McDonald's spent the 1970s and 1980s testing bigger breakfasts, heartier sandwiches and new ways to stand out from other fast food chains. In Canada, several of those retired menu items still come up in nostalgia threads, old ads and fan conversations because they filled a gap that the current menu no longer does.
Pizza
Long before fast food chains rushed into every category, McDonald's tried something that sounded almost improbable: pizza. The company began testing McDonald's Pizza in the late 1980s, and the item became one of the chain's most talked-about experiments.
What made it memorable was not just the novelty. McDonald's developed special ovens and served personal-size pies, a very different production setup from burgers and fries. According to company histories and reporting on the chain's test items, the slower cook time made pizza harder to fit into McDonald's speed-focused system.
That tension is part of why Canadians still remember it. Pizza felt ambitious, unusual and a little ahead of its place on the menu. For people who grew up seeing McDonald's as more than burgers, this is one of the clearest symbols of an era when the chain was willing to try almost anything.
McDLT
Some discontinued items are remembered for taste, others for the way they were sold. The McDLT, introduced in the 1980s, became famous for promising that "the hot side stays hot, the cool side stays cool."
The burger was packaged in a two-sided foam container that separated the beef patty from the lettuce, tomato and condiments until the customer combined them. That was the whole pitch, and it was distinct enough to make the sandwich stand out in a crowded burger lineup.
It did not last, in part because the foam packaging later clashed with growing environmental concerns. Even so, the McDLT remains one of the most vivid McDonald's products of the decade. Canadians who miss it are often remembering both the burger and the very specific fast food logic behind it.
Onion Nuggets
Before Chicken McNuggets became a permanent star, McDonald's also experimented with bite-size sides that took a different route. Onion Nuggets appeared in the 1970s and gave customers small battered pieces of onion instead of rings.
That detail matters, because Onion Nuggets were not simply a renamed version of a familiar side. They were closer to poppable fried onion bites, designed for easy dipping and sharing. Former McDonald's chef and executive Rene Arend has been widely credited with helping develop early nugget-style concepts during this period.
For Canadians who want them back, the appeal is easy to understand. They offered the comfort of fried onions in a format that fit McDonald's menu style perfectly. They also represent a branch of the menu that disappeared before it had much time to become standard.
Fried apple pie
Few McDonald's items carry as much cross-generational nostalgia as the old fried apple pie. In the 1970s and 1980s, the dessert was known for its blistered, crisp shell and very hot fruit filling.
McDonald's eventually shifted to baked pies in many markets, a change tied to broader nutrition and menu reform efforts. That made the original version even more memorable for people who associate it with the chain's earlier decades, when indulgence was often part of the appeal rather than something softened in the background.
In Canada, the fried version still comes up because texture did so much of the work. The crackly exterior and molten interior gave it a character the baked version did not fully replace. It was simple, but it delivered a very specific kind of fast food pleasure.
The Hula Burger
The Hula Burger is one of McDonald's strangest early ideas, and that is exactly why it endures. Created in the 1960s and still remembered into the 1970s nostalgia cycle, it replaced the meat patty with a slice of grilled pineapple and cheese on a bun.
Ray Kroc proposed it as a meatless option for Lent, when some Catholic customers avoided hamburgers on Fridays. According to McDonald's company history, it went head-to-head with the Filet O Fish, which franchisee Lou Groen had pushed as another solution. The fish sandwich won out, and the Hula Burger faded quickly.
Canadians who want it back are usually responding to the sheer boldness of the idea. It was sweet, salty and unlike almost anything on the current menu. Even as a short-lived item, it captures the trial-and-error spirit that defined McDonald's menu experiments in that era.
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