8 Frozen French Fries Ranked From Worst to Best
There are few freezer-aisle purchases more disappointing than French fries that look golden and crispy on the bag but emerge from the oven pale, limp, and somehow both dry and soggy.
Americans clearly have not given up on frozen potatoes, though. U.S. retail potato sales totaled about $20 billion from July 2025 through June 2026, according to Circana data reported by Potatoes USA. Frozen potatoes remained a major part of that enormous market, even as category volume slipped slightly from the previous year.
And 2026 has already produced some serious fry testing. Delish cooked 45 bags of frozen fries using package instructions, while other recent rankings have compared popular grocery-store brands based on crunch, potato texture, seasoning, and shopper feedback.
Combining those recent tests with shopper feedback and one very important question, “Would you actually want a second handful?”, here is how eight familiar frozen fries stack up.
Great Value Regular Cut Fries
Walmart’s Great Value fries have one obvious advantage: they are usually positioned as a budget-friendly option.
Unfortunately, crispness appears to be their weak point.
In a May 2026 review of grocery-store fries, Eat This, Not That! placed Great Value Regular Cut at the bottom, citing shopper complaints that the fries sometimes remain limp or soggy even after cooking.
That does not mean they are unusable. A hot air fryer, enough space between the fries, and a few additional cooking minutes can help.
Still, when French fries are involved, “needs some convincing to become crispy” is not exactly a glowing endorsement.
Best for: shoppers prioritizing price over restaurant-style texture.
Related: 5 Bedtime Snacks That Can Help Satisfy Late-Night Cravings
Red Robin Seasoned Steak Fries
If you love thick-cut fries, Red Robin’s frozen version certainly looks promising, the seasoning is a major plus.
So why are they this low?
Consistency.
Recent shopper feedback collected by Eat This, Not That! included complaints about bags containing smaller pieces and fries that cooked unevenly.
Steak fries are also naturally harder to crisp than thin fries because there is so much more fluffy potato inside.
When they’re good, they’re very good. But if your personal definition of a great fry starts with “crunchy,” there are safer bets farther down the freezer aisle.
Alexia House Cut Fries
Alexia tends to attract the shopper who wants frozen fries that feel slightly less like fast food and a little more like something from a neighborhood burger place.
The House Cut fries deliver a pleasant potato-forward texture and have earned favorable comments from shoppers, although some say they could use additional seasoning.
Alexia also performed impressively elsewhere in 2026 testing. Delish selected the brand’s Sweet Potato Fries as the best sweet-potato option among the many bags it sampled, praising their crisp exterior, creamy center, and seasoning.
For classic potato fries, though, there are crunchier contenders ahead.
Ore-Ida Golden Waffle Fries
Waffle fries have an unfair advantage: geometry.
All those holes and ridges create extra surface area that can turn golden and crunchy, while still leaving enough potato inside to stay fluffy.
Delish named Ore-Ida Golden Waffle Fries the best waffle fry in its 45-bag taste test, noting that they maintained a crisp exterior without sacrificing the soft middle. The testers’ main complaint was simply that they wanted a little more salt.
That is easily fixed at home.
They’re especially good for anyone whose preferred fry-to-ketchup ratio is approximately 50 percent fry, 50 percent sauce delivery system.
Grown in Idaho Fries
Lamb Weston’s Grown in Idaho line has developed a loyal following, particularly among air-fryer owners.
Recent shopper feedback describes the fries as fluffy inside with the hand-cut quality many people associate with restaurant fries. Eat This, Not That! ranked Grown in Idaho among its strongest freezer-aisle picks in May.
Lamb Weston also happens to know the commercial fry business extremely well. The company is one of the world’s major frozen-potato suppliers and reported $1.67 billion in revenue in its latest fiscal quarter, reflecting just how enormous the frozen-potato business remains.
At home, these fries benefit from an air fryer, where hot circulating air can help develop that crisp exterior without drying out the potato center.
McCain Extra Crispy Classic Fries
Sometimes you do not want curly, waffle, steak, or heavily seasoned fries.
You just want fries.
McCain Extra Crispy Classic Fries excel at exactly that.
Delish crowned them the best classic frozen fry in its July 2026 test. What made them stand out was straightforward: they actually became crispy within the cooking time printed on the package. Testers also praised their seasoning and soft, fluffy centers.
That sounds like a low bar until you’ve baked a tray of supposedly “crispy” frozen fries for 25 minutes and discovered a pile of warm potato sticks.
For burgers, hot dogs, grilled chicken, or an easy Friday-night dinner, McCain is one of the most dependable bags here.
Checkers & Rally’s Famous Seasoned Fries
These fries know exactly what they are.
There is no attempt at subtlety. They’re battered, heavily seasoned, crispy, and designed to taste like the fries you’d grab from a fast-food counter.
That works.
In recent shopper feedback, Checkers and Rally’s fries were repeatedly praised for coming unusually close to the restaurant version, particularly when prepared in an air fryer. Eat This, Not That! placed them near the top of its 2026 ranking.
They’re not the choice for someone looking for a plain potato-and-salt experience.
But beside a cheeseburger on game day?
Very difficult to beat.
Ore-Ida Extra Crispy Fast Food Fries
If the mission is to recreate fast-food fries without leaving the house, Ore-Ida has the strongest case for the top spot.
A Washington Post blind taste test involving seven judges and nine brands gave Ore-Ida Extra Crispy Fast Food Fries the highest score, 51 out of 70, praising their crisp exterior and soft center.
They also continue to receive positive shopper feedback in 2026, especially from people preparing them in air fryers.
Thin fries have another advantage: they offer plenty of crispy exterior relative to the amount of fluffy potato inside, helping them get closer to drive-thru territory.
Season them immediately after cooking, put some ketchup on the table, and nobody needs to know dinner began with a frozen bag.
