All the fast food fries in New Zealand, reviewed and ranked

Summer read: Alex Casey goes on an odyssey to find New Zealand’s best fast food fries.

First published April 3, 2021

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I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve gone burger mad over the last few years, largely due to the growing range of meat-free options available. And as someone who firmly believes that the order of combo consumption should be burger first, then fries, my fry experience is often sad and Stone Cold by the time I get around to them. This week, as the hot chip industry finds itself facing an absolute glut of the stuff, I wanted to reconnect with the humble fry and celebrate their place in our lives.

A note on scope and metrics: this a fast-food ranking, which means I’ve only visited chains that call themselves fast food, or have a drive-thru, or have their own in-house delivery system. An obvious omission from this list is BurgerFuel, home of very powerful fries (or is it mostly powerful aioli?). Unfortunately, BurgerFuel considers themselves “fast-casual” (which also describes the speed at which I walk to the kitchen when there are free promotional cupcakes on offer) so they are a no-go.

Kūmara? That’s a different conversation. Wedges? Way to drive a wedge in this particular discourse. Criss cut? More like Criss Angel, because I don’t have the capacity to deal with that kind of sorcery today. This ranking is all about the good old humble potato fry. The chippy. The pomme frite, if you consider yourself the Queen of France. Each batch was consumed with no sauce and no extra seasoning, purely on an “as is, where is” basis and all in regrettably quick succession: