Hello everybody! I actually made it back here in good time for once! Mostly because it was the girlfriend’s birthday and she has a certain love for steak that I can’t quite understand. Because of this, I decided to take the fry blog to somewhere slightly different. I’d never go to a steak place on my own, because the menu is entirely centered around what goes well with giant slabs of meat. Typically, this does include some kind of french fries, but usually nothing else that I’d like to eat. So, it’s unlikely that steakhouse fry reviews are going to be a common thing on here, but for once, it’s the topic of review. So, how was the fries? Interesting, definitely. As you’d expect from a place like this, the fries were steak fry style. 9/0 thickness, and probably a 3/10 crispiness. Fries were very well cooked, not solid at all on the inside, very flaky and extremely well cooked. Fries did have some skins on the back side, it didn’t really add to the taste but it didn’t hurt anything either.Fries had significant amounts of parsley seasoning (per the girlfriend, I had no idea what the green seasoning stuff was). It added a nice extra touch to the fries. Salting was moderate, but diminishing as the serving went farther down the basket. Price was pretty high, $6.95 for the basket. I think the staff felt kind of bad for me, as I was given an extra side at no cost, because most people don’t come into a place like this just to eat a basket of fries. Very appreciated though! On the whole, fries were very good, not world beaters or anything, but steak fries that are properly cooked aren’t quite as easy to find as you might hope, so these get at the worst an above average grade.

Texas Roadhouse

1540 Bethel Rd, Columbus, OH 43220

Fry Cut: Steak Fries

Thickness: 9/10

Crispiness: 3/10

Salt: Moderate

Seasoning: Moderate (Parsley)

Sorry for the hiatus, french fry loving friends! Worry not, I’ve been eating plenty of fries over the last month. Many an hour has been spent scoping out future locations for fry ratings. And just last weekend, I found a good candidate. After significant urging to try this location out, on Sunday morning I made my way to German Village to try out this homey diner. The name of the place says coffee shop, but in reality this is a diner through and through. Perhaps lacking in the 50’s charm of so many of these locations, but making up for it in local popularity. Not kidding about that, the wait for a seat at this place was almost an hour. So, how were their fries? Quite good, as it turns out. The fries are shoestring cut, about as thick as a McDonald’s fry, so about a 2.5/10 in thickness. They are crispy, but still full on the insides. Crispiness is about a 6/10, relatively crispy, but honestly slightly less than what you’d expect from a shoestring fry. I was very hungry after the wait, so I ended up getting a four-side order. This was a lot, and it makes serving size slightly hard to determine, but considering I got a massive plate full of fries, it’s safe to say serving size is still above average, especially considering a side is only $1.75. It’s truly good value for your money. This is true for everything I had here. Place is almost downright cheap for being in a fairly hipster area, and being a place that is obviously extremely popular. Fries had no salt/seasoning, and were very hot and fresh. Fries were slightly plain, nothing groundbreaking about them. Still, if you’re needing lots of food for your buck, this is a great place to eat at.

German Village Coffee Shop

2629, 193 Thurman Ave, Columbus, OH 43206

Fry Cut: Shoestring

Thickness: 2.5/10

Crispiness: 6/10

Salt: None

Seasoning: None

The final place that I went to for my vacation took our party about 45 minutes outside of FBG’s childhood town, and all the way to the big city of Binghamton. Binghamton is not actually a big city. It’s not tiny, but we’re not taking about a truly major city either. It is probably the biggest city in a 50 mile radius, minimum though. In this case that means that when FBG wanted to (for example) go to the movies, this was the closest city that had a real movie theater. So, lots of people come here, even though it’s a small city by realistic standards. So, how was the place. Awesome, in a word. The diner overlooks a river out the back of the seating area, almost looking like you could fall in if the waters got a little bit higher, and the weather wasn’t agreeing that day. It’s a really nifty view. The fries here were pretty basic, fast food style fries. Thickness was about a 3.5/10, and the crispiness was about a 5.5/10. There was no salt or seasoning on the fries, and these fries really didn’t need it, as they were plenty tasty enough without anything additional on them. Fries were very well cooked, and were uniformly good, no stragglers or inferior fries on the bottom. Price was $3.29, and serving size was large for the price. Normally, I don’t mention anything but the fries, but I have been known to occasionally eat other things, and in this case, the onion rings were the best I have ever had. Seriously, they were delicious and perfect in just about every way. Eat them.

