Fast Food Sides That Keep Going Up In Price

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It's no secret that Americans love their french fries: On average, each and every American will eat more than 30 pounds of fries over the course of the year. It's also certain that many of those fries come from our favorite fast food restaurants, because it's nearly unthinkable to go to any one of them and order a burger without fries. If that's something you do on the regular — or even just occasionally — you may have noticed that the price of that meal keeps climbing, and that's in part because of the sides.

And we're not just talking about fries. There are a lot of underrated fast food sides, from the jalapeño bites at Arby's to Burger King's onion rings. And they're all rising in price, to an almost shocking degree.

When we started looking at just how much prices have been rising, there was a little bit of sticker shock going on, and a lot of double- and triple-checking ... because at first glance, we just didn't think these price increases could be real. They're sneaky: They happened over the course of a few years in many cases, and there's no signs of slowing down. With that in mind, let's take a look at a selection of sides that have skyrocketed in price — and it might just have you looking twice at your fast food receipts.

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Five Guys might have a reputation as having some seriously delicious burgers, but the chain is getting a reputation for something else: price increases. A Reddit thread started in the last days of 2024 discussed the outrageousness of a $7 hot dog, a $10 bacon cheese dog, and a large side of fries that cost $7.89. Tracking down a history of price increases is tricky, but another Reddit user posted a photo of a 2011 menu: A hot dog was $3.69, a bacon cheese dog was $5.19, and that large container of fries was $4.99. A small fry wasn't even on the menu, and in late 2024, the "little" size was now $4.99.

Frustration is the general sentiment echoed across social media. Conversations on X have gotten millions of views, with many saying that they were going to stop going there. Will there be a breaking point for the chain? That remains to be seen, but we do know that back in 2010, Five Guys' head Jerry Murrell told Inc. that the chain's pricing fluctuated along with its food costs. It might keep the margins the same, but it's made for a lot of unhappy customers ... or rather, former customers.

When we here at Mashed took a look at why some Reddit users were up in arms about the hash browns at Waffle House, we found that it was because others who claimed to be employees revealed that the chain uses dehydrated potatoes. That's not a bad thing in itself, but it turns out those hash browns are leading the way in price increases.

Here's where things get tricky. In 2025, it was widely reported that overall, Waffle House was on top of the charts for price increases across the menu. However, that was largely based on a report from FinanceBuzz, which later amended the original story to say that contrary to initial findings, overall prices increased 32.7% — not the oft-repeated 96%. That change came with additional information, but let's look at hash browns. Data analysts reported that in 2020, the chain's average price for hash browns was $1.95. By 2025, that had more than doubled to $4.20.

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McDonald's might have the reputation of being among the more affordable fast food chains, but it's been raising prices, too — so much so that in 2025, mainstream media outlets like The Washington Post were reporting that many customers were turning to casual dining options like Chili's for sit-down meals in the same price bracket.

McDonald's, meanwhile, put together an explanation on its price increases, including specifics on fries. The idea was to debunk internet rumors that prices had more than doubled between 2019 and 2024, and McDonald's noted that the price of the medium fry increased from $2.29 to $3.29. In the same time frame, the price of a Big Mac meal increased by 21%, and in an open letter to customers, McDonald's president Joe Erlinger blamed a series of factors including the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, rising food costs, and rising wages, and also added the disclaimer that franchisees are responsible for setting prices. Erlinger said that prices were rising at a slower rate than inflation suggested they should, but also that there could be some outlying examples of extra-high prices.

Jack in the Box has had a history full of ups and downs, but in 2024, social media was full of a lot disgruntled customers. Pricing was a huge part of that, with many taking to Reddit to lament the fact that the fast food chain that they had once counted on to save them money was no longer doing so. That's been a trend for years, and back in 2008, Jack in the Box increased prices for all items by 2.5%. At the time, the official statement was that the price hike was due to increased food costs, and things haven't slowed down.

Fast forward to 2025, and FinanceBuzz reported that Jack in the Box was leading the way in breakfast price increases at a whopping 64%. (It was just behind Taco Bell and Hardee's/Carl's Jr.) The menu item that had the biggest increase in price was the chain's hash browns, which went from $1 in 2019 to $2.49 in 2024: the price rose more than it originally cost, and more than doubled.

If Burger King's chicken fries are a go-to menu item for you, you may have realized they've gone up in price. What you might not know is just how much they've skyrocketed, and we'll say this upfront: Here's a copycat Burger King chicken fries recipe, because you're going to want it.

