Hello, and welcome back! For this fry review, I went to a place that I’ve seen on the side of the road many times, but never actually went to. Today, we review Buckeye Express Diner, a train car of a diner off of I-71 near Bellville, Ohio. Definitely a very unique design for a diner, how was the fries?

Address: 810 OH-97, Bellville, OH 44813

Cut: Straight Cut (hand cut style)

Thickness: 4/10

Crispiness: 3/10

Salt/Seasoning: None.

Price: $2.69/serving (two servings pictured)

These fries are hand cut style, thickness wise they’re on the border between a standard cut and a shoestring cut. So, fairly thin, but not excessively so. The fries are well cooked on the interior, especially for the cut and type, but not quite flaky on the interior (fries of this style have a tendency to be a bit rubbery on the interior, and these avoided this pitfall). Fries were definitely a little bit greasy, but far from as bad as the hand cut fries can be. Serving size is above average, quite a good helping of fries provided, and at a very reasonable price. Overall, a very good fry and definitely a place I would go to again.

P.S. This place calls itself a diner, but serves no breakfast food, it is a fries/burger joint at heart, so keep that in mind if you’re going.

Welcome back to another fry review, the second one in three days! I’ve been working hard to find more fry places and give my readers more of what they want, but this place was actually in the works for a long time, I just could never find the right time to go here when they served fries (they don’t serve fries on Sunday, and only for lunches on weekdays). In other words, it took a few times going here to get the timing right. So, the long awaited Anne’s Kitchen fry review is as follows.

Address: 240 N Liberty St, Powell, OH 43065

Cut: Crinkle Cut

Thickness: 6/10

Crispiness: 5/10

Salt/Seasoning: None.

Price: $3.25/serving (two servings pictured)

Overall these are quite good fries. Crinkle cut, about a 6/10 thickness, and fairly crispy for the size (about a 5/10). Served hot and fresh, with an appropriately flaky interior. A decent serving size, but not a particularly large amount of fries for the price either. No salt/seasoning and there isn’t anything particularly special or unique about the fries, just very well cooked fries without a hint of any sogginess or lack of cooking time you may see in other fairly thick fries. These fries are very good and overall were worth the wait. Would highly recommend if you are in the downtown Powell area.

Hello, and welcome to a new fry review! This time, the location is The Pancake House. A local diner up in Lewis Center, I went last weekend to check out the food, and of course review the fries. So how were they?

Address: 1182 E Powell Rd, Lewis Center, OH 43035

Cut: Straight Cut (tavern style, per my own parlance)

Thickness: 5.5/10

Crispiness: 4/10

Salt/Seasoning: None

Price: $3.69/serving.

The first thing is that this is an unusual style of fry for a diner, usually this kind of fry with the heavy breading on the sides, and flaky exterior is a bar/tavern fry (I honestly think at least around here, everyone who serves this kind of fry has the same supplier, they’re that similar). For these fries, they’re pretty low in crispiness and have a very flaky interior. They were served warm, but not hot. Cooked pretty well overall, didn’t have the extra grease that is often present on these type of fries, and they have a very pleasant mouthfeel. The biggest negative is the price, $3.69 for a serving that is small for a price of a dollar less than that. Otherwise, I would recommend these fries, and the rest of their breakfast food has a pretty wide variety that almost anyone could find something to like out of it.

It’s time for a new fry review! My wife and me spent a nice day on Saturday exploring the area around Delaware (went to a really cool plant place among other things), and while on the trip we stopped at this place for breakfast, Eclectic Diner & Sweeterie. I had never heard of this place before, and as it looks like an old school diner, I was very excited to try the food. So, how was it?

Address: 755 U.S. Hwy 23 N Suite G, Delaware, OH 43015

Cut: Straight Cut (hand cut style)

Thickness: 4.5/10

Crispiness: 5/10

Salt/Seasoning: Moderate/heavy salt.

