Do Taco Time Mexifries count?
Definitely Five Guys. They’re so much better than anything else out there.
Worst has to be Wendy’s.
How did I forget those?!? Greek fries from Cross Rhodes are wonderful but to get the full effect you have to order the gyro plate to go. The gyro meat drips onto the fries and combines with the lemon oil mix to make something that is just about perfect.
Oh and fyi, I know the owner Jeff pretty well. I’ve asked him for the recipe for the Greek fries and he says he has tried many times to make a small batch recipe but he never can get it to taste like the multi gallon batches he makes at the restaurant. I’ve tried as well and something is always missing with the consistency.
I worked there in HS for a week when they first opened; I grew up across the alley. I was splitting a busperson shift with 3 friends, but Jeff decided that he’d rather have one full-timer. I can’t say that I blamed him, and I wouldn’t have lasted long anyway; full bus trays of dishes were doing a number on my back. I think the guy he hired instead is still there.
I voted “other” because Del Taco wasn’t on the list.
I’m with you. Del Taco’s fries rock.
However, Wendy’s and Carl’s Jr. both have new fries, and they are very good, too. I can’t believe McDonald’s is winning- their fries haven’t been good since they quit using lard. They’re serviceable for about 2 minutes just out of the fryer, but still nothing to write home about.
Don’t think they ever used lard–it was beef tallow, or a mix of beef tallow and oil.
ETA: Unfortunately, the Del Taco outpost they had here in Chicago didn’t last very long, and I had no idea the fries were worth trying (or that they even had fries), so I’m curious now about these Del Taco fries. Next time I’m on the West Coast…
Ah, well, whatever it was, I vaguely remember them being so good…
They apparently were 7% cottonseed oil and 93% beef tallow. Looks like they switched over to all oil in 1990. Well, not actually 100% oil, as they got sued for using beef extract in the oil (to replicate that tallow flavor, I guess) in 2001. I’m not sure whether they still use it or not, though. Their ingredient list says “natural beef flavor [wheat and milk derivatives],” which makes it sound like it’s not quite actual beef anymore.
I think of the majors, they’re still the best.
My fry preference is idiosyncratic: soggy greasy fries, as close to being a potato as possible. My favorite are steak fries at a good sit-down place, but fast food places don’t carry steak fries. So the fat crinkle kind are second-best. I picked White Castle (also Culver’s fries, which are the same style). But McDonald’s are in second place, since they tend to be squishier than average. I don’t like crispy fries very much. I prefer them as close to the status of “mashed potatoes” as possible (since I’m a mashed potato FIEND).
I know I’m weird. But it worked out nicely when I was little. My sister loved the crispy overcooked fries and I liked the undercooked ones. We would trade!
(and yeah I stopped eating BK fries when they changed the recipe–they’re worse than warts)
Maybe you guys haven’t had A&W’s fries lately (well, unfortunately, neither have I) but don’t you remember those awesome spices? They needed NOTHING added to them. They were fantastic.
Off the top of my head, I like the fries from Harvey’s (a chain I believe is confined to Canada) the best. A&W has good fries, too.
Where can you even get crinkle cut fries at a fast food place? We don’t have most of the places listed in the poll here, and everyone that we do serves shoe string. 
My favorites are steak fries as well, then crinkle cut. Shoe string are barely worth eating (if you don’t like crispy, which I don’t), and curly fries definitely aren’t.
elfkin, allow me to refer you to post #25. And to rachel, they are mostly soft and not very greasy. Kinda like grease-less Nathan’s fries.
Oh. Too bad it, like 10 of the places on the poll, isn’t one we have around here.
Burger King’s fries taste like burnt plastic to me. Ever since they went to that batter covering all those years ago, I haven’t been able to eat them. It’s a shame, because I liked their burgers the best of all the chains - not that I eat fast food burgers anymore, but I used to like them. They lost my business when they ‘improved’ their fries.
McDonald’s fries are fine. Steak & Shake fries suck - they’re so skinny they were cooked hard the 2 or 3 times I had them. Chick Fil-a’s waffle fries suck. KFC’s fried hunks o’ batter-dipped potato are pretty tasty, but not really the same as ‘fries’.
I voted for Wendy’s fries as the best. I loved the ones they sold a until few months back, before they went to the skin-on fries. They were tasty and had a rich potato flavor. I like skin-on fries just fine, but I wouldn’t have replaced my favorite fast-food fries with them. Now if Burger King would have replaced their plastic-fries with them, I’d have cheered it. That said, the new Wendy’s fries are good, but I’m not sure I like them as much as the old-style.
Kiwanis fries and vinegar.
McDonalds is the long standing champion of best fries, by such a large margin, that it used to not even be worth bothering getting fries anywhere else (fast food wise - regular restaurants are ok if they serve waffle fries). But recently Wendy’s reformed and started making shoestring fries with sea salt which are pretty good. Still not as good as McD fries, but good enough to order their superior nuggets and be lazy enough to settle for their fries rather than making an extra trip to McDs just for fries…
It seems 5 Guys is getting some play in the polls. Never heard of them. I assume it’s a regional thing?
They’re originally out of the DC area (Arlington, VA), but they’ve spread across the land (Wikipedia says they’re in 40 states.) Chicago has had a big influx of 5 Guys locations in the last 2 years or so, when previously few people had heard of them.
Also not counting fast food, Ruby Tuesday’s are pretty good. And they have free fry refills!