Welcome to Fortune‘s of the most extreme new food items of the year (restaurant division). If these inventions are any indication, U.S. chains have grave doubts about customers’ abilities to manage a sandwich and a side dish: More and more, they’re just piling everything into one giant, stomach-stretching, multi-level construction.
There’s been a rise in chains claiming to sell higher-quality burgers, so putting an extreme version on the menu was one key way that older brands differentiated themselves in 2014. And the burger is a great platform for creativity. “It’s easy to test new ‘wow factor’ foods in a category that most people are comfortable with to begin with,” says Lizzy Freier, who tracks extreme foods, among other things, at industry research firm Technomic.
Burgers weren’t the only area for experimentation. The year saw boundaries pushed, or even broken, around burritos, milkshakes, and doughnuts. Depending on your tolerance for the outlandish, prepare to be either ravenous—or grossed out.
.
