I Tried 12 Fast Food French Fries and These Are the Ones I’ll Order Again

I thought I knew my favorite fast food fry, but I guess I was wrong.

There’s hardly a fast food war more vicious than the battle over which restaurant has the best french fries. Everyone has an opinion—and it’s always a strong one.

If you asked me my favorite fry before this test, I would’ve said McDonald’s without skipping a beat. However, after trying 12 different fries from 10 different restaurants, I discovered there is a new sheriff in town. 

To put the fry battle to bed, I tried the fries from 10 national fast food restaurants and ranked them from worst to best (and, yes, there can be a “worst” fry). To me, a good fast food fry is one that’s served hot, has a crisp bite, the perfect amount of salty goodness, and can be eaten without any dips—because while I love a good Heinz ketchup moment, I need the fry to taste just as delicious when I’m eating it straight from the bag on the drive home as it will when I have my whole meal set up.

So, to determine the rankings, each fry was judged on a scale of one to five based on five things: freshness, crispiness, saltiness, ability to eat it without a condiment, and, finally, overall taste.

The Best & Worst Fast Food Fries

12. Popeyes

Freshness: 4
Crispiness: 3
Saltiness: 2
Ability to eat alone: 1
Overall: 2.5

Popeyes Cajun Fries are coated in Popeyes’ special Cajun seasoning, which is what works against them. The fries were decently crispy and made pretty fresh, but I didn’t like the seasoning. It wasn’t the spicy Cajun seasoning I was expecting, but rather a dry seasoning that coated my tongue in herby flavors—like sage or oregano. I would absolutely need to dip this fry in ketchup to mask the seasoning’s taste.

11. Burger King

Freshness: 4.5
Crispiness: 1.5
Saltiness: 3
Ability to eat alone: 1
Overall: 2.5

Burger King’s fries are described on the site as “piping hot and perfectly salted.” While they were warm and pretty salty, they were too thick and not cooked enough. It tasted like I was eating a hot, raw potato. It wasn’t even like a steak fry, which I do enjoy. It’s clear BK’s fries are supposed to be thicker than a shoestring, but if that’s the case, they need to be fried a little longer to cook the entire way through.

I’m not even sure any amount of ketchup could have fixed the feeling of chewing all that potato.

10. Dairy Queen

Freshness: 5
Crispiness: 3
Saltiness: 1
Ability to eat alone: 2
Overall: 2.7

Dairy Queen’s shoestring fries so desperately want to be McDonald’s. They look the same, but they do not taste the same at all. DQ’s fries are completely unsalted—which might be great for some people, but for me, that ruins the french fry experience. Dairy Queen was also one of the few restaurants that gave us ketchup unprompted—almost like they knew their fries needed a dip. 

The one saving grace is that they were steaming hot straight from the fryer. If I had to choke down cold, unsalted fries it would ruin my meal.

9. Arby’s Crinkle Fries

Freshness: 4.5
Crispiness: 4
Saltiness: 2
Ability to eat alone: 2
Overall: 3.1

Arby’s Crinkle fries have “accordion-style grooves for maximum crispiness,” according to Arby’s site. The site also calls out that the fries are “lightly salted,” and lightly salted they are. I couldn’t taste much salt on them at all. Strangely, the fries tasted buttery, which might have been because of the oil they use, but it was a little off-putting. I’d stick to Arby’s Curly fries.

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8. Kentucky Fried Chicken

Freshness: 4
Crispiness: 4
Saltiness: 3
Ability to eat alone: 2
Overall: 3.2

KFC’s fries are coated in the Colonel’s secret herbs and spices blend instead of just salt. The seasoning was ok, but the fries altogether were just meh. Despite the fact that were pretty crispy and fresh, I did feel I needed ketchup to really make the experience worthwhile. They reminded me of the fries you would get at a church fish fry—not terrible, but not great either.

7. Five Guys Cajun-Style Fries

Freshness: 5
Crispiness: 3
Saltiness: 2
Ability to eat alone: 3.5
Overall: 3.3

Five Guys fries are “boardwalk-style” and are fried in peanut oil. The Cajun-Style fries are coated in a “heavy dose” of Cajun spice, according to the Five Guys site. They weren’t lying, it was a very heavy dose. They are so coated that you can barely taste the fry at all.

