{"id":521522,"date":"2026-03-06T02:05:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T02:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/521522\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T02:05:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T02:05:24","slug":"which-fast-food-chain-fries-the-best-chips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/521522\/","title":{"rendered":"Which fast-food chain fries the best chips?"},"content":{"rendered":"

We taste-tested all the major franchises to find the best and the worst, and discovered sog, salt, surprises and a winner that takes its chips very seriously.<\/p>\n

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March is officially Chip Month<\/a> at Good Food, which means lots of upcoming chip-related stories such as hand-cut versus frozen, a deep-dive into \u201cchipflation\u201d, and chefs\u2019 favourites across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. <\/p>\n

It also means I volunteered to write the definitive, absolute, ironclad, highly subjective ranking of every major national fast-food and takeaway brand. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe author hard at work. Steven Siewert<\/p>\n

A top 10 list of independent fish-and-chippers, chicken shops and burger joints is under way, but this was more pressing to get out after I overheard a teenager on the train claim that Red Rooster had the best chips. Madness. <\/p>\n

Chips were tasted at the source across two weeks (home-delivered chips are not optimal chips) and judged according to overall taste, seasoning, texture (both inner and outer), temperature and appearance. All prices are for a regular sized serve.<\/p>\n

Of course, the difference between a good and bad chip will also come down to form on the day, so stay out of my inbox, Hungry Jack\u2019s fans, all six of you. <\/p>\n

Restaurant reviews, news and the hottest openings served to your inbox.<\/p>\n

Sign up<\/a>\"PizzaPizza Hut\u2019s Wing Street fries. Steven Siewert18. Pizza Hut, $4.45<\/p>\n

At the beginning of this mission, I had Pizza Hut pegged as the dark horse for a top-three placing. Maybe the chips would be fried to order rather than wallowing under heat lamps (because how many people are ordering chips with their Hot Honey Pepperoni Lovers Stuffed Crust?) and perhaps there would be some fun Arnott\u2019s Pizza Shape-adjacent seasoning. Nope, wrong. Pizza Hut, it turns out, oven bakes its chips, which are simultaneously burnt and undercooked. A powdery texture and negligible seasoning don\u2019t help either.<\/p>\n

17. Domino\u2019s, $6<\/p>\n

There isn\u2019t a word in English to describe the texture of Domino\u2019s chips. You certainly can\u2019t call them soggy, but you can bend a long one over on itself and it won\u2019t snap. Baked not fried, like Pizza Hut, but ranking slightly higher for tangy \u201cpizza salt\u201d. (Also, I might be the first person to walk into a Domino\u2019s and order chips and nothing but chips. I had to lie and say my wife was pregnant and \u201ccraving your crinkle cuts, specifically\u201d, so I didn\u2019t seem totally unhinged.) <\/p>\n

\"Betty'sBetty’s Burgers fries.Steven Siewert16. Betty\u2019s Burgers, $6.50<\/p>\n

These are a nothing chip. Bog-standard seasoning, dull texture, boring taste. I couldn\u2019t pick them out of a line-up of chips from, say, the kiosks at Eastern Creek Speedway, Moorabbin Air Museum and AMF Bowling. <\/p>\n

15. Red Rooster, $3.95<\/p>\n

\u201cChicken salt on chips,\u201d screams a sign in the drive-through of my local Red Rooster. \u201cWe made it a thing.\u201d Did you, though? The owners of Mitani Chicken Salt might like a word. In any case, Red Rooster chicken salt tastes more like powdered stock cubes than the radioactive-yellow stuff \u2013 the good stuff \u2013 chained to the counter of fish and chip shops across the country. Plus, the chips could do with a longer spell in the fryer.<\/p>\n

\"HungryHungry Jacks’ middle-thickness fries.Steven Siewert14. Hungry Jack\u2019s, $3.95<\/p>\n

For reasons unknown, Hungry Jack\u2019s increased the thickness of its chips a few years ago, and the width now lands somewhere between McDonald\u2019s and KFC. To quote aromatic hand-wash peddler and Greek fabulist, Aesop, \u201cIf you try to please all, you please none.\u201d<\/p>\n

13. Grill\u2019d, $6.90<\/p>\n

Almost, but not quite. The flat, wide shape is similar to a steak-cut chip, which everyone knows is the worst kind of chip after curly fries. Then you\u2019ve got the mixed-herbed seasoning, which isn\u2019t offensive, just silly. Is Grill\u2019d trying to market itself as healthy by whacking some old rosemary on its chips? Mates, if you want people to think you\u2019re healthy, maybe don\u2019t serve chips (and burgers and tenders and onion rings).<\/p>\n

\"ZeusZeus Street Greek’s oregano and sea salt chips.Steven Siewert12. Zeus Street Greek, $4.90<\/p>\n

More silly mixed herbs. But I dig the visible salt crystals, and the chips have a super fluffy interior. Would eat again. <\/p>\n

11. Taco Bell, $4.95<\/p>\n

To be honest, it\u2019s really all much of muchness around this section of the list. If you miss McDonald\u2019s El Maco shaker fries, these are for you.<\/p>\n

