9 Culver's Side Items, Ranked Worst To Best

Wisconsin-based chain Culver's may be best known for its Butterburgers and frozen custard desserts, but it's also one of the small handful of fast food chains to order cheese curds from. Culver's selection of sides goes far beyond that, with everything from soups to pretzel bites to more fried delicacies, with even some lighter accompaniments for the folks who want the bulk of their meal's calories to come from the main course. I first tried Culver's decades ago in Wisconsin itself, long before the chain had migrated down south to my hometown. Despite being a contested cheese curd among actual Wisconsinites (who have specific, if not exacting, standards for the dish), those cheese curds have never left my memory. They were a culinary revelation at the time, and I wanted to know not only how their quality has held up through the years, but also how they compared to the other Culver's sides. Maybe the chain has something even better — or maybe not!

I tested each side as soon as possible after I arrived home with it. The fried options came first, as the passage of time is particularly unkind to such foods. Although there are several ordering hacks for Culver's side dishes (like a TikTok poutine fries hack), I rated the items as they came on the menu, with a focus on flavor and texture. Here's what I discovered during my delicious and fascinating experiment.

Don't get me wrong, here. I love steamed veggies, broccoli included, and I love the fact that Culver's has it on its menu. This side of steamed broc is an indispensable option on days your stomach, taste buds, or nutrition conscience wants something fairly innocuous to pair with your Culver's Bacon Deluxe Butterburger. This container of tiny trees ranks last place for a couple of reasons, but rest assured, a personal dislike of broccoli is not one of them.

The first reason is down to the florets themselves: a number of them were already broken up when I removed the lid, resulting in a fair amount of broccoli speckles and tiny, droopy morsels reminiscent of the veg offering at a lunch buffet right before it closes. The broccoli wasn't quite mushy, but it was bordering on it, and I prefer mine al dente. Flavor-wise, it was a tad bland, not coming salted or seasoned. There's nothing to stop you doing that yourself, though, and kicking the yum up a notch. Would I still order this on a trip to Culver's? Sure, I would. It's a rare treat, ironically, to find steamed broccoli at a fast food joint.

All food is subjective, perhaps coleslaw more than others. Some prefer the vinegary style, others the creamy, mayo-based version. I am Team Mayo all the way, and I also like my slaw to contain some bigger chunks of cabbage to contrast with the more finely minced pieces. Culver's cup of slaw satisfied the dressing side of those two criteria. It had a great balance of mayo sauce to cabbage, and it wasn't watery; it coated all those uniformly minced shreds of veggies. They weren't the crunchiest shreds ever, but they weren't soggy, either — similar to the steamed broccoli.

The flavor, though, was a little bland; it could have used more seasoning. Ultimately, it was just your standard coleslaw, and it wasn't particularly cold (probably because it rode home in a bag with hot stuff), which didn't help. As far as coleslaw goes, it's fine; it gets the job done. There were just so many more tasty sides at Culver's that there was no way to rate it higher.

Let's get one thing clear: As far as fast food french fries go, Culver's were good. Their seventh-place ranking here comes solely down to the fact that there were other side dishes that eclipsed them in terms of "wow" factor. If I were to roll up to Culver's on a day when I'm craving the traditional, I would definitely get an order of these. But Culver's, for me, is already an exotic option in fast food land; it holds a mystique, perhaps from that long-ago Wisconsin Culver's trip that lives on in my memory. A sleeve of tasty crinkle-cut fries can be obtained elsewhere.

For the most part, these were pleasantly crunchy, with nice, crispy edges on all the pieces, even on the occasional floppy straggler (I do actually love floppy french fries as much as crispy ones; I guess I just love fries?). To my taste, they were salted just right, too: I like a side dish to be "reasonably" salty. It's not the star of the show, so it shouldn't sing louder than the main. These fries accomplish that perfectly.

When I pulled the lid off the carton of this Culver's side, I wiggled my toes in anticipation. They (the taters, not my toes) were fluffy and glistening with pepper-specked cream gravy. Brown gravy is fine in its own right, but nothing like the delight of the good ol' creamy stuff when it comes to potatoes.

These mashed potatoes were ultra-smooth and velvety. If you like some lumps in them, you won't get them with Culver's. The gravy came on the potatoes, of course, but in my carton, it had been poured off to the side, leaving some of the spuds dry. I tried them plain and found them ... well ... a little more plain than I would expect. A bite with gravy, however, was a delight. There was a sweetness to it that hit nicely on the back of the palate, enhanced by the black pepper. Just a little more gravy would have been better, because once you mix it all in, the peppery, creamy, sweet effect is dampened. In all, as far as traditional sides go, this one was pretty good, and I'd order it if I were in the mood — but there were other Culver's sides I'd be more likely to crave over this one.

Two of the Culver's sides I reviewed came in the type of long box you might receive a chili hot dog in — a "messy food" box, in other words. (If chili cheddar fries came in anything else, I'd be disappointed.) On opening this box, the first thing I noticed was the ample serving size. Depending on your hunger levels and general appetite, these are shareable as a side dish. These were also craveable enough, however, that I can see people pulling into Culver's just to get them as an indulgent meal.

