Customers eating inside Culver's restaurant

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What's your go-to side at Culver's? You can't go wrong with crinkle-cut fries, onion rings, or cheese curds when enjoying one of the chain's beloved ButterBurgers, but there's a particular option its workers don't recommend. That'd be the mashed potatoes and gravy, a dish so derided it made the list of Culver's menu items the staff won't even eat (alongside the chain's salads and gooey CurderBurgers). In a Reddit thread pondering the worst Culver's order, a self-proclaimed assistant manager put it bluntly: "Our mashed potatoes ARE pretty bland ... They're only so bad because they're barely more than straight up mashed potato."

Culver's mashed potatoes consist of russet spuds, milk, and seasonings. Additionally, the chain dresses its mashed 'taters in chicken gravy, which is made with roasted chicken meat and fat. This sounds perfectly tasty, but it's worth mentioning that a former employee claimed on Facebook that the chain used processed spuds. The commenter wrote, "Used to work there way back in the day. Mashed potatoes just come prepacked from Sysco. One of the worst things they have there."

So, you ordered lackluster mashed potatoes. Now what?

Not to be conspiracy-minded, but Culver's might be hip to its employees' distaste for the chain's mashed potatoes. On its website, the restaurant has recommended pairing its pulverized spuds with cheese sauce, which makes us think the side dish is never living down the bland accusations.

If you'd rather eat your mashed potatoes with more traditional fixings, the Culver's assistant manager from Reddit wrote, "[The mashed potatoes are] pretty good if you add a few tabs of butter and [plenty] of salt and pepper." To help you find the tastiest fare on your next visit, here's our ranking of popular Culver's items from worst to best.

Given that Culver's sells some way better sides, you may want to look elsewhere for your fast food mashed potato fix. Popeyes pairs a spicy Cajun gravy with its mashed potatoes, and according to a commenter on Reddit, "The mashed potatoes and gravy are [fire emoji]." And while we don't vouch for the quality of KFC's chicken, the restaurant's mashed potatoes and gravy remain a solid choice. As one person declared on Reddit, "The one thing I have always loved about KFC is the mashed potatoes."