We Tried the Entire Wendy's Breakfast Menu and the Best Item Was an Absolute Classic

Life in the fast-food lane is no easy drive. To survive the fast-paced, ever-changing landscape that is the takeout industry, companies have to get creative to lure those cars into the drive-thru line. Some brands have found success with expensive marketing strategies and celebrity endorsements, but at the end of the day what really keeps people coming back are the menu items—more specifically the latest and greatest menu updates.

Just like many fast food brands, Wendy’s is diligently working to crack the code to a successful breakfast menu. The popular burger joint is well-known for its red pigtails, square patties and the delicious combo of french fries dipped in a chocolate Frosty, but the restaurant’s breakfast menu has spent a number of years under construction.

After making some major upgrades, the popular fast-food joint recently unveiled a new and improved breakfast menu. A few duds from the past have been replaced with some exciting new additions, and we had a chance to sit down and try the entire menu. Keep reading for our ranking of the entire Wendy’s breakfast menu, from worst to best.

Related: I Tried All 7 of Wendy's Brand New Chicken Nuggets

How We Tested the Wendy’s Breakfast Menu

With little to no arm-twisting needed, Wendy’s invited us to taste the entire new breakfast menu. We should note that Wendy’s breakfast burritos are not available at franchise locations in New York City, so we unfortunately were unable to sample the popular new breakfast offering. We did, however, taste every other item on the menu, made fresh for our enjoyment and hand-delivered by the head chef herself.

Wendy’s Breakfast Menu Items, Ranked Worst to Best

13. Oatmeal Bar

Although this isn’t necessarily our first choice when faced with the delicious array that is the Wendy’s breakfast menu, the oatmeal bar is still a surprisingly tasty treat. Besides being freshly baked every day, the bars are made with whole oats, sweet blueberries and wonderfully tart cranberries. If you’re feeling like a sweet treat, Wendy’s also offers a deliciously chunky chocolate chip cookie and a classic sugar cookie during breakfast hours too.

12. Sausage Egg and Cheese Biscuit

It’s only fair to preface this by saying that being almost last on this list does not mean it’s the worst option on the menu. In terms of taste and quality, Wendy’s has always hit the ball out of the park with their food, and the Sausage Egg and Cheese Biscuit is a testament to just that.

Picture this: two halves of a fluffy buttermilk biscuit with a fresh-cracked Grade A egg, grilled sausage and a slice of American cheese sandwiched in between them. The sausage is both spicy and sweet without being overpowering in either direction, and it truly acted as the star ingredient of the sandwich. We placed the biscuit options at the bottom of the list because we’re such big fans of Wendy’s muffins and croissants, but these biscuits are still wildly delicious.

11. Bacon Egg and Cheese Biscuit

For those who love a good buttermilk biscuit but prefer bacon to sausage, there’s the Bacon Egg and Cheese Biscuit. However this is one option that will still hit the spot depending on the callings of your cravings.

The biscuit is tender, the cheese is perfectly melted and the addition of applewood smoked bacon adds a savory twist to every bite. We had no complaints about the eggs either, which by the way, are freshly cracked in-house every single day.

10. Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit

This was our favorite of the biscuit sandwiches. The Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit skips the sausage and the bacon and the egg and swaps in a crispy chicken patty slathered with sweet and savory maple honey butter. Is it a detour from the traditional breakfast sandwiches? Yes. Are we pleased to have this savory-sweet option for our morning meal? Also yes.

9. Bacon Egg and Swiss Croissant

Of the croissant offerings, the Bacon Egg and Swiss Croissant was the least memorable of the bunch. In all three sandwiches, the star ingredient was the Swiss cheese sauce. Rather than topping the sandwich with a standard slice of Swiss that may or may not get completely melted, the creators went with the simple yet ingenious cheese sauce.

Normally we’d rank bacon over sausage any day, but there was something about the combination of soft croissant, spicy breakfast sausage and Wendy’s Swiss cheese sauce that edged the bacon out.

8. Sausage Egg and Swiss Croissant

Now that we’ve hyped up the Swiss cheese sauce, it’s time to talk about the Sausage Egg and Swiss Croissant. Wendy’s croissant sandwiches have always been a fan-favorite with their square shape and super soft layers, but this new saucy addition is truly next level when paired with the sweet and spicy sausage.

The combination of croissant, egg, grilled sausage patty and Swiss cheese sauce was savory and buttery and cheesy and bursting with loads of flavor. This sandwich might have landed squarely in the middle of the list, but that does not take away from the fact that this might be the epitome of a croissant and egg sandwich.

