The most expensive fast food that money can buy

Not a saver menu in sight

Have you heard about the hot dog that costs almost $30? A restaurant in New York City has recently made headlines – and caused uproar – by serving up the wallet-damaging wiener in question, yet it’s far from the most expensive fast food item out there.

From a pizza dusted with edible gold, to ice cream sundaes topped with caviar, each of these seriously upgraded fast food classics come complete with a gasp-inducing price tag.

All dollar amounts are USD, unless specified, and the conversions are based on rates at the time of going to press.

17. Sausage roll

From time to time, Australian restaurant Bennelong, in Sydney, serves a limited-edition, super-swanky sausage roll priced at around $25 AUD ($29 USD). What makes it so special? The premium ingredients, of course. Inside the flaky pastry is meat from a suckling pig, slow-cooked at a low temperature for 10 hours, pulled apart and mixed with the finest herbs and vegetables. To give it that five-star edge, it’s cut into six bite-sized pieces and served with a dollop of fermented black garlic.

16. Hot dog

A hot dog less ordinary (but not the most expensive on the list – scroll down or click through the gallery to view), this fancy number from New York City restaurant Mischa features a brisket and pork sausage that’s first cooked in beef fat, before being griddled to perfection and slipped into a homemade potato bun. In a nod to sophistication (and to justify the $29 price tag), toppings are presented alongside the gourmet dog (rather than piled on top) and include the likes of dry-aged beef chilli, homemade pickle relish, whipped pimento cheese and a bacon crisp. The knife and fork provided suggests that this is one for slicing and savouring, rather than picking up and demolishing.

15. Milkshake

There’s nothing like indulging yourself with a creamy vanilla milkshake on a hot summer’s day, but staff at Grill 'n' Shake in Cardiff, Wales took things up a notch when they launched their Millionaire’s Milkshake, priced at £50 ($60 USD), in 2015. The restaurant, which has since closed, packed the shake with ice cream made using Tahitian vanilla pods, rich Jersey milk and saffron strands. It was topped off with sprinkles of 23-carat edible gold leaf, shavings of Italian black truffle and Amedei chocolate from Italy, one of the world’s most expensive cocoas.

14. Hot dog

Dougie Dog Diner Truck in Vancouver, Canada, made headlines when it unveiled its ridiculously expensive and utterly luxurious Dragon Dog in 2012. The foot-long bratwurst was made from Kobe beef seared in truffle oil and infused with 100-year-old Louis XII Cognac. To really seal the deal, it was served with fresh lobster sprinkled on top and sold for a whopping $100 CAN ($75 USD).

13. Cheesesteak

A world away from its usual incarnation as a grab-and-go fast food favourite, this fine dining riff on a classic Philadelphia cheesesteak features Wagyu ribeye, foie gras, onions and truffled cheese whiz piled onto a freshly baked sesame roll. It’ll set you back $140 at Philly eatery Barclay Prime, though you do get half a bottle of Champagne, too.

12. Hot dog

Forget the standard one-dollar hot dog sold from street-food stalls and carts. Back in 2014, for a cool $169 you could buy the Juuni Ban from Tokyo Dog, a food truck in Seattle, Washington. The foot-long frank contained smoked cheese bratwurst, teriyaki grilled onions, maitake mushrooms, Wagyu beef, foie gras, shaved black truffles, caviar and Japanese mayo, all packed into a brioche bun. It did however need to be ordered two weeks in advance.

11. French fries

How do you like your French fries? How about dipped in Dom Pérignon Champagne, triple-cooked in pure goose fat and finished off with three types of truffle, artisan Italian cheese and a dusting of gold? This extravagant combo is exactly what you'll find on offer at Serendipity3 in New York City. Named on the menu as The World's Most Expensive Fries, this dish earned the restaurant a Guinness World Record, and will set you back around $200.

10. Grilled cheese sandwich

Somehow, New York City's Serendipity3 has even managed to turn the humble grilled cheese sandwich into a luxury menu item. Its Quintessential Grilled Cheese contains rare caciocavallo podolico cheese and truffle butter layered between two slices of French pullman Champagne bread, made with (you guessed it) Dom Pérignon Champagne and edible gold flakes. The sandwich comes in at a cool $214.

