Fast-Food Fried Fish Sandwiches, Ranked

Burgers and fried chicken get all the attention. It’s always burger this and chicken that. What about fish? What of the humble, fried fish sandwich?

Plenty of chains sell one. Some even specialize in them. Want to know where to go next time the craving hits? I tried seven fast-food fried fish sandwiches and ranked them according to my painfully specific personal preferences. Here’s what I found.

Before I even talk about the walleye sandwich itself, I need to make something perfectly clear: Culver’s decimated the competition in this taste test. Truly destroyed everybody. Their not-one-but-two sandwiches are the only ones that taste like an actual piece of fried fish. Many of the others I tried seemed like fish patties, mashed together to form something resembling a sandwich shape. At Culver’s, it legitimately tastes like they just dipped a battered piece of fish into a fryer, took it out, and served it to you. In fact, they claim that these are all made to order.

My walleye was properly seasoned, tender inside, and crispy outside. Unfortunately, the thick, all-too-sweet roll that it’s served on is a little overwhelming, but I can get past that. This is the best piece of fried fish you can get at a fast-food joint.

Culver’s is just flexing now. Arby’s has more than one fish sandwich, but it’s the same piece of fish served on different buns. Culver’s has two different species. The cod is only slightly less tasty than the walleye, and still about 20,000 leagues above the sea where the rest of these sandwiches swim.

Do I understand why they’re sticking it on these thick, sweet buns and decorating them with shredded cheese? No, I don’t. But I’m not here to question it.

Long John’s, reasonably enough, has one of the better sandwiches I tasted. I want to be clear that there’s a chasm of quality between this one and the Culver’s sandwich, but this does the trick. Pickles are monumental here. If Silver’s batter were better, I’d be more interested. Pretty bland, though, and the huge bun sucks away a lot of flavor. You’re better off with a plate.

Really not bad at all. The long, fishstick-like patty on this guy has solid flavor, isn’t too fishy, and came out crispy. Another huge plus for Arby’s is the shredded lettuce, which goes an extremely long way. Same deal with the sesame seed bun. We all know Arby’s has the meats, but it looks like they have the fish, too.

I like the long, winged, V-shape that Dairy Queen is hawking. This is perfectly decent, and certainly a good deal better than the final two. But, the fact remains: If you’ve come to DQ for a Blizzard, I’ve got a sneaking suspicion you’re not pairing that bad boy with a fried cod sandwich.

McDonald’s widely-beloved Filet-o-Fish is a mystery to me. Rather, it’s a mystery to me why people love it so much. It’s fine. Totally edible, and mostly because it tastes like nothing. Maybe that’s why there’s cheese here, which is another layer of this mystery. Did Dan Brown come up with the Filet–o-Fish?

Foof. This is by far the fishiest of the fish sandwiches I tasted, and believe it or not, that’s not a great thing. Good fish, fresh fish, doesn’t taste fishy. It has tons of clean flavor but that flavor isn’t supposed to be fishy. This guy has pickles on it, which I appreciate, but there’s an unsettling feeling after each bite, wondering exactly what you just put in your mouth.

I hope I just had a bad one, but if this is the standard for the King’s fish, I’d avoid it at all costs.