicken, a small bag of fries and a small soda. Our car had cup indentations in the glove box. This would have been a 64 or 65 Impala. I remember the fries were soooo good. I can almost smell them.

I used to hear ads on TV that said "15¢ - a nickel and a dime at Burger King you eat better every time" But I had never seen a Burger King.

Additionally there were little stand alone restaurants that served burgers.

Growing up in Philly we also had Gino's [link to ginoshamburgers.homestead.com] Home of the Gino's Giant which like a Big Mac only better. Some of the Gino's were also part KFC.

When I was 7 or 8 (1969) I remember going to Clifton Heights and there was an Arby's, a Gino's and a McDonald's all right next to one another. That was the first time I had seen a McDonald's or an Arby's.