Some fast food items are known and loved the world over – burgers (in all their forms), for example, along with pizza, fries and hot dogs. Then there are those on-the-go foods closely associated with one place or country, like Aussie meat pies, British fish and chips and a variety of classic street food dishes that are cooked to order. Here we look at the world's best fast foods, counting down to the greatest dish of all.

Click or scroll through our gallery to discover the most delicious fast food dishes from around the world. How many have you tried?

We've based our ranking on the enduring popularity of each fast food dish in its place of origin and beyond, and on the opinions of our well-travelled (and well-fed) team. The list is unavoidably subjective.

Bitterballen are moreish fried morels that are often served as a bar snack. Utterly delicious, they’re made from beef in a thick gravy, which is chilled before being rolled into balls, breaded and deep fried. While traditionally made with meat leftover from the weekend roast, they're rarely prepared in Dutch homes these days, but can be bought from takeaway spots all around the Netherlands (usually with a side of fries). 

Humble yet tasty creations, these small, crescent-shaped dumplings have been part of Polish food culture since the 13th century. They even have a patron saint: St Hyacinth. The dough is made from flour, water and sometimes egg and, once filled, the dumplings are first poached, then fried in butter. The choice of fillings is endless, but most popular are cheese and potato, cabbage and mushroom and meat and soft fruits. 

Dating back to the 19th century, choripán is a traditional Argentinian sandwich loved for its distinctive, smoky pork flavour and chewy bread. Sold from street vendors across the country, it’s designed to be eaten on the move and consists of a meaty, grilled chorizo sausage stuffed inside a crusty roll with plenty of piquant, herby chimichurri.

Now ubiquitous on menus worldwide – from corporate events and weddings to restaurants and bars – the slider is a bite-sized hamburger. It dates to 1921, when Kansas-born Billy Ingram founded the US burger chain White Castle. Its small, square, five-cent hamburgers were central to the menu and were instantly popular. Today, thousands of White Castle Original Sliders are sold daily, and they're still served the same way: a diminutive, steam-grilled square patty with five holes (to help it cook quickly) is topped with onions and pickles and stuffed into a bun.

Elote, or Mexican street corn, is incredibly popular in Mexico, where its history stretches back centuries. Its appeal has spread to the US, and especially southern California, where the dressed-up corn flies from food trucks and market stalls. The zingy, spicy snack – typically served on a stick – features a corn cob charred on the grill, slathered with a mixture of butter, mayonnaise, lime, chilli and coriander, and finished with Cotija, an aged Mexican cheese.

Found across Uganda, this popular street food is essentially a thin, vegetable-packed omelette served inside an East African–style chapati, rolled up into a burrito-like shape. It’s believed the first rolex was created by a savvy businessman who set up a stall next to a university in Kikoni, Kampala, offering students a tasty and affordable on-the-go lunch. These days, you’ll find street vendors across the country serving up the delight.

Sold at food markets and on every street corner in Thailand – and at many restaurants around the world – pad Thai is a filling dish served with levels of heat from mild to mouth-numbing. Typically, rice noodles, shrimp, egg and a handful of bean sprouts are stir-fried together with lime and chilli and topped with crushed peanuts. Nutritious and cheap to make, it was created after the Second World War, when the Thai prime minister became concerned about the country’s high levels of rice consumption.

Chunks of skewered meat – usually chicken or pork – grilled over charcoal are the main ingredients of this tasty Greek fast food dish. They're served with salad and a dollop of tzatziki, either in a pitta or with one on the side. Its origins are believed to stretch back centuries; the oldest-known skewers, discovered on Santorini, were dated back to 2000 BC. There are also mentions of meat cooked over embers in Homer's epic eighth-century poem, The Iliad.

The origins of this sweet and sour Indian street food snack aren't clear, with different theories linking it to cafés in Gujarat and street hawkers in Mumbai. Popular at street food markets and often eaten at the beach, bhelpuri (or bhel puri) is made from puffed rice mixed with potatoes, onions, chaat masala – a type of spice mix – and chutney. Each mouthful delivers a unique combination of flavours and textures – think sweet and salty, tender and crispy.

Bánh mì is a Vietnamese fast food sandwich with a French twist, sold by vendors at street carts throughout the country (and gaining popularity worldwide, too). It has roots in the 1860s, when the French colonised the north, bringing various food products with them. The baguettes are made using rice flour for a lighter, airier texture and are often filled with pork seasoned with fish sauce, or sausage, sardines and mackerel. Sour pickled vegetables, fragrant fresh herbs and spicy chillies are also included for even more flavour and texture.  

This Egyptian delicacy dates back centuries, and is believed to pre-date the similar falafel. Made with dried broad beans (also known as fava beans) and a blend of spices, these tasty morsels are usually deep fried and eaten for breakfast. You’ll find them across the country, often served stuffed inside a toasted pitta with tahini and salad.