Price: $2.99/serving (two servings pictured)

These fries were… disappointing. Very much so. The fries appear to be well cooked from the outside, and were served warm, but that’s where the good qualities end. The fries had a *very* dry interior, so much so that it was reminiscent of fries that are cooked after having freezer burn. This is not a particularly pleasant taste or texture. I suspect the cooks may be aware of this, as the fries were doused with a pretty high amount of salt, and the salt was the only thing that provided much of a taste, though too much so in this case. The fries were warm, but did not taste very fresh, and the serving size was fairly small on top of that. This is the first fries in the 5+ years that I’ve reviewed fries, that I didn’t actually finish (though probably not the absolute worst review I’ve had). If there’s a saving grace, the other food here was very good, the pancakes were terrific, and my wife really liked the toast. It’s just a bad thing with the fries here.

Hello, welcome back to a new review for Tyler’s French Fries! This review comes from Wapakoneta, after a pleasant 90 minute drive from home, on the way to a beach for a day in the sun. This is Lucky Steer Restaurant, on the east edge of Wapakoneta, right off the highway.

Address: 1381 Bellefontaine St, Wapakoneta, OH 45895

Cut: Crinkle Cut

Thickness: 5.5/10

Crispiness: 3.5/10

Salt/Seasoning: None.

Price: $2.49/serving (pictured, two servings).

These fries are a thicker crinkle cut style, about a 5.5 thickness, ever so slightly less thick than the last review at Todd’s Mountain View Restaurant. Fries have a very flaky interior, but little crisp on the outside. The exterior appearance would hint at more crispiness, but it’s just not present. Fries were very hot and fresh, and had a very good taste to them. The serving size was slightly small for the price, but pretty close to typical either way. Overall, a well cooked fry that is a little on the blander side, with a very good inside, and a slightly less than ideal outside. Still, I would definitely recommend this place if you are in the area.

Hello, and thanks for coming back to a new review of fries from me, Tyler! Yesterday morning, I went to another place in Lancaster, and got some breakfast at this place, Todd’s Mountain View Restaurant. This is my review, enjoy!

Address: 540 W Fair Ave, Lancaster OH, 43130

Cut: Crinkle Cut

Thickness: 6/10

Crispiness: 4.5/10

Salt/Seasoning: None

Price: $2.65/serving (two servings pictured)

So, these fries are a fairly thick, crinkle cut variety. The serving size is average, though quite filling overall due to how thick the fries are, you get a little more bang for your buck than just the number of fries on the plate might suggest. The best characteristic of these is how flaky they are on the inside, the exterior isn’t quite as crispy as the browning color might indicate (and the areas that are particularly brown aren’t necessarily any crispier than the other, more golden areas), but the interior of the fries is great. Fries were served warm and fresh, with no salt or seasoning. These are well prepared, good tasting french fries overall, but are definitely trending toward the bland side.

For today’s review, this is a very special review. For the past three or so months, I have been growing potatoes in my own raised garden bed, and (apologies for the delay), a few weeks ago, I harvested the potatoes. This was a little bit premature, as the plants were set a bit too close to each other, and were fighting each other for sunlight. As such, before they could completely die, I decided to harvest and cook up what I managed to grow. This is the result.

What I managed to get was about two plates worth of fries, this one was slightly smaller than the other. How did I do? Pretty good. Cut with my fry cutter into shoestring fries, and air fried for about 20 minutes (my wife refuses to let me get a deep fryer, something about keeping me alive, idk.) These fries turned out very good, and the straight out of the ground freshness was apparent through the cooking process, and in the taste, everything had to be done for about 1.5 times longer to get the same amount of crisp, cooking heat, etc. Overall, I’ve learned a good amount about how to grow potatoes, and am starting a second round, to hopefully grow during the heat of the summer, so the potatoes are ready to grow well when we get near fall. For this, I’ll keep everyone updated.

Welcome, to a new review, on a new Saturday! This time, I traveled down to Lancaster, about a 30 minute drive away from Columbus, and went to an old standby cafe, to review for the first time. This is Deb’s Corner Cafe, a diner in the central residential streets of Lancaster, and in past experiences has treated me very well. This is my official review of their fries.

