SIDES & STARTERS • 5 min read
Fries or Onion Rings?
Every special makes you choose, most people pick fries by habit, and for a lot of orders that is the wrong call.
Onion rings with anything sauced or rich; fries with anything plain. Rings bring sweetness and a real crunch, hold heat better and travel better. Loaded fries are a shared plate rather than a side, and never order rings alongside a Smokehouse.
Every special on this menu comes with fries or onion rings, which makes it the most frequently made decision here and one almost nobody thinks about. Most people pick fries by default.
That is often the wrong call, and it is worth two minutes to understand why.
What each one actually does
They are not two versions of the same thing. A fry is soft inside with a thin crisp shell, mild, and salty. An onion ring is a thick batter shell around something sweet and soft that gives way completely when you bite it.
| Fries | Onion rings | |
|---|---|---|
| Flavour | Mild and salty | Sweet, from the onion |
| Texture | Soft inside, thin crisp outside | Thick crunch, then soft |
| Against sauce | Gets lost | Cuts through it |
| Holds heat | Poorly — goes soft fast | Better, the batter insulates |
| Travels | Badly | Moderately |
| Eats with one hand | Yes | Yes |
| Best with | Anything plain or dry | Anything sauced, sweet or rich |
The row that matters is the third one. Fries are mild, which is a virtue next to something plain and a liability next to something heavily sauced — they simply disappear. Onion rings bring sweetness and a real crunch, so they hold their own.
Which to pick, by what you ordered
- Sauced wings — onion rings. Fries against buffalo sauce are wasted
- A plain cheese steak — fries. Nothing is competing, and salt is what it wants
- A meatball sub or a Pizza Steak — onion rings, for something sharp against the tomato
- A dressed po’boy — fries. The sandwich already has crunch and acidity in it
- A French dip — fries, and keep them well away from the jus
- The Smokehouse — fries, because it already has onion rings on it
That last one catches people out constantly. Both Smokehouse builds carry onion rings inside them, so a side of rings is doubling up. More on that in the Smokehouse, two ways.
The other two potato options
Fries are not one thing on this menu, they are three. Plain french fries, cheese fries, and loaded fries with jalapeno, bacon and cheese.
The distinction matters because only the first is a side dish. Cheese fries are borderline, and loaded fries are a shared plate in their own right — ordering them as well as a main and calling it a side is the most common over-order on this menu. Our guide to the appetizer menu goes through all twenty items.
Why onion rings hold up better
It comes down to what is inside the coating. A fry is potato, which is mostly starch and water; once it cools the starch sets and the surface goes soft, and there is no recovering it. An onion ring has a thick batter shell with a layer of steam-producing onion inside it, and that shell stays rigid considerably longer.
Onions themselves have more sugar than potatoes do, which is why rings taste sweet and why they brown the way they do. Onions are one of the oldest cultivated vegetables, grown across the world for exactly the pungency and sweetness that cooking transforms.
Practical consequence: if the food is going in a bag, order rings. If you are eating at the table in the next five minutes, fries are fine.
Ordering fries for takeaway anyway? Ask for them in a separate container from the sandwich rather than in the same bag. Steam from a hot wrapped sandwich is what turns fries soft on a ten-minute drive, more than the cooling does.
The cheese fries question
Cheese fries sit awkwardly between the two, and they are the option people default to when they cannot decide. They are fries with cheese and nothing else — so they keep the mildness problem of plain fries and add richness on top of it, which is the wrong direction next to anything already rich.
They work best where plain fries would work and you want more of a meal out of them: next to a plain cheese steak, or on their own. Next to sauced wings they are the weakest of the three options on this page.
Which is better value on a special
Neither costs extra — the specials include one or the other at the same price, which is precisely why the decision is worth making on merit rather than habit. Whatever you would actually enjoy more with the thing you ordered is the right answer, and for most sauced or rich mains that is rings.
The three special menus and what each includes are covered in our guide to lunch, all day and weekend specials.
What about the wings question specifically
Wings are where this decision matters most, because a sauced wing is the single most demanding thing on the menu for a side to sit next to. It is salty, fatty, acidic and often hot, all at once.
Fries next to sauced wings are essentially texture with no opinion — they neither cut through nor contrast. Rings do both: the sweetness works against the vinegar in the sauce and the crunch survives contact with sauced fingers, which fries do not.
The exception is dry-rubbed or plain wings, where fries come back into their own. If you have ordered the sauce on the side — which for takeaway you should — treat the wings as plain and order accordingly.
For a table
Order one of each rather than two of the same. It costs the same, it covers both jobs, and it means the person who wanted crunch and the person who wanted salt both get what they came for.
If you are choosing sides for wings specifically, our guide to what to eat with wings covers the whole sides menu rather than just these two.
The short version
Fries with anything plain, onion rings with anything sauced. Rings travel better and hold heat better. Loaded fries are a plate, not a side. And never order rings alongside a Smokehouse. Both are on the appetizer menu.
Both, on every special
Fries, cheese fries, loaded fries and onion rings — and one of them comes with every special.
Frequently asked questions
Fries or onion rings?
Onion rings with anything sauced or rich; fries with anything plain. Rings also hold heat and travel better.
Do the specials include a side?
Yes — every special comes with fries or onion rings and a drink, at the same price either way. Salads are the exception and come with a drink only.
What is the difference between cheese fries and loaded fries?
Cheese fries are fries and cheese. Loaded fries add jalapeno and bacon, and are a shared plate rather than a side dish.
Which travels better for takeaway?
Onion rings. The batter shell stays rigid longer, whereas a fry goes soft as soon as the starch sets.
Should I get onion rings with the Smokehouse?
No — both Smokehouse builds already have onion rings on them.
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