This Fast Food Chain's Store-Bought Tater Tots Aren't Worth Your Time Or Money

Having a bag of tater tots in the freezer means always having the perfect side for burgers or barbecue on hand. Grab a handful, pop them in the oven or air fryer, and in 15 to 20 minutes, you'll have piping hot bites of potatoey goodness that are crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. All that's really needed after that is ketchup or maybe some of Gordon Ramsay's upgraded chipotle mayonnaise. But all store-bought frozen tots aren't the same, and some underdeliver. Chowhound ranked tater tot brands from worst to best, and Sonic Tots came up short compared to other options.

The bag features a retro-looking graphic bearing the logo of the popular drive-up fast food chain Sonic on a field of pale blue. A pile of tasty-looking tots, ready to eat, tempt you to pull the bag from the store's frozen food section. But we suggest restraint. While we found the tots tasted great, their higher cost wasn't worth the yum factor, unless you're already a die-hard fan of Sonic's chili cheese tots and want to recreate them at home.

Unlike onion rings and their contested history, tater tots were invented in the northwestern U.S. as a means of using up potato scraps while cutting french fries. Even in 1954, they were sold frozen, which means it's not any sort of culinary sacrilege to cook up and scarf down some frozen tots right this second. Interestingly, Ore-Ida, the only brand legally allowed to call its product "tater tots" (as opposed to just tots or tater pillows or whatever), came in No. 6 on our list. To arrive at our decision, Chowhound compared eight brands of store-bought frozen tots side by side, cooked in both the air fryer and a preheated oven, and compared taste, texture, and value.

When it came to Sonic Tots, the issue was less the taste or texture and more the price and availability. The tots themselves were delicious and had an appropriate exterior crunch to them. But at about $5.50 for a 28-ounce bag, they cost slightly more than our No. 1 pick, Lamb Weston. Sonic's version also cost three times as much as Wegman's Tater Puffs, our second choice, which are sold in a larger 32-ounce bag. If you're dead set on seeking out some Sonic Tots, another challenge you may have to navigate is that they aren't carried in all stores, so you'll need to work a little harder to track down a bag.