13 Different Fries Styles You Should Know About

Despite their European moniker, french fries are an American delicacy. Believed to have been developed in Belgium and a favorite treat of United States President Thomas Jefferson, the starchy side dish has had a long history that spans the globe. Over time, french fries have evolved into practically every shape and size, and despite the fact that they are all essentially the same thing, many fans will swear by one style of french fry being far better than the others.

Perhaps there is one restaurant or a fast food chain that has the best fries making them your go-to spud staple. Or, maybe it just comes down to the specific cut of potato that yields the best results. No matter where you stand on the french fry spectrum, there is no denying that there is a wide world of styles, each with different shapes, textures, and even flavor profiles. If it is your mission to try every kind of french fry there is, be sure to read up on just some of the styles you should know about.

Perhaps some of the most recognizable french fries in the world are the ones served at McDonald's. The golden arch-laden fast food chain claims that their fries are world famous, after all, and they are even ranked as the best fast food fries you will find at any establishment in the country. The reason so many devotees seem to be so loyal to McDonald's french fries is due to the unique shoestring style in which they are served.

Shoestring fries are long and skinny, resembling the strings you use to tie your shoes. This yields a crispier french fry, and once they are tossed in salt, you achieve that oh-so-delicious ratio of crunchy to soft to salty. The next time you find yourself at the McDonald's drive-thru, Reader's Digest recommends going big and ordering a large serving of french fries. You will get more bang for your buck, not to mention the fact that there will be more fries to go around.

If you prefer your french fries to come with as much of that soft, pillowy interior as possible, be on the lookout for restaurants that serve steak fries. Imagine a thick, robust cut of your favorite steak. That is essentially the idea behind the design of steak fries — a larger surface area, and a thicker cut of potato. Because of the larger surface area, steak fries tend to be on the softer side all around than skinnier fries like shoestring or curly fries. Not everyone loves steak french fries, however, so if you are looking for a nice crunch, you will not find that here.

There are a number of ways to fancy up your steak fries if you are making them at home. Because of the larger surface area, you can really pile on the seasonings to totally transform your side dish. Parmesan steak fries, for example, come with a nice kick of flavor, and baking some of the parmesan cheese onto the potato will add some of that crunch you might be missing.

Potatoes get a bit of a bad rap for being a starch-laden vegetable, caught between having more carbs than we would like to admit and containing some beneficial nutrients as well (via Cleveland Clinic). While your garden variety russet potato should be eaten in moderation, in recent years health food fanatics have fallen head over heels in love with sweet potatoes. Packed with vitamins and minerals, especially vitamin A (which is good for your eyesight), sweet potatoes are considered a superfood (per WebMD). So imagine everyone's delight when they found out that sweet potatoes make for a great plate of french fries.

Sweet potato fries will have a notably sweeter flavor than regular french fries, and the interior will feel a bit creamier as well. And while we wish we could say that sweet potato fries are the one-step solution to making french fries healthy, think again. Just like their regular counterparts, many sweet potato fries you find at restaurants have been deep-fried. But if you are making them at home, skip the oil and throw your sliced sweet potatoes in the oven or air-fryer for a guilt-free side dish.

The vast majority of french fries will come in some sort of long, rectangular shape, which makes them a somewhat homogeneous category of snack. But when it comes to challenging that notion and redefining what a french fry could look like, look no further than the waffle fry. Chick-fil-A waffle fries waffle fries are a fast food fave and have played an integral role in the success of the chain. This style is unique in that the waffle-like shape is great for sauces, as the small pockets hold any sort of dipping sauce or ketchup well (via The Crimson White).

Waffle fries are a bit trickier to make from scratch at home since you will need a tool specifically designed to cut your potatoes into a waffle shape. So, these may just be an elusive style that you will only find in restaurants or the freezer section. But they are a nice way to break up the monotonous structure of the everyday fry, providing a large bite of deep-fried potato with a generous amount of dipping sauce.

There is no denying the fact that few things can top a perfectly-crafted brunch on a Sunday morning or early afternoon. Potatoes are just as much a morning staple as they are afternoon and evening. But, a normal plate of french fries would read as a bit bizarre if they came served with your scrambled eggs. Thankfully, we have home fries as the designated morning meal edition to satisfy our starchy cravings.

Home fries are different from hash browns, which are parboiled and shredded potatoes. Instead, home fries are thicker cuts of potatoes, typically cubed, with crispy edges to add crunch to your breakfast plate. There are actually a few different varieties of home fries, depending on how they are cut. Lyonnaise potatoes are a delightful alternative with French roots that are sliced instead of cubed. No matter how you cut them, they go perfectly alongside eggs and toast or with sauteed onions mixed in.

Ten years ago, not many people would have given truffles the time of day, despite their well-established history of being rare, pricey fungi. More recently, however, truffle flavor has spiked in popularity. Nowadays it is becoming more and more common to find truffle fries on the menu at your favorite local restaurant and even at some national chains. 

Truffle fries are more often than not a skinnier style of fry, like a shoestring cut, and are tossed in or sprinkled with rich, truffle-infused oil. They are commonly topped with parmesan and herbs and will usually be accompanied by some sort of aioli for dipping instead of ketchup. Basically, these are your basic fries fancied up big time. But if you have grown bored with standard fries over time, switch things up and give truffle fries a try. The elevated flavor profile may help you fall in love with the side dish all over again.

