10 Popular Denny's Menu Items, Ranked Worst To Best

It's diner time. When was the last time you checked in on your nearest Denny's location? For me, it had been quite a while. For a restaurant that's conveniently running 24/7 and that welcomes you in with its nostalgic, come-as-you-are atmosphere, I really don't take advantage of its hospitality as much as I should. So, I recently stopped into my local Denny's to bask in the casual, family-friendly glow — even if it was just for a minute as I picked up my to-go order — and see how some of its most popular dishes stack up these days.

Denny's is a breakfast-first kind of joint. It serves the most important meal of the day all day, and you'll find that a large portion of its menu is overtaken by eggs, breakfast meats, pancakes, and other morning-time favorites. You'll also notice a slew of Slams. Denny's debuted its original "Grand Slam" breakfast in 1977 in honor of legendary baseball slugger Hank Aaron. The four-part meal was meant to mimic a baseball grand slam, which is hit when all three bases are loaded, and thanks to its popularity, it's inspired an entire line of Slams on the menu.

In my own Denny's taste test, I picked up 10 total menu items, including a few Slams (of course) and mostly breakfast picks, though I also tossed in a couple of lunch sandwiches and chicken tenders for good measure. I ranked everything based on ingredients, balance of flavors, and overall execution to find the Denny's dishes that truly hit it out of the park.

I understand why this would be a popular breakfast choice at the diner. We all love the power to pick our own adventure when it comes to food, and this meal comes with a slew of choices. Prepare for several follow-up questions from your waiter or waitress. On the side of your three eggs covered in cheddar cheese, you'll be given the option of sausage or bacon, or both. You'll also select between hash browns, seasoned red skin potatoes, or French fries. Lastly, you'll choose either toast, an English muffin, or a stack of pancakes to finish it off. Phew, that's it.

For the sake of keeping things simple, I copied the online picture as I was assembling my own plate. That meant opting for two slices of bacon and two sausage links, hash browns, and white toast. What came out of the kitchen was all fine, just not necessarily a home run. The scrambled eggs were fluffy and cooked well despite their minimal cheese. The thin hash brown shreds were mostly crispy with a good level of grease. And the white toast was simply buttered white toast –nothing more, nothing less. It was the meats that I had the largest issue with. Both were much smaller than expected. The bacon was limp, and the sausage was perhaps just a small step above the links you buy in bulk at the grocery store.

If you're looking for a staple breakfast, this slam will suffice. But if you're willing to branch out, you'll be rewarded with tastier meals.

If you're like me and didn't understand the reference this menu item is making, don't worry. I'll clue you into some insider info. This Denny's sandwich was actually inspired by the 1935 jazz song "Moon Over Miami." The sandwich's two slices of sourdough bread are meant to make up the "moons" part of the equation, and it's then filled with scrambled eggs, Swiss cheese, American cheese, and, of course, ham, fulfilling the "my hammy" (to sound like "Miami") component. According to the diner, the clever handheld has been a best-seller since it was introduced in the 1990s. It's even spawned spin-offs like the Blue Moons Over My Hammy sandwich, which featured blue bread.

I like the creativity and history behind this sammie. But I'm afraid its name may just be the most interesting thing about it. Like the All-American Slam, it's alright. It just feels like something I could easily whip up at home. You get a tender serving of eggs with double the melty cheese. The toast is also extra buttery to the point that it makes a mess. However, the ham component is just three slices of deli ham that don't even span the entire width of the bread. So the sandwich defaults to essentially just a grilled cheese with eggs, and in that case, I would have rather just had the grilled cheese. To make matters worse, I paired it with a disappointing helping of "seasoned" potatoes, which were neither crisp nor well-seasoned.

The Santa Fe Skillet does not look the most appetizing. That is the risk you take when you sign up for a breakfast bowl, though — especially a breakfast bowl to go. The skillet is made up of chorizo sausage, fire-roasted bell peppers, onions, and mushrooms, all piled onto a bed of seasoned red-skin potatoes and topped with both shredded cheddar cheese and eggs cooked to your liking. I went with sunny side up. It just felt right.

This dish has oodles of potential — if only it included more sausage and veggies. The chorizo is perhaps not the highest quality I've ever come across, yet it has that paprika-like spice and smokiness to it that really enlivens your taste buds. The vegetables, including the peppers, onions, and mushrooms, were cooked to a pleasant tenderness without veering into slimy territory. And when you do manage to get that perfect forkful of potato, chorizo, peppers, and runny egg yolk all at once, it forms a pretty tasty medley. It's like the breakfast version of a Mexican fajita bowl.

