If you open your freezer for some gooey, creamy cheese wrapped in a delectably crunchy casing,
what brand will fulfill your deepest culinary desires? Here are the results
of Mashed's frozen mozzarella stick taste test.
Cole's mozzarella cheese sticks are soft, bready,
and loaded with garlic. But they're also imposters. They may be delicious,
but not enough to excuse their duplicity. Even though they're marketed as mozzarella sticks,
they're actually cheese-filled breadsticks. They're not in fact sticks of mozzarella that
are rolled in a bread crumb coating or batter, nor are they the sort of thing that you'd order
six of as an appetizer. Instead, they're more suitable as a side to a pasta dish.
So while the bread on these sticks is fluffy and soft and the garlicky herb flavor is fantastic,
there isn't nearly enough cheese for Cole's to qualify as a legitimate cheese stick. But
instead of disqualifying them, we'll just shunt them off to last place.
"Textbook mediocrity" is the best way to describe our experience with
the Snapps mozzarella sticks. The cheese is runny and flavorless,
while the breading is too doughy even after being fully cooked. There's no spice or
flavor added to the breading, either. It's just bread crumbs, nothing more.
On top of that disappointment, the cheese lacks any body or elasticity. It burst
out of the breading and spilled all over the place while in the oven. And then what wasn't
lost in the cooking process spilled out of the breading while cracking it open to eat. Overall,
Snapps is messy, flavorless, and just a big letdown. But how much could you really have
expected from the cheapest product on this list? If a tight budget is a major priority,
then maybe you could settle for Snapps. Otherwise, you can do better for yourself.
"Get out there now and do the best you can."
Any finger food that relies on a good cheese copycat to disguise the fact that it's vegan
is already fighting an uphill battle. But we'll start with what we like about
Wholly Veggie. Their mozzarella-style sticks come in handy miniature sizes,
which makes it easy to serve them at parties and to finish eating them before they've gone hard
and cold. This is also one of the few brands that includes marinara packets in the box.
The breading is also very good. It has a nice flavor, while the crumbs offer a nice,
snappy crunch. Sadly, though, the vegan mozzarella cheese just doesn't cut it.
There's no flavor whatsoever, and the texture is so watery and thin that it spilled out of
the bread casing when broken in half. But it also congealed into something like hot
Elmer's Glue once slightly cooled. We're not the biggest vegan snack food experts in the world,
but surely there must be better options than Wholly Veggie for our plant-based friends.
Golden Crisp mozzarella sticks are just inches short of greatness. They're among the biggest
sticks on this list, and you could argue that they look like they were served fresh in a
restaurant. But looks can be deceiving. The cheese at least deserves high marks. There's
an absolute river of it in each stick, and it oozes out when broken open. Thick and creamy,
this mozzarella is some of the freshest tasting on the list.
But the breading is where Golden Crisp runs into trouble. Perhaps if these sticks were
deep-fried instead of oven-cooked, the breading might be better. But when cooked according to
the directions on the box, the inner side of the bread coating is pasty and chewy,
like half-baked dough. This really detracted from the breading's quality, despite the outside being
delightfully crisp and flavorful. We recommend only buying Golden Crisp if you have a home fryer.
The best part of TGI Fridays' frozen mozzarella sticks is definitely the breading. When you
first sink your teeth into them, you're met with bright flavors of garlic, black pepper,
and onion. And while the outer layer does get beautifully golden with an exquisite crispiness,
the sticks are more prone to splitting open than any of the other brands on this list.
It could be because of TGI Fridays' shape and size, or the thinner coat of breading.
The cheese was unfortunately not quite as impressive. The mozzarella never really
achieved that melty, gooey texture that it should have, instead remaining quite clumpy
even after being fully cooked. The taste is at least right: not fully bland and flavorless,
but certainly not as creamy and fresh as other brands. Overall, it's just not very memorable.
And without that silky, melty stretch that you're supposed to experience when biting into a cheese
stick, we can't justify placing TGI Fridays any higher than slightly below the middle.
"Not good enough."
Market Pantry is a private label brand at Target that just missed the mark with its mozz
sticks. The fault mostly lies with the cheese. It behaves strangely, as it maintains a thick, ropey
consistency even when pulled apart after being cooked. Instead of offering stringy meltiness,
it seems more like one of those pull-apart cheese sticks that you're supposed to eat cold. The
cheese and breading are also weirdly separated from one another, which leads to the stick
nearly falling apart when broken open. Maybe there should've been more cheese to fill out the casing.
On the other hand, the breading is solid with a classic seasoning blend. It toasts
up to a pleasing golden crunchiness in the oven, and it doesn't split or burst while
cooking. With some cheesy upgrades, Market Pantry could really make a run for the crown.
Trader Joe's is a great destination for all kinds of snacks, including boxed products,
baked goods, and freezer aisle gems. Their mozzarella sticks are supremely
tasty, though not quite among the all-time best selections at TJ's.
The bread crumb outer shell is super flavorful,
though it lacks any sort of satisfying crunch needed to flatter the stretchy,
stringy cheese. Instead, it's got a bit of an anticlimactic sogginess. That's based on
following the oven directions exactly. For better results, we would recommend cooking
these sticks in an air fryer or even a home fryer to get some crunch into the breading.
