What Are Your Top Ways to Eat Potatoes?

Omigoodness… I love this question, and I feel like potatoes are a love language all their own. Mine are… in third place, steak cut pub fries, crisp on the outside and fluffy inside (best ones are from the England pavilion at Epcot, eaten late in a long day while watching the fireworks). In second place is my grandma’s German potato salad, which tastes like summer and cousins and sprinklers and joy. And top of the heap would be my late Welsh mom’s “English scallops”, which are potatoes sliced thin, battered, deep fried, and eaten with salt and vinegar. Sublime. Just thinking of these makes me happy and tearful and nostalgic… and hungry 🥹

Irish so hard to choose just three. The simplicity of baby potatoes perfectly boiled with salted butter – good enough to eat alone if you get a nice subtly sweet variety. Christmas garlicky cheesy potatoes with double cream and vintage cheddar on top, with the potatoes parboiled so they hold their shape but don’t absorb all the creamy, cheesy, garlicky goodness, but also don’t turn into mush – a difficult balance! Leftover baby potatoes sliced or whole (if really little) floating in a curry for extra carby goodness…yum!

I’m Irish and potatoes are one of my very favorite foods. My dad grew potatoes for decades, in our back garden. We ate them daily. I love them mashed with just enough butter (real Irish butter or vegan butter), roasted – 400f for about 40 minutes, par-boiled for five minutes prior to roasting, and really good hand cut fries. In Ireland we have potato waffles and I wish we could get them here in the US. Sometimes I make potato cakes with leftover mash, gf flour, a pinch of salt and chopped chives. Yum! A few years ago a doctor suggested I eliminate potato from my diet. I did, for about six months, but it was torture. I’m so glad I brought them back. What is life without potatoes?!

Bag of English crisps with a real ale — FTW Real mashed potatoes with a bit of parsley and so much butter Potato pancakes made from leftover mash I’m of Irish extraction so could probably keep listing …

Baked potato, crispy skinned with real butter and sour cream Potato latkes French fries from a fast food & ice cream stand

This is very hard when you’re forced to decide. I think mine would be: 1. My mom’s holiday sweet potatoes (aka diced and roasted in a pan with a crap load of butter until they are crispy and really sweet). 2. Poutine from the Canadian Steakhouse at the Epcot Pavilion (Le Cellier) 3. Shoestring fries from my favorite local restaurant. So thin, so crispy and they give you so many!

I love all potato dishes. My only requirement is that they must be completely soft inside and ideally but not necessarily crispy on the outside. I’m ok with an entirely tender potato, as in vegan German potato salad (my mom’s specialty).

1. Roast potatoes, roasted in the pan with chicken or lamb. My grandma and mom both made/make excellent ones, and I haven’t yet mastered them. Grandma would never make as many as we all wanted and she would count out how many pieces each person got to make sure it was evenly divided. 2. Mashed potatoes. I make good ones, with skins on, parmesan cheese, sour cream, butter, and garlic salt. But the real reason they’re on the list is because you can put SAUCE on them! Especially my partner’s steak au poivre sauce :) 3. Tater tots. I love fries too, but tater tots are better. There’s a bar near me that makes really good ones that you can get with a really good cheese sauce too. Although I saw another comment that listed Waffle House hashbrowns and they’re a nostalgic close 4th for me!

Jamie Oliver;’s crunchy Tuscan Potatoes which are like roast potatoes but smaller and crunchier and you roast them with chunks of shaved lemon peel, rosemary and garlic.

Dauphinoise potatoes (I infuse the cream with garlic, nutmeg and white pepper). Greek roasted potatoes (lemon and garlic and oregano and chicken broth). Truffle fries with lots of mayonnaise, preferably eaten next to the sea.

Baked. The easiest way to make potatoes! Truly. Just poke holes in them and stick them in the oven at 375 F. For an hour. Top with butter, then salt and pepper, then a dollop of sour cream. We eat these every Saturday night with burgers except when it’s too hot to run the oven in summer. Mashed. Our kids’ favorite, hands down. I love them too. But this is more work than baked! Roasted sweet potatoes. We cube them and put them on a sheet pan with olive oil and salt and pepper for half an hour. We add sausages split in half to the pan for the last 10 minutes. So yummy!

