The 6 biggest chain-restaurant food trends of 2025 - and 3 that won't survive 2026

Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? . Chicken tenders and sweet-and-spicy sauces led trends at fast-food and chain restaurants. Value meal deals and nostalgic menus drove fast-food innovation and customer interest. Trendy flavors like Dubai chocolate and chicken sandwiches may lose popularity in 2026. It's been a blockbuster year for chain restaurants. Fast-food giants like McDonald's and Taco Bell doubled down on value and nostalgia, rolling out meal deals and throwback menus that sparked major customer buzz. We also saw crispy chicken, dunkable sauces with bold flavors, and dippable appetizers dominate menus and social feeds throughout 2025. But as we enter 2026, not every trend is poised for survival. Here's a recap of some of the biggest chain-restaurant trends of 2025 - and three we think are on their way out. Chicken tenders were the dippable, dunkable choice for many fast-food fans. 2025 was undoubtedly the year of the tender. McDonald's launched its new McCrispy Strips in May, marking the first time chicken strips have been on its menu since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Taco Bell also launched crispy chicken strips, an iteration on its fan-favorite chicken nuggets, as a limited-time offering this year. Plus, Wendy's introduced its own Wendy's Tendys and a lineup of six new sauces for dunking in the fall. Beyond fast food, we also saw casual-dining chains like Chili's leaning into crispy chicken iterations. "Fried chicken is one of the fastest-growing segments - especially with a younger consumer that prefers boneless fried chicken," Chili's chief marketing officer George Felix previously told Business Insider in January. Chicken tenders, which the chain calls Chicken Crispers, are also a key player on the chain's famous Triple Dipper - but more on that later. Sweet-and-spicy flavor combinations, such as hot honey, took over in 2025. Hot honey was a major player across fast-food and casual-dining chains this year, building on a trend that's been growing for years. QSR magazine reported that the number of menu items featuring hot honey grew by 187% from 2016 to 2020 - and the trend doesn't seem to be slowing down. In March, Red Robin collaborated with Mike's Hot Honey on a series of menu items that incorporated the product, including a new hot-honey chicken sandwich, hot-honey pepperoni pizza, and wings tossed in Mike's Hot Honey. Panda Express also introduced a new chili-crisp chicken entrée, drizzled with the sauce, and earlier this year, Chipotle launched an entire menu featuring hot honey as a flavor profile. The list continues. Both KFC and Taco Bell partnered with Mike's Hot Honey this year, with the latter chain even describing its new Mike's Hot Honey Diablo sauce as "the ultimate way to build on our legacies of sauce innovation" in a press release. Appetizer combos became the new entrées. Say the words "Chili's Triple Dipper," and any Gen Z's ears are bound to perk up. The customizable appetizer platter, featuring everything from wings and chicken tenders to bite-sized sliders, has been the...

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