What we have here is a beany, meaty chili over crinkle-cut fries, then topped with Wisconsin cheddar cheese. The latter sank to the bottom so that the lower layer of fries was totally saturated. This is not a complaint; a fry, like a nacho, is allowed to be soggy in this situation. If you don't like that effect, this may be a side dish you'd want to eat in-store rather than tote home. 

A little more chili would have been better for me — it was really tasty — but this was a minor issue: the fries that did get a dousing of it soaked it up very nicely. Best of all, despite the fact that this side is probably a sodium bomb, it didn't read as too salty on my palate.

The chili that piqued my interest in the chili cheddar fries turned out to be as tasty in its original form as I predicted it would be. Culver's serves a bean and meat chili; this is my favorite style, both for the captivating mouthfeel and the richer flavor. This one also has diced tomatoes and onions (and apparently celery, per Culver's website, though I didn't see or taste it). It was well-seasoned, with a moderate spice level that crept up on me and made itself known first in the back of the throat. No, this chili won't beat the best homemade version you've ever had, but I bet it would outperform some of the store-bought canned chili brands we ranked.

What I like about this chili over the chili cheddar fries is that it's a smidge more realistic as a side dish for me. Despite my enthusiastic sampling of Culver's offerings, I'm kind of a "health person." This is more in line with my typical eating style. I'd order it either as an actual side or as the protein in a small meal.

Here they are: the Culver's side dish that inspired this experiment in the first place. The Wisconsin cheese curds didn't turn out to be the best of the lot, but they were still pretty darned good. When I ordered them at the counter, I inquired about dipping sauces — caramel sauce in particular, which turns out to be one of the best dipping sauces for fried curds; I was extremely curious to try this pairing. Alas, no, the store didn't have it, so I went for the signature sauce instead.

These cheese curds were nice and squeaky on the teeth, as cheese curds should be, and had a fun, springy texture. The breading was lightly seasoned and contrasted well with the strong cheese flavor and the tang of the signature sauce.

I do have two complaints, though. These weren't as crispy on the outside as the Culver's cheese curds I remember from years ago. It's possible the breading lost its mojo on the way home. That's something to think about if you must have a crispy exterior, since I didn't take an inordinately long time to taste them. Also, yes, these are supposed to be salty, but they were a tad too much so for my taste. I couldn't eat a whole portion of them, unlike some of the other sides. That said, I'd love to try a bite after doing the Culver's ordering hack for chili cheese curds, where you pour George's chili and Wisconsin cheese sauce over it all; talk about decadent.

Cheese curds aren't the only unique side dish on the Culver's menu; the chain also offers hot pretzel bites with a side of Wisconsin cheese sauce. The idea sounded intriguing but hard to pull off in a fast food context– I pictured cold pretzel balls, or, even worse, stale ones. They were still hot, though, when I opened up my box, and as for flavor, well, "Holy cow, these are good," is what I said into my phone notes when I took my first bite.

They were lightly oily on the outside and salty like you'd expect from a pretzel — not salty as if somebody got too excited with the salt shaker. Stale? No way: They were a joy to sink my teeth into; this is a food that deserves the word "toothsome." There was a slight sweetness to the pretzels that the salt enhanced, and the cheese sauce didn't compete with everything else going on. 

This is perhaps Culver's most addictive side dish. "Get these away from me," I said aloud, and moved them to another room; I had other side dishes to test, and it wouldn't have been fair to the remaining contenders if my stomach was filled with pretzel bites. My only complaint, if you can call it that, is that these are more like a snack than a side dish; as attention-grabby as they are on the taste buds, I can't imagine eating them alongside another dish — maybe a salad?

If you'd told me a side dish as mundane as onion rings was going to rule this list, I'd have laughed. Onion rings are great, but how much could they stand out among a list of foods as diverse as this one? A lot, as it happened.

First was the batter. "Phenomenal," I said. It was perfectly seasoned and oily to just the right degree. The generous quantity I received in this medium order was, indeed, something to write home about — it has sharing potential. Another great thing about these onion rings was that their batter is the more dense style. They weren't bloated and flaky in the way that some eateries make them; biting into one, you're not going to drip specks of batter everywhere. Finally, their flavor, texture, and potential to satiate won't compete with whatever main you order from Culver's, unlike the chili cheddar fries or cheese curds. They are the ultimate side dish. Oh, and dipped in the signature sauce? Exquisite.

For this review and ranking, I chose nine Culver's sides that are either fast food standards (french fries, for instance) or that are popular with reviewers on Reddit. The chain has a few more items that I didn't rank for the sake of brevity, such as a garden salad or applesauce, but as these are fairly generic, they were rejected in favor of others. No items were modified with Culver's ordering hacks; I ordered them as is. The only exception was the fried cheese curds; I got a side of signature sauce for these and described its effect for the readers' benefit, though I did not take it into account when ranking.

All sides were taste-tested right away on arrival at home, with fried items being tasted before others to ensure they were still as crispy as possible. The criteria for a top-ranking side dish was a pleasant, balanced flavor and an appropriate texture for the item in question. For instance, fried food should be as crisp as possible, pretzel bites should not be stale and rubbery, etc.