Potato Salad. Evidence ranking
Mesa Grill's Southwestern Potato Salad
#1 among published recipes we could fairly measure. We use this ranking to build The GüdDish when the method is cook-validated.
Ranking verdict
Split Decision
Current evidence cannot confidently separate the top two. Treat this as a shortlist, not a single crown.
#1 ranked recipe
foodnetwork.com
· top 1% of 1,256 analysed
4.88 from 166 ratings
Open recipe at foodnetwork.com →Answer for citation
#1 published Potato Salad by GüdScore (as of 2026-08-10): Mesa Grill's Southwestern Potato Salad from foodnetwork.com (of 1,256 rated recipes across 49 sites). Verdict: Split Decision. That ranking is evidence for building The GüdDish.
Among published Potato Salad recipes we could fairly measure, #1 is Mesa Grill's Southwestern Potato Salad from foodnetwork.com (1,256 rated recipes across 49 sites). GüdScore orders them by how far each outperforms its own publisher. That ranking is how we decide what to learn from when we build The GüdDish.
Why it ranked first
This recipe
4.88
foodnetwork.com avg
4.44
Ahead of its publisher by 0.42 stars. That gap, not the raw rating alone, drives the rank, because a 4.99 on a site where everything is 4.99 means little.
- 166 people rated it, enough that the score is not resting on a handful of opinions.
- That combination puts it in the top 1% of every Potato Salad recipe we analysed.
Runner-up: Classic Potato Salad (tastesbetterfromscratch.com), ★ 4.99 from 935 ratings.
What this takes
8 servings · 12 ingredients · 1 steps
- 1 1/2 cups prepared mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 2 tablespoons chipotle pepper puree
- 1 large ripe tomato, seeded and diced
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves
- 3 scallions, chopped, white and green parts
- 1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
- 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 16 new potatoes, about 3 to 4 pounds, cooked, drained and sliced 1/2-inch thick
The GüdDish · draft · cook QA in progress
GüdDish Potato Salad
This is the potato salad we cook at home when we want the best result without juggling ten tabs. We read the strongest recipes we could find, kept the ingredients and techniques that overlap again and again, and cut the rest. What is left is one combined method: the best of the best, easy to handle, easy to run, and built to come out right every time.
serves 4 to 6
65 min total
3 steps
Needs cook QA
Preview draft GüdDish →
We already drafted The GüdDish from the field. It is not cook-validated yet, so Rank stays primary until QA is green. We do not ship a half-tested recipe as the answer.
Full evidence ranking
Showing 10 of a 10-slot list for this dish’s pool of 1,256 scored recipes. First 10 clear the full CrowdScore floor (at least 25 ratings and 4.5+ stars), ordered by how far each beats its own publisher after we adjust for rating volume. Star ratings and counts are the publisher’s public evidence when present. Close places can still reverse with more data.
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1Mesa Grill's Southwestern Potato Salad4.88 from 166 ratings
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2Classic Potato Salad4.99 from 935 ratings
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3Simply Irresistible Tropical Potato Salad #SP55.00 from 106 ratings
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4New York Deli Potato Salad4.99 from 100 ratings
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5The BEST Potato Salad!4.94 from 181 ratings
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6Homemade Potato Salad5.00 from 37 ratings
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7Greek Potato Salad Recipe4.95 from 74 ratings
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8Roasted Sweet Potato Salad Recipe4.98 from 195 ratings
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9Greek Potato Salad (No Mayo!)4.99 from 108 ratings
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10Rainbow Potato Salad5.00 from 40 ratings
Major publishers (ratings not CrowdScore-verified)
Some major publishers show star totals without review-level data we can audit. Those aggregates never enter CrowdScore. They can still appear here as honest publisher claims or as method references. Below: top claims for this dish.
Behind the evidence
1,256Recipes rated
49Sites
21,434Ratings
HighOrdering confidence
What enters GüdScore
We only put a recipe in GüdScore when we can check the evidence behind its rating at the review level. Sites that only publish closed aggregate stars, without recoverable reviews, stay outside that score rather than being quietly down-weighted. Where we can rebuild ratings from raw public reviews, we do that before a recipe competes. Full methodology: How GüdScore works.
FAQ
What is the best Potato Salad recipe?
#1 published Potato Salad by GüdScore (as of 2026-08-10): Mesa Grill's Southwestern Potato Salad from foodnetwork.com (of 1,256 rated recipes across 49 sites). Verdict: Split Decision. That ranking is evidence for building The GüdDish.
How does GüdDish pick a winner?
We search the open web for methods, measure rated recipes with GüdScore (evidence engine), study ingredients and techniques that set the strongest ones apart, then build one GüdDish. GüdScore does not hand you a single best recipe alone. Details: https://guddish.com/method.html
What does the verdict mean?
The Rank verdict describes the published-recipe competition, not a grade for The GüdDish. Clear Winner means number one is well ahead. Close Contest, Photo Finish, and Split Decision mean the top recipes are hard to separate. Limited corpus means we analyzed fewer recipes than a mature dish.
Why are some big publishers missing from GüdScore?
GüdScore only includes ratings we can audit at the review level. Sites that only expose closed aggregate scores, without recoverable review data, stay outside that score. Their recipes may still inform technique. See How GüdDish works for the full rules.
How often is this updated?
This page’s data was last scored or re-synced on 2026-08-10.
The public Rank is the top 10. The rest of the scored pool lives in the JSON API, not on this page.