8 Store-Bought Thousand Island Dressings, Ranked From Worst To Best

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Whether you're making a classic deli-style Reuben sandwich or looking for something a little more substantial to top your leafy green salad with, Thousand Island dressing is what you reach for. The creamy salad dressing has a sweet and tangy flavor profile that levels up all types of dishes, from sandwiches and burgers to fries and fried shrimp. But, if you want to create the best dining experience at home, you need to start with the best store-bought Thousand Island dressing available to you. How can you be sure which one that is, while also avoiding low-quality products that are too sweet, overly oily, or otherwise off-putting?

You don't have to ask yourself that question any longer. I took the onus on myself to personally taste eight popular Thousand Island dressings you'll find in grocery stores. Using my extensive food industry background and other relevant experiences, I judged each option primarily on its taste and texture. Then, I reported my findings back here by ranking them from worst to best, so you can skip the guesswork and get straight to grabbing the best dressing. You can read my full methodology at the end of this article if you're interested in learning more. Without further ado, here are my thoughts on each option.

Great Value is Walmart's private label, and it's always very hit or miss for me. The brand's canned kidney beans were a disappointing textural nightmare, but I'm a big fan of its pleasant-smelling donut shop coffee blend. Unfortunately, this Great Value Thousand Island dressing joined the ranks of products I'd never try again, thanks to its low-quality taste and unsavory texture. The dressing was overly oily to the point it felt a bit suffocating, with a flavor profile that was predominantly overbearing sweetness and strong artificial tones. There were slight tangy notes, but these were largely lost in the dressing's other flavors.

Per each two-tablespoon serving, this dressing has 130 calories, 12 grams of fat, 280 milligrams of sodium, and 4 grams of sugar. The primary ingredients include soybean oil, tomato purée, distilled vinegar, sugar, water, cucumber, egg yolk, and salt. Comparatively, this dressing is on the higher end of sodium content, which means it's not a great choice for anyone who needs to watch their salt intake. I wouldn't buy this again, nor could you tempt me to use it by offering it to me. Even if you're looking for a budget-friendly private label product, there's a significantly better ranked one on this list you should opt for instead.

You can buy a 16-ounce bottle of Great Value Thousand Island dressing for $2.32 at Walmart.

I wanted to enjoy Walden Farms Thousand Island dressing because it seemed like a relatively healthy option. Unfortunately, sacrificing the calories, fat, and sugar in this recipe also meant giving up any flavor. In fact, it was quite similar to the Great Value option in that it was overbearingly sweet, with strong artificial notes. The only reason this ranked higher is that the texture was a little better, with a slightly less oily consistency.

Per two-tablespoon serving, this vegan dressing has zero calories, zero fat, 200 milligrams of sodium, and zero sugar. The bottle doesn't list the primary ingredients (versus those that appear in very small amounts), but the first four ingredients include water, white distilled vinegar, cucumbers, and apple cider vinegar — which would be off to a great start if it wasn't followed by an incredibly long list of ingredients, both natural and artificial. In fact, this dressing had the longest list of ingredients in this ranking, and I've always found that a bit off-putting. I wouldn't buy this again, nor would I eat it if someone else offered it to me. I recommend choosing something else, unless your dietary needs require you to have a dressing with zero sugars. In that case, this is one of few zero-sugar options for Thousand Island.

You can purchase a 12-ounce bottle of Walden Farms Thousand Island dressing for $4.34 on Amazon.

There was a decent jump in quality between Walden Farms and Kraft, making it an easy decision to place this ahead in the ranking — in fact, this marks the part of the ranking where we go from disgusting to mediocre or okay products. Kraft Thousand Island dressing features a slightly oily texture, but it wasn't so bad I couldn't overlook it. The flavor profile was a little too sweet for my preferences, but it was paired with a robust tang and mild tomato notes that helped to balance out that extra sugariness.

A two-tablespoon serving provides 130 calories, 13 grams of fat, 250 milligrams of sodium, and 4 grams of sugar. The recipe primarily includes soybean oil, tomato purée, vinegar, sugar, egg yolks, chopped pickles, and salt. The ingredient's list had some artificial flavors, but the length of it was about average when compared to the other dressings on this list. I wouldn't buy this product again. However, I might be tempted to try it again if someone else offered it to me or if there were no other options.

You can get a 16-ounce bottle of Kraft Thousand Island dressing for $3.24 at Walmart.

Bowl and Basket is Shoprite's private label, and (like Great Value) its products are a mixed bag in terms of quality, so I never know what to expect. Its canned baked beans were so sweet they made me feel sick to my stomach, but there's a wealth of frozen Bowl and Basket snacks I strongly recommend you try. As for the brand's rendition of Thousand Island dressing? It's another mediocre option that doesn't quite deserve being called "good," but it isn't unpalatable either. The sweetness leans towards excessive, and the oiliness is slightly unbalanced, but close to getting it right. Alongside the sweetness, there are moderate tangy tomato notes, mild salty tones, and a faint vinegary punch.

Per two tablespoons, this dressing contains 120 calories, 12 grams of fat, 260 milligrams of sodium, and 4 grams of sugar. Primary ingredients include soybean oil, tomato purée, distilled vinegar, sugar, chopped pickles, egg yolk, water, and salt. The sodium amounts are on the higher side, which is also something to be aware of. I wouldn't purposefully seek this out again to purchase it, but I would probably eat it again if someone else offered it to me. While this isn't awe-inspiring by any means, it's also not a terrible product, either.