Address: 537 N Broad St, Lancaster, OH 43130

Cut: Straight cut (hand-cut style)

Thickness: 5/10.

Crispiness: 3.5/10.

Salt/Seasoning: None.

Price: $2.29/serving (two servings pictured).

These fries are a hand cut variety, straight cut, Average thickness, and light crispiness. The defining characteristic is the greasiness. The greasiness is visible even through the photos. This is a recurring issue with the cut, for some reason the grease from frying really likes to stick to, and absorb into, fries of this type. The texture of the interior is slightly rubbery, doesn’t quite have the fluffiness that would generally be considered ideal. But the fries do have a very good taste profile, and were very fresh and quite warm on serving. Serving size is definitely above average, and the entire menu that I ordered was very big serving sizes for the price. This is definitely a place that will give you a large and hearty meal. Overall, these weren’t the best fries that I’ve ever had, but I would still recommend this place if you’re in the Lancaster area.

P.S: As noted, I’ve had these fries multiple times before, and each time before the fries were a good amount better in preparation and taste/freshness. I have pretty good reason to believe that the actual quality is somewhat better than noted in this review. If I go back, there will be an addendum to this review, if something notable changes.

Hello, this is the special second review of today! This review is of a local biscuit shop in the Short North, Boxwood Biscuit Company. Before our day yesterday, we decided to get some breakfast snacks here, and I wanted to try out the fries here. How were they? Read on to find out.

Address: 19 W Russell St, Columbus, OH 43215

Cut: Wedge? Potato Chip? It’s kind of impossible to say.

Thickness: X/10.

Crispiness: 6.5/10

Salt/Seasoning: Very light salt, no seasoning.

Price: $3.50

So, to get it out of the way, these fries are amazing, if you can call them fries. A unique hybrid of fresh fried potato chips, and potato wedges, the crisp to these fries is absolutely amazing. It really is like eating hot, fresh potato chips that were cut to about 3-4 times potato chip width. The crispy layer is very thin, giving way to a substantial potato that is cooked as well as any wedge I’ve ever eaten, and the taste is amazing as well. The very light salt adds extra flavor that isn’t even needed, though highly appreciated. The texture is absolutely unique as well, the curve on the fries basically makes every fry feel like a perfect sized bite. The serving size is pretty small, but I’ve got far more expensive fries in this area for the same amount, it really isn’t that bad considering this. These fries easily win most unique fries I’ve had, and are a likely candidate for best fries as well. They’re that good. Anyone who likes fries (or biscuits, for that matter) should go here.

Hello, and welcome to part one of a weekend two part review (the second will be up later today). The first review today was a place we stopped for lunch at yesterday, Plank’s Bier Garten in German Village.

Address: 888 S High St, Columbus, OH 43206

Cut: Straight Cut (fast food style).

Thickness: 5/10

Crispiness: 3.5/10

Salt/Seasoning: Very light salt, no seasoning.

Price: $5.49 (large size).

The first thing about these fries is a bit of terminology, I call these style of fries, where the skins are bumpy/rough textured, fast food style fries. This is what the Ore Ida bagged fries with this style are called, and I see no reason to argue with them. It’s a pretty common style of french fry for a bar setting, and that’s what we have here. First thing to note is that these are pretty far toward the not crispy side for the type. Usually fries like this have significantly more crisp. Not to say there’s none, there’s a pretty satisfying initial crisp, but it gives way quickly to the rest of the very substantial, potato interior. The interior texture is very good, very satisfying flaky interior. These are definitely better fare than the standard pub fries, which honestly tend to serve as a vehicle for soaking up alcohol. Very light salt, no seasoning, price is pretty high for the serving size, but that’s standard for the area. Would definitely recommend, but considering the food options in the area, there’s probably something better just based on how much good food is in the area, I just haven’t found it yet.