Across all fast food restaurants and menu items, this is one of the ones that's increased the most in price. Part of that is ascribed to a trend of chicken shortages and increasing prices of chicken items, but the hike is still pretty shocking. In September 2021, an order of chicken fries was $3.97. Just one year later — in October of 2022 — that had risen to $4.64. That's a big difference when compared to photos posted by one Reddit user, showing BK prices from 2018. Then, a chicken fries combo meal was $4.99, with the chicken fries advertised at $2.99 (for what appears to be a six-piece). At the time of this writing, the four-piece is listed at $4.69, the eight-piece at $6.69, and the 12-piece at $7.69.

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McDonald's hash browns have a well-earned reputation as fast food perfection, but they're also climbing in price. Back in 2024, McDonald's was somewhere in the middle of the pack as far as price hikes went, and between 2019 and 2024, there was an overall increase across the menu of 54%. Check out the hash browns, though, and they increased a little more than that.

The 2019 price of $1.09 had increased to an average of $2.29, for a 110% jump. We got curious about 2025 prices, and learned very, very quickly that it only tells part of the story about what consumers are really paying. We hopped on UberEats, and selected McDonald's locations at random. (States aren't listed on the location selector, so it really was at random.) Customers in Riverside, Connecticut were paying $3.49, those in Beebe, Arkansas were paying $3.07, Morgantown, West Virginia was paying $2.79, and customers in Yonkers, New York were paying $3.89.

A 2025 Reddit thread about the prices at Popeyes brought up some interesting points about things like delivery surcharges, differences between in-person pricing and app pricing, and the benefits of coupons and special deals. All that said, it's undeniable that prices have been on the rise, even when it comes to sides like the chain's mashed potatoes and gravy.

In 2024, a survey done of fast food items by Visual Capitalist found that between 2014 and 2024, the price of this Popeyes side increased by a whopping 134%. What had cost $1.79 had risen to $4.19, and we did a little digging ourselves to find out current 2025 pricing. It does seem to vary based on location, with that same regular order of mashed potatoes and gravy costing $4.49 when ordered from a Popeyes location in Los Angeles. Stop by Popeyes while you're at the airport in Dallas, Texas, and that jumps just a bit to $4.59, but when we looked at Forest, Mississippi, that dropped to $2.99. It's still quite an increase from the 2014 pricing, but it's an interesting look at how things vary by state.

This one's a little tricky. When one Reddit user posted photos of the In-N-Out menus from 2024 and 2025, they got a bit of flack for the suggestion that a 5-cent increase on fries was a lot — and to be fair, it really isn't. There is, however, a footnote to this, and it's not exactly the standard fries that have gone up in price — it's the extras.

There are a number of In-N-Out Burger hacks, and you may have heard of the one that involves ordering two single patties and two slices of cheese on the side. That allowed customers to create their own version of the Flying Dutchman burger at a lower price, and in 2025, it led to a price hike on those side patties and slices. The official line from the company is that it was simply standardizing prices. It's also worth noting that prices at the fan favorite chain are on the rise, with items like the Double-Double meal increasing from $8.59 in 2020 to $10.68 in 2023. That was blamed largely on wage increases, but the bottom line for customers is that prices are climbing.

There's no telling what each new year will bring, and more and more often, that's rising prices. The year 2025 was ushered in with shockingly high egg prices, and March saw a record high in the average price of a dozen eggs. It hit $6.23 per dozen, and even though it dropped shortly after, it remained at highs that were described as historic. Prices were forecast to stay that high for at least the year, and Waffle House responded early. In February, the chain added a 50-cent surcharge on every egg in a customer's order, so if you had a tendency to add an extra egg or two, you'd find out that your bill rose quickly.

Waffle House explained to CNN that "Customers and restaurants are being forced to make difficult decisions," and blamed the shortages caused by a particularly nasty strain of bird flu. That — on top of the rising costs that had impacted food across the board — led to the surcharge, and it was unclear just how long it was going to be around.

Sorry, Popeyes fans, this chicken chain made FinanceBuzz's list of chains with the largest overall, menu-wide price increases between 2014 and 2024, with an average increase of 86%. We're talking about sides, though, and it just so happens that the large fry was one of the biggest jumps. In 2014, the average national price was just $3.99. Fast forward to 2024, and that was up to $8.