9. Popcorn

Billion Dollar Popcorn didn't actually cost a billion, but at $250 a serving this was one for special occasions (if you're actually nominated for an Oscar, perhaps, rather than just watching the ceremony). Made by Breco’s Popcorn in Chicago, Illinois, the very fancy snack featured a sugar-based caramel, Vermont Creamery’s precious butter, Nielsen-Massey Bourbon Vanilla and the world’s most expensive salt (from the island of Læsø), all topped off with pinches of 24-carat edible gold flakes.

8. Sundae

Opulence is certainly the order of the day at Serendipity3. Among the NYC restaurant’s crazily expensive offerings is the Golden Opulence Sundae, which sells for $1,000 and broke the world record for the most expensive ice cream sundae when it was released in 2004. It features Tahitian vanilla ice cream, almonds, caviar and a bespoke sugar ornament that takes eight hours to create (unsurprisingly, it has to be specially ordered).

7. Westin Hotel Bagel

In October 2017, for a limited time, Westin New York at Times Square introduced a flashy new menu item: a $1,000 bagel. Needless to say, this wasn’t just any old bagel. It was made at a local bakery and served smothered with white truffle cream cheese, goji berry Riesling jelly and a good sprinkling of gold flakes. Profits from the sandwich were put towards the city's Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen, an emergency food aid programme.

6. Gold pizza

Manhattan's Industry Kitchen’s glittery, glitzy pizza featured a base made from squid ink topped with 24-carat gold leaves, foie gras and truffles from France, white Stilton cheese from the UK and dollops of Osetra caviar from the Caspian Sea. Quite a few food miles, then. This piece of edible food art cost $2,000, or a whopping $250 per slice.

5. Burger

Breaking the world record for the most expensive burger, the Golden Boy was created by Dutch chef and 'King of Burgers' Robert Jan de Veen and was unveiled in July 2021. Costing a mind-blowing €5,000 ($5,492), it features a Wagyu beef patty topped with Beluga caviar, king crab, Spanish Iberico ham and white truffle, smeared with luxury BBQ sauce and held between a Dom Pérignon Champagne bun. The burger is sold at De Daltons in Voorthuizen, Netherlands, with proceeds from sales going towards a local food bank.

4. Pie

Australian pies might be renowned all over the world, but they're not usually quite this pricey. In 2015, the chef at The Lord Dudley Hotel, a pub in Sydney, unveiled a $9,500 AUD ($6,250) surf 'n' turf pie. Fancy ingredients included Australian Wagyu eye fillet, two whole West Australian rock lobsters, French truffles and a generous scattering of German gold leaf.

3. Pizza

Forget prosciutto and rocket. When it comes to fancy pizza, nothing beats chef Renato Viola’s gourmet creations – and, at a whopping €8,300 ($8,770), you'd expect nothing less. To create each of the Italian-based chef’s signature Louis XIII pizzas he uses eight different types of cheese, caviar and lobster. The pizza is then seasoned with pink salt from an Australian river, each grain of which is hand-picked. You can order the meal anywhere in Italy, and Renato will send a small team of chefs to prepare it for you (with three days' notice).

2. Pie

A seemingly ordinary British pub – the Fence Gate Inn in Burnley, Lancashire – holds the record for the world's priciest pie, according to Guinness World Records. The pie, serving eight people, cost £8,195 (around $10,470) or £1,024 ($1,308) per slice. The luxurious sharer is made with Japanese Wagyu beef fillet, Chinese matsutake mushrooms, winter black truffles, French Bluefoot mushrooms and a gravy laced with two bottles of vintage 1982 Château Mouton Rothschild. It’s worth noting that the Fence Gate does offer more reasonably priced pies, such as the one pictured.

1. Tacos

While tacos are usually finished in a few mouthfuls, you might want to savour this one. The world’s most expensive taco – and one of the most expensive dishes you can buy anywhere – comes in at an eye-watering $25,000 and is served at Mexico’s Grand Velas Los Cabos resort. It contains Kobe beef, Almas Beluga caviar and black truffle brie inside a gold-flake infused taco shell, while a luxurious salsa made from dried Morita chilli peppers, premium añejo tequila and civet coffee beans accompanies the dish.

Now check out the most expensive foods in the world