When You Should Skip Ordering 'Fresh' Fries At Fast Food Restaurants

Your hunger builds as you wait to hear your number. When you finally get your order, you don't even wait until you've reached your car to open the bag and rummage around for a couple of fries. But instead of finding something salty, sizzling, and crispy, you discover only a container filled with soggy, limp potatoes. It's a universal fast food experience that never ceases to disappoint. Whether your fries are flimsy or well-fried feels like it's at the whim of the fast food gods. 

You may be tempted to ask for fresh fries every time, but Abhishek Mediratta, founder of Toronto fast food chain Fresh Burrito, home of the Supreme Fries, says the timing of your order matters most. The worst time to order fresh fries is near closing. Late-in-the-day orders might suffer in quality at some restaurants. "Ordering fries just before closing is definitely not the right time," Mediratta tells Chowhound. "Employees are ready to leave, and they would not care about offering the best quality to customers. They are focused on fulfilling the order so they can leave." But he also explains that there are other factors to consider when looking for perfectly crisp fries.

Many fast food restaurants cook food in advance to fulfill orders more quickly during the rush, so fries can get mushy or stale if they sit under a heat lamp for too long. Even for joints that make fries to order, that makes it seem logical that simply ordering fries during peak times can solve the quality problem — fry orders are moving fast and there's no time for them to sit and get soggy. Mediratta warns against it, though, "The staff is focused on quick delivery, and your batch of fries may not get the cooking time it deserves, compromising on its texture and crunch." That means that even during rushes, you may need to take steps to ensure you get the freshest, crispiest fries.

Even if the fast food spot doesn't cook fresh fries every time, you can still get your fries made to order — and the difference is worth the extra hassle. "Made-to-order is the best way to get fresh fries, as it ensures that they are crispy from the outside, nice and soft from inside, and served at the perfect temperature," says Abhishek Mediratta. "Fries should always be made as and when customers order them."

At many places, you can simply ask for fresh fries or fries cooked to order, but you have to have patience. Made-to-order fries take longer and might impact the "fast" part of your fast food. Depending on the restaurant and how busy it is, you also might not actually get a fresh batch; your fries might just be returned to the fryer for a few seconds to get them hot again. 

It's possible to avoid this false freshness by making a special request. There's a popular McDonald's fresh-fry ordering hack that just requires ordering your fries sans salt. It requires fresh cooking and works just about anywhere. Mediratta says requests like that are no problem for a restaurant that's already making fries to order, but it might be an inconvenience for places serving pre-made fries. You just have to decide whether your fresh, crispy fries are worth the wait (and then make sure you stop them from getting soggy on the ride home).