23 Fast Food Fries Ranked From Worst To Best

Has anybody ever not had an order of White Castle fries where at least half of them were devoid of crispiness? The Castle does a lot of things well, but their crinkle-cut style fries aren't one of them. If they're not limp then they're almost always a lacking in salt. It's definitely not an issue of just one location not having its act together either — this is true no matter what Castle you choose to frequent. The exception is White Castle's sweet potato fries which are a welcomed sweet and crispy treat whenever they make a menu appearance. In fact, the Castle should ditch their old fries and make the sweet potato fries a mainstay already. It would at least get them a higher spot on our list.

Shake Shack is the hippest of hipster places, with lines out the door for their smashed burger. The Shack had quite a kerfunkle in 2013 when they switched fries from their crinkle cut to something more in line with their image; fresh cut. It didn't work. They went back to the original style, but took out all the bad stuff to make a "fresh frozen" crinkle cut fry. But it's still not very good. Shake Shack fries are just there, nothing to them really. Yeah, people love them, but people love Shake Shack burgers too and it's just a $10 Steak 'n Shake burger — way overrated.

This chicken finger joint is a fan favorite anyplace where you can find it. The chain is only a little over 20 years old but they turn out a fine piece of chicken and a nice signature sauce. The fries, however, aren't great. They're crinkle cut, but they're often soggy and inconsistent. It's worth noting that the fries with the chicken, and the sauce work in concert to really hit your taste buds, but the fries alone, not so much. Without the sauce, these fries are pretty sad.

In-N-Out Burger is known for making everything in-house, from their hand-formed burger patties to, yes, their french fries. The fries are hand-cut and cooked in 100 percent sunflower oil, then sprinkled with salt, which sounds like a winning combo — but unfortunately, they fall flat. If you order a regular fries, they're pale, lacking crispiness and flavor. It comes down to the cooking method. To get the crispiest fries, you should soak your potatoes to remove residual starches, then cook them once at a low temperature to gelatinize the exterior of each fry, then cook them in oil at a high temperature, to get that perfectly crispy exterior. In-N-Out just cuts the potatoes and dumps them in oil for a single fry. You can go off-menu and order well-done fries (or, even better, well-done fries Animal Style), but if you have to work that hard to make a passable order of fries, it seems that the classic recipe just isn't working. 

Taco Bell only recently got into the fry game. Previously, if you wanted a side dish you'd have to opt for something like tortilla chips, but in 2018 the chain introduced Nacho Fries to their restaurants. These crispy fries are different from their burger chain counterparts in that after they're fried, they're coated in a signature Mexican seasoning blend, and are then served with warm nacho cheese sauce. Believe it or not, these fries deliver. The potatoes themselves are crispy outside and soft inside, and the Mexican seasoning blend is just spicy enough that the nacho cheese sauce dip has a cooling effect. Though these fries are indeed worth a try, they don't make it to the top of the list for two reasons. First, they're only available occasionally — twice as a limited-time item in 2018, and once as a limited-time item in 2019 (so far). Second, they come pre-seasoned, so if you don't love that blend of spices, you're out of luck. Bonus points for including cheese sauce for dipping, though! 

Jack-In-the-Box serves both plain and curly fries, but we'll stick to their standard french fries for the purpose of this review. The straight-cut spuds are respectably crispy, not too salty or bland, and have a deeper potato flavor than those served up at other chains. That being said, there is a bit of an artificial flavor to them, and a sort of greasiness that begs for ketchup or a dipping sauce with some sort of acidity to cut through the fat. And, though they're tasty when they're piping hot, as soon as they get cold their texture becomes spongy and dry. As far as fast food fries go they're definitely a treat, but you'll want to make sure you have something to dip them in. 

Wendy's has the set up for what seems, on paper, like they'd be perfect fries. The fries are cut from whole potatoes and left skin-on, and they're fried in vegetable oil and seasoned with just a bit of sea salt. But there's just something missing. The fries are crispy outside, yes, but they don't have the moist, fluffy interior we crave in a fry of this width — instead they're curiously dry. They also just don't have a lot of flavor — and that's with the addition of dextrose, a type of sugar, and sodium acid pyrophosphate, a type of salt, to the potatoes. If we're going to buy fries that contain weird additives and preservatives, we'd want them to taste better than this. Luckily, if you're really craving a spud and you're at Wendy's, you're in for a treat. Their baked potatoes can't be beat. 

We're going to go out on a limb and say that most A&W diners visit the place for its root beer. The "all American food" joint can traces its roots back a full century and in that time they've been able to craft a rather good french fry. While A&W boasts that their fries are Russet potato thick-cut, you'd never mistake them for potato wedges and they're certainly skinnier than Checkers or Burger King's fries. They're not the best we've had, but we wouldn't turn them down, either. The skin is left on and the light salt and pepper seasoning is a perfect pairing with the obligatory root beer float. So to dip or not? That's up to you. 

In a world of generic fast food french fries, Arby's curly fries are an outsider. They're a bright orange color and when every other fry plays it straight, Arby's says "nah, we're gonna make our potatoes look like corkscrews." The bold, yet not-overwhelming, peppery seasoning pairs up perfectly with Arby's roast beef sandwiches — and dips better in Arby's sauce than ketchup, if you ask us. Most of the time Arby's Curly fries have an extra crispy texture to them, though you may get the occasional random fry that could have used a little more deep fryer love. While some have debated that all curly fries taste the same, a side-by-side taste taste with Hardee's proves otherwise. These are the superior curly fry, hands down.

Whataburger used to be a thing; almost 300 stores by the end of the 1970s, and a good reputation for some good, quick food. They're still pretty big today in some places, and the fries, at first glance, look a lot like what you'd be served at McDonald's. It's the closest fry out there to a McDonald's fry, for sure, but without that extra flavor that sets Mickey D's apart. They're pretty tasty, but something is still missing (and it's not ketchup).

A lot of people may not realize that WingStop even sells fries, but it turns out this is one of the best items on the menu at their 1100+ locations. In fact, WingStop has some of the best fast food fries around. They start with hand-cut potatoes, which are then fried until crispy and tossed with the chain's signature seasoning blend. The seasoning adds a light salty, peppery, and sweet bite to each fry, bringing out the caramelized notes of the fried potato. Even better? You can ask for your fries "extra well done." This is the best way to appreciate them — extra crispy and deeply golden outside, super-soft and moist inside. That being said, they do have a homemade vibe, meaning some fries remain softer while others get extra crunchy and browned — it's a textural wonderland. Add a side of cheese sauce if you're feeling fancy and these hearty fries can be your whole meal, but even on their own, french fries don't get much better than this at a fast food place. 

This isn't some hipster list where we name something you've never heard of and declare that to be the greatest. Some things are classics for a reason, and that can definitely be said of McDonald's fries. Maybe it's because they're so ubiquitous that we've all come to expect fast food fries to taste like a signature McDonald's spud, but these really are like no other. Each stick is skinny, with a thick layer of crispy potato yielding to a moist, fluffy interior. The ratio of crunch to soft is spot on. 

You know they're good when they have the audacity to name them "World Famous Fries." Yes, that phrase is copyrighted by McDonald's. That's because their fries are awesome. They're the perfect combination of potato, savory beef flavoring, salt, and crunch to be the reason people love their fries.