Still tastes the same to me.
How can you or anyone tell, since the last time they were made with beef tallow was so long ago?
I have been eating McD’s small hamburgers since I was a kid in the 60s (b. 1957), and they taste just like they did then. That onion and pickle flavor seems to keep the hamburger flavorful, although maybe any combination of condiments would improve what is a rather bland piece of meat.
Well, they also changed the oil a couple of times, and got rid of the “natural beef flavoring” due to complains from vegans.
IMHO they do not taste the same.
Indeed, and also because tastes change. When I was a teenager I thought Panda Express was the best thing ever, and now I think it’s mostly terrible. But that might just be me – the food could very well be identical then and now.
Arby’s and McDonald’s tastes the same to me now as it did when I was a kid in the 90’s.
Interestingly McDonald’s sweet and sour sauce does taste different to me now. It’s also darker than it was when I was a kid.
The menu items that Taco Bell has managed to keep over the past 25 years taste the same to me as it did then.
Ditto Subway – Subway was my first job in 1998-1999, and while they have a few more choices of breads and sauces now, their OG stuff tastes identical to what they had when I worked there 2 1/2 decades ago.
This may be true, but Taco Bell tasted SO much better in the 70s and 80s. And there are very few original menu items left. The only ones I can think of are the taco, burrito and burrito supreme. And if you ever liked the green sauce back then, do yourself a favor and don’t try the new version they just brought back. It is horrible.
My memory is that Pizza Hut pizza and Subway sandwiches used to be better.
Indeed. The problem is, there’s no control for going back in time and trying to remember how food tasted to us then vs how it tastes to us now, and how much is the difference that our tastes have changed (both in terms of what we like and don’t and also, literally, we may taste things different now – I know the same exact food for me can taste differently from one day to another) and how much the food has actually changed in flavor (and it all is going to drift due to ingredients, and even if using the same suppliers, various factors are going to affect the taste of the food.)
But, doggoneit, White Castle tastes exactly the same as I remember it from not just twenty, but ever years ago. (For me, around 40 years ago is when I had my first White Castle.)
Pizza Hut’s sauce is a lot sweeter than I remember it being when I was younger. Domino’s definitely tastes different and they had a whole ad campaign a few years back about those changes.
Yes to the former. No to the latter, for me. I effing hated Subway up until about five or ten years ago. Something changed. That puke-inducing smell of Subway bread disappeared. They’re actually edible now. Domino’s is another one that changed from something I wouldn’t eat if I had any other choice to actually ordering it from time to time when I want something cheap and reasonably tasty (I’m a sucker for the Philly cheesesteak pie.)
I grew up where Subway restaurants started in the 1970s, and as far I remember, I’ve been going to them since 1980 or so. My memory, which may be faulty, is that the sandwiches tasted better back then. (On the other hand, I was young and perpetually hungry so perhaps I didn’t notice the poor taste.)
In college in the 1990s I ate a lot of McDonald’s Big Macs. I tried one a few months ago. Tasted the same as I remember. The fries were saltier than I recall.
Yeah, for me, it’s more like late 80s that my friends started going to Subway. After about a year of that, it just turned to one of those places I would absolutely refuse to go to. That smell just made me want to wretch. And I gave it a shot every few years, since my wife (then-girlfriend) liked it, and I just stopped ordering there. Until sometime in the 2010s.
Now it’s probable that my tastes have changed in the interim, too, but I prefer their bread now and the fact they don’t stink like they used to. (Herb & parm bread is my go-to, though the regular is fine for places that don’t have it.)
When I was a young man in the 1980s my favorite fast food item was a Mushroom and Swiss at Hardee’s.
I hadn’t had one for 30+ years (no Hardee’s where I lived) when I was driving down a road in Pennsylvania and saw a Hardee’s. I pulled in and got one. Tasted just like I remembered. Needed a dozen napkins too, just like in the old days.
My wife made me eat it outside the car.
That’s it. You win this thread. 
Pizza Hut’s pan crust used to be AMAZING – bready, crunchy, buttery – and that’s not just my tastes changing. My understanding is they used to slow-proof the dough, then stopped because they could save money by not doing that. Maybe it was that, maybe it was something else, but the pan crust recipe definitely changed in 2019 per Pizza Hut’s own press release which of course crows about how much better it got, haha. Whether or not they ruined it is a matter of opinion; I think they did and you can check my receipts to prove it. Probably for the best.
Thanks, though I remember Pizza Hut pizza tasting not so good well before 2019.
Subway has been the catering menu of choice for some high school Debate tournaments for decades. Tastes the same as it did in the 90s - lousy.
Yeah, but there are different values of lousy! 
I used to deliver for Jimmy John’s back in '97-'98 while I was in college. I would take JJ’s 10 days out of 10 over Subway. Now, it’s about 50-50. They both are marginal, at best, but they’re both marginal at best now.
As for Pizza Hut – yeah – I don’t know when it started tasting different to me. Late 90s maybe? Early 00s?