Park Diner

119 Conklin Ave, Binghamton NY 13903.

Fry Cut – Fast Food Style

Thickness – 3.5/10

Crispiness – 5.5/10

Salt – None

Seasoning – None

On the vacation to the middle of nowhere (Oxford/McDonough, NY) I was treated to a greatest hits of FBG’s childhood and college years. Admittedly, this was quite interesting. I’m a city boy through and through, I don’t get how people can live more than 3 miles from multiple chains of grocery stores, fast food restaurants, and all other forms of entertainment. So, to liven up the experience, we spent part of an afternoon in FGB’s undergrad college town. The sights are beautiful, the college is basically stuck into a hill, looking half like it’s going to fall on the city below it at any time. By the time we were done, I’d spent far too long in a car. So, we hit up a nice looking place that is fairly new (it wasn’t around when FGB was in school there). This place is a modern(ish) diner called Plaza Diner. Definitely catered to the college student, and not the 50’s nostalgia so commonly seen in diners, it was just what I needed. A place to sit down, relax, and have some nice fries!

How was the fries? Interesting, not so much in the style or taste, but the specific flaws (which were minimal) were very unusual for the style. The fries were steak cut, about an 8.5/10 in thickness. Most fries were moderately above average in the crispiness, approximately a 6.5/10. The primary flaw lies here. A notable, but small percentage of the fries were pretty overcooked, not inedible, but cooked to the point they were highly browned and almost hollow on the inside. But honestly, this is the only notable negative. The fries were fairly bland, but were skillfully cooked other than the overcooked ones. There was no potato clumping on the interior, a common issue with steak fries. Fries were cooked through and were very fresh tasting, and properly warmed. The price for a large serving was $2.99 and the serving size was small/moderate for the price.

Plaza Diner

122 Main Street, Oneonta NY 13820

Fry Cut – Steak Cut

Crispiness – 6.5/10

Thickness – 8.5/10

Price – $2.99/large serving

Salt – Very light.

Seasoning – None

Hello everybody! It’s been a long time (far too long), mostly due to the fact that I started getting lazy and instead of exploring and finding new and interesting places to eat, all of my eating out money just ended up going to the same local diner. But no more! The fry blog has returned! Inspired by a recent vacation to the wonderful world of upstate New York with my wonderful, highly tolerant girlfriend (from here on known as Fry Blog Girl, or FBG). This excursion out of state with FBG enabled me to go to three places that are nowhere near my normal grounds of Central Ohio. First up is State Street Diner in Conneaut, Ohio.

Little more than a stone’s throw away from the border of Pennsylvania, this is a diner that definitely is a throwback in the good way. With tablecloths that are printed in the style of old turn of the last century newspaper clippings, and ceilings that I almost hit my head on multiple times, this is a true example of old timey nostalgia that is sure to bring out the grandparent in all of us. So, how were their fries? Quite good, as it turns out. The fries are a definite fast food style, with a relatively normal cut (roughly a 4/10, maybe slightly thinner than average). The fries were warm, but not hot. Still, very fresh and tasty. Very soft interiors of the fries, no potato clumps present in these fries. No salt/seasoning present, and with the extra texture that’s part of the fast food fry definition, not needed to provide an interesting, tasty experience. A single serving was $3.50, and the plate was large enough to justify the slightly higher than average price, a standard serving size given the price.

Overall, I highly recommend this place, as the decor is fitting, the fries are tasty, and it’s only a short 2 mile drive off of I-90 if you’re heading along the Ohio/Pennsylvania border.

Overall Details.

State Street Diner

251 State Street, Conneaut Ohio, 44030

Fry Cut – Fast Food Style

Thickness – 4/10

Crispiness – 5/10

Price – $3.50 (one large serving)

Salt – None

Seasoning – None

The typical places I go to get french fries are fast food places, and diners/sit-down restaurants. But occasionally, I find out that a wings place serves fries too. This is one such occasion. This is what brought me to Wings Over Columbus, a takeout wings place on Lane Avenue. Unfortunately they don’t serve fries in nearly the massive amounts that they serve wings for (given the right circumstances, I’d happily shell out $60 for house party levels of fries). But that’s enough of the complaining, how did their fries taste? First of all, I only got the crinkle cut fries, they also have waffle fries, but I’ll review those another time. The crinkle cut fries were pretty good, very hot and fresh, about a 4/10 crispiness, and a 4.5/10 thickness. There was a slight sogginess to the fries, very slight, and it could have been due to the plastic covering, that the heat hits the top of the container, and moisture drips back down on to the fries. Either way, the price was $3.49 for a large fry serving, and they were pretty large, probably moderate high. Two of these was quite filling. No seasoning, and light salt, but the salt that was on them was very distinctive. Far from the best fries that I’ve ever had, but nothing particularly weak about them either.

