Chili’s, Zaxby’s target McDonald’s with cheaper meal deals and value push

Chili’s and Zaxby’s have turned cheap meal deals into a fresh challenge for McDonald’s, using price and portion size as the battleground while the chain’s own workers brace for the pressure that comes with every value push. Chili’s is pushing a $10.99 3 For Me deal built around its Big Crispy chicken sandwich, fries, bottomless chips and salsa, and an unlimited non-alcoholic drink, while describing the sandwich as bigger than McDonald’s McCrispy. The chain says the Big Crispy lineup now includes six versions, from classic and spicy to sauced and fully loaded.

McDonald’s answered with its own broader affordability reset. The company said on April 2 that its expanded McValue menu would begin April 21 with 10 items under $3 and a new $4 breakfast meal deal, alongside its existing $5 and $6 meal deals. Alyssa Buetikofer, McDonald’s USA chief marketing and customer experience officer, said the company was adding value to give customers “more choice and flexibility.” For store teams, that usually means more menu complexity on a rush-heavy platform that already runs on tight seconds and tight labor.

The timing is not accidental. McDonald’s has been under price pressure for years, and the company has been forced to defend what it charges after critics, including House Republicans, argued that menu prices had climbed too far. In May 2024, McDonald’s president Joe Erlinger said average menu prices were up about 40% since 2019. That criticism helped set the stage for the $5 Meal Deal McDonald’s launched in 2024 and later extended.

That deal gave McDonald’s a clear traffic driver. M Science data found about 25% of McDonald’s customers bought the $5 Meal Deal in the weeks after it debuted, with about 12% of those buyers having stayed away from the chain for the previous three months and roughly 5% coming in as new customers. For franchisees and managers, that kind of lift can look like relief on the sales board, but it can also mean more tickets, more add-on orders and more pressure to keep drive-thru times from slipping when a bargain promotion catches on.

Zaxby’s is also leaning into the value fight, with menu specials and a rewards program built around points-based savings, even as its specific jab at McDonald’s in this campaign was less explicit. Together, the promotions show how rivals are now treating value not as a side note but as the main weapon against the Golden Arches. For McDonald’s crews, that means the next price war will be fought at the counter, on the fryer line and in the drive-thru lane.