McDonalds has been serving up the famous Filet O Fish since 1965 and it remains a massive hit today. They have tried adding new seafood options over the years but nothing ever stuck around. Let us look at one major crab sandwich experiment and other seafood ideas that totally failed.
The Unbeatable Classic Filet O Fish
People really love the classic fish sandwich because it is simple and reliable when you want a quick seafood fix on the go. It is super hard to beat a menu item that has been famous for decades and basically has its own cult following.
Exploring Local Flavors Around The World
The company always encourages their restaurants to play around with local foods and regional flavors to keep things exciting for everyone. Sometimes they hit a home run like the garlic fries in California but other times the magic just does not happen at all.
The San Francisco Bay Area Experiment
Back in February of 2017 four select locations in the Bay Area started selling a brand new crab sandwich to test the waters. They were hoping it would be a huge hit and eventually expand to hundreds of stores across the area if the sales were good enough.
What Was Actually In The Sandwich
This sandwich featured real snow crab meat mixed up with diced celery and creamy mayo sitting on a bed of fresh romaine lettuce. It was all served on a toasted sourdough bun which honestly sounds pretty decent but maybe just not what people expect from a fast food drive thru.
Teaming Up With A Local Chef
To make sure the sandwich was fancy enough they actually partnered with a famous California chef named Ryan Scott to help develop the recipe. You have to respect the effort they put into making it feel local and high quality even if the final product did not win the crowd over.
Why The Crab Sandwich Never Expanded
It was just a short lived experiment that never expanded beyond those initial four restaurants because the sales were probably not very promising. It quietly became another discontinued seafood offering that most folks never even knew existed in the first place which is kind of funny.
The Old Maryland Crab Cake Attempt
Long before the snow crab idea they actually tried selling classic Maryland crab cake sandwiches at certain shore restaurants between 1990 and 1992. They brought them back a few times in the early two thousands but the hype always fizzled out before it could reach more states.
Changing The Source Ruined The Flavor
The original crab cakes were made with Maryland blue crab but they later decided to source the meat from India instead to probably save a few bucks. A lot of people think that change really sped up the downfall of the sandwich because the local flavor just was not there anymore.
The McLobster And Its Quiet Exit
In 1993 they tried to get fancy and introduced the McLobster sandwich which had chunks of Atlantic lobster and sauce on a plain hot dog bun. The sales were super disappointing so they pulled it from the national menu but you can still find it seasonally in parts of New England and Canada if you are lucky.
Fish McBites Tried And Failed Quickly
They also introduced these bite sized nuggets of breaded fish called Fish McBites in 2012 and even put them in Happy Meals for a bit. Sadly that was not enough to keep them going and they were permanently pulled from the menu less than a year later because nobody was really buying them.
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