Long John Silver's Customers Wish This Item Would Return To The Menu

Long John Silver's was once the largest fast food fish chain (it lost 1,000 locations after a leveraged buyout in 1989), but now there are fewer than 500 stores operational across the USA. LJS, which has only one restaurant left in New Jersey, offers fast food diners something other than your typical burgers — with a taste of the sea, featuring big, crispy pieces of fried fish, shrimp in a variety of sizes, coleslaw, as well as the delightful Southern staple, hushpuppies. Naturally, the company has evolved over time, like in 2025, when it started emphasizing the chicken that has long been a part of the menu. LJS has also removed items from its menu, including one fan-favorite side: corn on the cob, which customers miss something fierce.

On an r/Cooking thread of all places, the OP waxed incredibly nostalgic over the LJS corn on the cob, which they described as "individually wrapped in foil, drenched in butter," with kernels that "were incredibly soft and just melted off the cob when you bit into them." This heavenly description is supported by a TikTok creator who took to his platform to ask why the chain removed this special item from the lineup. The commenters agree, with one responding, "...that corn was slapping..." while another called it the best and wrote that you'll never find one as good. Is this thing on, Long John Silver's? The people crave the corn, and not the off-the-cob stuff that is currently on the menu.

There is actually quite a bit to miss about Long John Silver's from the decades that have come before (1969 was a huge year for fast food fish), and it's not all about the food. Quite a few erstwhile customers on the r/80sFastFood subreddit mentioned the indoor and outdoor decor that used to welcome hungry diners in. "The door handle was a pirate sword. The interior looked like a ship. We were on a voyage," one commenter wrote. Another mentioned how the walkway was like a wooden deck, while a number remembered the railings made of rope outside, which would give you splinters if you ran your hand along them.

One lucky Redditor claimed that, until the previous year, their LJS restaurant still had all of this, which tracks with the fact that Long John Silver's is in the midst of store renovations, updating not just the decor, but also the technology within the restaurants that could potentially make both employees' and customers' visits more efficient, like ordering kiosks. LJS is further making little tweaks to their menu to streamline the process of creating items, so that they're easier to put together, with fewer steps. Unfortunately, all this progress comes at the expense of the whimsically sea-faring theme that permeated the restaurants more distinctly.