The Best Frozen French Fries You Can Buy Are Made By A Fast Food Chain

Have you ever decided to take the road less traveled and hand-make a food item instead of buying it at the grocery store? Sometimes, the result is worth it, and other times you realize all the effort and time you put in for a result that's arguably worse than the frozen version. While there are plenty of tips for making the best french fries at home, and sometimes the task can be an entertaining one, we can all agree that it's so, so much easier to buy a bag and pop those little guys in the oven while you work on other parts of the meal.

Our team at Tasting Table courageously set out to rank 11 brands of frozen french fries from best to worst, concluding that Arby's Seasoned Curly Fries are truly the best of the best. We found that Arby's frozen fries were the crispiest out of the bunch, so if you're the kind of fry fan who prefers a crunchy strand as opposed to a doughy one, these are for you. The seasonings on Arby's fries are part of what made it stand out from the group, signaling a powerful, salty taste that leaves you itching for more. It seems Arby's fries are just as good out of the frozen bag as they are hot from the restaurant — a feat not every fast food chain can boast.

Arby's curly fries remain one of the fast food chain's most popular items, with restaurants serving over 125 million pounds of the salty fiends every year. At the processing facilities, workers bring in 40 to 50 semi-trucks full of potatoes per day, which are then cleaned, separated by size, and arranged for preparation. A high-speed water transporting system shoots the potatoes through rotating blades at 60 miles per hour, resulting in that perfect curl every time. The curly tots are then blanched and battered in a bath of garlic, onion, salt, and a variety of other spices before being fried in hot oil.

Even though curly fries are now synonymous with Arby's brand, the spiral spuds weren't even on the menu until 1988, almost 25 years after the restaurant opened. The frozen variety has been available at grocery stores such as Target, Publix, and Walmart for years, allowing Arby's fans to indulge in salty delights from the comfort of their own kitchens. The chain introduced crinkle-cut fries to its restaurant menu back in 2021, which are also available in the frozen aisle of grocery stores but are nowhere near as iconic as the original crispy coils of golden fries that Arby's has been selling for decades.