When a hurricane destroys a town or a shopping mall shuts down, once buzzing eateries can get left behind – becoming nothing more than empty shells with faded menus, peeling paint, and decaying décor. From an abandoned McDonald’s in Alaska to a deserted Kmart in Michigan, come with us on a ghostly tour of ransacked restaurants, derelict diners, and forgotten food courts in the USA and Canada.

Click or scroll through our gallery to discover the USA and Canada's creepiest abandoned restaurants, counting down to the most forbidding of all.

We've based our ranking on the eeriness of each location and on the opinions of our well-traveled (and well-fed) team. The list is unavoidably subjective.

Inside America’s abandoned restaurants and supermarkets