You'll have to stop elsewhere to pick up an order of onion rings
Here’s the Surprising Reason McDonald’s Doesn’t Serve Onion Rings
Published on Apr. 15, 2025
Like peanut butter and jelly, cookies and milk and bacon and eggs, french fries and onion rings are a pair of foods that simply belong together. While fast-food restaurants like Burger King, Sonic and Dairy Queen offer both deep-fried sides, one of the most popular chains of all surprisingly does not: McDonald’s. Despite the restaurant chain’s massive menu, onion rings are not available to accompany your Big Mac or Filet-O-Fish sandwich, and as it turns out, there’s one major reason they don’t.
Keep reading to find out why McDonald’s doesn’t sell onion rings and whether any McDonald’s restaurants around the world do offer the crispy, crunchy side.
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Why doesn’t McDonald’s sell onion rings?
Believe it or not, the reason McDonald’s doesn’t sell onion rings is fairly simple: It’s not cost-effective. According to former McDonald’s corporate chef Mike Haracz on TikTok, having fewer options on the menu, especially in the United States, allows McDonald’s restaurants to be more efficient, which means bigger profits.
“Think about how many people would order onion rings instead [of fries] right now,” says Haracz. Because McDonald’s sells so many fries—and fries are one of the restaurant’s most profitable items—McDonald’s would lose a lot of money if they offered the option to order onion rings instead. Basically, McDonald’s would be cutting into its own bottom line if it added onion rings to the menu.
Did McDonald’s ever sell onion rings?
Once upon a time McDonald’s served a unique menu item called Onion Nuggets, which, as far as we can tell, was the closest the fast-food restaurant ever came to selling onion rings. Onion Nuggets were introduced to the McDonald’s menu in 1975 in an attempt to provide a tasty option to vegetarians and people who don’t eat beef. Onion Nuggets remained on the menu for almost a decade, but they lost popularity after Chicken McNuggets debuted in 1983.
Do any McDonald’s worldwide sell onion rings?
In the past, some McDonald’s fans have reported seeing onion rings on the menu at international McDonald’s locations around the world. In 2021, onion rings debuted on McDonald’s menu in Australia, and restaurant goers have had mixed reactions. While some people love them and even go so far as to use them to hack their burgers, others are less than impressed. If you find yourself in Oz, you’ll most definitely want to head to McDonald’s—or Macca’s, as it’s affectionately called Down Under—and give the onion rings a try.
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Sources:
- McDonald’s Wiki: Onion Nuggets
- TikTok: Chef Mike Haracz
