Beware the bacon: These Fresno drive-thru menus don’t hold back on calories

Bethany Clough
·4 min read

Beware the bacon, the breakfasts and the big boxed meals.

Those items tend to be the biggest calorie bombs at fast food drive-thrus in Fresno and Clovis.

Because we’re a glutton for punishment (or maybe just gluttons), The Bee decided to look at the calorie counts on some of the area’s most popular drive-thru menus. We scoured their regular menus to find the highest calorie items at each place that are seemingly intended for one person (excluding family meals).

Some of what we found surprised us. Some didn’t.

For example, milkshakes have a lot of calories. It’s ice cream. No surprise.

And people expect to consume lots of calories when ordering a burger, but when you add bacon, the calorie count really racks up.

Many fast-food restaurants have added breakfast in recent years, and the breakfast menu is a hideaway spot for high-calorie items — especially if they include sausage or bacon.

The most calorie-packed item on Chick-fil-A’s menu is a salad. Of course, it’s topped with fried chicken tenders, bacon and 300 calories worth of dressing.

Here’s a look at the highest-calorie items we could find at popular Fresno-area drive-thrus. Keep in mind that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration generally recommends people eat about 2,000 calories a day — more or less depending upon your gender and body size.

Starbucks’ highest calorie drinks are a hot chocolate and a latte with olive oil in it.
Starbucks’ highest calorie drinks are a hot chocolate and a latte with olive oil in it.

Starbucks

Calories: 630

Menu items: This one was a tie, with the venti iced chai latte with Oleato golden foam (an infusion of olive oil) and a venti peppermint hot chocolate earning the title highest-calorie drink.

If sugar content is a tiebreaker, the white hot chocolate is the winner, with 92 grams of sugar.

The Big Breakfast with hotcakes is a plate piled with pancakes, a biscuit, sausage, scrambled eggs, crispy hash browns and butter and maple syrup.
The Big Breakfast with hotcakes is a plate piled with pancakes, a biscuit, sausage, scrambled eggs, crispy hash browns and butter and maple syrup.

McDonald’s

Calories: 1,340

Menu item: The Big Breakfast with hotcakes comes with pancakes, a biscuit, sausage, scrambled eggs, hash browns and butter and maple syrup.

A customer sits in a Carl’s Jr. restaurant in this Fresno Bee file photo.
A customer sits in a Carl’s Jr. restaurant in this Fresno Bee file photo.

Carls Jr.

Calories: 1,050

Menu item: The Double Sourdough Star burger comes with two beef patties, two strips of bacon, classic sauce, caramelized onions, American cheese, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise on toasted sourdough bread.

The calorie count climbs as high as 2,070 calories if you get it as a combo with fries and a drink.

Jack in the Box tops the list of the highest calorie items with its late-night build-your-own munchie meal.
Jack in the Box tops the list of the highest calorie items with its late-night build-your-own munchie meal.

Jack in the Box

Calories: 2,420

Menu item: A late-night build-your-own munchie meal is the worst offender on this list. Choosing some of the highest calorie options available, its total comes from an Ultimate cheeseburger (840 calories), onion rings (440 calories), “halfsies” fries (450 calories) and regular Oreo shake with whipped cream (690 calories).

The Bacon King burger at Burger King comes with two quarter-pound beef patties, plenty of bacon, American cheese, ketchup, and creamy mayonnaise on a toasted sesame seed bun.
The Bacon King burger at Burger King comes with two quarter-pound beef patties, plenty of bacon, American cheese, ketchup, and creamy mayonnaise on a toasted sesame seed bun.

Burger King

Calories: 1,200

Menu item: The Bacon King burger comes with two quarter-pound beef patties, bacon, American cheese, ketchup, and mayonnaise on a sesame seed bun.

Add a large french fry and a chocolate Oreo shake and the combo can get over 2,300 calories.

Calorie counts of boxed meals at fast-food restaurants can add up. The KFC Zinger Box is pictured here, but the three-piece chicken big box meal (extra-crispy version) with two breasts and one wing, french fries, coleslaw, a biscuit, and a Dr. Pepper, sweet tea or Starry soda adds up to 2,000 calories.
Calorie counts of boxed meals at fast-food restaurants can add up. The KFC Zinger Box is pictured here, but the three-piece chicken big box meal (extra-crispy version) with two breasts and one wing, french fries, coleslaw, a biscuit, and a Dr. Pepper, sweet tea or Starry soda adds up to 2,000 calories.

KFC

Calories: 2,000

Menu item: The three-piece chicken big box meal — the extra-crispy version — with two breasts and one wing (1230 calories), french fries (320 calories), coleslaw (170 calories), a biscuit (180 calories) and a Dr. Pepper, sweet tea or Starry soda (280 calories).

The Taco Bell on 4071 E. Ventura St. in Fresno.
The Taco Bell on 4071 E. Ventura St. in Fresno.

Taco Bell

Calories: 1,700

Menu item: The chicken enchilada burrito combo, with a chicken enchilada burrito (380 calories), a double-stacked taco (320 calories), a Chalupa Supreme (360 calories), chips and nacho cheese sauce (220 calories) and a large Mountain Dew or Mountain Dew Baja Blast (420 calories).

Dutch Bros Coffee offers iced and hot coffee drinks.
Dutch Bros Coffee offers iced and hot coffee drinks.

Dutch Bros

Calories: 970

Menu item: Two milkshakes tied for the most calories: a large chocolate milkshake and a large Ninja, a milkshake with creme de menthe and white chocolate.

The chocolate milkshake has more fat, at 22 grams, while the Ninja has more sugar, at 173 grams. The sugar in the Ninja is the equivalent of the sugar in six Snickers bars.

The Double-Double burger at In-N-Out is the highest calorie item on the menu.
The Double-Double burger at In-N-Out is the highest calorie item on the menu.

In-N-Out Burger

Calories: 610

Menu item: The Double-Double, a cheeseburger with two beef patties, two slices of American cheese, In-N-Out’s spread and veggies. It’s relatively sane compared to other places but has the same number of calories as a chocolate milkshake.

Motorists wait to place their orders in the drive-thru lane at Chick-fil-A’s River Park location in this file photo from 2023.
Motorists wait to place their orders in the drive-thru lane at Chick-fil-A’s River Park location in this file photo from 2023.

Chick-fil-A

Calories: 890

Menu item: A Cobb salad with “Chick-n-Strips.” The salad is made from greens, roasted corn kernels, shredded cheese, crumbled bacon, slice hard-boiled egg, tomatoes and the real calorie booster: several breaded chicken strips. But the dressing alone, an avocado-lime ranch, adds 310 calories — almost as much as the fried chicken.

A combo meal similar to this one, but with six chicken fingers, two containers of dipping sauce, and large Barq’s root beer totals 2,000 calories.
A combo meal similar to this one, but with six chicken fingers, two containers of dipping sauce, and large Barq’s root beer totals 2,000 calories.

Raising Cane’s

Calories: 2,040

Menu item: The new-but-popular Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers serves only combo meals, and its biggest is The Caniac combo. It comes with six chicken fingers (780 calories alone), fries, two containers of dipping sauce, coleslaw and a large drink. A large Barq’s root beer, at 460 calories, pushes the meal over the recommended daily intake of 2,000 calories.