These 8 Chain Restaurant Side Dishes Have Their Own Devoted Fanbase

There are plenty of popular chain restaurants out there, offering anything from seafood to fried chicken. Many of these have fantastic main menu items; however, sometimes the side dishes slip to the forefront, making them almost as popular as some of the main dishes, at least to devoted fans. 

You'll see what we mean with some of these upcoming chain-restaurant side dishes that have loyal followings. Some of these are pretty widespread and make the company well known, while others are more popular among frequent patrons who are familiar with the menu. We have a bit of variety in these side dishes, but, interestingly, many of them involve carbohydrates in one form or another. Perhaps you've had the pleasure of trying these yourself, but if not, let's dive into these tasty eats that you'll want to buy on your next visit. If anything, the happy customer insights may entice you to try a couple of things.

Texas Roadhouse is so well known for its rolls that they are an easy favorite with customers. People try replicating it with copycat recipes all over the internet. When they are fresh, they are pillowy, warm, slightly sweet, and incredibly easy to eat.

However, some say it's not even the rolls that are so good, but the condiment that it's served with. "It's the sweet butter that slaps...not the bread. The bread is just the vessel," one Reddit comment explains. On the other hand, some disagree and say the rolls are the true stars, that they could devour the entire basket themselves, and that they're actually the best complimentary bread from a restaurant. There are entire discussions about the rolls, so they certainly have accrued a huge fan base. For best results, though, we suggest pairing the butter with the rolls.

The key is to get some rolls with your meal and ask for more before you box up your food, so you can take some home. Sometimes you might get a couple, but other happy customers have said they received an entire bag full of the tasty rolls.

The Bloomin' Onion from Outback Steakhouse is yet another side with plenty of recipes attempting to replicate it, but your best bet is to go to the restaurant to order it yourself. The company says the onion is cut into 200 petals, which gives it a flower-like blossom appearance. It's then deep-fried so you get crispy pieces to dunk into the spicy signature bloom sauce. Fans love the side dish so much that they even say they want Bloomin' Onion merch to show their love. 

They also share that it's one of the main reasons they go to the restaurant in the first place. If you haven't had one before, don't delay and put in an order. You can certainly share it with whoever you're with, but it isn't unreasonable to gobble it up yourself; happy customers say they can eat the whole thing in a single sitting. It's regarded as iconic, amazing, and generally crave-worthy, and we agree. The best part is that it reheats well in the air fryer, so if you can give it a second chance if you happen to have leftovers (not likely, though).

It's incredibly easy to inhale Cheddar Bay Biscuits from Red Lobster. They're soft, buttery, cheesy, and more complex than a basic bun or biscuit. They have a slightly crusty exterior with a pillowy inside. They're at their best when fresh and warm, basically the moment it's placed on your table. Luckily, once you finish a basket, you can keep getting more. And its fan base is intense, to say the least. 

The bready balls have a Facebook page with over 830,000 followers at the time of writing. People say the biscuits are essentially the sole reason they visit the seafood chain and the best thing on the menu. Some even go so far as to say they're to die for or would eat it as a last meal. As you can see, these biscuits truly have gathered a tremendous fan base.

They're so popular that the restaurant chain even has a biscuit mix version you can buy at the grocery store. Surely it can't compare to the fresh ones in-store, right? Well, reviewers say it's fluffy, just as good, and that they appreciate that you can customize the sizing and cheesiness to your liking.

Now for something a bit fresher than bread and breaded foods: Din Tai Fung's Cucumber Salad. This lighter fare has crisp Persian cucumbers, Fresno chili peppers, fresh garlic, sesame oil, and the signature Din Tai Fung chili oil. It's spicy, a tad sweet, and tangy. Even with the heat, it's still pretty refreshing. Reviews say that it's a great balance of flavors and textures and that it's a perfect 10/10. You don't even have to like cucumbers to enjoy this dish, at least according to one review. 

