Thrillist Fasties Awards

Feb 19

Feb 19 Thrillist Fasties Awards

The fast food industry is a $238 billion and growing industry in the US. With the influx of plant based menu items, even vegetarians are flocking back to their guilty pleasures. While everyone has their own favorite fast food places, does anyone really deserve the title of being the best? Thrillist attempted to answer this question by having the first fast food awards show.

On Wednesday, February 19th, Thrillist announced winners for The Fasties to celebrate the world of fast food with 16 curated categories that honored our favorite chains, dishes, and fast food trends of the year. Some of the headline making debates of 2019 were put to rest as they revealed the superior chicken sandwich and most satisfying plant-based burger.

The tongue-in-cheek award show, hosted by YouTube stars David So and Tim DeLaghetto of Thrillist’s Send Foodz, was a deep-fried riff on "traditional" award shows, with enough special sauce to make it something uniquely their own: a playful culmination of our longstanding, widely consumed editorial fast food coverage.

Thrillist’s editorial team divided the categories amongst themselves to taste and assess all the restaurant items nominated to make the winning selections. Thrillist has remained committed to covering the latest and greatest in fast food -- from seeking out the most delicious chicken tenders to going so far as to find the absolute best pickles in the game. Below are the list of winners and nominees.

Best Fried Chicken Sandwich
- Popeyes - Chicken Sandwich (winner)
- Chick-fil-A - Chicken Sandwich
- McDonald’s - Buttermilk Crispy Chicken Sandwich
- Carl’s Jr. - Big Fillet Chicken Sandwich
- KFC - Crispy Colonel Sandwich

Best Burger
- Culver’s - ButterBurger Cheese (winner)
- In-N-Out Burger - Double Double
- McDonald’s - Quarter Pounder With Cheese
- Whataburger - Double Meat Whataburger
- Wendy’s - Dave’s Double

Best Plant-Based Burgers
- White Castle - Impossible Slider (winner)
- Carl’s Jr. - Beyond BBQ Star
- Carl’s Jr. - Beyond Famous Star With Cheese
- A&W - Beyond Burger
- Burger King - Impossible Whopper

Best Fries
- Arby’s - Curly Fries (winner)
- McDonald’s - Fries
- Chick-fil-A - Waffle Potato Fries
- Taco Bell - Nacho Fries
- Checkers/Rally’s - Famous Seasoned Fries

Best Taco
- Del Taco - The Del Taco (winner)
- Taco Bell - Crunchy Taco
- El Pollo Loco - Chicken Taco Al Carbon
- Jack in the Box - Taco
- Taco John’s - Crispy Taco

Best Dessert
- Yoshinoya - Cheesecake (winner)
- Taco Bell - Cinnamon Sticks
- Wendy’s - Frosty
- Culver’s - Vanilla Custard
- Jollibee - Peach Mango Pie

Best Chicken Tenders
- Raising Cane’s - Chicken Fingers (winner)
- Popeyes - Tenders
- Culver’s - Original Chicken Tenders
- Chick-fil-A - Chick-n-Strips
- Long John Silver’s - Chicken Tenders

Best Breakfast Sandwich
- Chick-fil-A - Chicken Biscuit (winner)
- Taco Bell - Breakfast Crunchwrap with Bacon
- McDonald’s - Bacon, Egg, and Cheese McGriddle
- Subway - Bacon, Egg, and Cheese
- Wendy’s - Breakfast Baconator

Best Coffee
- Culver’s (winner)
- Chick-fil-A
- McDonald’s
- Sonic
- Jack in the Box

Best Sauce
- Culver’s - Wisconsin Cheddar Cheese Sauce (winner)
- Chick-fil-A - Chick-fil-A Sauce
- Raising Cane’s - Cane’s Sauce
- McDonald’s - Honey Mustard
- Whataburger - Spicy Ketchup

Best New Menu Item of the Year
- Popeyes - Chicken Sandwich (winner)
- Burger King - Impossible Whopper
- KFC - Kentucky Fried Wings
- Taco Bell - Black Bean Crunchwrap Supreme
- Chick-fil-A - Mac & Cheese

Regional Chain of the Year
- Culver’s (winner)
- In-N-Out
- Del Taco
- Whataburger
- Bojangles’

Chain of the Year
- Popeyes (winner)
- Burger King
- Chick-fil-A
- Wendy’s
- White Castle

Menu Item of the Decade
- Taco Bell - Doritos Locos Taco (winner)
- KFC - Double Down
- White Castle - Impossible Slider
- McDonald’s - Szechuan Sauce
- Popeyes - Chicken Sandwich