I didn’t rate it higher for the saltiness only because they’re not salty tasting, but rather spicy. The Cajun seasoning is a little overwhelming, but if you like spice it might be the choice for you.

6. Sonic

Freshness: 4.5
Crispiness: 3.5
Saltiness: 3
Ability to eat alone: 2.5
Overall: 3.3

Sonic uses skin-on Russet potatoes for its fries. They are fried to golden brown and lightly salted, according to the site. Sonic is a made-to-order joint, so I figured they would be really fresh, but I was underwhelmed by they’re lack of crispness and how little salt they had. 

They were a McDonald’s knock-off that just didn’t quite hit the mark. They weren’t terrible, but they weren’t great, which is why they’re sitting right in the middle. I would eat them again, just maybe as the Chili Cheese fry or Cheese fry option on Sonic’s menu.

5. Arby’s Curly Fries

Freshness: 4.5
Crispiness: 4.5
Saltiness: 2
Ability to eat alone: 3
Overall: 3.5

Arby’s classic Curly fries are spiral cut and fried. Because no two curly fries are really the same, the crispiness can be off depending on which fry you eat. The super spiraled ones can be a bit more potato-forward, while the curled ones are very crispy. 

I had a lot of curled fries in my order, so they were extra crispy—and were fresh from the fryer. While Arby’s does salt the Curly fries, the flavor that’s most noticeable is the peppery spices. The Curly fries have a nice depth of flavor but do lack that saltiness that I’m looking for, which is why they received a lower saltiness rating. And while I could eat a few curly fries without any dip, they’d definitely be better with ketchup.

4. Five Guys-Style Fries

Freshness: 5
Crispiness: 3
Saltiness: 4
Ability to eat alone: 3
Overall: 3.7

Like the Cajun fries, Five Guys’ traditional fries are “boardwalk-style” and fried in peanut oil. They’re not super crispy because they’re thicker than some of the other fast food restaurants’ fries.

Five Guys fries are like the ones you’d get at a fry restaurant in amusement parks and on the boardwalk—hence the boardwalk-style descriptor. They’re good enough, but I didn’t feel like I could eat a lot of them without a side of ketchup.

3. Chick-fil-A

Freshness: 4
Crispiness: 5
Saltiness: 4
Ability to eat alone: 4
Overall: 4.2

Chick-fil-A’s fries are waffled, fried in canola oil, and sprinkled with sea salt. They were the underdog in the competition because I knew I liked Chick-fil-A’s fries, but I’ve only ever eaten them smothered in Chick-fil-A sauce.

The fries were hot, but not burn-your-mouth hot, and almost perfectly salted. The thing that shocked me the most was how crispy they were—I had absolutely no notes. I could even eat a bunch without any dip—though, obviously, they’d be better with CFA sauce.

2. McDonald’s

Freshness: 5
Crispiness: 5
Saltiness: 5
Ability to eat alone: 5
Overall: 5

McDonald’s World Famous Fries shoestring fries are made with a mixture of Russet Burbank and Shepody potatoes and fried until crispy and golden. These were my favorite to win because they’re always nice and hot, perfectly crispy, and have the ideal amount of salt on them. Just as anticipated, they were the perfect fry that I could’ve eaten the entire bag of without any dips. They scored perfect marks and I had no complaints, but they just weren’t as memorable as the winner’s fries.

1. Wendy’s

Freshness: 5
Crispiness: 5
Saltiness: 5
Ability to eat alone: 5
Overall: 5

Wendy’s natural-cut fries are made with skin-on potatoes and coated in sea salt. Wendy’s changed its fry recipe in 2021 to ensure it was serving hot and crispy fries every time—and the new formula is what made these fries the winner.

They were hot and crispy as described and had a sea salt coating that you could see. Enough salt that it could stick to your fingers, but still give you a flawlessly seasoned fry. As a McDonald’s fry stan, I was honestly shocked at how much I loved these fries. I kept wanting to go back in for more the entire drive home—and I would have if I didn’t have to take photos of the fries. Sorry, Mickey D’s, but Wendy’s just became my new favorite fry stop.

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