10. Guzman y Gomez, $3.70<\/p>\n

Skin on. Zippy chipotle seasoning. Respectable crunch. I can\u2019t imagine many people ever crave GYG chips like they do with the next entrant, but this is a solid all-rounder interpretation of the form. <\/p>\n

\"KFC'sKFC’s flavour enhanced chips.Steven Siewert9. KFC, $3.65<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a phrase that\u2019s never been said: \u201cI love KFC chips \u2013 they\u2019re always so crunchy!\u201d Like, I don\u2019t know, just fry them half a minute longer? KFC\u2019s seasoning is flavour-enhanced like no other salt on the market, though, and if the chips weren\u2019t so limp and undercooked so often, Colonel Harland would crack the top of this list. (NB: I\u2019ve found that Edlyn brand chicken salt is close enough to KFC seasoning to approximate the taste with properly fried chips at home.)<\/p>\n

8. El Jannah, $5<\/p>\n

Everyone talks about the toum, but the real star of El Jannah (besides the charcoal chicken, pickles and competitively priced bag of bread) is the gravy. Holy fat drippings, Batman. It\u2019s rich and smooth and warm with black pepper, and a flavour tastes more than a little like KFC\u2019s enhanced seasoning. Anyway, we\u2019re not here to rate gravy \u2013 this list is about chips. The ones at El Jannah are fine.<\/p>\n

\"OportoOporto hot chips.Steven Siewert7. Oporto, $4.50<\/p>\n

Because Portuguese-style chicken chain Ogalo hasn\u2019t opened outside NSW, I\u2019m limited to only ranking its rival Oporto for this national taste test. Unlike its chilli sauce, Oporto\u2019s chips are actually well done. Satisfying crunch, addictive seasoning, contrasting textures: tick, tick, tick. <\/p>\n

6. Nando\u2019s, $5.95<\/p>\n

A surprise placing. Until this taste test, the last time I set foot in a Nando\u2019s was in 2010 on my birthday at an outpost next to Melbourne\u2019s Forum Theatre. (To clarify, Wilco were playing and we had 10 minutes to eat before the show.) It will likely be another 16 years before I order its chicken again, but the chips are properly bronzed and seasoned with a peri-peri salt that I\u2019m giving serious thought to buying for home use in a potato salad. <\/p>\n

\"SchnitzSchnitz beer-battered chips.Steven Siewert5. Schnitz, $6.90<\/p>\n

Pretty sure these are just Edgell\u2019s diamond-cut beer-battered chips, but I\u2019m going to allow it. A Schnitz chip made with Tasmanian russets is consistently crunchy, and \u201cTom\u2019s secret seasoning\u201d has agreeable punch. For what it\u2019s worth ($3.90 according to the online menu), Schnitz gravy is second only to El Jannah\u2019s, too.<\/p>\n

4. Chargrill Charlie\u2019s, $8.90<\/p>\n

This ranking is largely based on taste and texture, not value, but it should be noted that Chargrill Charlie\u2019s regular chip serving is huge. A small bag, inside a bigger bag, overflowing with thin, hot, crisp fries. The seasoning is usually bang-on, but buyer beware: these are chips that must be eaten within minutes of leaving the fryer. Charlie\u2019s chips will get soggy fast, such is the plight of the shoestring. <\/p>\n

\"McDonald'sMcDonald’s signature fries.Steven Siewert3. McDonald\u2019s, $3.95<\/p>\n

Look, I also wish they weren\u2019t this high. But you can\u2019t deny the Golden Arches knows its way around a deep-fryer, and given how many millions (billions?) of dollars have been spent to make its chips delicious (stringent potato specifications, ideal frying times, oil blend) they should probably come in at number one. When they\u2019re good (that is, fresh and salty) they are very good indeed. <\/p>\n

2. Gami Chicken, $7.90<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure if Gami will like being labelled \u201cfast food\u201d, but it serves takeaway Korean fried chicken and there are more than two dozen locations across Australia, so here it is. It also sells some of the crunchiest fries I\u2019ve encountered, thanks to a light, golden batter that makes each chip taste like the edge of a potato scallop (or potato cake, depending on where you\u2019re reading this). I\u2019m talking about Gami\u2019s standard-issue finger-thick chips, by the way, not the \u201csweet snowy\u201d shoestrings, which could almost be a dessert.<\/p>\n

\"FiveFive Guys’ brown paper bag holds peak-condition chips.Steven Siewert1. Five Guys, $9.50<\/p>\n

Ding, ding, ding. This is how it\u2019s done. There are only five Five Guys in Australia, but the US-founded burger business gives such a damn about its chips, it had to be number one. Fresh \u2013 never frozen \u2013 Victorian potatoes are hand-cut, twice-fried in peanut oil, and dusted with a Cajun-style seasoning if you ask, but they don\u2019t really need it. These crisp skin-on chips actually taste like a potato, and come scooped in a plain brown paper bag (within a larger bag) that can withstand a liberal splash of malt vinegar from the condiment station. Good work, multinational chain.<\/p>\n

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\"CallanCallan Boys<\/a> is Good Food\u2019s national eating out and restaurant editor.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We taste-tested all the major franchises to find the best and the worst, and discovered sog, salt, surprises…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-521522","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}