The issue is that those "everything" bites are few and far between. More often, you're left with bites of bland potatoes and eggs, which offer little in the way of taste all on their own. Even salt is missing. This meal still beats the All-American Slam and Moons Over My Hammy thanks to its more complex flavors, but without more meat and overall substance, it still ranks rather low on my list.

Nearly every chain restaurant you visit is going to have an obligatory platter of chicken tenders and fries on its menu. It's always there for the kids, the picky eaters, or for those times when you simply can't decide on anything else. At Denny's, you'll find it listed as one of "Denny's Deals," and I ordered the classic two-part pairing for just $10.

The meal comes with five chicken tenders — though one of mine looked like a bone-in chicken drum — plus a side of wavy-cut fries and a dipping sauce of your choice. The tenders were much tastier than I expected them to be. I admittedly had low expectations, but they're covered in a deep-flavored breading that's speckled with pepper, and the insides are juicy and fresh. They reminded me of the chicken tenders served at Arby's, if you've ever grabbed those through the drive-thru.

The fries did their best to sabotage the meal. They were limp, too potato-y, and were nearly devoid of seasoning — not even a sprinkle of salt to perk them up. What did help the plate, though, was the bourbon sauce I selected over options like ranch, BBQ, honey mustard, or buffalo. It's an extra-thick, sticky-sweet barbecue-style sauce with a little heat. Even with the sauce boost, though, at the end of the day, this is still just a plate of standard tenders, and there are other breakfast meals that Denny's just does better.

Of course, one Slam just wasn't enough. I counted 12 total on the diner's menu, each one with its own unique add-ons like pancakes, waffles, or even ingredients like the fresh spinach and turkey bacon found in the Fit Slam. So, in addition to the All-American, I decided to try just one more, featuring one of my all-time favorite breakfast items: French toast.

The toast is what really makes this meal. The rest is just about the same as it was in the earlier Slam. You still get your protein in the form of eggs and breakfast meats. I went with sunny side up eggs this time and stuck with the split of bacon and sausage. Both the strips and the links were as small and mediocre as ever. The sausage was even a bit pink in the middle, leaving me a bit put off. The biggest difference here is that you exchange your potatoes and side of bread for three slices of brioche French toast–a big upgrade, in my opinion. The toast is extra fluffy and sweet, even without the addition of syrup. It has a natural vanilla taste to it, and it's not overly eggy like French toast can sometimes get.

If I had ordered a meal of just French toast by itself (which Denny's doesn't seem to offer), I think it would have been one of my top contenders. But with the other so-so sides factored in, it only lands in the middle of the pack.

Listed at $16.99 at my local restaurant, the Brisket Melt is one of the pricier items on the Denny's menu. Steak meals are really the only ones that are more expensive.

The melt's main draw is its slow-smoked bisket burnt ends, and to my surprise, there were actually plenty of them piled on top of the grilled sourdough bread. They look like sliced squares with lots of blackened char around the fringes and a touch of pink at their center. The flavor is rich and savory, with a bit of caramelization from the edges. The meat is the slightest bit dry, yet also a little fatty in spots, so it mostly balances out.

And that's just half of the sandwich. The bread is quite buttery, just like it was on the Moons Over My Hammy, and it holds a generous clump of scrambled eggs, caramelized onions, white cheddar cheese, and American cheese. With all these additions, it eats like a true down-home comfort dinner that also doubles as a hearty breakfast. The description notes that the chain's Diner Q sauce, essentially a tangy burger sauce, is slathered on as well, though I didn't detect much (if any) on my own sandwich. Even with the lousy fries, this still ends up tasting like a more premium menu item that justifies its price for the most part. I don't think you'll be disappointed with it, but I did find a few other Denny's entrées to be even more crave-worthy.

Now, this is the kind of breakfast sandwich I was looking for in the Moons Over My Hammy. Just imagine nearly everything that's found in one of the chain's Slam meals but piled onto two slices of grilled sourdough bread. That's essentially what you get with the Grand Slamwich, only it's better.

At first, it does sound like a lot. The sandwich includes two scrambled eggs and not one, not two, but three kinds of breakfast meat. All-pork sausage, applewood-smoked bacon, and ham all cozy up in between two slices of American cheese and a maple spice spread. Hash browns are also included in the meal, but Denny's spares us a daunting bite by including them on the side rather than on the sammie itself. 

On my own Slamwich, sausage crumbles were actually folded into the eggs themselves. I also counted seven total slices of deli ham and multiple bacon slices. So, every bite was a bit different from the last, with a different meat taking center stage each time. Sometimes you got a little spice from the sausage, and other times you tasted smokiness from all the ham and bacon. But every bite was blessed with a whole lot of gooey cheesiness.

My only complaint is that I didn't get any of that maple spice flavor. This sweetness really could have enhanced all the savory ingredients, and maybe even helped the sandwich to beat out the following comfort foods.