Price: $3.49

Cut: Crinkle

Seasoning/Salt: None, light salt.

Hello! It’s been too long, and I’m finally back reviewing some of the best french fries around! For this review, I went to Stav’s Diner on East Broad Street, a new diner (per the cooks, it opened in May of 2016) and had breakfast there. And to ruin all the surprise, it was great! I had a large and hearty breakfast, and left feeling the acute affects of an impending food coma. So, the obvious question, how were their fries? Like everything else there, they were really good. Fairly thick crinkle cut fries, about a 6/10 thickness. They weren’t especially crispy, definitely didn’t have the coloring of crispy fries, but the exterior was crispy enough that the fluffy interior had proper distinction. Very hot and fresh, exactly as you’d want in that respect. The serving size was perhaps slightly smaller than ideal, but on the spectrum of acceptable, given the price of $2.75 for the basket. These are plain, ordinary style fries, no salt or seasoning on them. Which is just fine, as they were outstanding on their own. I highly recommend this place, as everything is outstanding. (On a potato, but not french fry related topic, their home fries/hash brown combo is really unique and tastes delicious. Try it, it’s not the easiest thing to explain, but it’s really cool and tastes great!)

Price $2.75

Cut: Moderately thick crinkle cut.

Salt/Seasoning: None.

Okay, now this place is really fancy, and hip, and hipster, and all that stuff that normally drives me away. I went with a friend who lives down in this area, and likes to browse boutique coffee shops, and go clubbing, and generally act like a normal, urban person. That person… is not me. Which is why I got basically dragged here. But they did have french fries, and that was ultimately reason enough for me not to resist too much. How were they? As expected, the serving size was a bit small, for a place in the heart of the Short North, this isn’t grandma overflowing your plate here. Price was $3.50, for a normal fast-food styled paper holder. Which makes the serving size definitely small, but not quite obnoxiously so. Thickness is a 4/10, and crispiness is a 5.5/10, both perfectly within normal bounds. Light salt, but this is barely noticeable behind the fairly intense seasoning, quite similar to Rally’s seasoning, but stronger and it lingers more on the tongue. Fries were very hot and fresh, and even despite the seasoning being a bit too much, I get the feeling other people would appreciate it a lot. And the fries were still very good, and definitely cooked properly, like a place like this should be doing.

(Apologies: picture is not great quality)

Price: $3.50

Salt/Seasoning: Light Salt, strong seasoning, though not exactly a huge amount.

Cut: Straight

Buffalo Wild Wings is another of those type of sports food places where you go to eat wings, get a beer, and watch the game with friends and like-minded people. But they do also have fries, even if probably nobody ever gets them. Well, I went here for a night, and ordered several baskets of their fries. And now I think I have a good idea of their quality. Their fries are of the shoestring cut, and rating them it’d be about a 2.5/10. Moderately crispy fries, about a 5.5/10 make these pretty typical shoestring fries in the thick/crispy ratio. The fries were lightly salted, and had no seasoning. The interior was really nice, soft and flaky, without being chewy. Edges had a small amount of skins present, but not affecting taste in any way. The fries were split into two different basket sizes, the bigger one was $4.99, and this was probably a bit on the small side for servings, but pretty typical for a place like this. Fries were warm and fresh, but not piping hot like you always hope for. Still, these fries were good, and perfectly worthy of being eaten around your friends who for some reason like wings more.

Cut: Shoestring

Price:$4.99

Salt/Seasoning: Light salt, no seasoning.

I work out near Plain City. It’s kind of a cultural dead zone. Nothing fancy, nothing interesting. Though it’s near a bunch of culturally interesting places, it’s more of a well… plain kind of place. So this place is an ice cream stand, that looks and feels like a cheap knock off of Dairy Queen. But how are their fries? First, they’re shoestring fries, and at about 2.5 thickness out of 10, it’s a nice start. The fries are also not particularly crispy, a slightly unusual combination. And the fries do have a tendency to be a bit soggy in the middle. Not a huge minus, but notable. Fries cooked to order, and were very hot and fresh. $2.29 for a serving, a bit on the small side, but within the acceptable range. Very lightly salted fries, and no seasoning, make these a bit plain, but perfectly nice to go along with their ice cream, which is what they really want to be known for.

Price: $2.29

Cut: Shoestring

Salt/Seasoning: Very light salt, no seasoning.