For years, there has been no question about which fast food chain has the best French fries. Plenty of others tried to beat them, but McDonald's fries always came out on top — until now. A recent poll saw McDonald's come in a close second to the new winner at the fry game, and it's not a longtime competitor like Burger King or Wendy's. Instead, it's Five Guys, which may have something to do with the fact that the burger chain always prepares it fries in the restaurant. Let's take a look at the details of the chain with the best French fries in fast food.
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00:00Without question, fries are one of the cornerstone items at fast food chains.
00:05For more than half a century, meanwhile, McDonald's has been the undisputed favorite
00:09when it comes to the fried spuds. And what was there not to love? After all,
00:14McDonald's knows how to pull a crowd by enveloping their fries with an irresistible aroma,
00:19which is meant to mimic the scent of potatoes being fried in beef fat.
00:23This was enough to keep us tantalized for a while, along with the balance of salt,
00:28sugar, and fat to tickle our taste buds with each bite. But sorry, McDonald's,
00:33another player on the fry scene may have taken your title of fry favorite,
00:37as there now appears to be a new king of the fast food french fry on the block — Five Guys.
00:44Good job, Five Guys!"
00:48At least, that's what the results of a survey put out by Business Insider points to.
00:53Some 3,000 fast food customers were asked to pick their favorite fast food french fry
00:57and Five Guys emerged victorious over McDonald's for the number one spot.
01:02So how exactly did McDonald's lose their golden fry crown?
01:06In Business Insider's survey of 3,000 people, folks were asked to rank fast food places
01:12on what they did the best, and if they had visited in the last six months. To calculate
01:17who won this battle, the percentage of people who said they had been to a chain in the last
01:21six months was compared against the percentage of respondents who reported that a chain did
01:26something better than their competitors. It came down to the wire, but Five Guys nudged out
01:31McDonald's in the fry category with 46 percent of people who had visited in the last six months,
01:37picking them for the best french fry, versus 44 percent for McDonald's.
01:42So what was it about Five Guys fries that made them stand spud and shoulders above the rest of
01:47the pack? The Los Angeles Times, which came up with its very own french fry power rankings,
01:53has a possible answer to that. Unlike McDonald's literal formula for success,
01:58Five Guys serves up generous portions of piping hot, evenly seasoned, natural-cut,
02:04deep-fried potatoes. These don't seem as cookie-cutter as McDonald's fries, and in fact,
02:09waver between crisp and soft. The fries taste like the starchy vegetable that they are made with,
02:15because they use peanut oil instead of the other types of fats similar fast food chains use,
02:20which potentially hide the potato flavor.
02:23"...pretty much goes from the dirt to the bag, into the sink, into the fryer, and into your mouth."
02:29In case you were wondering how the other chains that serve up french fries stacked up in the
02:33Business Insider survey, 24 percent of those who visited a Chick-fil-A within the last half year
02:39used their vote to say this chain made the best fries, putting them at number three.
02:44Coming in at number four was Arby's, with 21 percent of the vote.
02:48As for who came in dead last, Business Insider says it was a two-way tie between Burger King
02:54and Wendy's. Eleven percent of those who took part in the poll gave both chains an equal
02:59number of votes. Of course, preference for a particular brand's french fries is certainly
03:04subjective. However, Five Guys does have some clear advantages over McDonald's and other popular
03:10fast food chains. For starters, Five Guys slices, dices, and cooks its fries in-house at each
03:17restaurant to ensure they're as fresh as possible. McDonald's potatoes, on the other hand, have
03:22already been cut, pre-fried, and frozen before they make their way to your local restaurant.
03:27Second, Five Guys offers fries in their original Five Guys style as well as the popular Cajun
03:33style. McDonald's only has one kind of french fry, and as everyone knows, variety is the spice of
03:38life. Finally, it's a well-known fact that even a regular order of fries from Five Guys is quite
03:45big, and a large order is nothing short of mammoth. Value, freshness,
03:49and variety — it's no wonder the fries at Five Guys are so popular.