An honest review of every updated fast food worth $5

When was the last time you spent $5 on a meal? A full meal, not just a 12-inch sandwich or a cheeseburger.

Eating out is a luxury, and my recent credit card bills reflect that. With notoriously low profit margins and the rising cost of everything from ingredients to labor, restaurant meals are far from cheap.

Fast food is a category of its own, the American dream of a neighborhood burger joint, affordable sustenance delivered in a paper bag with a smile. But not even fast food giants are immune to inflation. In an open letter published in May, McDonald's USA President Joe Erlinger said the average cost of a Big Mac in the U.S. has risen 21% from 2019.

Amid widespread criticism of rising prices, McDonald's introduced a $5 value meal in late June. That set off something of a value meal war, with competing chains soon afterward trying to woo diners with their own value meals, many of which hovered around $5. Burger King brought back its $5 Your Way meal in early June, followed by the launch of Taco Bell's $7 Luxe Cravings Box on June 27. Wendy's is about to mark its fifth anniversary of the $5 Biggie Bag, and Jack in the Box and Carl's Jr. also have versions of a $5 offering.

McDonald's offer was originally expected to last for a month, but 93% of participating McDonald's franchisees plan to offer the promotion through August.

I set out to try them all, evaluating the meals based on price, food quality, taste, how similar they were to the advertised photos, and whether or not I felt sick after eating.

You can find the rankings below. If you agree with my assessments (and you most likely don't), let me know in the comments or in a concise email.

6. $5 Big Deal Meal from Jack in the Box

Jack in the Box's $5 Big Deal meal includes a Junior Jumbo Jack Burger, curly fries, a taco and a drink.

(Jenn Harris/Los Angeles Times)

What's in the bag: A Jr. Chicken Sandwich or Jr. Jumbo Jack Cheeseburger plus a taco, curly fries and a 16-ounce drink.

It's unclear whether the patty was meant to be a smashed burger or not, but it appeared to be less than a quarter-inch thick and was completely dwarfed by the bun. There was a single pickle, a single piece of wilted lettuce, a slice of tomato, a slice of American cheese, and a squirt of mayo and ketchup. The bun could only be described as stiff. It was on par with the frozen patties one might find in various dollar store freezers.

The taco's crust was translucent from grease. It's mostly crust and lettuce, with a thin strip of meat paste along the crease. The curly fries were the meal's only redeeming quality, though they were bland and extra greasy.

If you opt for the chicken sandwich, expect the same bun and a rubbery, pressed and formed chicken patty.

5. McDonald's $5 Value Meal

What's in the bag: McChicken or McDouble plus 4 chicken nuggets and a 12-ounce drink.

McDonald's bread tends to have a curious plastic, almost waxy quality. It looks like bread. I've been told it's bread, but I'm never convinced. The location I visited in Pasadena only offered the McChicken. I appreciated that they didn't skimp on mayo, properly lubricating the sandwich and adding a good amount of shredded lettuce. The chicken itself is like a giant nugget, though looser in texture and not as tightly packed, like a circle of packing foam breaded and fried to look like chicken, crispy in parts and well seasoned with salt and pepper.

The nuggets are the ones you know and love, served with your choice of sauce. The fries were like sticks of salty mashed potatoes.

4. $5 Menu of Your Choice from Burger King

What's in the bag: Whopper Jr., Bacon Cheeseburger or Chicken Jr. plus fries, four chicken nuggets and a 12-ounce drink.

The Whopper Jr. tastes and looks like the burger your neighbor served you at the Fourth of July party. The sesame-seed bun tastes vaguely like the plastic bag it came in. The patty, thin, overcooked and with faint grill marks on top, is smaller than the bun. It is generously topped with a slice of tomato, raw onions, pickles, ketchup and mayonnaise.

The fries are hard at the ends and soft in the middle. Though pale in color, they have a bitter, almost burnt aftertaste. The nuggets are comparable to McDonald's, slightly improved by the addition of Buffalo sauce, if you can stomach the condiment's pudding-like texture.

3. Wendy's $5 Big Bag

What's in the bag: Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger, four spicy or regular chicken nuggets, fries and a 16-ounce drink.

This was my first time eating a Wendy's burger and I was disappointed that I hadn't noticed the burger's signature square shape. By the time I remembered to check all four corners, I was already done. The miniature sandwich seemed more appropriate for a kid's meal or for someone who was hungry. Despite the size, the bun was the softest and best of any I tried. The bacon was really crispy. Both the tomato slice and the iceberg lettuce leaf were fresh. The burger was a little dry, but the mayo saved it.

The spicy nuggets did have a spicy kick and a distinct peppery flavor. The fries were overly salty, dense and heavy.

2. Carl's Jr. $5 All Star Menu

What's in the bag: Double grilled cheeseburger or spicy chicken sandwich plus four pieces of chicken stars, fries and a drink.

Both the double cheeseburger and the spicy chicken sandwich seemed to be full-sized versions of each sandwich, with the chicken patty and ground beef matching the circumference of their respective buns. The cheeseburger was the favorite, its double-grilled patties tasting like they had been kissed by a grill. Garnished simply with pickle chips, raw onion, ketchup, and mustard, it was the closest to a fast-food burger—but not fast food.

The fries, though soft, tasted like real potatoes. And the real winners were the chicken stars. By default, stars are better than nuggets, as the five arms result in an ideal ratio of crispy edge to meat. And the outside wasn't a solid layer of coating, with breading allowing for little nooks and crannies of crispiness.

1. Taco Bell Deluxe Cravings Box for $7

What is in the box: Chalupa Supreme, 5-layer beef burrito, double taco, nacho cheese fries, and a 16-ounce drink.

It's not fair to pit Taco Bell against a burger chain, so feel free to include Carl's Jr. in this spot. For starters, the box costs $2 more than the other meals. And Taco Bell has the advantage of being able to add hot sauce, nacho cheese, and sour cream to many of its offerings.

There’s a dramatic shift in deciding what constitutes a meal at Taco Bell. Typical orders might include a burrito, several tacos, and possibly a Crunchwrap Supreme, cheesy fries, and Cinnabons Delights for dessert — far more than you’d consume at another restaurant. But even through this narrow Taco Bell lens, the Luxe Cravings Box contains enough to satisfy two. Both the Chalupa Supreme and the Beefy 5-Layer Burrito have the weight and gravitas of a full meal.

The Chalupa Supreme comes as a taco with a fried pita tortilla, not much meat and lots of shredded lettuce. The Beefy 5-Layer Burrito features a small inner tortilla and a truck-tire-sized outer tortilla as two of the five layers. Some bites require nothing more than a puff of tortilla. And you never need to wrap a hard tortilla taco in a soft flour tortilla, fused with a thin layer of nacho cheese, but that's the Taco Bell way.