A typical street food enjoyed throughout Asia, chǎofàn, or Chinese fried rice, tends to feature rice, eggs, vegetables, meat or seafood stir-fried together with soy sauce for a quick, comforting meal. Historians believe it was invented during the time of the Sui Dynasty (589-618 AD) in Yangzhou, China, out of a need to use up leftover rice and other ingredients. It's also popular in Japan, where it's known as chahan.

This meaty fast food is thought to have originated during the time of the Ottoman Empire. It’s available on every street corner in Turkey and throughout the Middle East, where it is sold everywhere from food trucks to fancy restaurants. Shawarma typically consists of a mix of lamb and chicken which is cooked on a rotating spit, sliced hot and wrapped in a flatbread along with pickled vegetables, salad and sauces.

Eaten across South America since pre-Columbian times, arepa is a doughy delicacy made with ground maize. Shaped into flat rounds, the dough is boiled, steamed, fried or baked, then stuffed with different fillings (fried eggs, beans, cheese, meats or fish) depending on the region You’ll usually find arepa sold from street vendors in Venezuela and Colombia as a delicious breakfast or snack option.

Vada pav is a staple of India’s street food scene. Packed with flavour, it consists of a deep-fried spicy potato fritter served in a soft roll (pav) with tangy chutneys. Its popularity throughout India is often credited to Venkatesh Iyer, who started the fast food chain Goli Vada Pav after seeing a tiny vada pav cart set up next to a giant McDonald’s in Mumbai.

This classic fast food item originated in Greece, where it’s still hugely popular today. It consists of small, fluffy pitta breads packed with rotisserie meat, tzatziki, shredded lettuce and tomatoes. The dish is likely inspired by the döner kebab, and is said to have links to Alexander the Great’s army, who roasted skewered meat on an open fire in the fourth century BC.

These long, finger-shaped doughnuts have been eaten in Spain for centuries and have become a street food staple worldwide; they're so popular, in fact, that they're among the highest ranked recipe searches on Google. Churros are traditionally made with choux pastry dough, which is piped into hot oil through a thin, star-shaped hole. They're often finished with a sprinkling of cinnamon and sugar and served with chocolate dipping sauce. 

Spongy and delicate-looking, bao buns originate from Fujian in China. They traditionally feature a folded slice of lotus leaf bread filled with sliced pork belly dressed in stir-fried pickled mustard greens, coriander and crushed peanuts. David Chang, founder of the Momofuku restaurant chain, is widely credited with bringing the hugely popular dish to the US (and beyond) in the 2000s.

The combination of flaky, battered white fish and crispy, chunky chips is so ingrained in British culture that Prime Minister Winston Churchill left the dish off the rationing list during the Second World War, fearing morale would be seriously damaged otherwise. Some like theirs simply seasoned with salt and drenched in vinegar, while others opt for tasty accompaniments like tartare sauce, mushy peas or even a pickled egg.

Originating in Osaka, these ball-shaped delights are made with a wheat flour batter and are cooked on searingly hot moulded pans. Savoury and salty, you’ll typically find them stuffed with minced octopus meat, pickled ginger and onion. While they're now served by food vendors across the country, it’s believed a stall named Tomekichi Endo was the first to sell takoyaki in 1935. 

This twist on a traditional German bratwurst is one of the most popular fast foods in the German capital of Berlin, where it was invented. The story goes that in 1949, German housewife Herta Heuwer traded some alcohol with British soldiers in return for ketchup and curry powder, which she mixed together and drizzled over a grilled, sliced bratwurst. Today, currywurst is widely available at food carts around the city.

Believed to have originated in northern Mexico (though counter theories claim they were invented in the American Southwest), burritos are up there as one of the world's greatest hand-held foods. Traditionally, burritos were made with flour tortillas and contained only a couple of fillings (meat or fish, potato, rice, beans, asadero cheese and red or green chilli). Nowadays nearly anything goes, with burritos often presented stuffed to bursting or smothered in sauce.

Although Berlin is famous for currywurst, it's the döner kebab that takes the top spot in the German capital's fast food scene, with the Turkish-inspired snack outselling currywurst by far. The popularity of the dish here is widely credited to two Turkish-German immigrants who started selling it on the streets of West Berlin in the early 1970s. Nowadays, more than 1,000 eateries in Berlin serve döner kebabs.

Essentially a portable curry, bunny chow – or bunny, for short – is one of South Africa’s favourite street foods. This unique creation consists of a hollowed-out loaf of white bread filled with a mutton, lamb, chicken, bean or vegetable curry, which soaks into the sides of the bread. The hearty dish is said to have been invented by migrant Indian workers in the 1940s – looking for a way to transport their lunch to the plantations, they stored their curries inside bread rolls until it was time to eat.

While the roots of this fast food favourite are undoubtedly Mexican, their exact origin is hard to pinpoint. Some say the country’s ancient indigenous cultures were the first to load soft corn tortillas with offal and fish, while others reference Mexican silver miners as being the inventors of this cheap and filling workday meal. Nowadays, tacos are widely available, especially in southern California, where in the 1920s, ground beef replaced offal and delicious extras like cheese, slaw, shredded lettuce and sour cream were piled on top. Hard taco shells were also first eaten here in the 1940s.