7. Sausage Egg and Cheese Muffin

It doesn’t get more classic than an egg sandwich made with an English muffin, and Wendy’s certainly nailed it with this combination of ingredients—egg, American cheese, sausage and the addition of a delicious buttery spread. It’s been established already that Wendy’s breakfast sausage is a savory combination of spicy and sweet flavors, and when paired with an English muffin the Irish pork flavor finds its way into all the nooks and crannies. As we were enjoying this sandwich we couldn’t help but wonder how good it might be if we subbed out the slice of American cheese for the new Swiss cheese sauce, which is something we need to try on our next trip through the Wendy’s drive-thru.

6. French Toast Sticks

Slipping its way in between all of the sandwiches is Wendy’s take on one of the all-time best breakfast meals: French toast. Wendy’s version comes in small, bite-sized sticks that are perfectly fluffy and sweet with just the right amount of crunch on the outer edges. You can get four or six sticks per order and if you have a few folks in your car you might want to consider getting an order for everyone to share. They’re great on their own or dipped in syrup.

5. Maple Bacon Chicken Croissant

This was the very first breakfast menu item we tried and it was a very strong start. Wendy’s perfect little square-shaped croissant buns make another appearance here and the combination of breakfast chicken patty and maple bacon helped this sandwich land near the top of our list. The chicken is tender and juicy with a crisp outer edge and the maple bacon pairs beautifully with the delicious honey butter spread, making this the best chicken option on the menu by far.

4. Breakfast Baconator

If you’re familiar with Wendy’s then you already know about the Baconator. This breakfast version of the fan-favorite bacon-stacked burger is everything we love about Wendy’s breakfast wrapped into one sandwich.

One word of warning: This sandwich does not mess around. The Breakfast Baconator has one sausage patty, two slices of American cheese, one slice of Swiss cheese, a dollop of Swiss cheese sauce, loads of applewood smoked bacon and eggs. In reference to this sandwich, the Wendy's website says, “Don't just break your fast. Destroy it.” That sounds like hyperbole but it’s also accurate.

3. Cinnabon Pull Apart

Coming in at #3 on the list is this sweet breakfast option. Made with warm, buttery dough from fan-favorite Cinnabon, this super sweet collaboration is a Wendy’s exclusive that will knock your socks off with every bite.

The cinnamon-scented dough bites are baked together, then topped with hearty helping of Wendy’s signature cream cheese frosting. The pull-apart breakfast bread is deliciously gooey and tastes like the best part of a cinnamon roll—the center. If you’re the kind of person who prefers a sweet breakfast to a savory one, this is the order for you.

2. Seasoned Potatoes

The unsung hero of the breakfast menu, Seasoned Potatoes come with each meal deal and are a wonderful break from the sometimes lackluster experience of a lot of potato wedges. Wendy’s uses natural-cut, skin-on potatoes and seasons them with salt, cracked black pepper and garlic powder.

What makes these potatoes so good is, rather than cutting the wedges into thick pieces, Wendy’s slices them thinly. The thin slices give you the best of both worlds: a creamy, tender inside and a nice crispy crust. If Wendy’s sold these seasoned potatoes all day long, we’d be buying loads at a time.

1. Bacon Egg and Cheese Muffin

As much as we’re in favor of innovation, it’s tough to beat a breakfast classic. And for us, that classic is Wendy’s Bacon Egg and Cheese Muffin. There’s just something about a fresh-cracked egg, applewood smoked bacon, American cheese and a toasted buttered English muffin that hits all the right breakfast notes.

While we were fans of many items on the Wendy’s breakfast menu, the English muffin sandwiches were tops for us. In the case of the Bacon Egg and Cheese Muffin, the applewood smoked bacon stole the show and offered a lighter alternative to its sausage counterpart, giving it the win in our books.

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Bonus: Frosty Cold Brew Rankings

Of course, no breakfast menu wouldn’t be complete without coffee, and Wendy’s has some good options for your morning meal. ; we would be remiss to leave out this very valuable key player:

Wendy’s offers three Frosty-flavored cold brew options: caramel, chocolate and vanilla. After trying all three (and securing enough caffeine to last the rest of the day) we settled on caramel as the best of the bunch. The combination of smooth cold-brewed coffee, creamer made from Wendy’s world-famous Frosty, and rich caramel syrup tasted like a fancy coffee shop drink, which means we just saved ourselves an extra stop in the morning.

The caramel cold brew was followed closely by chocolate, with vanilla taking last place. Even the Wendy’s employees who helped serve up this incredible taste test were in agreement with our love for the Caramel Frosty Cold Brew, which is all we needed to hear in order to confirm our opinion.

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