The best dinner rolls are soft, squishy, substantial, warm, and hearty. Whether they’re savory or sweet, these yeasty buns make the perfect accompaniment to a full holiday dinner spread. Dinner rolls are an essential part of any big dinner, and we at Sporked think these six are worth picking up from the grocery store.
For this taste test, we encountered two different types of dinner rolls: those that require baking and those that do not. Ready-to-bake dinner rolls are warm and comforting yet crusty, yeasty, and dense. Meanwhile, no-bake rolls are usually soft, squishy, sugary, and buttery. Both have their virtues. But, what broke through won our absolute best dinner roll? Peep the list:
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- La Brea Take and Bake French Dinner Rolls
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This is a restaurant quality, chewy, savory, yeasty French roll. I love the outer crust of these things; the difference in texture is flat out wonderful. A crusty exterior encases a delightfully fluffy and warm center. You could melt a full tablespoon of butter on this and indulge in the decadent simplicity. But it’s also hearty enough that you could slice it open and make a tiny turkey slider with stuffing, gravy, and cranberry sauce. La Brea’s Take and Bake French Dinner rolls are soft and squishy with a great crust—something that’s hard to come by at the grocery store. It’s savory, salty, and most of all—comforting. These are the best dinner rolls, and the ones you want to take home with you from the grocery store.
Credit: Sarah Demonteverde/Amazon
- Trader Joe’s Organic French Dinner Rolls
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These organic French rolls are soft, crusty, and savory. There’s a ciabatta vibe happening here that I quite adore. These buns beg for some creamy, high butterfat organic butter. The smooth, creamy decadence of the butter compliments the fluffy-yet-crispy dinner roll. These aren’t sweet dinner rolls, but because they’re savory, aromatic, and have a tender crumb, they’re the best dinner rolls to have with butter.
Credit: Sarah Demonteverde/Trader Joe’s
- King’s Hawaiian Savory Butter Rolls
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These King’s Hawaiian savory butter rolls are high in saturated fat (8% per tiny roll!), and have less sugar than your average King’s Hawaiian sweet roll. For those reasons, they’re the best plain dinner roll. The smooth, fluffy, squishy texture is only further enhanced by the fatty, buttery quality of these no-bake rolls. You can eat these at room temperature or heat them briefly in the oven or microwave, but whatever you do, they are undeniably delicious as is—completely unadorned of condiments, meats, sides, or butter. If you like butter infused into your rolls already, these are the best dinner rolls for you.
Credit: Sarah Demonteverde/Instacart
- Whole Foods Market Brioche Dinner Rolls
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Made with cage-free eggs, these are the best organic dinner rolls on the list—as well as the best brioche rolls. They’re exceptionally chewy and buttery. The fat content is high, so Whole Foods’ brioche rolls satiate your decadent cravings. The squish factor is also very high, and they still have a nice, golden brown exterior crust. Brioche excels because it has a high egg and butter content, and thus a tender crumb. While these aren’t directly from a family owned bakery, if you love a highly savory dinner roll, you’ll very much enjoy these.
Credit: Sarah Demonteverde/Amazon
- Dots Assorted Dinner Rolls
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I simply love the assortment of dinner rolls Aldi’s has put together. There’s pretzel, rye, and French. Once you heat these in the oven, these assorted dinner rolls each have unique qualities that will give your guests options. I personally love the toasty saltiness of the pretzel roll, while the rye roll has a lovely, aromatic, seeded quality. They’re all buttery and savory, and some of them even aromatic. You really can’t go wrong with this assortment. A little something for everybody. Plus, pretzel dinner rolls are just so fun!
Credit: Sarah Demonteverde/Instacart
- King’s Hawaiian Original Sweet Rolls
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King’s Hawaiian original sweet rolls are iconic. They’re just so damn sweet and soft, but also they’re sneaky dense. They’re most definitely heavier than the savory version of their rolls, but nonetheless, the flavor is exceptional. A sweet roll is the perfect balance to all of the savory options we eat on Thanksgiving. What better way to balance out dark meat turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and stuffing? I personally don’t think that a Thanksgiving meal is complete without them.
Credit: Sarah Demonteverde/Instacart
Best of the Best
Best with Butter
Best Plain
Best Brioche
Best Assorted
Best with Thanksgiving Food
Other products we tried: Starter Bros. Garlic Rolls, Sister Schubert’s, Alfaro’s, Rhodes, Walmart Potato, Member’s Mark Yeast Rolls, Nature’s Own Butter Brioche, Signature Select Artisan Style.
Sporked’s Guide to an Easy Thanksgiving
Here’s a secret: You don’t have to make Thanksgiving sides from scratch. The key is just knowing which store-bought sides are good enough to deserve a place on your holiday table.
Find the best foods at home and share with us using #SporkedTasteTest for a chance to be featured on our social pages!
Okay but Mrs. Shuberts…. That stuffs bomb
Exactly. We have Sister Shubert rolls for every Thanksgiving for the last 15 years. Nothing comes close
Don’t sleep on pepperidge farm frozen french rolls!