I Tried Macaroni And Cheese From 6 Chain Restaurants And Ranked Them

These days, it seems like every chain restaurant has its own take on macaroni and cheese. It's the ultimate comfort food: a rich, gooey cheese sauce slathered on top of pasta that may or may not be topped with breadcrumbs and more shredded cheese before being baked to create a stretchy, savory crust.

But what passes for mac and cheese at one eatery might be totally different from the place next door. Each chain uses a different pasta shape, a different cheese blend, and different mix-ins, seasonings, or toppings, and that doesn't even begin to touch on the baked vs. non-baked dilemma. 

So, as a self-proclaimed macaroni and cheese expert who's cooked the stuff myself in all manner of different preparations, I went out and tried the mac and cheese at six chain restaurants to see which does it best. Rankings below are based on the pasta shape and cook, the sharpness and flavor of the cheese sauce, and, perhaps most importantly, what I came to call the "goop factor:" the texture of the sauce. A full description of the methodology used in this ranking is below.

It may come as a shock to see The Cheesecake Factory ranked so low on a list of mac and cheeses — after all, one of the appetizers it's best known for is the fried mac and cheese balls. But outside of its ball form, The Cheesecake Factory's mac just didn't make muster for a variety of reasons.

I couldn't fault its choice of pasta: pipettes, which have a very traditional elbow shape, but with rigatoni-like ridges that pick up the sauce well, are generally my first choice when I make my own mac and cheese. The pasta was slightly overcooked, but not to the point of mushiness.

Unfortunately, the sauce was a letdown. It had a noticeable sharp cheese tang, but not much else: No funk, no flavor. Mine also came slightly separated: I could pick out individual shreds of the grated cheese swimming in the sauce, which was neither goopy nor stringy, but oily and thin.

Besides that, it tasted like The Cheesecake Factory used its own sourdough bread to make a breadcrumb topping. Again, can't fault it for what seems like a sensible bit of waste prevention. The problem is that the sourdough taste completely overpowers everything that's good about the mac. I'd stick with the fried variant next time.  

Dave's Hot Chicken is a California-founded chain  best known for its Nashville hot chicken tenders, usually served with a side of fries. But if you're looking for something different to pair with your chicken, it also offers a handful of other sides, including macaroni and cheese. 

Dave's macaroni and cheese is unpretentious, with no mix-ins or toppings. It uses a much more traditional elbow pasta: big, thick noodles with large openings that sop up lots of sauce. Mine was overdone and mushy, but not unpalatable. I suspect it's better if you get it fresh, as it doesn't seem to be made to order; my order was out of the kitchen less than 30 seconds after I put it in.

Even so, Dave's mac and cheese was pretty good. The sauce was appropriately gooey and had a nice sharpness. It was, however, overseasoned. There was an inescapable taste of cumin, Cajun seasoning, or something similar I couldn't quite place. I think a good macaroni and cheese needs seasoning, but this one barely tasted like anything else. I enjoyed it well enough, and I'm sure it makes a solid side dish, but it wasn't cheesy enough to stand on its own.

As part of a BBQ-themed promotion this spring, Shake Shack added a macaroni and cheese side dish to its menu. This is pure comfort food, with some of the yellowest cheese sauce I've ever seen. It uses cavatappi pasta, which was among the best-cooked pasta of the macs I tried for this ranking, even though it was still a little over al dente.

After a few bites, I began to suspect that it was the same as the cheese sauce Shake Shack slathers over its cheese fries, but I wasn't too mad about it: it was perfectly goopy and glossy, with a strong cheese flavor. However, it was a little one-note because of that; not much to write home about in the way of seasoning or texture. 

The overwhelming cheesiness and near-perfect pasta cook propel the Shack's mac over Dave's, in my experience. However, much like Dave's, this macaroni and cheese's simplicity makes it an excellent side, but prevents it from shining as a main dish.

