There's something magical about onion rings, but when it comes to fast food onion rings,
what you'll receive is hit or miss. Some restaurants have excellent onion rings,
while other offerings are embarrassingly poor.
In this ranking, we'll separate the good from the bad — beginning with the worst.
When you bite down on Burger King's onion rings, what you will discover is supremely unpleasant
and will undoubtedly stop you in your tracks. That's because instead of using real rings
from an actual onion, Burger King instead uses an odd paste that is onion-flavored.
It's not unheard of for fast food joints to take shortcuts when preparing their food, but this
is ridiculous. How can you serve onion rings without the onions? That's just uncalled for.
Even if you're desperate for onion rings and nothing else will do,
don't go near what Burger King has to offer. Just starve instead.
These travesties are an abomination and should offend every other onion ring on the planet.
"Ok, I'm going to talk straight to you, because I think you need to hear it, Michael."
"This is so disgusting."
"Stop eating it!"
Sonic Drive-In
The onion rings from Sonic Drive-In should come with a warning label.
If you're not prepared for what's to come, you're not going to be a happy camper:
Sonic's onion rings are strangely and annoyingly sweet. If you didn't get a warning,
it might take you a handful of rings before you figure out what's going on.
Eventually, you will realize that your taste buds are picking up a hint of vanilla.
What's up with that? It turns out that Sonic supposedly adds vanilla ice cream to the batter.
In theory, that sounds like it could be a yummy addition, but in reality,
it just doesn't work that well. After a while,
the vanilla flavor starts to overwhelm everything else, and it's all you will be able to taste.
If you want vanilla ice cream from Sonic,
there are plenty of options on their ice cream menu that will fit the bill. Tragically,
if you want onion rings that actually taste like onion rings, you're completely out of luck.
"Let's just say that when the dark one offers you onion rings, don't eat them!"
On one hand, it's commendable that Long John Silver's has onion rings on their menu at all:
a seafood fast food restaurant isn't exactly where you'd expect to be able to order them.
On the other hand, the unavoidable truth of the matter is that they just aren't that good.
While sometimes your order of onion rings at Long John Silver's might be decent,
it's usually quite the disappointment. The issue is actually the opposite of
what derailed Burger King's version. Instead of not having real onions in their rings,
Long John Silver's onion rings have too much onion and not enough batter. Bare
spots are everywhere you look on these rings — and that's simply not acceptable.
It's also worth noting that these onion rings once
went viral when a Long John Silver's meal that included a helping of them
was found to be the worst restaurant meal of them all due to being spectacularly unhealthy.
Arctic Circle is a western fast food chain similar to Dairy Queen in that they are primarily known
for their sweet treats. However, their main menu consists of food choices such as burgers,
chicken, fish, salads, and, yes, onion rings.
Sadly, Arctic Circle's onion rings just aren't that good. When you first lay eyes on them,
you will have hope. Unfortunately, when you pick up one of the rings and discover just how
limp and feckless they are, you'll understand you made a mistake ordering them. Simply put,
the onion rings at Arctic Circle are way too soggy to be enjoyable.
The onion rings at A&W are well below average when you compare them to other fast food
offerings — even though they deserve credit for popularizing this side by adding them to
their menu way back in the 1960s. Compared to other fast food onion rings available today,
A&W's don't have much flavor at all and are weirdly dry.
If juiciness is one of your favorite attributes of onion rings, you'll hate these.
If you order them, you better come equipped with a large drink in order to help you wash it all down.
Thankfully, the news isn't all bad at A&W, because they have a really good dipping sauce you can use.
It's called Spicy Papa Dipping Sauce, and you may have tried it on their Spicy Papa Burger.
The spiciness you get from this sauce is a godsend.
Ordering onion rings at White Castle is a surprisingly dangerous idea. First of all,
you need to make sure what you order is made out of onions and not chickens.
White Castle has Chicken Rings, and they are even more disgusting than they sound.
Secondly, White Castle also has something called Onion Chips. You don't want these things either.
While they aren't as bad as the Chicken Rings, the Onion Chips are just lazy,
unimaginative, and unappetizing.
If you do manage to get White Castle's onion rings, the ultimate reward is a resounding meh.
They're not terrible, but are they really worth the danger of ending
up with Chicken Rings or Onion Chips? Not really.
Ordering onion rings at Fatburger is also risky — but for totally different reasons. The issue at
Fatburger is consistency. Sometimes you get really good rings that are the perfect crispness and
quite flavorful. At their best, Fatburger's onion rings probably deserve to be in our top five.
But, more often than not, what you'll get from this fast food joint is a long way away from being
their best. Fatburger's onion rings are sometimes way too oily while simultaneously not being
thoroughly cooked, and the result is a greasy mess that isn't worth the trouble. Even if you force
yourself to eat them all, there's a good chance that your clothing will be stained with oil.
Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers has locations in more than 30 states. Along with
steakburgers and frozen custard, Freddy's also has a number of interesting sides including
cheese curds, chili cheese fries, and chili. They also have onion rings that are notably plump.
While being extra thick is sometimes good news when it comes to onion rings,
it's actually part of the reason why Freddy's rings aren't higher in our ranking.
