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Fries are a delicacy. I’m not even talking about fancy handmade fries, which are wonderful. No, I specifically mean factory-made, flash frozen, packed in a plastic bag, indisputably junk food variety fries. They’re in a league of their own.
While restaurants might have the resources to deep fry their French fries, most households are must rely on simpler methods. For me, that’s the air fryer. On a quest to determine which type of French fry fares best in the powerful crisping of an air fryer, I cooked five different types and judged the results. Let it never be said that I won’t go above and beyond to discover the truth.
Finding the best air fryer French fry
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
While looking through my grocery store’s freezer section, I quickly realized that this would be no easy task. After some consideration (should I compare brands? Flavors?), I decided to focus on fry shape: Would some shapes cook better in the air fryer than others?
I grabbed bags of straight cut, steak cut, curly, waffle, and crinkle fries to determine which one would be the air fried best. My criteria: texture, flavor, and cooking speed.
For all of the fries tested, I put them in my Instant Vortex air fryer (one of my top air fryer picks of 2025) and cranked the temperature up to 400°F. I consider high heat and a shorter time frame to be the best way to cook fries. Ideally you want to crisp up the outside while leaving the center soft and potato-y. Too low of a temperature or too long of a cooking time and you’ll likely dry out the fries.
None of the fries were pre-treated with any oil or salt, but added straight from the bag into the basket, unadulterated. I worked with small batches to allow for better air flow. When air frying at home, take care to keep the fries in a single layer—don’t crowd them or the trapped steam will complicate your quest for crispness.
The candidates and how they performed
McCain waffle fries
I was pleasantly surprised by these waffle fries. After just four minutes at 400°F they were ready to be removed from the air fryer. I cooled them on a wire cooling rack (this prevents humidity from getting trapped underneath the fries and making them mushy) and they were perfect. In terms of flavor, they were delightful—not too salty, and a good potato flavor. The texture was also perfect: a crisp exterior, not over-browned, and a soft, fluffy potato interior.
Red Robin steak cut fries
Of all the fries I tested, these took the longest to cook—about 10 minutes. The steak cut fry is generally a larger piece of tater. It’s sliced in wide, flat strips and may be seasoned or not seasoned. I always assumed that “steak cut” referred to the shape being thicker like a steak, but the ones I tested were actually seasoned in a way that tasted like steak. In theory anyway—the seasoning was fairly subtle and not exactly delicious.
On that note: I found these fries to be fairly bland. And despite the extra cooking time, the exterior was none too crispy, and what little crisp there was disappeared because the interior steam softened it as the fries cooled enough to eat. In short, this shape did not fare well in the air fryer. On the plus side, the center was nice and soft.
Nathan’s crinkle cut fries
High hopes, I had. In my mind, these fries would air fry as golden and flavorful as they do at the Nathan’s counter in Coney Island. Sadly, my hopes were dashed. Like the steak cut fries, these crinkle cuts were thickly cut, and it seem that extra potato interior simply releases too much moisture to crisp the outside before it begins to burn. I had mine in for about six minutes before the crinkled edges began to brown dramatically. They cooked through, but they remained soft. To make matters worse, this brand delivered an unpleasantly bland fry.
Arby’s curly fries
Back to the thin shapes we go. The next batch I air-fried were the Arby’s curly fries. I think it’s safe to say in order to qualify as a curly fry, it must have a heavily orange-colored seasoning. These did not disappoint. I popped the Arby’s fries into the Instant Vortex for about four or five minutes and they were ready to go. They didn’t take on as much color as the Nathan’s fries, but they managed to be twice as crisp. After cooling slightly, these curly fries had all cooked evenly. Their flavor was excellent—that perfect balance of salt and seasoning that can pair well with anything from a bowl of ramen to a chocolate milkshake.
Ore-Ida straight cut fries
I ended my taste testing with a classic: straight cut fries. I’ve made these many times before, so I knew there would be no difficulty making them into the platonic ideal of the air-fried french fry. They came out crispy, well-seasoned, and irresistibly snackable in the way only straight cut fries can be. In a way, straight cut fries are the control for all air fryer French fries: The texture yields crunch, but there’s always a strip of soft potato in the center, and they’re flavorful, but not seasoned per se. The straight cut fry almost seems like it was always made to be air fried.
The best French fries to cook in an air fryer
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
For crunch lovers
Stick to a classic: After air frying, straight cut fries will be your crispiest option, without getting unpleasantly crunchy. Plus, you can always pull them out a little early if you don’t like them to be too crunchy.
For pillowy-soft centers
Steak cut fries are the winner in this category because they’re thickest and despite the added cooking time, the center stays soft and fluffy.
For the best flavor
Maybe it’s cheating because they are literally dusted in delicious savory seasoning, but the curly fries tasted the best out of the air fryer. They also exuded a little more oil than the others, so that seems to help them strike a balance with flavor and texture.
The best air fryer fries overall
While the straigt cuts were a close contender, waffle fries win gold as the best air fryer French fry. These fries cooked the quickest, developed both a crisp exterior and soft, fluffy interior, and offered the best unseasoned flavor. As an added bonus, waffle fries are big and weirdly shaped, and their irregularity makes choosing the next fry from your plate a continuous adventure—and a sense of adventure is something I value in a snack.