Even though steak is in the name, LongHorn Steakhouse is beloved for its sides, like the Brussels sprouts. One of those is a "steakhouse mac and cheese" that feels like a grown-up version of the nostalgic childhood favorite. This comes with a four-cheese sauce, topped with parmesan bread crumbs and smoked bacon.

LongHorn uses cavatappi, which I've always held is one of the best pasta shapes for macaroni and cheese. It's elbow-adjacent, with a hollow center and ridges. But that spiral shape makes all the difference, giving a creamy sauce lots of surface area to cling to. 

And it was a good sauce, too: easily the funkiest of any of the mac and cheeses I tried, likely thanks to the addition of a fontina or Gruyére. The breadcrumbs were a perfect golden brown, and the dish as a whole was well-seasoned, with a noticeable sharpness, a slight sweetness, and a touch of something fresh and herbaceous.

I have to dock it a few points, though, because of the bacon. There was far too much of it, and it tipped towards the overly salty and greasy side of the scale. I'm no stranger to bacon in my mac and cheese, but when it's the only thing I can taste in every other bite, it's less of an add-on and more of a distraction.

Panera Bread is well-known for its macaroni and cheese, and, after tasting it side by side with other chains' variants on the dish, I can confidently say I know why. This was easily the second-best mac I tasted, and that's not because there was anything especially wrong with it; it only ranks second because it was outshone by my first pick.

Panera uses pipettes for its mac, which, again, balance lots of internal surface area with ridges on the outside. Mine were a little overcooked, but not quite mushy, which is honestly impressive when you consider Panera gets its mac and cheese frozen from a bag.

Either way, it's hard to beat the sauce on this one. Panera's mac is made with white cheddar; it is extremely sharp and tangy, undeniably cheesy, yet still well-balanced. I was really impressed by the quantity of it: The pasta was practically drowning in sauce here, going beyond gloopy to soupy. I was thankful for the baguette I received on the side to sop it all up.

This was my first time tasting Chick-fil-A's macaroni and cheese, and from the first bite, I understood the hype. This is chain restaurant mac and cheese at its finest and most archetypal: classic elbow pasta in a smooth, yellow sauce. No add-ons other than the baked topping.

The pasta was, again, slightly overdone, but the sauce was fantastic: sharp and tangy, but with a slight sweetness I couldn't place. It tasted like cheese, but it was also just a well-balanced, delicious cream sauce in its own right.

Chick-fil-A had ideal contrasting textures, something that no other chain did. The sauce was thick and gooey, but the broiled topping tied the dish together. It was perfectly brown, bubbly, and caramelized, without the slightest hint of burning or scabbiness. Plus, this was the only mac I tried that actually had a cheese pull. The topping held up remarkably well for a fast food macaroni and cheese, something that some of the scratch-kitchen macs I tried couldn't even pull off. For these reasons, Chick-fil-A was the best of the chain restaurant macaroni and cheeses I tried.

This chain restaurant macaroni and cheese ranking is based entirely on my experiences and opinions as an amateur macaroni and cheese expert. It's one of the first dishes I learned to cook, and one of the recipes I revisit most often, although I've experimented with variations on pasta shape, sauce, and technique multiple times over the years. 

When selecting chain restaurants for consideration, I prioritized those that make their own macaroni and cheese in-house, although I did include some that dish up pre-made mac for comparison's sake. I chose both fast casual and sit-down chains that offer mac and cheese at a range of prices. I also prioritized national/international chains over local and regional ones.

I personally tried every dish listed here and ranked them according to the qualities I value most in a great mac and cheese. I considered the shape of the pasta and how it took on the sauce, as well as the cook on the pasta, especially since it's a common mistake to overcook the macaroni before adding the cheese. Naturally, I also considered the taste, seeking an ideal balance between sharpness, tang, and depth of flavor. Also taken into account was the texture of the sauce, which I believe should be creamy, but not too gloopy; it should be more of a liquid than a solid. Where applicable, I weighed mix-ins based on what they added or took away from the overall dish.