Plenty of folks say it's their favorite dish from the restaurant or that it's one of the better menu items (as they weren't too impressed with other dishes), while others specify it's definitely the best cucumber salad that exists. Clearly, they have a loyal fanbase. The salad might be a bit slippery from the oil, so some loyalists say they simply stab it with their chopsticks or that they request wooden ones. Oh, and some even slurp up the residual sauce left on the plate — waste not, want not!

The verdict is in: Customers adore Olive Garden's free breadsticks. A Facebook post from Olive Garden picturing the breadsticks amassed hundreds of comments and tens of thousands of likes, with customers mentioning virtually everyone likes the carbohydrate — from the family dog to the kids. One commenter says, "THE BEST BREADSTICKS EVER!!!!!!!!" And you know that many exclamation marks mean they're a loyal fan.

You don't even have to order them; they merely show up on your table, available for you to eat. And you can eat as many as you want with free refills. They are soft, warm, and delightfully buttery, salty, and garlicky. Customers are so pleased, they wish they could take them to the afterlife, well, sort of. "I will be buried with a thing of Olive Garden breadsticks," reads one comment on a YouTube video short. 

If you happen to get breadsticks that seem under-seasoned, don't write off the food as a whole. One person on Reddit who claims to be an Olive Garden server and bread maker says the amount of seasoning and even the quality vary depending on who's making them. 

Steak fries are thick and perfect for mopping up sauces and condiments, and customers say Red Robin's version is the best you can find. It's a good thing that they are bottomless, because they are so easy to eat — although some say you might have to wait a while for the fries to replenish themselves. It's not the cutting or frying method that makes them so scrumptious, but it's the signature seasoning. (Although multiple customers still think they're excellent without seasoning.)

People say the flavor is so good it's hard to stop eating the spuds. If you want to attempt them at home, make sure to buy a bottle of the seasoning online. Fans say it's well worth the money, too. The seasoning includes salt, sugar, celery seed, paprika, garlic powder, tomato powder, smoke flavor, and other ingredients to give it such a mouth-watering flavor. But if it sounds like too much trouble, just eat it at the restaurant. People even say they are fantastic when you take them home and reheat them in a toaster oven, so make sure to get a last refill before you leave.

If you're unfamiliar with the restaurant, The Cheesecake Factory has quite an extensive menu. But it doesn't matter what you order because you can enjoy it with the brown bread served at your table. It's soft and warm with a hint of sweetness that makes it seem multi-dimensional, while the oats on top give it a rustic look. It may be impossible to know exactly what's in the bread, but we can take a guess based on the ingredients in the ready-made one sold in stores; you can find wheat flour, malted barley flour, molasses, brown sugar, oats, and a few other additions. "Ever since they've started selling this in stores, my life has been better," says one fan on a Facebook post about the restaurant's bread with hundreds of comments.

All of that sounds like a recipe for tasty bread, for sure, but you're not alone if you prefer the fresh stuff. People really, really like the one you get in the restaurant; customers say the bread is delicious, particularly when it's warm and served with butter — they say that dipping it in ranch works, too. It has a homemade taste that makes it hard to stop eating. One person says they went when they were diagnosed as celiac, they made a trip to The Cheesecake Factory to eat the bread for one last hoorah — and that they had no regrets doing so either.

If you're in the mood for something rich and salty, then try the Loaded Potato Skins from TGI Friday's. These fan faves come with semi-hollowed out potato halves, hickory-smoked bacon, cheese, an unbeatable ranch sour cream, and a sprinkle of green onions for a hint of color and freshness. Customers say that they're fresh, scrumptious, and something they could stop thinking about. They've also been called beautiful and perfect.

They're so popular that you can buy spud skins in the freezer aisle of your grocery store — which plenty of people say is really tasty. As we've established, a side dish has to be extremely beloved and a hot seller for it to be sold to the masses at a grocery store. People share that the flavor is good, but they tend to be a bit small. Our Tasting Table reviewer, who tried TGI Friday's frozen appetizers, said they were nicely cheesy but still needed a bit of added flavor. Therefore, if you want the most authentic version, simply head to TGI Friday's instead. "If I die young, bury me in TGI Fridays loaded potato skins," says one devoted fan on a TikTok video of the iconic dish.