Poutine! Cheese curds and gravy smothered fries for the win. Roast potatoes are a close second, with a really awesome potato salad for third place. And now I’m going to cook roast chicken and potatoes for dinner.

Prairie Fire (restaurant) in Brookline (Boston) MA, has Smoked Crispy Potatoes wi Black Garlic Aioli, Fried Shallots, and Fried Chicken Skin…..it’s been a YEAR, since our trip there, and I still wake up dreaming of those potatoes. They haunt me. They taunt me. They drive me wild. We ate there 3 times. in 7 days. If it is within a train or bus ride (don’t drive, it is still Boston), GO THERE!!!!! You might weep with potatoe joy. We girl and I both did.

I’m going to venture out into the dating world soon after the end of nearly 20-year relationship, and I have just added this question to a new note “Date Questions”! What are some other fun date questions, dear commenters? Help a sister out!

Homemade oven fries with Old Bay seasoninge and dipped in chili sauce, roasted mashed sweet potatoes from “Eat Better” cookbook, Zapp’s New Orleans Kettle Style Voodoo chips.

1. boil ’em 2. mash ’em 3. stick ’em in a stew :)

Not sure if someone mentioned this, but the Turmeric Potatoes with a Whole Lotta Lemon from Sohla El-Waylly’s cookbook are truly something special.

#1 – potates dauphinoise – thinly sliced and cooked in cream! #2 – thin potato chips (Siete does a good job) with my home-made chip-dip: fresh onion + fresh garlic + fresh ginger + sour cream (blend in mini food processor) #3 – five guys fries! or maybe my mom’s mashed potatoes (red potatoes, skins on). or maybe just boiled new potatoes. or… same boiled potatoes next day, sliced and fried in butter. THERE ARE TOO MANY WAYS!

1. Cape Cod Salt and Vinegar Potato chips on the beach (preferably, on the cape) 2. French fries at a restaurant in Vermont. I married a Vermonter and their French fry culture is unparalleled. Such a high percentage of restaurants and snack shacks there have truly excellent fries (dark, super crispy, salty). 3. Roasted potatoes in my own oven mid-winter, along with a roast chicken and quick aioli. 425 for 40-60 min (flip halfway through) to get truly dark.

1) growing up the most midwest casserole at every Easter or funeral – cubed frozen hash brown potatoes mixed with sour cream, shredded cheese, onions, topped with crushed cornflakes covered in butter (heart attack potatoes but YUM). Best served with ham. 2) loving the new boom of brands of beef tallow frozen french fries – in the 80s the McDonald’s fries I grew up on were fried in beef tallow and now I think these taste reminiscent of those (now McD’s uses way more ingredients and different oils and I don’t like them) 3) new fave from a local restaurant – they are basically mashed potatoes formed into firmer balls and breaded, fried, and dipped in a chive cream. AMAZING.

On our daughter’s kindergarten entry form we put “Potatoes in every formate” as her favorite food. My favorites are new potatoes with herby quark and a czech version of hash browns with lots (!) of garlic in them. Boths are dinners that my husband cooks, additional plus.

1. Waffle House hashbrowns (scattered, smothered, covered, peppered, chunked, capped). 2. Instant mashed potatoes (hello childhood) 3. Greek-style, covered with lemon and oregano and dipped in tzatziki

1: ”Most excellent boiled potatoes.” The only point on which I agree with Mr. Collins. They must be small, newly harvested, and drowning in wonderful olive oil. They always remind me of my lovely grandfather, whom I only saw angry once: the day my youngest cousin accidentally split my sister’s head open with a potato hoe while we were harvesting them. 2: German potato salad. It takes me straight back to my teenage years, studying in the summer abroad and living with very different host families. I hated almost dish they served and was hungry a lot of the time, except when there was potato salad. Still tastes like relief. 3: NYT Cooking’s Ombre Gratin. Ever since the recipe was published, I’ve made it every Christmas Eve. It tastes like time, love, and pure luxury. (I make it with purple sweet potatoes instead of beets.)

