8 Grocery Store Bakery French Breads, Ranked

Finding a loaf of great French bread is hard. Genuine boulangeries are rare in the U.S., making supermarket bakeries a convenient place to find crusty-on-the-outside, chewy-on-the-inside French bread. These breads vary in quality, texture, and taste, which is why I organized a taste-test with three friends to try different grocery store French breads and find the best one.

This list included breads labeled "French" on the package. Some loaves were short and stubby while others were baguettes. It's worth noting that the label "traditional French bread" in France only applies to an extremely specific product — law there states that the dough cannot ever be frozen and only flour, water, yeast or a starter, and salt can be included. This article describes U.S.-style "French" bread, which is not regulated so strictly.

Supermarkets may sell less traditional bread than Parisian bakeries, but their quality can be measured against some of the same characteristics that make authentic French bread taste so good. The taste should be subtly nutty, toasty, and sweet, with a crisp, thick, and golden brown crust. I also expected the crumb to be light and chewy, but not dry, and wanted the bread to slice easily, rather than crushing the crumb. Bread with these positive qualities ranked highly, while those that had paper crusts, dense crumbs, powdery textures, or dry, unpleasant tastes ranked low. 

Prices are as of the date of publication and may vary based on region.

Walmart's Freshness Guaranteed French Bread tasted off and had few of the qualities that make this type of bread so delicious. Many items from Walmart's bakery flavor share a peculiar flavor, and this bread was no exception. It was too sugary and absorbed a plastic flavor from the packaging. One of my testers in particular disliked the taste, while another thought it was too similar to run-of-the-mill white bread. We all agreed it was our least favorite. 

The pale crust was soft and flexible rather than crisp or hard. The whole loaf looked smooth and uniform and felt spongy when I pinched it. It was easy to slice, but the crumb broke apart quickly rather than being chewy or toothsome.

This French bread comes in a shorter, fatter loaf; it is not a baguette. It costs about $1.50 and weighs 14 ounces. Although it was one of the cheapest loaves, my taste testers and I agreed that we wouldn't be buying it again. 

Aldi's Specially Selected sells some bread that's worth buying and some that isn't. Its French Baguette is worth trying at least once. It is the skinniest loaf that I tried and was the second longest. It was also the thinnest. These dimensions make the whole baguette floppy — when I picked it up in the middle, both ends drooped downward. The pale crust felt soft and powdery in my hand. It looks much rougher and bumpier than the French bread from Walmart, though. The crumb is less uniform than Walmart's, with air bubbles ranging from about dime-sized to tiny.

This bread was baked off-site since Aldi does not have an in-store bakery. The packaging suggested heating it in the oven for a few minutes, but I tried it straight from the package. I think heating it might have improved the texture of the crust, which was too soft for French bread. On the other hand, the inside crumb was already dry, powdery, and grainy. That makes me worry that baking would make it even drier.

My taste testers liked the flavor of this bread even though they didn't appreciate how dry it was. They described it as having a pleasant and salty sourdough taste. Everyone thought the flavor was better than the odd one of Walmart's French bread. This loaf costs about the same — $1.50 — but is smaller, weighing just 9.5 ounces. 

Target's store brand, Favorite Day, makes a range of baked goods worth purchasing, and French bread is one of them. It is surprisingly similar to Aldi's Specially Selected, although it comes in a shorter, squatter loaf with an attractive dusting of flour on the crust. It is also the only other loaf in this ranking that was baked off-site, since most Targets don't have in-store bakeries. The packaging likewise recommends baking it for a few minutes, but the already dry crumb would make me hesitant to do so. 

When my tasters and I tried it straight from the package, we noticed that the smoother texture made it better than the grainy, powdery Specially Selected baguette. My taste testers thought this would be a good bread to eat with soup because of how dry it was. They appreciated its tangy flavor and light, airy crumb. The crust was too soft, though.

This is the smallest bread included in this ranking. The loaf weighs just 8 ounces, but has one of the highest prices at about $2.50. I don't think it's worth paying that much for such an overly dry product.

I had high hopes for Family Fare's Fresh and Finest French Baguette because the bread felt so firm in my hand as I walked out of the store. It looked so beautiful. The crust was slightly toastier than the other products I'd tried previously, and it was covered in what looked to be semolina, which made it look rustic and homemade. The baguette felt solid when I picked it up, and it was not droopy like the one from Aldi. That's an achievement since this baguette was the longest of all. It sliced nicely to reveal an even crumb with small air bubbles inside.

The taste testers agreed that this was pleasant bread, but described it as bland. One wished that she had something salty to spread on it, while another thought it would be ideal for soaking up soup. I was disappointed that the crust wasn't crisper and that the crumb seemed slightly tough rather than chewy.