You can get a 16-ounce bottle of Bowl and Basket Thousand Island dressing for $2.49 at Shoprite.

Tuscan Garden is one of Aldi's private labels, and its Thousand Island dressing marks the spot of the list where we finally go from "mediocre" to "good." The flavor profile is nicely balanced, which lends itself to a smooth, creamy texture occasionally broken up by a more solid bite of pickle. A prominent tomato tang is punctuated by a light vinegar punch and a faint saltiness. It's not as complex a flavor as I was looking for, but what's there is quite nice.

A two tablespoon serving of this dressing has 120 calories, 12 grams of fat, 260 milligrams of sodium, and 4 grams of sugar. The primary ingredients include soybean oil, tomato purée, distilled vinegar, sugar, chopped pickles, egg yolk, water, and salt. The sodium levels are a bit on the higher end compared to other dressings on this list. But, the recipe is relatively wholesome, with limited artificial ingredients comparatively, which is nice. The only way I would purchase this in the future is if I was already shopping at Aldi and wanted to save myself the trip to a different grocery store. That being said, I would definitely use it again if someone else offered it to me because it's not bad at all, but there are much better options out there.

You can buy a 16-ounce bottle of Tuscan Garden Thousand Island dressing for $2.15 at Aldi.

The one thing I liked most about Ken's Steak House Thousand Island dressing is that it felt and tasted like there were more bits of pickle throughout — which was unexpected since I wouldn't have guessed that by looking at the bottle. This created a nice textural complexity against the creamy base, which I really appreciated. The flavor profile was predominantly tangy, with surprising moderate citrus notes and a faint saltiness. Truthfully, I don't have anything negative to say here, and the only reason this didn't rank higher is because I prefer the more complex flavor profiles of the top two options significantly more.

Two tablespoons of this dressing contains 140 calories, 14 grams of fat, 250 milligrams of sodium, and 4 grams of sugar. Primary ingredients include soybean oil, tomato purée, distilled vinegar, sugar, water, sweet pickle relish, egg yolk, and salt. I might buy this dressing if my top two choices were unavailable. If this is the highest-ranked option available to you, your salad experience won't be completely ruined.

You can buy a 16-ounce bottle of Ken's Steak House Thousand Island dressing for $3.47 at Walmart.

Both of the top two options are excellent Thousand Island dressings. If you're looking for the best overall, I recommend the top brand, but if you're looking for the best private-label dressing (this one courtesy of Acme Markets), this Signature Select Thousand Island dressing is what you should grab. A robustly tangy tomato base was accented with strong sweet notes, a moderate vinegary kick, mild saltiness, and a faint savoriness. Texturally, it was smooth and creamy, with some small bites of crisp pickle.

Every two tablespoons of this dressing contains 110 calories, 11 grams of fat, 300 milligrams of sodium, and 4 grams of sugar. The recipe primarily includes vegetable oil, tomato purée, relish, sugar, distilled vinegar, salt, and egg yolks. Admittedly, the somewhat longer-than-average ingredients list was a bit off-putting, as was the handful of distinctly artificial ingredients listed. But, the dressing was so good that I was willing to overlook this. If I were already shopping at Acme Markets, this would be the Thousand Island dressing I'd grab.

You can purchase a 16-ounce bottle of Signature Select Thousand Island dressing for $2.29 at Acme Markets.

Wish-Bone offered the most complex flavor profile, with a deliciously creamy texture punctuated with small bites of crisp pickle. A dominant tangy tomato is nicely balanced with moderate sweet notes. Throughout the dressing are streaks of zesty vinegar, faint saltiness, and moderate savory notes. Truly, this is everything a Thousand Island dressing should be.

Per each two-tablespoon serving, this dressing offers 120 calories, 11 grams of fat, 320 milligrams of sodium, and 4 grams of sugars. Ingredients primarily include soybean oil, sour pickle relish, sugar, tomato paste, distilled vinegar, and salt. Although there are quite a few artificial ingredients, I was again willing to look past it because the dressing was so good. One thing to be aware of is that this does have the highest salt content on the list. Although it was a fairly close call for first place, I felt confident choosing Wish-Bone as the top store-bought Thousand Island dressing. Not only does it have a perfect taste and texture, but it's much more widely available than the equally-as-good Signature Select option. Next time you head to the store, this is the product you want to grab — trust me, you won't regret it.

You can buy a 15-ounce bottle of Wish-Bone Thousand Island dressing for $2.74 at Walmart.

I chose store-bought Thousand Island dressings to include in this list based on their availability to me near Vineland, New Jersey. I stopped by Shoprite, Walmart, Target, Aldi, and Acme Markets to pick out my selections, although not every grocery store ended up having unique offerings. Each option was tasted alone on a spoon without alterations and then judged primarily on its taste and texture. I was looking for a rich, creamy salad dressing with some combination of sweet, tangy, and savory flavor notes that had some textural complexity from real pickle relish.

I primarily relied on more than 15 years of food industry experience to make my judgments, during which time I extensively used Thousand Island dressing in a range of dishes. Prior experience creating articles for Daily Meal also contributed — this includes similar condiment-based articles like my ranking of 14 store-bought mustard brands or my ranking of eight store-bought grape jelly brands. Although personal preference played a role in this ranking, I aimed to be as unbiased as possible about product quality.