The mozzarella filling has a great flavor and texture, and it stretches nicely when pulled
apart. But we can't just ignore the breading's deficiencies, which is why TJ's falls a bit short.
Farm Rich mozzarella sticks are very similar to the Market Pantry ones from Target,
with the needed improvements to the cheese abundance and consistency. The breading is
lightly seasoned with flavors of garlic and onion, with a very satisfying crunch.
While Market Pantry's cheese had a weird texture that didn't adhere to the breading,
the Farm Rich sticks are absolutely stuffed with mozzarella, and they held up their shape
much better. The stretch of the cheese still isn't as elastic as it could be,
as Farm Rich is a bit stringier than the other brands. You may still want some
marinara sauce to compensate for a slight lack in flavor. But overall, we'd call this
a classic mozzarella stick that you wouldn't have to twist our arms to get us to eat again.
"Please, sir, I want some more."
Saz's mozzarella sticks offer a rather unique approach, as the core is wrapped in egg roll
wrappers, rather than a bread crumb coating or batter. The resulting mozzarella stick can be
best described as puzzling. What is the reason for this thinner, less crispy, less flavorful wrap?
Trouble presents itself right from the start, as the oven instructions call for the sticks
to be flipped halfway through cooking, but the egg roll wraps ended up stuck on the parchment
paper. They were so stuck that flipping the sticks would have meant ripping them apart. Ultimately,
this resulted in golden crispness on one side and pale sogginess on the other. And
the wrap doesn't really taste like anything, unlike the seasoned breading on other brands.
But Saz's redemption comes from its cheese, which is among the best on this list. It tastes fresh,
salty, and creamy, and it offers a satisfyingly stretchy texture. We'd have expected nothing
less of the fresh Wisconsin cheese that Saz's sticks are made with.
Crav'n is the private label brand for the supermarket chain Hy-Vee. It typically
offers some excellent frozen snacks and appetizers, and its mozzarella sticks are
no exception. These are bigger than many of the other sticks on the list, with a thicker,
crunchier breading. There's some nice flavor to the crumb coating as well. We thought the thicker
breading would mean that there'd be no cheese spillage during cooking, but alas, some did escape
The cheese in these Crav'n sticks is fantastic, and there aren't any problems with the flavor.
But the absolute best thing about the cheese is how much of it there is, as well as its smooth,
stretchy texture. These are the closest replicas of restaurant mozzarella sticks
in this ranking. And while cooking them in a home fryer or air fryer would surely achieve
the crispest breading possible, following the oven directions still yields an excellent crunch.
We wish this brand came with marinara sauce, because it's definitely worth buying again.
"Well, I guess that's definitely a buy."
Feel Good Foods is a brand that hasn't achieved perfection overall. For example,
they sell some frozen gluten-free egg rolls that aren't particularly impressive. But they redeem
themselves quite a bit with their mozzarella sticks. The cheese is delicious, with a perfect
picturesque stretch when pulled apart, and there's no spillage in cooking or eating.
But the real star of the show here is the breading. It's beautifully flavored with a
spice and herb blend that's so tasty that the addition of marinara is totally unnecessary.
Despite being a gluten-free breading, there's no compromise in the texture of the bread crumbs.
The outer layer emerges from cooking golden and toasty. And from a structural standpoint,
the breading holds up very well and doesn't split or crack in the oven. There's also
a very satisfying crunch when biting into one of these sticks. Even if you can handle gluten
all the time, we would highly recommend Feel Good Foods when you're in a mozzarella mood.
If you've ever had fresh Wisconsin cheese curds dunked in beer batter and deep-fried,
then you should have a very good sense of how delicious these Budweiser cheese sticks are. The
cheese definitely has more of a fresh Wisconsin cheese curd consistency, even though it's
mozzarella and not cheddar as Wisconsin curds traditionally are. But this actually adds to
the experience instead of detracting from it. And according to the product packaging,
there's some white cheddar cheese included with the mozzarella. That probably explains
why they're so similar to a certain popular Midwestern snack known as fried cheese curds.
The breading is excellent, as it manages to be light, sort of flaky, and golden, with a
distinctive Budweiser flavor. Even when cooked in the oven, the batter has the sort of crispiness
that's usually only achieved with deep fat frying. Overall, these are definitely not traditional
cheese sticks, and a true Midwesterner would surely dip them in ranch instead of marinara. But
the salty, creamy taste of that fresh cheese and the accompanying beer batter just can't be missed.
"Bud."
"Weis."
"Er."
Appetitos mozzarella cheese sticks can be found at Aldi,
and you should absolutely scoop these up the next time you're shopping at the German bargain
grocery store. Despite being a humble private label brand, Appetitos are an easy favorite.
Simplicity is the name of the game here. The breading isn't as intensely flavored
with herbs and spice as other brands, but its buttery goldenness more than makes
up for that. The bread crumb coating also stays fully intact while baking,
so you don't have to worry about losing precious mozzarella.
Speaking of the cheese, Appetitos packs its sticks to near-bursting levels,
so you get tons of mozzarella in every bite. It's also perfectly textured: smooth, creamy,
and elastic. And the flavor is simple and fresh, good enough to be enjoyed even without dunking
the sticks in marinara sauce. Our only complaint is that we wish these sticks were just a little
bit bigger, but the classic flavor is enough to push Appetitos to the top of the ranking!