The Culver's Ordering Tip That Results In Crispier Food

Culver's has been a fan favorite since its founding in 1984, but having all those decades of success doesn't mean there aren't things it can improve upon. Of the many menu items you may want to consider skipping at Culver's, the fries have to be the most disappointing. Diners have complained that the fries tend to be soggy depending on the location, which isn't ideal for a restaurant known for its burgers. There is, however, a remarkably easy fix to this problem.

All it takes to salvage those fries is ordering them "extra crispy." The request is a life-changing Culver's hack that helps you get that tantalizing crunch in your fries. The tip was shared in a 2020 Reddit thread, with one commenter sharing that you can ask for anything that's cooked in the fryers to be made extra crispy. These days, you usually don't even have to treat it as a special request — "extra crispy" already appears as a customization option when you order Culver's online, albeit only with the fries.

A separate Reddit thread from 2025 shed light on how exactly Culver's gives your fries a boost in crispiness. Culver's employees explained that the fries are cooked in the fryer for 45 seconds longer to make them extra crispy; if the fries have already been pre-cooked, they're just dumped back into the fryer for the same amount of time. It's unclear if Culver's will do this for items like the Jumbo Butterfly Shrimp, but users have confirmed getting fries, onion rings, cheese curds, and chicken tenders done extra crispy.

The basic principle behind making food crispy via deep-frying is that the high temperature of the oil rapidly evaporates water near the surface of your food, creating a crackly crust around it. The additional 45 seconds of frying for an extra crispy order at Culver's simply lets the water evaporate and develop a better crust. In the case of pre-cooked fries being put back into the fryer, however, there's an additional layer of science that makes them even crispier.

What the cooks at Culver's are doing in this scenario is a process called double-frying, where food is fried, allowed to cool, and then fried again. According to J. Kenji López-Alt, loosened starch molecules eventually work their way towards the surface of your food during the first frying (via Serious Eats). Given enough time, this forms a sheath-like layer on the exterior, which can then be fried a second time to remove even more moisture and build a thicker crust. López-Alt found that double-frying resulted in a crust more than twice as thick as fries that were cooked just once.

There are, of course, other ways to make extra crispy fries at home if you aren't feeling like Culver's. Aside from double-frying, you can also rinse the fries in cold water before frying them. This helps remove any excess starch and sugars on the surface that might prevent you from getting your ideal texture. Using an oil with a high smoke point will also ensure it can handle the temperatures needed to get maximum crunch on your fries.