While I preferred the taste of Favorite Day's French bread, Family Fare got a higher ranking because it was moister and easier to eat. This was the most expensive loaf I purchased, at around $3, but it was also one of the heaviest at around 15 ounces — that's nearly double what Favorite Day's French bread weighed. Even though it's not my first choice, I would buy this again if I were in Family Fare and needed a nice loaf to share at dinner.

The Fresh from Meijer Crusty French Baguette was one of the longest and thinnest loaves. Even though "crusty" is in its name, the outside of this loaf is paper thin and soft. You can see in the photo how bits of it flake off the ends. I thought that meant that this bread would be dry inside, but, instead, this loaf had one of the moistest crumbs. It was soft and pillowy. The tangy, salty flavor of this bread was far more appealing to my taste testers than the bland baguette from Family Fare. They liked the texture of the crumb, but wished for a crisper crust. This delicate baguette would be perfect for setting out next to a well-made charcuterie board with tasty traditional salami, as the rounds would fit perfectly on each slice.

This loaf costs just over $2 and weighs 11 ounces, putting it somewhere in the middle of the price range for French bread. Much like Family Fare's French bread, this is a satisfactory product for the price.

The Fresh from Meijer French Bread has a similarly appealing flavor profile as the baguette — tangy and salty — but a slightly different texture. The outside of this shorter, stubbier loaf is crustier than the baguette and the interior is slightly moister, making it easier on the palate. On the other hand, the moisture is just on the cusp of making the crumb too sticky. This was the only bread that tended to squish down and stick together when I sliced it.

One taste tester thought this would make perfect French toast, while another wanted to dip it in chicken noodle soup. All three thought the flavor was delicious. If only the crust had been crispier, this bread could easily have a higher ranking.

You can buy this 16-ounce loaf for around $2.30, which makes it a slightly better deal than the Meijer baguette. It's a fair price for a strong product.

The sound my bread knife made when I cut into one of Costco's Kirkland Signature baguettes is the sound that bread should make. None of the loaves that ranked below it made a noise, but this one sounded crunchy. It made dry crackles and pops when my serrated knife moved across its surface. That, combined with its beautiful toasty color, made this product stand out. The air bubbles in the crumb ranged from tiny to quarter-sized. I appreciated that this bread was packaged in a paper bag. It seemed like using a brown paper bag improved the texture of the crust, and it also didn't make the product inside taste like the packaging.

The testers described this bread as crusty on the outside and toothsome on the inside. It had a toasty flavor. While it was in close competition with Meijer's French bread, this product won because of the wonderful texture of the crust.

This is the only bread that comes in a two pack. It contains 24 ounces of bread total for around $5, meaning the price was very reasonable. I would only buy them for a gathering with friends or family, though. Eating two whole baguettes before they go stale takes a bit of effort.

The French bread from Kroger's bakery looks beautiful and feels firm. The crust is more caramel-brown on the edges where it was sliced before it was risen. It smells nutty and yeasty. This is a shorter, fatter loaf — not a baguette. It comes in a paper package, open at the top, which allows it to breathe and doesn't impart a plastic taste.

All of my taste-testers liked the crunchy crust and toothsome, chewy texture of the crumb. Everyone agreed they liked it better than Kirkland Signature Baguette. It was close, but ultimately the taste of Kroger's bread and its crispier crust pushed it to the top. Kroger's bread tasted less sour than some of the other breads, but it still had a tangy note to it. At the same time, it had a warm, toasty, nutty flavor. It was not dry and the dough had a smooth texture. The crumb had a few larger air bubbles, but most were small and even.

At $2.50 for 15 ounces, this bread is slightly cheaper per ounce than Kirkland. That makes this French bread the one everyone should be picking up for dinner.

When I purchased the loaves, I made sure they were the freshest available and that none of them were past the sell-by dates. Bakery bread goes stale quickly, and I wanted to give each product the best chance to shine. At home, I lined all of them up on my table to see them side by side and made initial observations about their appearance and how they felt in my hands. Loaves with thick, hard, caramel-colored crusts got bonus points before the taste test even started. Loaves with papery, soft crusts made poor first impressions. 

Then, I invited three friends to taste-test with me. I asked them to pay careful attention to toasty and nutty flavors, crisp crusts, and chewy textures. We gave the highest rating to breads with these characteristics. I recorded everyone's reactions as they tried each product. A couple of the products came with instructions to heat them in the oven, but I did not do so since all of the bread was already fully cooked and I wanted to keep things fair from brand to brand. There was total consensus when it came to naming the best and worst breads, although there was more debate about where to place the ones in the middle.