For me – Potato soup. Twice Baked. Scalloped. I have a 10 year old daughter who will not touch a potato in ANY form. Not even fries or chips. Never has. I have a 21 year old daughter who has started making “Baked Potato Flights” for her roommates when it is her turn to cook dinner. It has become their Sunday dinner tradition through college. Filling, cheap, and lots of variations.

My favorite way to eat potatoes is by boiling them. While they are boiling, I sautée cabbage and lots of fresh garlic with butter and olive oil. Then I add half and half, more butter, chicken powder and white pepper to the potatoes (which have been properly drained) Mash them to the perfect consistency, add the cabbage and garlic and top with chopped scallions (green part only) It’s like a more flavorful colcannon. Sometimes I like to add a bit of chili oil to mine, but that is optional.

Roasted potatoes (skin-on, cut into chunks, roasted at high heat until crisp). That’s my favorite. I’m meh on non-crispy potatoes.

Many years ago, my best friend asked our friend group what our “comfort food” was. That was a fun conversation! My answer was potatoes, another girl was Oreos. That Christmas she gave us each a fancy plate overflowing with our comfort food! I of course got a plate of Idaho bakers, lol. My top three potatoes: 1 – McD’s Fries – fresh and slightly floppy 2 – Potato Chips, any kind! 3 – Baked Potato with toppings of butter, cheese, sour cream

Just the fact that Cup of Jo now has a potato page tells me I’m in the right place.

My mother’s potato salad, still can’t replicate. My grandmother’s scalloped potatoes (they were from a box). French fries in the Dominican Republic overlooking the ocean.

❤️ your bros tip!

Obviously potato chips, any type. I’m based in Denmark and my absolutely favorite way to eat potatoes are the traditional “kartoffelmad”: new potatoes boiled in salty water, sliced on a slice of rye bread, mayo and chives on top. Perfect summer lunch. Photo of said kartoffelmad: https://www.valdemarsro.dk/helt-enkelt/.

Zweifel Paprika Chips – devoured during our Switzerland honeymoon. I didn’t bring any home thinking surely I could find them in the US. I did buy the seasoning mix though! (Easier to pack!) Imagine my intense disappointment upon discovering it costs an arm and a leg to get them in the US because they have to be shipped from Switzerland! I have been rationing out that seasoning on popcorn for a year and a half! Also… Tater tots. And ketchup. Sometimes made with cheese and jalapeños as totchos with guacamole. Sweet potato fries. Especially from Winston in Norman, OK (where they are drizzled with fried herbs and hot honey) or The Cowgirl in Santa Fe against a backdrop of glittery walls. Who wants a baked potato or a potato salad when you can have it fried with a dipping sauce?! Not me!!

This is indeed an excellent ice-breaker and I will use it. Answer: mashed, baked, roast. The first two as cooked by my late mother, the roast by my late mother-in-law. Old school.

BBQ potato chips (preferably UTZ) used to scoop cottage cheese. Anyone who marries into the family thinks we’re crazy, but everyone on my mom’s side loves it!

I have recently been discussing this very subject with my 8 year old daughter who is a big potato fan and I have started to introduce her to the joys of English jacket potatoes. She never wanted to veer from her beloved mashed potatoes but I promised these are even better and now she wants to try all kinds of potatoes. Hassleback is next…

I have a few top ways. My Yiayia’s lemon potatoes. Their made either with chicken or on their own. They have this deep lemon, olive oil, garlic flavor and are, somehow, simultaneously soft inside and very crispy on the outside. I also love mashed potatoes with a great shredded beef red wine based stew in winter. And I will never, ever say no to potato samosas.

The best potatoes I have ever eaten were fresh McDonald’s french fries after my frozen embryo transfer. I’m not sure how this tradition started in the infertility community, but I’ll take it! I’m gearing up for my second transfer and am already looking forward to eating those fries on my drive home.

are potatoes god?

