Three Chains Launched in Eight Days. Only One Changed the Bread.
McDonald's went on 14 July, KFC on 20 July, Burger King on 21 July. Two of them picked a sauce. KFC threw out the bun and used naan bread instead.
Here's the take, up front: three of the biggest chains in Britain launched a summer menu inside eight days, and between them they had one genuinely new idea. Everything else was a sauce.
McDonald's went on 14 July, KFC on 20 July, Burger King on 21 July. That clustering isn't coincidence. The school holidays start in the third week of July, and everyone wants their menu in market before the family traffic arrives.
KFC Swapped the Bun
This is the one. KFC's Crispy Naan range replaces the burger bun with naan bread, which is a structural change to the product rather than a new topping on an existing one.
Two versions, the Tandoori Zinger and the Creamy Original, both from £7.49 as at July 2026. Tandoori Loaded Fries and a Tandoori Dipping Feast run alongside them.
Swapping the bread is a bigger swing than it sounds. A bun is the one component fast food almost never touches, because it's the part the whole assembly line is built around. Changing it means changing how the thing is held, wrapped and eaten, and it aims the product at a completely different set of British food habits: the ones formed at curry houses and street food stalls rather than at American drive-thrus.
The two Kwench matcha drinks that launched with the range are staying on as permanent items. The naans are not. The range runs to 23 August.
McDonald's Put Hot Honey on Everything
McDonald's went the other way and picked a flavour rather than a format.
The Hot Honey McCrispy is a crispy chicken breast with white cheddar, iceberg and hot honey in a sourdough-style sesame bun, at £9.39. The Mozzarella Dippers with Hot Honey are £3.09. And the Hot Honey Dip is sold on its own for 70p, alongside two other new dips, Korean BBQ and Ranch.
That's the same flavour on a burger, on a side, and in a pot, which is the cheapest possible way to make a menu feel new. It works, but it's a decision about marketing rather than about food.
Two of those three dips are on a short leash. Korean BBQ and Ranch are six-week items, so they're gone by late August. The Hot Honey is the one being given a real run.
Burger King Went to Texas
Burger King's Texan BBQ range landed on 21 July: the Texan BBQ King on beef and the Texan BBQ Royale on crispy chicken, both with American cheese, crispy onions, iceberg, pickles, Texan BBQ sauce and BBQ mayo in a sesame bun. The Royale meal is £13.19, the Double Royale meal £13.49. There's a buy one get one free deal on the range from 27 to 29 July.
Texan BBQ is the safest thing a burger chain can do. Smoky, sweet, familiar, and it asks nothing of the customer. Next to a naan bread burger it reads like a hedge, though it will almost certainly outsell one.
The Whole Summer in One Table
| Chain | Launched | The idea |
|---|---|---|
| McDonald's | 14 July | Hot honey on a burger, a side and a dip |
| KFC | 20 July | Naan bread instead of a bun |
| Burger King | 21 July | Texan BBQ on beef and chicken |
Two of the three are doing sweet heat. Hot honey and Texan BBQ are the same instinct arriving by different routes, which is what happens when three menu teams read the same American trend reports.
KFC is the only one that changed the object rather than the seasoning, and it's the only one of the three I'd expect people to still be talking about in a year, whether or not it comes back.
Most of This Has an End Date
The naan range goes on 23 August. The Korean BBQ and Ranch dips have six weeks. The Burger King deal is a three-day window in July.
That's the case for saying something now rather than in September, when half of it will have gone and the argument goes with it. The cards above are live and they write straight to the UK fast food ranking.
The naan is the one worth settling. Genuinely good, or a gimmick that photographs well?