Pies may be a globally popular comfort food, but they hold a special place in the hearts and bellies of many Australians. A popular snack while watching sports and a must on any road trip, the classic Aussie pie sees beef cooked in a rich gravy, encased in a shortcrust pastry base, topped with a puff pastry lid and finished with a dollop of tomato sauce. The history of the pie can be traced back to the First Fleet – ships that brought the first British colonists and convicts to Australia – and today you’ll find pie-lined trays at every bakery and petrol station.

You won't struggle to find bratwurst in Germany – it's sold by countless street vendors and in restaurants and sausage houses nationwide. The sausage is made from pork and spices like coriander seed, ginger, pepper, mace or nutmeg and is presented in a roll, usually with mustard. Evidence suggests it was first served in 1313 in Nuremberg, a city still internationally renowned for the dish (and home to the Bratwurst Museum).

The first written mention of the samosa was in the 11th century, though it's believed that these tasty, triangular treats have been around much longer than that. Some even suggest that the samosa is the world's first fast food item. It originated in what's now Iran, where it was filled with minced meats, nuts and dried fruit and served as a snack at the great courts of the Ghaznavid Empire. Migrants took it to India, where it was tailored to local tastes and often made using vegetables instead of meat.

One bite of this iconic Canadian dish – consisting of fries studded with rich cheese curds and smothered in gravy – is enough to soothe your soul. Poutine was first served in the 1950s in rural Québec, although by whom is much debated. Most stories reference it as originating at a local restaurant, Le Lutin qui rit, after owner Fernand Lachance noticed customers ordering a side of cheese curds with their fries (the gravy came later). He combined the two ingredients – and a legendary dish was born.

California claims to have invented plenty of iconic dishes, but its most legendary creation must be the classic cheeseburger. Food historians date its conception to 1924, when 16-year-old Lionel Sternberger decided to melt a slice of cheese onto a hamburger at his father’s diner, the now-closed The Rite Spot, in Pasadena, California. The rest is history, and the cheeseburger remains one of the tastiest fast food items out there.

Although an enduring staple of the Southern USA, where it can be traced back to a recipe printed in 1824, this delicious fast food originated in Scotland as early as 1747 and was brought to America by Scottish plantation owners. It was enslaved people who made it the flavoursome favourite it is today, adding spice and seasonings. Then, of course, KFC paved the way for the world’s obsession with fried chicken in the 20th century. 

Depending on which story you believe, this simple hand-held snack, so closely associated with America, was invented in either Austria or Germany. It arrived in the USA with German immigrants in the 1800s, and by the late 19th century hot dog stands were commonplace nationwide. The best-known chain was founded in 1916 by a Polish immigrant, Nathan Handwerker, who opened the beloved Nathan’s Famous in New York City. Nowadays, almost every state offers a different take on the snack, from the fully loaded Chicago dog to the classic Coney Island, while there are variations on hot dogs cooked and served around the world.

One of the world's most ordered fast food dishes originated from a blend of influences. An English man, John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, is generally regarded as the first to eat meat in bread, the Scottish were the first to fry chicken in breadcrumbs, and enslaved people in the American South added flavour and spice (the bun came later). The first chicken sandwich sold by a fast food chain was Chick-fil-A’s Original Chicken Sandwich, which featured a toasted buttered bun, a breaded chicken breast and two pickles – a combination that hasn’t changed since launching in 1964.

Pizza goes back millennia, but the modern form took shape in the southern Italian city of Naples in the late 1700s, following a population boom. Street traders sold dough topped with salt and garlic as a quick, cheap, convenient meal. Toppings got fancier when Italy’s Queen Margherita, with a taste for the dish, visited in the 1800s (and had a pretty famous pizza named after her). Nowadays, it’s a ubiquitous global fast food available in many variations, from Chicago deep dish to floppy New York–style slices.

This fast food favourite has roots in the 13th century, when the Mongols spread the idea of minced meat dishes across Europe; this included Germany, and specifically Hamburg, where cooking beef in patties with spices became popular. German settlers brought the idea to the US in the late 1800s. The creation of the modern burger is largely credited to two people: Louis Lassen of Louis’ Lunch in Connecticut, who first served a patty between two slices of bread, and Walter Anderson of White Castle, who invented the burger bun.

Although French in name, the origins of the world’s most popular potato-based snack are much debated. Some believe they originated in Paris, while others cite Belgium. President Thomas Jefferson is said to have introduced French fries to the USA in 1780, while working as the American Minister to France (though it was his enslaved chef, James Hemings, who cooked them). Their popularity rocketed in the 20th century, when they became a staple at McDonald’s (in 1949) and, later, Burger King. A true fast food great, few can resist a piping hot, slightly salty, crisp and crunchy, gorgeously golden French fry.

Now discover the surprising bucket list dishes you probably won’t have tried

Last updated by Lottie Woodrow.