Fried in a taco with cheese, inside a Samosa, french fried . . . Is there anything a potato cannot do? Also deeply in love with roasted sweet potatoes.

This was the “check in question” at a staff meeting just a couple weeks ago. Two surprises: add it through more than a dozen people before some admitted to French fries as their favorite and I learned about tattoo potatoes! https://www.californiaoliveranch.com/recipes/tattooed-potatoes-with-rosemary?srsltid=AfmBOoo7C24n2LPpq5wUnT_wejytvu0H6OPTLgmVZLngrQa_TRTODqhc

thin & crispy with dipping sauces :D

if we are just talking normal potatoes: 1. roasted baby potatoes 2. smashed crispy potatoes 3. tots I have to say I also really love sweet potatoes in many forms as well especially the Japanese ones

I’ve really enjoyed reading these answers – but it has somehow converted me from Potato Agnostic to Potato Atheist haha. Not trying to be negative, just putting it out there for anyone who might feel seen. :)

I am a high school teacher and this question will definitely be part of beginning of the year get to know you fun!! Also… this was kind of hard to narrow down to just 3! 1. Mom’s Sunday brunch fried potatoes. 2. Classic baked potato 3. Chips wrapped up from a chippy! This means I am on vacation somewhere! 2.

Top 3 potato memories: > Sitting on the kitchen bench as a kid, sharing a bag of salted kettle fries with Mum while she cooks dinner > Somebody made me Hasselback potatoes as a kid. It’s my first memory of a ‘new’ potato and I still love them. > Grandma’s fried potatoes for breakfast – thick cut leftover boiled potatoes, extra crispy, extra salt, extra bbq sauce.

Lately the algorithm has been feeding me clips of the podcast DISH and they ask all of their guests this question! And their favorite crisps among other things. The hosts have great chemistry, it’s such a balm!!! Highly recommend!

1. Crispy tater tots in a breakfast burrito 2. Twice baked horseradish potatoes with cheddar that I make every Christmas Eve 3. Salt and Vinegar Cape Cod potato chips on the beach with my 6 year old daughter.

Rarely comment but I have to represent: JOJO’s!! AKA Potato wedges. Obviously the right answer here, people…

1. Crispy hand cut with honey mustard 2. Roasted Korean Sweet Potatoes eaten room temperature 3. Salt and vinegar Kettle Chips alone with a good book

Once in a blue moon, my husband will make fries at home sprinkled with chipotle powder and salt, then we dip them in mayo. It’s the best combination. We stole the idea from a bar in SF. Also, Maui onion potato chips, layered into whatever sandwich I’m eating.

1) Crispy smashed potatoes (as found in Palace Diner in Biddeford, ME); 2) crispy iron skillet potatoes, cooked directly on Greatgrandma’s wood burning stove decades ago, then unexpectedly rediscovered in a roadside diner in Maine; 3) poutine!! I was appalled at first, then fully converted on my second visit to Montreal; a food truck at the jazz festival had the best one so far!

1) When I used to do trail marathons, the pit-stop waxy gold potatoes that had been boiled in salty water, followed by a shot of pickle juice 2) My husband’s breakfast potatoes, consumed while watching Adventure Time together 3) Any shoestring fry with a half dozen oysters at any New England coastal town

My cheeky husband would say with his mouth. 😜 My favorite ways to eat potatoes? Plain Lay’s in the yellow bag (I am a slut for them), potato salad (mayo, French style, doesn’t matter…it’s a salad, thus a veggie), tots (low brow, but all that surface area for toppings is my fav) and I love a baked stuffed potato.

1. The french fries at Handline in Sebastopol (Sonoma County, CA) are amazing, love them with a dozen fresh oysters after a day at the beach. 2. My brother’s twice baked potatoes (butter! cheese! garlic!) 3. Really crispy hash browns with ketchup

damn, this is tough. but i do know that i will be an outlier, because chips and fries are not it for me. those over-processed hash brown patty things, au gratin/scalloped, and twice baked!

Haha – great newish podcast answered exactly this question! https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-podcasts/2060-the-big-five/episode/16213879-the-culturally-pervasive-hash-brown Also offers this pod is perfect for family road trips and games night – we’re making up categories constantly!