That definitely hasn't gone unnoticed, with many people taking to Reddit to complain not only about the price increases, but what they perceived as a decline in both quality and quantity. The end results for many is that they're just not going back, and since that's an average price, we did a little menu-hopping to see what specific cities were paying. We found that many places were hovering right around $6.49 for a large fry, and that included places typically known for high prices, like New York City and Hollywood, California. That's a little lower than the $8 cited, but still, Popeyes' fry prices had one Reddit user asking for clarification that they were, in fact, discussing fry prices and not gas prices.

When FinanceBuzz took a look at how prices were rising across chains, one of the things analysts focused on were hash browns. They're a pretty standard thing to make, many chains offer them, and it made a good basic item to compare. The third-highest increase — just behind Jack in the Box and McDonald's — for hash browns was Hardee's/Carl's Jr., with a 107% increase over the previous five years.

In 2019, an order of the chain's hash browns would set you back $1.59. Fast forward to 2024, and that had risen to $3.29, and there's an interesting footnote to this. In the case of most price increases, they're blamed on things like higher food costs and higher wages. This particular chain seems to be taking on the problem of paying higher wages in another way, and in 2023, it was announced that Hardee's/Carl's Jr. would be replacing drive-thru workers with AI. That's a divisive move that has a lot of people angry, and it's one of the signs that Hardee's just might not be around much longer.

When it comes to all the fast food chains, Arby's arguably has the most creative sides. That's where you're going to get those epic curly fries, after all, and spice-lovers will agree that there's just something magical about jalapeño bites and poppers. Unfortunately, those jalapeño bites have risen in price pretty astronomically, and they're on FinanceBuzz's list of items with an average price that has risen the most between 2015 and 2025.

The delicious side that once cost $2.79 is now up to an average of $4.19, for an increase of 50%. That only tells part of the story, though, and we'll stress that's an average price. When we hopped around the Arby's menu and checked prices at various locations, we found that some customers were paying much more. An order at the Arby's in Middle Village, New York costs $5.59 at the time of this writing, an order at Long Beach, California costs $5.99, while Oklahoma City sits right at the $4.19 average.

Rising costs at Panera are a major topic of conversation over on Reddit, with one entire thread kicking off over complaints about the rising costs of mac and cheese. When one Reddit user lamented the fact that Panera was no longer the go-to when the craving hit because the price had risen so much, it started an interesting discussion over the costs restaurants incur versus the costs that get passed on to customers. In this case, though, the complaint about the mac and cheese is warranted. According to Newsweek, the cost of the chain's mac and cheese rose more than 110% between 2015 and the end of 2024.

And Reddit users have actually been complaining about the price hikes of this side for years, and one comment in particular is a heartbreaking reminder of price hike consequences. One Reddit user wrote, "We as employees are in full control of the pricing and strive to make the customers miserable." A tongue-in-cheek reminder, but a reminder nonetheless: Be nice to employees, it's not their fault.

When it comes to sides, the truth is that Burger King's onion rings are a little polarizing. They're not exactly the taste and texture that some people expect from a really good onion ring, but that's not to say they don't have their fans. Unfortunately for those fans, the price of this side is on the rise. FinanceBuzz found that the average price of onion rings rose 43% between 2014 and 2024, with an average national price that was up from $2.09 to $2.99.

That said, let's look at 2025 pricing in a few different cities. We'll start with Liberty Street in NYC, where a small order will set you back $3.70, a medium is $3.99, and a large is $4.29. Let's see how that compares to the West Coast. Check out the menu for Seattle's BK, and those prices are weirdly lower for the two smaller sizes — $3.49 and $3.89 — while staying the same for the large. Head to the Midwest, and let's try State Ave in Kansas City, Kansas: there, you'll be paying $2.99, $3.29, and $3.69 for each of the three sizes.

Fans of Chick-fil-A will know that the chain's famous sides have been the subject of some debate lately, and much of that has revolved around one question: Do Chick-fil-A's waffle fries taste as good as they used to? Many customers say that they don't, and that's left customers baffled as to why the chain might decide to fix something that was definitely never broken in the first place. That — coupled with noticeable price increases — have many turning away from this one-time fan favorite.

At the end of 2019, a medium order of waffle fries cost $1.65. By the middle of 2024, that had risen to $2.99, for an increase of more than 80%. That — and other, across-the-board price increases at Chick-fil-A — has led to a lot of chatter on Reddit about at what point fast food just doesn't become worth the price. For many, it just means skipping this once-convenient, once-affordable staple of the American foodie landscape.