When it comes to fast food, there’s nothing worse than getting cold food from the drive thru, food that has clearly been waiting way too long for someone to order it. Sure, we know that fast food isn’t always the highest quality, but we want it to be as fresh as possible. Is that too much to ask?

The answer is no. It’s not. It turns out that McDonald’s even has a button on the register to guarantee that you can get your food freshly made instead of sitting on the warmer. All you have to do is ask.

You’re probably wondering where the “hack” is in simply asking for fresh food. The reality is that unless you’ve worked at a fast food restaurant, you probably didn’t know it was possible to ask for your food to be cooked to order without creating chaos in the kitchen.

TikTok user @laurenicc posted a video of a recent trip through a McDonald’s drive-thru. She wanted her french fries to be made fresh, so she simply requested that the fries were made to order. She was shocked when she looked at her order on the drive-thru screen and saw that the employee taking her order had pushed a button to indicate that the fries should be cooked to order. That’s right, there’s literally a button on the register for “cook to order” requests. That’s how easy and how common these requests are.

@laurenicc🤯🤯🤯🍟 ##mcdonalds ##til ##todayyearsold ##todayilearnedthis♬ SUNNY DAY – Matteo Rossanese

Many TikTok users commented on the video, and the reactions are mixed. Some were shocked that it was possible to ask for fries to be made to order.

Other TikTok users have known about this hack for a long time. Often, it was because they worked at McDonald’s or knew someone who did. It turns out that you can actually request any item on the menu to be cooked to order.

While preparing items fresh when you order them is 100% possible, some TikTok users warn that employees aren’t always happy about these requests. For example, if it’s a busy time of day, everything is pretty much already fresh and it slows everything down to make a special batch of fries for one customer.

Did you know that it was possible to request food to be cooked to order at McDonald’s? Are you going to use this hack?