For many little kids, Shirley Temples are the height of luxury. If you’re out for a fancy dinner, you need a fun drink. If you’re 8, you can’t exactly order yourself a nice cocktail or glass of wine to pair nicely with your dinner. Most of the time, your only alternative is the humble Shirley Temple.

Once many people get past the age of twelve, the Shirley Temple craze dies down. Most people settle for something normal, something that’s not bright pink with cherries. For a lot of people, though, they provide a good alternative to social drinking or are just more palatable than just a soda, meaning Shirley Temples are far more than a childhood fad for a good portion of the population.

For background, a Shirley Temple is a mocktail usually made out of ginger ale and Grenadine, a pomegranate-flavored syrup. At many restaurants, they come with a maraschino cherry either floating in the drink or stuck on a toothpick attached to the side. If a restaurant has no ginger ale, they’ll usually use a lemon-lime soda, like Sprite. If no Grenadine is available, they’ll sometimes use some sort of cherry syrup, which is a mockery of what Grenadine actually tastes like. 

If you’ve ever gotten a Shirley Temple at a restaurant, you’re well aware of how different the quality of them can be from place to place. Everyone seems to have a different idea of how to make one, and a bad Shirley can easily make or break an entire meal. That being said, I’ve done the work for you. Now, the next time you want to know what restaurant to visit to get your fix, all you have to do is consult this list.

6. Texas Roadhouse

Texas Roadhouse is a restaurant that really seems like it goes hard when it comes to their mocktails. When I ordered my Shirley Temple, though, the waitress gave me a look that implied she was very confused by my order. When the actual Temple arrived, it looked really standard. No cherries, and it had a vaguely light pink color, lighter than is typical for Shirley Temples. Notably, Texas Roadhouse was the only restaurant that used Ginger Ale as opposed to Sprite, but that wasn’t enough to fix the overall “Meh” quality of their Shirley Temple. 

In the end, the thing that cemented Texas Roadhouse’s last-place finish was the fact that so much thought was clearly put into their other mocktails, while the humble Shirley Temple was left neglected.

5. Red Robin

Red Robin is not well known for its quality. Walking into the restaurant, my group pointed out to me that the Red Robin we had chosen to go to had a 2.5 out of 5-star rating. That’s about as good as the Shirley Temple was as well. It was so extremely average that it was painful, though any Shirley Temple is a pretty good one in my book. This was the final Shirley Temple I drank, and I honestly think that by the end of this, I was beginning to get a bit of fatigue from all of the drinks.

Overall, it was made with Sprite, had no cherries, and had an overall fine soda-to-grenadine ratio. Nothing to write home about, and certainly nothing to visit Red Robin for (not that you were going to in the first place).

4. Olive Garden

The entire Shirley Temple experience at Olive Garden was genuinely elevated. Sure, they used Sprite. They didn’t even give me a cherry! The fact that I was at Olive Garden was enough to make both of those things go away. When I ordered, the (very Italian) waiter said, “But of course,” which was enough to make me feel like I was somewhere in Tuscany, asking to see a wine list. 

All of that went out of the window with the second Shirley.

I’ve done a lot of soul searching following drinking this drink. My theory is that the bartender pressed the wrong button when they were making the second Shirley Temple and didn’t realize, leading to them accidentally making a Shirley with Tonic Water instead of Sprite or Ginger Ale. I am not joking when I say that this was genuinely the worst thing I have ever tasted. Apparently, if you accidentally make a “grenadine and tonic,” the grenadine becomes completely tasteless, and you just end up with something that tastes like expired tonic water. 

The first one was fine, but the second Shirley Temple has seriously traumatized me. Even though that one mistake was clearly not representative of Olive Garden’s ability to make a good Shirley, I cannot separate this bad experience from Olive Garden’s skill level. Clearly, they aren’t training their bartenders well enough to take their Shirley Temples seriously.

3. Applebee’s

Applebee’s is not the kind of place you go to for a quality meal. Applebee’s knows this, and instead tries to blow you away with their drink menu. On their drink menu, they notably had something called a “Rockin’ Poppin’ Shirley,” which was a variation of the classic Shirley Temple with both cherries and Pop Rocks. In order to get a taste for their base Shirley, I just asked for a Shirley Temple and didn’t clarify what kind I wanted. 

They brought me a very standard Shirley Temple with nothing added. No cherries, no Pop Rocks. Despite this, it was a shockingly good Shirley Temple. It was made with Sprite, but I found that I had had a lot of Ginger Ale Shirleys that were much worse. It was a good, deep red and had a very nice ratio of Sprite to Grenadine. Except for there not being cherries, it was the kind of drink that I would expect at a nicer establishment, such as an Outback Steakhouse. 

2. Chili’s 

Oftentimes, Chili’s is seen as “better than Applebee’s.” This is true in every respect. The Shirley Temple experience at Chili’s was absolutely amazing. When I went, there was a promotional “Wicked” margarita with promotional toothpicks, and my waiter was able to get one for my Shirley when it was requested by a friend. It was a shockingly vibrant pink, which visually indicated that it would be pretty strong in the grenadine department, but I was surprised to find that it was pretty much the exact amount of syrup they could have put in there before it started burning your throat. Not too strong, not too weak. Along with that, the waiter asked me if I wanted a second Shirley before I was done with my first one. Amazing service.

Generally, the Chili’s Shirley Temple experience was amazing, but the Shirley itself was lagging behind the experience slightly. The “Wicked” toothpicks added almost nothing and mainly confused me.

1. The Cheesecake Factory

By far, The Cheesecake Factory had the shining star of Shirley Temples. They had some very strong grenadine, which threw me off at first. Initially, it wasn’t mixed very well, so I think that likely contributed to the intensity of the grenadine. Most importantly, though, they gave me a maraschino cherry with my Shirley Temple. 

As a self-proclaimed “Shirley Snob,” I find that a lot of the fun of a Shirley Temple comes from the cherry. It’s one of those things that makes you feel like you’re drinking something much cooler, like a martini, but are free to eat something that tastes much better than an olive, like a maraschino cherry. Simply put, the presence of a cherry can make or break the entire Shirley, and The Cheesecake Factory absolutely delivered.

Even while other restaurants may have used Ginger Ale or had “Wicked” toothpicks, The Cheesecake Factory knew what made a Shirley Temple special. The Cheesecake Factory understood the heart of the drink and included it, even when maraschino cherries are used in virtually no other way. 

The Cheesecake Factory, even though it has so many options, took the time to make a genuinely good, high-quality Shirley Temple, something that can’t be said about a lot of the other restaurants on this list.

No Shirley Temple is truly bad. In society, there’s a huge lack of drinks that are nonalcoholic but still fun, something that a lot of people who don’t or can’t drink struggle with. Shirley Temples are easily the most accessible drink to fill that hole, but what good is it if the drink itself sucks? Because everyone can drink one, everyone should be able to enjoy one. 

In the end, the presence of a good Shirley Temple represents a restaurant’s dedication to serving every possible patron. The next time you go to a restaurant, order a Shirley Temple and appreciate everything that goes into making sure it’s at least available to anyone who wants one.