Hardee's is expanding its breakfast and all-day menu with a four-item Flame-Grilled Steak platform, adding savory steak to its signature Made from Scratch™ Biscuit format and extending the protein push into lunch and dinner dayparts. The move signals a deliberate pivot toward heartier, colder-weather fare at the CKE Restaurants Holdings brand, which operates more than 1,400 restaurants across 31 states.
The New Lineup
The platform covers four distinct formats designed to drive traffic across multiple dayparts. The Flame-Grilled Steak Biscuit pairs steak slices with a freshly fried egg and Swiss cheese on Hardee's proprietary biscuit. The Flame-Grilled Steak Breakfast Burrito wraps steak, folded egg, Hash Rounds®, and Swiss and cheddar cheeses in a tortilla, served with Texas Pete® hot sauce. A Flame-Grilled Steak Breakfast Bowl delivers similar ingredients over crispy Hash Rounds®. Rounding out the lineup, the Flame-Grilled Steak Frisco—aimed squarely at the lunch and dinner crowd—stacks steak with Swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato, and garlic mayo on buttery toasted sourdough.
"Breakfast is what Hardee's is known for, and flame-grilled steak, packed with protein, is a hearty way to start the day," said Alisa Gmelich, president of Hardee's. "For lunch and dinner, we're putting it on our Frisco with melty Swiss, crisp lettuce and fresh tomatoes on buttery toasted sourdough. It's the kind of meal you want when the weather turns cold."
Operator and Market Context
The steak launch fits a broader trend in QSR breakfast innovation where chains are competing aggressively on protein variety and premium ingredients to lift average check sizes. By anchoring the new platform to its already-established Made from Scratch™ Biscuit equity, Hardee's reduces menu-execution risk while giving franchisees a fresh sales story heading into the slower winter period.
The launch also runs alongside the continued availability of the S'mores platform—an iced coffee, fried pie, and Hand-Scooped Ice Cream Shake™ lineup—extended through January 27. That dual-platform approach gives operators both a savory and a sweet hook for the season, covering a wider swath of guest occasions without requiring a full menu overhaul.
To support the rollout, Hardee's My Rewards app members can access 25% off snacks, sides, and shakes during an All-Day APPy Hour promotion running November 13–16 in recognition of National Fast Food Day. The digital-exclusive offer—redeemable only via the app or order.hardees.com—reflects the chain's ongoing effort to deepen loyalty program engagement and drive app adoption, a strategy well-documented across beverage and food industry trend analysis as a key lever for increasing frequency among existing guests.
With parent company CKE Restaurants Holdings operating more than 3,600 combined Carl's Jr. and Hardee's units across 44 U.S. states and more than 35 international markets, the Flame-Grilled Steak platform has significant reach as a testbed for premium protein positioning in the value-QSR segment.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