1. Home fries 2. Extra crispy hash browns 3. An inventive flavor of potato chips (Zapp’s Voodoo, or any number of HEB flavors)

incredibly question. i read every comment!!! for me… 1. very crunchy french fries with mayo 2. put into a dumpling situation, like a pierogi 3. as the mashed receiver for gravy in… anything honorable mentions to kettle chips with french onion dip and to lay’s all dressed chips and to breakfast potatoes and to the aloo part of aloo gobi DIShonourable mention to mcdonald’s fries, which i think are only the paltry ghosts of potatoes!

Well, I can’t turn on my oven right now, but we’ve made this Smitten Kitchen recipe often. https://smittenkitchen.com/2025/10/baked-potatoes-with-crispy-broccoli-and-bacon/ It’s such a cozy and satisfying dinner! We’ve added leeks to it, and love that mild oniony flavor with the broccoli.

Love this question and will be asking it at future parties. Until recently, I would have had a different answer but last week I had the potato salad at Olive et Gourmando in Montreal and it was amazing! As someone that is not generally a potato salad lover (or any mayo-y salads in general) this one really surprised me. I went to see if there was a dupe recipe online after eating there and found that they shared the actual recipe!! (Bonus points it’s vegan) https://tastet.ca/en/recipes/olive-gourmandos-potato-salad/

The gnocchi at Barbuto in NYC are peak potato perfection! They vary the accompaniments on a seasonal basis, but whoa do I dream about those fluffy, pan fried little pockets of joy. I don’t even live in NYC, but every time I visit I make a reservation and order the gnocchi.

1. boiled, then tossed in a little melted butter and a LOT of caraway seeds (the czech way) 2. my mom’s mashed potatoes (velvety smooth, made with the perfect balance of milk, butter, and a lot of love) 3. walker’s potato chips, the “seriously vinegar” flavor. they don’t mess around with that flavor!

I love potatoes every which way but when the chips (!) are down all I want to do is drown my sorrows in a vat of mashed potatoes.

I’m a big fan of surprise fries- the ones that fall out into the bag that rightfully belong to whoever purchased the fries! I rarely purchase fries for myself, but I do purchase them for my children often, and the surprise fries are always mine! They understand this and stopped arguing with me about it a long time ago, surprise fries belong to mom, no questions asked.

Dirty mashed potatoes with tons of garlic.

1. Mashed, with lots of cheese, a bit of salt and pepper, cayenne pepper, butter, and some cottage cheese. 2. Waffle fries, especially if they’re seasoned and crispy…yum! 3. Same goes for potato wedges. I used to love KFC’s because of their seasoning and crispiness.

made the roast potatoes from the recipe you posted a while back, and they were a hit! they’re what I’m always striving for: browned, deeply flavored, crispy in parts. I eat ice cream out of mugs exclusively for exactly the same reason as your brother.

1. French Fries. Especially paired with a dirty martini at happy hour 2. Torres Black Truffle chips. I live for the little salty bits at the bottom of the bag 3. Cajunized Tater Tots. Oregonian through and through! Best industrial excess invention ever.

Im Russian so I can’t choose just one. The most versatile is boiled (add garlic cloves with the potatoes) then doused in butter, dill and salt- the leftovers can be fried, mashed, roasted whatever and the potatoes are good as is.

#1 Well done home fries. I spent the first 5 years of my career going to deli’s with my boss/mentor/writing partner and I can’t not order well done home fries. I’ll even sub them for fries if it’s an option. #2 potatoes laynese (sp?) – my mom made them from me during my childhood in new orleans – you slide onions and potatoes into medallions and layer them in a large pot (lots of butter on the bottom) plus salt and pepper – the onions almost melts and caramelize and the potatoes get soft but crispy on the bottom. #3 – waffle fries – I don’t see these often, but such a good crispy to soft ratio. I don’t really get mashed potatoes or baked potatoes, sure with enough butter and cheese I’ll eat them, but seems like a waste of a potato