The Reason Fans Can't Stop Talking About This Box Of Chick-Fil-A Fries

Fries are a big deal at Chick-fil-A. For the past four years, the chain's signature Waffle Potato Fries have consistently placed among its top five best-selling menu items, even taking the number one spot in 2017 and 2018 (via The Chicken Wire). Deep-fried, salted, and lattice cut, Chick-fil-A's waffle fries are so good they made it onto Restaurant Business' 10 Most-Loved Fries at Chain Restuarants list — the only chicken chain fries ever to do so.

So when something goes wrong with the brand's waffle fries, it's no surprise that Chick-fil-A fans make an absolute meal of it. Enter the Chick-fil-A subreddit, a meeting place for fans and employees of the chain, that's currently ablaze with controversy surrounding an image recently uploaded by a customer of an unnamed Chick-fil-A location.

The image shows a mostly empty Waffle Fries cup containing a single, sodden waffle fry, with the following caption: "Is this a joke? This is how my large fries came." For the record, large fries at Chick-fil-A are supposed to come filled to the brim, weighing in on average at about 179 grams. Within a day of going up, the post has received over 100 upvotes and generated more than 40 comments, with many Chick-fil-A fans expressing shock and disbelief.

As it turns out, however, underfilled fry cups at Chick-fil-A are an all-too-common occurrence. More than a few commenters on the Reddit post had similar stories to tell of fry cups served with three or fewer fries. One customer took matters into their own hands and contacted their restaurant's manager (supposedly through the Chick-fil-A app), who remedied the situation. The solution for others was to stop ordering large-size fries (by the sound of it, underfilling occurs less often with small and medium sizes), or to stop ordering fries altogether.

Fortunately, an explanation for the underfilled fry cup did, eventually, emerge — although whether it's a satisfactory one is up for debate. As more than one Chick-fil-A employee suggested, underfilled fry cups are usually the fault of whoever happens to be bagging meals at the time. Fry trays will sometimes have leftover scrap fries, which are used to partially fill fry cups before the next fry tray comes out of the oven. All it takes is an overzealous (and probably overworked) bagger to load that limbo-fry cup into an order and, voilà, you have the inexplicable single-fry waffle fry cup.

As for the scrappy, no-lattice fries you sometimes find at the bottom of your cup? Those are actually called "potato skin fries" and are fully intentional!