I tried breakfast at 5 fast-food chains. The best meal was one of the cheapest.

• I tried breakfast combos from five fast-food chains to see how they compared.
• Dunkin’ had the best coffee, a really good sandwich, and tasty hashbrowns.
• Wendy’s was cheaper than the other meals, but I wasn’t a fan of its coffee.

These were genuinely delicious.

A Cinnabon Delight is a spherical bite of cinnamon fried dough filled with vanilla icing. I could’ve eaten so many more, but it’s probably for the best that it only came with two.

I reached out to Taco Bell with my thoughts on their breakfast meal, but they didn’t respond to a request for comment.

After being so pleased with Taco Bell, I was excited to move on to Wendy’s.

Wendy’s stops serving breakfast in the morning, though the exact time depends on location. According to the chain, the latest time is 10:30 a.m.

Wendy’s breakfast meal deal is the “2 for $3 Breakfast Biggie Bundle.” You can choose any two items from a sausage-and-cheese English muffin, an egg-and-cheese English muffin, an egg-and-cheese biscuit, small seasoned potatoes, and a medium hot coffee.

I ordered on the app and specified I wanted half and half with my coffee. I received black coffee with little packets.

I wanted to get two food items, but still wanted to try the chain’s coffee to compare it to the other chains. So I added coffee to my meal for an extra $1.79.

Even with the coffee, the Wendy’s meal was still the cheapest.

Unfortunately, this coffee was just OK. It was weak and watery, and I could only take a few sips.

Wendy’s didn’t respond to a request for comment regarding its coffee.

I got an egg-and-cheese sandwich on a flaky biscuit.

For my sandwich, I opted for the egg-and-cheese biscuit. It was great; the biscuit was flaky and not too dense, the cheese was melted well, and the egg was slightly seasoned.

The homestyle potatoes, though, were perfect.

If I could get these instead of fries during my next Wendy’s visit, I would. They were crunchy, seasoned well, and not too thick.

Next was Burger King’s meal, which included a small coffee, a breakfast sandwich, and an order of potatoes.

Burger King usually stops selling breakfast at 10:30 a.m., though on Sundays, it can run until 11 a.m.

Burger King’s breakfast meals include items such as a sausage, egg, and cheese Croissan’wich and ham, egg, and cheese Croissan’wich.

A “Croissan’wich” is exactly what it sounds like: a breakfast sandwich on a croissant.

My meal cost $11.69.

I thought this coffee was sickly sweet and tasted the most artificial.

I didn’t love this coffee, either. It tasted so sweet, even though I specified no sugar.

Burger King didn’t respond to a request for comment.

I ordered bacon, egg, and cheese on a croissant, but I wish I had skipped the bacon.

Technically, I got a Beefacon Croissan’wich with Egg. This was solid, but I thought the bacon was a bit stringy and overwhelmed the rest of the sandwich. Once I took it off, I enjoyed the egg and cheese much more.

I loved the shape of these potatoes.

These are basically tater tots with a different name. They were like dime-shaped pieces of potatoes. Plus, this was easily the largest side I received.

They were crunchy and quite salty, but I could’ve used pepper.

After trying each of these breakfast meals, it was time to rank them. My favorite was from Dunkin’.

Dunkin’ had the best coffee, a really good sandwich, and tasty potatoes. It was also one of the cheapest of all the meals I tried, so I think I got the most bang for my buck.

The coffee and the sandwich were larger than those I received from some of the other chains, and while I felt a bit skimped on the potatoes, I still got more than I did from Taco Bell or McDonald’s.

Second-best was Taco Bell, which surprised me.

The Breakfast Crunchwrap was the most different from the other sandwiches I tried, and I really liked it. The coffee was also the best after Dunkin’, and I loved having a sweet treat with my savory breakfast.

Then came Wendy’s.

Wendy’s was the cheapest, putting it high on this list. Plus, the potatoes were awesome, and the biscuit sandwich was very tasty. I’ll skip the additional coffee in the future, though, which makes the meal cheaper anyway.

In fourth was McDonald’s.

McDonald’s is more affordable than Burger King, and the Sausage McMuffin with Egg was way tastier than the Egg McMuffin I had previously tried.

While I still didn’t love the coffee, the hash brown remained perfect. That’s enough to vault it above Burger King for me.

In last place was Burger King.

What places Burger King at the bottom was that everything was almost perfect. The sandwich was better once I removed the bacon, the potatoes, while good, could’ve used a bit more seasoning, and the coffee was just too sweet.

It was also the most expensive.

Editor’s note: A version of this story was first published in November 2024. It was most recently updated in October 2026.