When you think of Suzanne Goin’s food, French fries probably don’t come to mind. If you neglected the French fries at Tavern, though, you’d be making a big mistake: The standard 3/8-inch cut fries are dusted with herbs and exceptionally executed in crispiness and texture. If you do decide to opt for the fantastic fontina-laden Niman Ranch cheeseburger at Tavern, do yourself a favor: Buck conventional wisdom by skipping the veggies at a Goin restaurant, and opt for the pommes frites.

Umami Burger’s onion rings remain consistently one of their most underrated menu items. The lager-battered rings are smooth, pale gold with a lustrous finish and light crunch that sets it apart from the haphazard, loosely battered hoops found at most burger shops.

When 25 Degrees opened at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in 2005, the gourmet burger boom still in its infancy, much was made of their thyme-dusted fries. And if you were to pair those fries with the tarragon rémoulade, you might have had a revelation of sorts: That the fries that were almost too salty to eat on their own (much less pair with ketchup) were better off dunked in that cool, creamy, herby remoulade, the salt only adding to the appreciation of the subtle sauce. Ten years later and a gourmet burger revolution come full circle, the fries are still addictive as sin.

In an order of fries at any given fast food restaurant, there is usually the “Chosen One” — the crispiest, vaguely amber-tinged stick that you know will be the crunchiest, nuttiest tasting one in the order, the one you save for last. What if I told you Haché LA in Silverlake fried their fries not once, not twice, but thrice to get that texture on every single fry? Which leads to the next question: Why are you still reading this and not eating these fries right now?

This Silverlake burger joint is one of a handful of places to offer up deep fried mushrooms. If you fear the fried fungus, fret not — a substantive crunch gives way to incredibly hot, savory mushroom flavor that’s practically made for ranch dipping sauce and pairing with a burger.

The fries at The Hat are virtually indiscernible from those you’d find at most mom-and-pop burger joints throughout Southern California — except when they’re topped with chili, shredded cheddar cheese and a heaping helping of thinly-sliced pastrami. Then they’re either extraordinary or a coronary (or both), and will require about three people to finish.

Fried zucchini and ranch dipping sauce plays an underrated side-role in the Southern California burger experience. Zucchini’s less salty, mellowed out flavor profile provides a welcome change of pace to fries and ketchup. Pete’s Blue Chip offers a strong rendition — the width and length of their fried zucchini is identical to their French fries (presumably a 3/8-inch square cutter) for optimal crunchy surface area.

When it comes to recreating In-N-Out’s infamous cheese, spread and grilled onion topped Animal Fries, many have tried and many have failed. One of the few exceptions is the Oinkster’s Piggy Fries, which takes an already solid spud offering and tops it with grilled onion, spread and shredded cheddar. The inclusion of cheddar already makes it an improvement over the melted slices of American in the In-N-Out version, and the sweeter, cleaner-tasting grilled onions work better in the Piggy Fries, as well.

After Cassell’s reopened in its posh Koreatown digs, the first thing diners might have noticed was the absence of French fries. The original Cassell’s didn’t serve fries, but instead opted for a potato salad injected with the funk of horseradish. The no-fry policy and the potato salad have both proven divisive, but Cassell’s tater salad proponents swear by the recipe.

Short rib poutine is one of the most popular items at Biergarten, and with good reason. The tender meat, gray and fries get a boost of funk from chunks of brie cheese, creating a deeply savory flavor that would lend itself well to a cold beer from their extensive taplist.

Bachi Burger’s oxtail chili cheese fries err on the unctuous side; the fatty, gelatinous oxtail meat receives a slight respite from richness with the help of sliced jalapenos, but slathering it in garlic aioli and crowning the entire affair with a fried egg ensures that this rendition of chili cheese fries is going to knock you out of commission with a food coma for the rest of the day.