Any diner or all-American eatery worth its salt has a country-fried steak on its menu — not to be confused with a chicken-fried steak. It's a classic soul food kind of dish, and Denny's doesn't deny us this simple down-home pleasure. The chain's version is listed as a fan favorite in the "Signature Breakfasts" portion of its menu. It's described as a chopped beef steak smothered in country gravy. To make it a meal, it's also served with two eggs (which I ordered sunny side up), hash browns, and a choice of bread. You can see that I went with an English muffin to mix things up.

I won't go so far as to say this is one of the best country-fried steaks I've ever had, but it certainly satisfies those cravings and stands above most other Denny's meals in the process. As to be expected, the slab of meat is about half steak, half breading. However, the fringes offer a nice crunch while the inside remains savory and tender. It's not too chewy or tough. Then, the generous pour of country gravy really sells it. It's ultra creamy and instead of leaning too salty like many others do, it's milder and buttery with a peppery kick.

At that point, the eggs, potatoes, and bread were just gravy — bonuses on top of an already tasty dish. This menu item was certainly one of my favorites, though it couldn't compete with the two menu items still to come.

Although Denny's doesn't have nearly as many pancake flavors as IHOP (or as many tasty options), it does provide a few options to pick from in this category. Classic no-frills hotcakes are always an option. You also have choconana pancakes with chocolate chips and bananas, double berry banana pancakes, and hearty nine-grain pancakes. But if you ask me, the only Denny's Slapjacks you need to know about are these cinnamon roll pancakes. They're absolutely delicious, and the only reason they didn't take my top spot in the rankings is that I don't think they could really slide as a whole meal. They need a touch of savory, like a side of breakfast meat, to round them out. But otherwise, perfection.

They really nail that cinnamon roll taste — not just cinnamon, but that true cinnamon roll goodness. They even reminded me of Cinnabon, mostly thanks to the top drizzle of cream cheese icing. Each of the two buttermilk pancakes is also laced with cinnamon crumble pockets throughout, so no bite is devoid of that warm, spiced flavor. I could have even done with more crumble thrown on top. I was satisfied with the current amount, though, because it kept the pancakes from being too cloyingly sweet and rich.

Even if the cinnamon roll pancakes don't quite work as a full meal, the flavor alone more than makes up for it. Honestly, if you're not getting these for the table to share every time you step foot into Denny's, what are you doing?

The Slamburger is the ultimate breakfast burger and my favorite item on the Denny's menu. I'm not even a big breakfast burger stan. At Wendy's, for example, I always opt for a maple bacon chicken croissant sandwich over the Breakfast Baconator on its breakfast menu. At Denny's, though, the Slamburger can't be matched.

The handheld comes with one beef patty, American cheese, an egg made your way, applewood-smoked bacon slices, and hash browns (yes, right on the burger), all piled onto a brioche bun. I will also quickly mention that I ordered it with a complimentary side of fries, which were once again dull and unappealing. Next time, I will for sure choose something like onion rings instead. As for the sandwich itself, it's definitely a big-mouth burger. The patty itself is plump, and mine was cooked to a nice compromise between medium and well-done. It was juicy and covered in melty cheese. Then, as I bit into it, the yolk from my sunny-side-up eggs added another layer of rich buttery notes into the mix while the hash browns underneath contributed a potato-y crisp. It was messy, but luckily, the extra fluffy, buttery brioche bun held everything together quite nicely.

I think the only thing that could make this burger better would be a dollop of mayo or the chain's Diner Q burger sauce — I'm actually surprised that's not already included in the recipe. Even without this condiment addition, though, the Slamburger is a 10 out of 10 choice.

I picked up all 10 Denny's items to-go, focusing mostly on popular items and ones that mention they are "fan favorites" online. Then, I tasted them all one by one to determine their ranking.

Many Denny's meals come with standard breakfast components like eggs, breakfast meats, and potatoes — items that tend to be fairly consistent no matter where you order them. Because of that, dishes without much originality or pizzazz, like the staple yet predictable All-American Slam, didn't stand out as much. Instead, I looked for menu items that felt a little more one-of-a-kind and embodied that classic, diner-forward Denny's brand.

A big factor was an overall balance of flavors. I wanted dishes that weren't too bland, too salty, or missing essential ingredients — something the Santa Fe Skillet struggled with. I also paid close attention to execution and how well each component was cooked, from meats and burgers to eggs and pancakes. Items that were sloppily assembled, undercooked, or overcooked didn't fare as well. Mostly, I was hunting for something truly delicious — whether sweet or savory — that I could see myself enjoying no matter what time of day I walked into Denny's.