Fast food is having a rough year. Due to high costs (though we’d like to argue it’s more a food quality issue than a cost one), a lot of people have turned away from the drive-thru, and the big brands have tried to win us back by offering updated value meals and budget-minded deals.

But here is the thing with these value meals: they almost always consist of tried and true classics from the menu. And it makes sense; these brands are collecting their best-selling (and cheapest) items because it’s safe, and that’s great if all you’re looking for is a cheap cheeseburger and some fries to get through the day. But as a result, innovation has suffered.

We’ve seen a lot of value meals and revived classics this year, but not a lot of new menu items. Which is why we’re so hyped for Wendy’s new Mushroom Bacon Cheeseburger.

A mushroom-topped burger with muenster cheese sounds more like something we’d get from Shake Shack than Wendy’s. But is it any good? Here is our full review.

Mushroom Bacon Cheeseburger

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

I’m just going to come out and say it at the start — this burger is f*cking incredible! At first, I thought this might’ve been a result of the overall blandness of fast food in 2024, but by the time I was finished with this burger, my opinion was solidified.

The Mushroom Bacon Cheeseburger is available in single, double, and triple form, but truthfully, the single is all you need if what you’re after is a decadent and indulgent burger. The patty is thick, salty, and beefy, topped with a layer of soft roasted mushrooms, crispy, perfectly cooked bacon, melted muenster cheese, and an herbaceous and pungent creamy garlic spread.

A single bite of this burger will inundate your tastebuds with an absolute umami bomb of savory, and rich flavors. It’s not quite as mushroom-forward as the name would expect, it doesn’t have that sometimes off-putting mushroom funk, instead, the mushrooms work in harmony with the garlic sauce and the sharp and tangy qualities of muenster cheese to create something that is incredibly earthy, smokey, and above all else, savory. The beef and bacon combo alone is a bouquet of meaty, smokey, sweet, and salty flavors.

The real strength of the burger is the way the mushrooms elevate it, rather than distract. Mushroom burgers can often treat the ingredient like it’s the star of the show, but it’s not, this is a burger after all, it’s all about the beef! And every ingredient here works to elevate that beefy flavor.

The Bottom Line:

We’re just going to say it. The Mushroom Bacon Cheeseburger is the best new cheeseburger we’ve had all year. It’s savory, umami-rich, and decadent in the best way. Get is ASAP.