Has the cold weather got you feeling like a hungry couch potato? Then stop “lay”ing around and rush to your local Pan-Asia for delicious Lay’s potato chips. At an average price of $2.99, the assortments of Thai and Chinese chips will broaden your tastebuds. While it is best to stick with Lay’s Classic chips if you eat kosher, rest assured that all products are certified gluten-free.

Lay’s Classic                                                       

The bag for Lay’s Classic chips is a vibrant yellow color that will always catch the eye of any customer walking down the chip aisle, and the color of the bag attracts. Seeing a bright and cheery yellow bag excites the customer for a delicious chip that thrills the taste buds. The bag we bought also had football ads at the top since it’s Superbowl season, which we thought tied together well with the general “American” theme that classic chips tend to have.

As for the chips themselves, they are ovular and have a rough texture, and many of the chips were dotted with air bubbles. The chips left oil on your fingertips, so have a napkin nearby while eating them. The chips’ salty taste is addictive and iconic; however, the more you continue to eat the chips, the scrapes the roof of your mouth receives. Though they were perfectly salty and crunchy, the chips were pretty basic. We both agreed that the overall score for the chips was a 5/10, for it was a familiar taste, but they would be better as a side dish rather than a snack.  

Lay’s Grilled Prawn and Seafood Sauce

The bag for Lay’s Grilled Prawn and Seafood sauce was almost as impressive as the chips. Manufactured in Thailand, the bag caught our eye with mouth-watering prawns paired with delectable chili sauce. The bag’s colors foreshadow the rippled chips’ orange and green colors, representing the prawns and seafood sauce. Though the green color was distasteful, the orange chip indicated the flavor nicely.

That feeling of disrelish did not last long, though, as the seafood sauce chips were delicious and spicy, and the prawn was nice and sweet. These two flavors paired together were a match made in heaven. The crunch was infinitely crunchier and better than Lay’s Classic. The chip bag was also more detailed than the Classic’s bright yellow, which was aesthetically pleasing. Ultimately, Lay’s Grilled Prawn and Seafood pair were friend-chip goals; thus, our rating is 10/10.   

Lay’s Butter Pan-Fried Matsutake Mushroom

Matsutake is a rare mushroom that costs upwards of $1000 per pound, so we knew we had to taste Lay’s Butter Pan-Fried Matsutake Mushroom chips after seeing them on Pan-Asia’s shelf. In addition, the bag design was disappointing compared to the Classic and Prawn and Seafood Sauce bag because Lays did not advertise the matsutake well; plus, while cute, the featured animation looks like he is wearing a Wisconsin cheesehead hat, not a mushroom.  

The appearance of the chip was similar to the Lay’s Classic but had specks of matsutake seasoning sprinkled throughout. To our surprise, the bag was massive compared to the others; the chips were as large as the palm of our hand. The packaging and appearance were mediocre, so it is unsurprising that the taste could have been more satisfying. They were bland, like a butter-fried mushroom, while also sweet. We were pleasantly surprised by the earthy aftertaste, but the lack of similarity in taste to a matsutake mushroom sadly could not sway our rating of 3/10.  In the end, Lay’s Butter Pan-Fried Matsutake Mushroom chips were not fun-gi to eat. 

Lay’s Mieng Kam Krob Ros

Mieng Kam Krob Ros is a Thai appetizer comprising peanuts, cabbage, lettuce, chili and dried shrimp. The name might be a mouthful, but it will take all your willpower not to eat the whole bag. The package could have highlighted the product better because if you are unfamiliar with Thai culture, you would not know what Mieng Kam Krob Ros is by looking at the small picture. The chip itself is the color of orange prawn chips and has seasoning flakes similar to the Matsutake; however, upon the first taste, we believed we’d purchased Lay’s Barbeque chips. However, they quickly transitioned into an odd, sweet, fruity lime taste that we were not expecting because the Thai appetizer does not entail citrus; nonetheless, we were satisfied. These chips smell heavily of peanut sauce mixed with a homestyle restaurant’s welcoming, sugary scent. Furthermore, while they are nice and crunchy, they could not out-crunch the Grilled Prawn and Seafood Sauce. 

There were many pleasant surprises, so they deserve the 8/10 rating, for they were tangy, sweet and everything in between. But, ultimately, Lay’s Mieng Kam Krob Ros were shrimp-ly the best.

Lay’s Nori Seaweed

Though it is never right to start with the negative, we were left feeling blue and empty because of these chips. The primary green bag color was dull and resembled Lay’s famous Sour Cream and Onion chips, contradicting their genuine flavor. Similarly, the picture of sushi at the bottom could have been more consistent as we were left wondering if that was the authentic flavor of chips. We wonder if the manufacturer made the bag challenging to open for a reason, to hide the chips inside, which looked like they were covered with grass clippings. Although the chips are seaweed flavored, they could be more aesthetically pleasing and were very off-putting in appearance and smell and much sweeter than seaweed’s fishy and unique smell. The 

chip’s crunch was sub-par but had the briny, salty sea delicacy known and loved worldwide.

Lay’s Nori Seaweed chips are a 4.5/10, for the taste thrived while the appearance and smell were lacking. It is not worth your time fishing for these disappointing chips.

 The Lay’s chips from around the world may only average a 6.1/10 rating, but if you are craving “all that and a bag of chips,” these tasty, savory Lays are worth the trip to Pan Asia.