I Ranked 14 Bottled Caesar Dressings: The Unexpected Winner Revealed!

Who would have thought that an Italian immigrant chef operating a restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico , created what we now know as the Caesar salad? Historians believe that during a dinner rush on July 4 , 1924, Cesare (Cesar) Cardini invented the iconic salad with what he had in the kitchen: romaine lettuce tossed with a dressing made from raw egg, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce (not anchovies) and Dijon mustard , all topped with Parmesan cheese and garlic croutons. 

These days, Caesar salad isn't only found at fancy restaurants. You can get it at many casual restaurants, and Caesar dressing (and the Caesar flavor profile) isn't only used for greens. Caesar has found its way onto baked chicken , fried chicken, nachos , roasted potatoes and so much more.

And it's easy to see why. The combination of grated Parmesan cheese, pepper, garlic, tangy lemon juice and umami-packed anchovies hit on lots of awesome flavor notes. When you go to the store, you can see just how popular the flavor is based on the wide array of Caesar dressing brands.

To help you choose the best store-bought Caesar dressing for you, I grabbed all of the options I could find in my local area—14 different brands! Next, I sat down with my husband, son and Caesar-salad-loving daughter and tried each and every one (some more than once). After we crunched through lots of Romaine (and crunched the numbers), we found plenty to love and ultimately crowned a winner.

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How I Tested These Caesar Salad Dressings

Much like my canned chicken noodle soup taste test, I covered the label of each bottle so that our opinions were unbiased. However, some of the brands were a little tougher to hide because of their branded labeling (luckily our younger testers were none the wiser). And because eating Caesar salad dressing by itself isn't the best method for testing how it would fare in a salad, I laid out a platter of romaine leaves for our taste testers to dip into and used paper food boats to pour the dressings.

My testing team included me, my husband and our two adolescent kids. My daughter loves a good Caesar salad, so I was excited to get her opinion. Our goal was to find a salad dressing that captured the iconic Caesar flavor: salty, tangy, fishy (in a good way), garlicky, creamy and peppery. We stuck to brands that were classic Caesar—not lite or vegan. All the brands were found at Walmart or my local Chicagoland Albertsons grocery store, and they ranged from $2 to $6 per bottle. Some were shelf-stable, while others needed refrigeration. 

During our testing, we sampled several brands that didn't quite match up to the traditional flavor expectations. Some were bitter, too mayo-forward, too acidic or missing the cheese flavor, while others were pretty good but not amazing.

There was also a variation in color, but that was to be expected because of the range of different ingredients and use of preservatives (or not). For the dressings that landed in the top three, their position came down to minute details that involved several bites of dressing and lettuce. 

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14 Bottled Caesar Salad Dressings, Ranked From Worst to Best

With a generous shake (to redistribute everything) of each bottle, we found a few that really represented the best of what Caesar salad dressing can be. Here's how things shook out after I crunched the numbers.

14. Bolthouse Farms Creamy Caesar

This brand was a unanimous "no" for all of us. It's labeled as a Creamy Caesar-flavored yogurt dressing and dip, and the tart, almost spoiled taste of yogurt was instant. Even with the Asiago and Parmesan cheeses included, the yogurt overpowered any traditional Caesar flavor. 
Related: The 7 Best Greek Yogurts, According to Dietitians

13. Marie's Caesar Dressing

This is one of many brands that includes anchovies and egg yolks, along with soybean oil, buttermilk, Romano cheese, distilled vinegar, sour cream and garlic juice. Despite these seemingly perfect ingredients, it had no dimension of traditional Caesar dressing. In fact, we felt that it was more like a ranch-style dressing. 

12. Newman's Own Creamy Caesar Dressing

Visually, Newman's Caesar dressing looked so appetizing with the large specks of black pepper, garlic and Parmesan cheese. I also appreciated the triple-punch of Dijon mustard, mustard seed and mustard flour. But, paired with the Parmesan, salt and distilled vinegar, it was way too salty and acidic. It was so overpowering that the other flavors were drowned out. 
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11. Olive Garden Classic Caesar Dressing

What I've noticed about mass-produced products from famous restaurants is that they never quite mimic what's served while dining in—and that trend continued with this dressing. Unfortunately, Olive Garden's Caesar dressing didn't have an identifiable flavor. We didn't taste any acid, cheese or spices. Nothing stood out, which is why it ranked so low. 

