10 Store Bought Potato Salads Ranked Worst To Best

Potato salad is an absolute must at any summer cookout or picnic. It pairs well with most things grilled and travels well as long as it is kept cold. (Because most potato salads contain mayonnaise, they shouldn't be left out of the fridge without being kept chilled longer than two hours.) It can also be made in many different ways, allowing opportunity to take dietary restrictions into account for a gathering. There are so many kinds of potato salads that it can be hard to choose. Personally, I love a classic potato salad that's tangy with lots of crunch from celery or onion. 

In order to capture this diversity in my ranking, I tried to sample a variety of styles and flavors. What I chose is a sampling of potato salads available in groceries near me in the northeast region of the United States. There are some store-bought potato salads I would have loved to include in this ranking, but couldn't due to proximity. 

Whether you like something classic, mustardy, or a salad loaded with bacon and cheese, the grocery store aisles should have you covered when it comes to picking up a potato salad for a picnic or cookout. All prices shown are accurate as of publication and location. Here are 10 store bought potato salads ranked from worst to best.

Grandma's Kitchen showed up at a few stores when I was searching for potato salads, so it felt like an important brand to try. It turns out, this is an important one to avoid. I picked up this container at my Giant Eagle for $5.99 for 16 ounces, and I found it to be almost inedible. It was very mustardy, but not in a good way. There was a strong red pepper flavor, and it didn't taste good, nor did it add any textural contrast as it was a similar to the potatoes. The potatoes seemed to be cooked well and had a soft texture. Unfortunately, they were doused in a badly flavored sauce.

I could only take a few bites of this one because I couldn't stand the flavor. The sauce appears to be a mayonnaise made with soybean oil, water, eggs, and high fructose corn syrup. Guar gum and xanthan gum are also listed in the ingredients, which I think is why the sauce had a weird thickness that didn't feel exactly like mayonnaise. I would not recommend choosing this side dish for any meal. There are so many other options when it comes to store bought potato salad.

Walmart's Original Potato Salad gives off old school vibes. Some of the potatoes are mashed so you get a kind of homogenous texture with chunks of potato and crunchy vegetables mixed in. While I like this texture in a potato salad, I did not like the flavor of this one. It was far too sweet for my liking, and completely out of balance. It either needed less sugar or more acid. While there are simple ways to fix an unbalanced potato salad, the sweetness of this one overpowered my palate. There also wasn't as much textural contrast as I was hoping for from the added vegetables, even though celery was listed as the fifth ingredient.

At $3.47 for 16 ounces, this potato salad is very affordable, but there are other options on this list that are just as affordable with a far better flavor. I recommend leaving the Walmart potato salad on the shelf and opting for something else.

The Amish Potato Salad from Walmart includes sweet pickle and egg. I definitely tasted the egg in the first bite, but it was also very sweet. I imagine some of the sweetness came from the sweet pickle, but the top ingredients list sugar which feels unnecessary. Once again, this would benefit from more vinegar to balance the sweetness of the whole dish. The texture of the Amish Potato Salad is similar to the Original, consisting of slightly mashed potatoes with larger chunks. The egg adds to the textural variety, but there isn't a lot of celery or onion for contrast.

Interestingly, this potato salad has a yellow hue, which I thought was because of the egg. However, according to the ingredients, the color comes from the addition of turmeric and annatto. These seasonings don't seem to impart much as the flavor is fairly bland beyond the general sweetness. At $3.58 for 16 ounces, I was excited to try this potato salad, but I would not purchase it again.

Another option from the Grandma's Kitchen brand, the Smashed Loaded Potato Salad is made with sour cream, bacon, cheddar cheese, eggs, and chives. This is the only salad that had a sauce made with sour cream and oil rather than mayonnaise, and I found the result a little heavy. It's a very saucy dish, perhaps more than it needs to be. It is different from the usual potato salad flavors as it mimics a loaded baked potato. My favorite element is the inclusion of chives, which add freshness and help balance all the heavy ingredients like bacon and cheese.

The potato chunks in this salad had a nice texture, but there was little to contrast all the creaminess. The extra components don't impart crunch, and instead, there was a gritty texture that I couldn't quite identify. At $5.99 for 16 ounces, this potato salad is a little pricey for the quality of the product. I likely wouldn't purchase it again, as I feel there are better versions of this style of potato salad.

Aldi's Steakhouse Potato Salad looked very promising, especially because it was listed as a best seller on the website. However, like the Walmart salads, it was far too sweet. The other flavor that really stuck out was onion, but I wished there was more to balance the sweetness. I was excited to see there was bacon in this potato salad, but the taste wasn't noticeable. I liked that the sauce was a mix of sour cream and mayonnaise, but I just wished it was more savory.