Head to any local state fair or theme park, and you may spot people walking around with what looks like a potato that has been either spiralized or sliced ultra-thin and stretched out on a long, thin stick. What you are marveling at is a tornado potato or tornado fries. It is believed that this particular street food actually has roots in South Korea, but over time it has become a global hit (via Tornado Potato Fries). Now, you would be hard-pressed to visit any sort of festival or fair without spotting at least one vendor serving them.

With a large surface area, these also serve as a great base for a variety of toppings and seasonings, possibly because it seems to fall in the middle between a potato and a french fry. Keep your eyes peeled next time you head to a fair, a festival, or anywhere that has a lineup of food vendors. You just may spot a tornado potato, and you will want to run — don't walk — over to try one for yourself. Or, make your own version of a plated tornado potato fry in your own kitchen using a sharp knife, a wooden skewer, and your favorite combination of toppings.

French fries can be defined by their shape, like shoestring versus waffle fries. They can also be categorized by their type — think regular versus sweet potato. Some styles of french fries, however, are defined by what comes served on top of them. Case in point, if your french fries are topped with brown gravy and cheese curds, they aren't just french fries, they are a dish called poutine.

Often thought of as the national food of our neighbors to the north, poutine was invented in Quebec as a Canadian delicacy. The dish has grown and evolved over the years to include all sorts of different toppings. Still, the gravy and cheese curds are the signature components of any good poutine. Another quintessential characteristic of poutine is the mess. The sloppier, the better, and its name actually hails from a Quebecian slang term that translates to 'mess.' While french fries and gravy are rather simple ingredients to make yourself, cheese curds are not the easiest food to recreate at home. As they are the key ingredient to perfect poutine, you might want to look for pre-made cheese curds at your local supermarket or specialty store. 

If you have ever visited New Orleans, you may have spotted a menu item that you do not typically see anywhere else. Step aside french fries, because pommes soufflés, also known as potato puffs, have entered the chat. This style of french fries is triple-fried, giving them a unique puffy texture. Another distinction that separates pommes soufflés from other french fries is that they are not deep-fried, but instead, they are pan-fried (via Cincinnati Magazine).

Where Y'at aptly describes pommes soufflés as "fancy french fries," as if the fact that the name doubles down on the French-ness wasn't enough. The fanciness is only matched by the difficulty in making them, as they require an ultra-hot pan and the added step of blanching them to achieve that perfect puffy texture. Personally, we'll leave it up to the pros to whip up a tasty batch of these puffy potatoes the next time we are in New Orleans.

Spanish-style restaurants often include a tapas menu or a selection of small bites. If you spot patatas bravas on the menu, you're in for a tasty, savory dish of diced and fried potatoes with a Spanish twist. Proper patatas bravas can come in a wide variety of shapes and flavors, including dishes that more closely resemble french fries. For an authentic Spanish dipping sauce, you can serve them with salsa brava, which is a mixture of tomato sauce, vinegar, and some kind of spicy heat. They are also delightful with a creamy aioli sauce or paprika-infused mayonnaise. 

Patatas bravas are a relatively new creation when compared to the centuries-long history of french fries. Born out of Madrid in the 1950s, it is a surprisingly simple dish to make at home, and the best part is, you can add your own spin to it since no two patatas bravas are exactly alike. Toss in your favorite seasoning or mix together your dipping sauce of choice, and you will have an instant hit with your friends and family.

We have one frozen food giant to thank when it comes to making sure our home freezers are always stocked with crinkle-cut french fries. This specific cut ranks highly among the Ore-Ida french fry options sold in grocery stores, and for good reason. There is something magnificent about the simple crinkle-cut french fry that is difficult to top, and even celebrity chef Duff Goldman is a crinkle-cut fanatic. The rigid shape of this particular style of fry gives it a little extra "oomph" over your regular garden-variety rectangular prism-shaped french fry. The signature ridges also act as a great way to hold onto every last drop of your favorite dipping sauce.

Fans have plenty of love to share with crinkle-cut fries, specifically the kind that have been sold by Ore-Ida for years. They are perhaps the quickest and most efficient way to serve crispy fries at home. As many reviews on Target's website point out, they are a simple yet yummy side dish to throw in the oven or air fryer to round out your meal.

If you were to imagine a shoestring french fry being wrapped in a curling wand, it would result in the basic shape and structure of curly fries. These coil-shaped fries are a favorite amongst fans, and not just for the shape. There seems to be a distinguishable flavor to curly fries that other styles don't seem to emulate. This is largely due to the fact that most of the curly fries you find at fast food chains and even many restaurants come from similar recipes. Many manufacturers coat them with a comparable combination of flour and seasonings like paprika and garlic. So, we suppose if you have tried one curly fry, you have tried them all.

If you want to make curly fries at home, your life will be made much easier if you have a spiralizer. If you don't, you can use a knife to carefully cut spirals into the classic twisty shape as you rotate the spud. The key is to use as long of a potato as possible to yield the longest, curliest fry possible.

Every other french fry style out there leads to the mac daddy of them all — the loaded fries. No matter what shape, size, or texture your french fries have, nothing takes them to the next level like dumping a whole ton of toppings on them. From melted cheese and a variety of proteins to guacamole, loaded fries are the ultimate comfort food that makes your eyes widen and your stomach growl.

This dish is so popular that even fast food chains are offering loaded fries to get in on the craze. This gives you a convenient way to enjoy this everything-but-the-kitchen-sink-style food. Simply put, if you have spent all of these years only dipping your french fries in ketchup, you might be missing out big time. There's an entire world of sauces and toppings that can elevate fries from a simple side dish to a full-on meal. From chili cheese fries to animal-style fries at In-N-Out Burger, the loaded french fry frenzy is far-reaching and the perfect satisfying treat.