Taste Test: Who has the Best French Fries?

Have you ever wondered who has the best French Fry? I mean we all have our favorite fast food places and could probably name some with pretty good fries. But who really has the best fries?

You know those evenings when nothing is scheduled but you actually feel like doing something. I know they don’t happen very often. Well on one of those nights we decided to try and figure out who has the best French fry at our local fast food restaurants.

Before setting off on our quest to find the best French Fry we decided to only compare fries we could get through the drive through. (Going into multiple restaurants sounded like to much work for this outing.)

What Fast Food Restaurant Has the Best French Fries?

Deciding who has the best French fry is some seriously fun business. When determining the best fry each fry needed to be held to the same criteria. This way the results weren’t based on our own opinion (or restaurant preference) but on specific criteria about the fry.

The Best French Fry Criteria  

The things that we decided were really important when judging the fries included: temperature, crispiness, freshness, saltiness, texture, color and smell.

We also included the price, because let’s be honest it’s always interesting to compare prices for the same item at different places.

Temperature when Handed out the Window

The temperature of the fries when handed out the drive-thru window is one of the first things we judge fries on.

Hot fries are yummy, cold fries not so much. The temperature when the fries come out the window is critical to how the fries are going to taste.

Crispiness

We decided crispiness is very important to how we like our fries. Soggy fries are just nasty but too crisp fries aren’t good either. We looked for the perfect crispiness on our quest for the best French fries.

Freshness

I think this one is self-explanatory, the fresher the fries the better. (no one wants old fries)

Saltiness

Saltiness and the seasonings on fries is an important part in how we experience eating French fries.

Can you taste the salt? Is there too much salt? Not enough? These are all questions to consider when evaluating the saltiness of your fries.

If you’re used to using sauces when eating your fries you will probably be surprised what the fries taste like without any sauce.

Texture

Texture goes beyond crispiness (#2), it includes the texture of each layer of the fry not just the outside layer of the fry.

Color

We all know the golden color fries are shown to be on ad’s. How do the ones you ordered rate?

Taste

Taste includes the whole flavor of the fry not just the saltiness. Does the fry have a flavor you want to keep eating? Would you go back for more?

Smell

Do they smell like fries? I was surprised how many of the fries we ordered didn’t smell anything like fries.

Price

We didn’t use price to rank the fries, we just thought it was fun to see how much various places charged for a small fry.

Ranking / Winner

Ranking is simple 1- 10. 1 being the worst 10 the best.  The fries with the highest score at the end win!

Rules

No sauce – this is strictly about the French fry not the sauce. (after you rank the fries you might want some sauce to finish off the rest of the fries.)

Small Fry – We ordered a small fry to share at each restaurant so that we wouldn’t be to full by the end.

Drive thru –This was our stipulation because who wants to go into multiple restaurants to order a small fry. You can change this rule if you want to go inside the restaurant.

Disclaimer

The results of this test can and will change depending on time of day and location. We understand that sometimes there is just a bad batch of fries.

This game is intended for a fun activity and in no way, is it intended to promote or hurt any of the fast food restaurants we mention. (you can do your own French fry taste test using our evaluation sheet at the bottom of the post)

Results: Who has the Best French Fry

We went to 6 different restaurants as part of this French fry taste test. The printable evaluation form at the bottom of this post has space to test fries from 9 different restaurants.

For our taste test, we decided to go to the following restaurants:

1. McDonald’s
2. Checkers
3. Chick-fil-a
4. Popeyes
5. Arby’s
6. Wendy’s

After trying fries from each of the restaurants and totaling the scores we had a winner. I was really surprised with which restaurant won. I thought Chick-fil-a would be a lot better but I guess it’s the sauce that makes their fries amazing.

The winner of the best French fry this round was Checkers! Checkers also had the cheapest fries at the time for only $1 (this was a sale they had going for a couple of weeks their fries are more expensive normally.)

Though checkers won this round I have a few different restaurants I want to add the next time we play.

Best Part of the Taste Test Game

The best part of the game is that it always changes. You can play as many times as you want with different restaurants and different locations. (maybe checkout 3 or 4 different McDonald’s and see which location has the best fries.)

Free Printable Taste Test Scoring Card

Get your free printable game card below please keep it for personal use.

Let us know who you think has the best French fries in the comments.

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