The texture of this potato salad was nice, since it was made with redskin potatoes which stayed firmer after being boiled, giving them an almost al dente texture. There was also a nice crunch from the vegetables. Unfortunately, the bacon had a strange texture consisting of very small, chewy pieces. At $3.65 for 16 ounces, this one looked good in the package, but it was disappointing, and I can't see pairing it with a good steak. I would not purchase this potato salad again.

The Dee Amoré potato salad is available at Costco, so if you are looking for an affordable salad to take to a large gathering this is a good option. At $9.07 for 48 ounces, this container can feed a lot of people as an enjoyable side dish. It definitely delivers on the deviled egg flavor. The first thing I tasted was dill, which wasn't present in any of the other potato salads I tasted for this ranking. I like dill in a potato salad and appreciate the freshness it adds to what can sometimes be a heavy dish. Overall, the flavor was mostly savory with a little sweetness. It was well balanced, especially with the brightness of the herbs and slight tang from vinegar and mustard.

The texture of the potatoes was a little gummy, but they still had some bite. This salad was also saucier than I prefer, giving it an eggy consistency like the filling of a deviled egg. There isn't much textual contrast, which put it lower on the list. I wish there were some vegetables like celery to add a little crunch to the salad and even more freshness to balance the heavy sauce. I would purchase this one again to take to a large gathering, but not for home use since it is a lot of potato salad.

The Whole Foods Red Bliss Potato Salad is another version of a steakhouse style potato salad, but it is vegetarian. The flavor reminded me a little bit of my mom's potato salad. It did have a strong onion flavor which was the most prominent thing I tasted, but it also had a little tang from apple cider vinegar and Dijon mustard, which was nice. Like the Aldi steakhouse style potato salad, the sauce included both sour cream and mayonnaise, giving it an extra creamy texture. I also appreciated that I recognized all the ingredients in this potato salad and that it didn't have a lot of preservatives.

The texture of this salad was slightly off because the potatoes were a little more al dente than I prefer. I liked the creamy sauce contrasted with the crunch from celery and onion, but I think it would be better if the potatoes were a little more creamy than crunchy. At $4.15 for 16 ounces, this potato salad can be purchased in small or large quantities depending on the size of your gathering. I would try it again as I think the fact that the potatoes were underdone could just be an issue with the batch I purchased.

Giant Eagle had one potato salad in its deli section: the homestyle potato salad. At $7.99 for 16 ounces, this potato salad is pricier than many others on this list. However, the price is worth it as this product contains just a few ingredients and delivers on classic flavors. This one reminded me the most of the potato salad I ate growing up. 

It had big chunks of potato with egg and a nice crunch of celery. There was a little tang from distilled vinegar and lemon juice, but the whole dish was very well balanced. There was also a nice hint of black pepper which I felt was missing in most other potato salads I tasted. No single flavor stood out, rather, everything worked in harmony for a pleasant taste that would complement any other dishes at a cookout.

Aldi's Original Potato Salad is exactly what I think of when I think of store-bought potato salad. It had many of the same ingredients as the other salads in this ranking, like sugar, mustard, and pickle relish, but they were better balanced. It had a punchy tang and lots of crunchy vegetables along with a mashed potato texture with potato chunks for lots of contrast. I love how much celery and onion are in this salad because they really stand out against the creamy potato. The flavors of this salad harmonize well together, and because it's much tangier than others it can hold its own against other strong flavors.

This potato salad would be a nice complement to savory grilled meats because of its vibrant flavor and pleasing texture. At $4.29 for a 32-ounce package, Aldi's Original Potato Salad is very affordable and a great option to bring to a small gathering. I will definitely purchase this one again and keep it in mind for any last-minute potluck invites.

The Champagne Dijon Potato Salad from Whole Foods is not a classic recipe, but it was my favorite of all the examples I tasted. It's made with fingerling potatoes that are roasted, then tossed in a dressing of champagne vinegar and Dijon mustard. The dressing had a great flavor with lots of tang from the vinegar, and the roasted potatoes had a lovely peppery bite to complement it. Since the potatoes were roasted, they maintained their structural integrity and soaked up the dressing. There were whole mustard seeds in this salad too, which gave it another great pop of flavor.

At $9.99 for 16 ounces, this salad was the most expensive of the options in this list. I think the price is worth the quality of the ingredients and the care taken to prepare this salad. While it has the fewest ingredients of any of the other examples, it is the most interesting and would go well with many dishes outside the quintessential picnic items usually paired with a potato salad. There are many ways to make potato salad more interesting and, for me, this one hits the mark. I would definitely buy it again to pair with an easy weeknight meal or to take to a dinner party.

To rank these potato salads, I tried to get a good sampling of the options available at my local grocery stores. I ranked the salads based on their flavor and texture. I looked for a balanced flavor that would complement other dishes like grilled meats or vegetables. I also looked for textural variety like tender potatoes contrasted by crunchy vegetables. I also considered the value of each product and whether the quality of the ingredients was worth the price.