10. Panera Bread Caesar Dressing

Much like Olive Garden 's dressing, Panera didn't deliver, but at least we could detect the Parmesan cheese. The drawback for this brand was the milky aftertaste and lack of salt. We also noticed that the cheese seemed to be whipped and smoothed, rather than folded in grated cheese (i.e., there were no chunks of cheese in the dressing).

The level of acidity was better than the other lower-ranking brands thanks to lemon juice concentrate and red wine vinegar, but overall, we thought the flavor was off-balance.

9. Kraft Classic Caesar Dressing

Kraft Caesar dressing was only slightly better than Panera Bread, but it had its own issues. It was unexpectedly sweet (which makes sense because it contains sugar and corn syrup), and it resembled a spicy, bitter ranch. What made it rank a smidge higher was the grittiness (in a good way) that you'd expect with traditional Caesar, thanks to grated Parmesan cheese. We also appreciated the better balance of spices, compared to the other lower-ranking salad dressings.

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8. Litehouse Caesar Dressing & Dip

This brand had the thickest Caesar dressing, probably because it can also be used as a dip. We liked the peppery flavor, but that's about it. We couldn't detect any acidity, umami, garlic or Parmesan cheese. It was okay, but not impressive. 

7. Ken's Creamy Caesar Dressing

Ken's dressing was creamy (like mayo) and had a noticeable acidic punch with garlic, cheese and anchovy flavors. It landed in the middle of the pack because it was too thick, almost spreadable. Plus, we felt that the layers of flavors weren't the right ratio and/or an ingredient was missing (like pepper).

6. Wish-Bone Creamy Caesar Dressing

Much like Newman's dressing, we noticed a plentiful distribution of spices and hoped for the best. The fundamental classic ingredients were there, but it just tasted okay. Nothing impressive, nor super off-putting.

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5. Girard's Caesar Dressing

Rounding the top five, Girard's was pretty good, but my husband noticed that it was too seedy (almost like it had poppy seeds). I think the use of white wine vinegar, distilled vinegar, lemon, salt and anchovies made this brand a bit tart and bitter, but it was tolerable and pretty good. 

4. Marzetti Supreme Caesar Salad Dressing

This brand had one of the shortest ingredient lists and included the Caesar salad dressing fundamentals, including Romano and Parmesan cheese. Marzetti's balance of red wine and distilled vinegar, lemon juice concentrate, salt, sugar, dried garlic and anchovies was pretty darn good. It was also thick, creamy and a little tangy. Our only negative note was that we didn't like the flavors of the cheeses. 

3. Cardini's Gourmet Original Caesar

Labeled as 'The Original Caesar Dressing', I was happy to see this brand among the top, given its history. Before my husband even knew the backstory of this brand, he said it tastes like "house dressing." In other words, it was balanced, good and what he would expect from Caesar salad dressing.

Overall, we thought it was very good, but not amazing. We thought the Parmesan wasn't as prominent and the dressing wasn't as acidic as it could be. However, if you're looking for something thick and chunky that smells and tastes like Caesar, this is a great option. 

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2. Brianna's Asiago Caesar Dressing

The biggest observation in this taste test was that Brianna's Asiago Caesar Dressing was the darkest among the samples. I think this was due to the combination of balsamic vinegar, Asiago, Worcestershire sauce and Dijon mustard.

My kids liked that there wasn't a funky aftertaste, and it had a spicy punch. Their use of egg yolk powder, rice vinegar and garlic puree really added a pleasant dimension that we hadn't experienced yet. It wasn't perfect, but we'd definitely use it. 

1. Chick-fil-A Parmesan Caesar Dressing

Leave it to a fast-food chicken restaurant to develop our favorite Caesar dressing. And I didn't know this when I picked up this bottle, but this dressing was brand new as of March 2025 , along with two other retail sauces (buffalo and honey mustard) from the brand.

At first glance, it had the same hue as homemade versions and the Parmesan cheese was at the forefront with noticeable chunks. With Chick-fil-A 's Parmesan Caesar Dressing, there was also a delicate balance between the saltiness of the cheese and anchovies, along with the tartness of the vinegar and lemon. We could have used a little more garlic flavor, but all in all, Chick-fil-A's Caesar formula just works.

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This story was originally published by Parade on Apr 26, 2025, where it first appeared in the Food & Drink section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.