Rather than being pliable and a joy to eat,
their onion rings are so plump that they are a chore to chew. While the flavor is above average,
you'll be tempted to remove the coating and eat it by itself while leaving the thick onion behind.
"One ring to rule them all."
The onion rings at Carl's Jr. actually taste pretty good. These bad boys are safely above
average when it comes to flavor. Each bite is juicy, and the texture of everything is just
right, and the only issue with the onion rings at Carl's Jr.'s is the fact that they produce
a lot of crumbs. If you are eating and driving, it's best to wait until you're back at a table.
Otherwise, you'll be wearing an outfit full of crumbs by the time you step out of your vehicle.
The good news is there's a solution that negates the crummy issue with their onion rings.
Instead of ordering their rings as a side, order a Western Bacon Cheeseburger,
which comes with multiple onion rings. With the onion rings inside of the burger,
you don't have to worry about the crumbs and can simply enjoy their flavor. Problem solved!
First, the good news! A large order of onion rings here is actually big enough to be a standalone
meal, which may be a tempting proposition as Steak 'n Shake's rings are above average.
But should you order the rings at Steak 'n Shake? Generally speaking, you shouldn't. The reason for
that is their fries are simply better. At Steak 'n Shake, they have Seasoned Fries, Thin 'n Crispy
Fries, Cheese Fries, Chili Cheese Fries, and Bacon Cheese Fries. All of their fries are outstanding.
Unless you really, really adore onion rings, pick one of their variety of fries instead.
If you make a habit out of eating the onion rings at The Habit Burger Grill, you won't be
disappointed because they're consistently really good. They put a lot of spices in the batter, and
the result is an onion ring with so much flavor that you really don't even need to use a sauce.
If you're torn about whether to go with the French fries or the onion rings,
all you need to do is order the Half & Half, for a basket that is half full
of fries and half full of onion rings. It's the perfect compromise. Then again,
the Half & Half doesn't help if one of their other sides catches your eye. The Habit Burger
Grill has outstanding sweet potato fries and tempura green beans, which could deepen your
conundrum. That said, if you like onion rings, you won't be disappointed with what they offer.
At first glance, the onion rings at Jack in the Box are a bit of a letdown. When you see them,
you may be turned off by how disheveled they look and the fact that they don't
have a uniform shape. Some will be small, some will be huge,
and some will have fallen apart and can no longer technically be classified as rings.
But after they first bite, you will again learn the lesson that you should never judge
a book by its cover. While they're certainly not beautiful, they are very tasty. Add in the fact
that these onion rings are relatively cheap, and the logical part of your brain may fall in love.
A lot of fast food onion rings look like they are related and could have been born
in the same factory. At BurgerFi, that's not the case at all. These things are unlike any
onion rings you have ever seen before. While they aren't overly thick, the rings are extra wide.
While the altered appearance doesn't make a huge difference taste-wise, the texture is excellent.
They're also double-battered and cut by hand,
are crunchy to the core and are easy to coat with dipping sauces. The only slight disappointment is
that these wide rings take up so much space that you just don't get many of them with your order.
Even though BurgerFi has been around for less than a decade, they've quickly forced
everyone to take note due to their focus on serving all-natural and high-quality food.
You won't find any mass-produced items of iffy origins at this fast
food place — and their unique onion rings are another example of that.
A general rule of thumb when you're at Dairy Queen is to stick to their desserts.
They have a plethora of great Blizzard flavors and other sweet goodies like the Chocolate Dipped Cone
and the Buster Bar. However, one exception to this rule is Dairy Queen's onion rings.
Even though these rings aren't a dessert, they're worth every penny you pay for them — and more.
The best part about the onion rings from Dairy Queen is that they're served piping
hot. For that reason, make an effort to eat them right away because they aren't nearly as
good when they cool off. Did you get them from a drive-thru window? If home is far away, pull
over in the parking lot to ensure that you eat these onion rings while they're still fantastic.
Most of the time, greasy onion rings are frowned upon and viewed negatively.
However, at Whataburger, that greasiness is just part of the charm.
Whataburger's onion rings are super crispy, super flavorful, super greasy, and super scrumptious.
You'll be tempted to go back for seconds and thirds after you're done with your first box.
Honestly, the onion rings at Whataburger don't always look pretty. But when it
comes to how they taste, you will never be anything less than overjoyed. Even if
you let them cool all the way off, they are still immensely packed with flavor.
To make things even better,
Whataburger's legendary ketchup is the best dipping sauce on the planet for onion rings.
When it comes to the onion rings at Culver's, everything is perfect.
First of all, they look drop-dead gorgeous. These majestic beings are always a deep golden brown,
always thick, and never falling apart.
Secondly, they have a perfectly crunchy texture,
a perfectly seasoned coating, and an accompanying onion-powered flavor that is so good that you'll
immediately reach for your next ring. The onions they use are naturally sweet,
and once that sweetness combines with the added salt, the combination is breathtaking.
You don't have to sacrifice substance or style when you order your onion rings from Culver's.
Culver's sells around ten million orders of onion rings per year. Why? There's simply
nowhere else in the fast food world you should go when you need the best onion rings around.
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