The best bacon cheeseburger has been crowned. The most outstanding onion rings have been chosen. The longtime debate over which fast casual chain serves the best burger is finally over.
Thrillist's second-annual fast food awards,The Fasties, are here to honor the best foods from your favorite chains. Hosts David So and Tim Chantarangsu of Send Foodzare back to take us on a wild, cross country road trip to find the winner of the night's top prize,Chain of the Year—with fast food tastings, tequila-fueled trivia, and even pit stops with celebrity guests likeBig Freediaalong the way. They'll also present the awards in several exciting Fasties categories like Best Breakfast,Best Chicken Nuggets,Best Plant-Based Meat Menu Item,Best Value Menu, andLifetime Achievement Award, among other super-sized honors.
Additional 2021 Fasties categories touch on almost every corner of fast food menus, including Best Onion Rings,Best Soft-Serve Ice Cream,Best Fish Sandwich,Best Bacon Cheeseburger, and even Best New Menu Item. Two special categories—Best Value Menu and Best First Responder Deal—reflect how fast food chains responded to the pandemic. Meanwhile, the Most Valuable Pickle (MVP)award honors the best and briniest cucumbers in the game, and the Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes one chain's historic contributions to not just fast food, but food in general. But for some reason (we're not sure ourselves), we didn't stop there.
For the first time, fast casual restaurants—you know, places like Five Guys, Shake Shack, and Steak 'n Shake—are finally getting a taste of the Fasties heat lamp light. All-new fast casual categories include Best Cheeseburger,Best Fried Chicken Sandwich, and Best Fries.
We acknowledge that handing out awards to corporate food chains is ridiculous, but, hey, that's kind of the point. We take fast food seriously, but we don't take ourselves too seriously. These awards are the perfect embodiment of our unmatched—potentially concerning—focus on all things served out of drive-thru windows. And, ultimately, it's just about having fun.
Now, order up your favorite bacon cheeseburger, join us for the 2021 Fasties ceremony (shown above), and click the link below for the full list of this year's winners (shown below).
https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/thrillists-fasties-2021-winners-fast-food-awards