The Battle for the Best Frites in Brussels

Brussels may not be the first place that springs to mind when you think of good frites (fries).

But what if I were to tell you that French Fries actually originated in Belgium and were just wrongly named after American soldiers arrived in the country during the first World War and incorrectly assumed that the potatoes being served were ‘French’ as that was the language of the Belgian army?

Given all that history and decades of making fried potatoes, the Belgians have got frites down to a fine art. They are very proud of their methods of making them and slather them with a multitude of different sauces. Frites in Belgium aren’t just a side dish or an appetiser. They are a meal in themselves.

Frites in Brussels are traditionally made with a specific type of potato and are then fried twice in animal fat to give them a wonderfully crispy exterior and fluffy centre. 

Knowing I would be in the city for a whole month, I of course took it upon myself to find some of the best frites in Brussels during my time there.

It was a tough job, but someone’s got to do it.

Frit Flagey

First up was Frit Flagey, on our first day in the city. They were located quite close to our apartment and are always hailed as being one of the locals’ favourites, so we had to give them a go. 

I ordered a small frites with mayonnaise (bear in mind that the “small” portion in Brussels is never small!). The frites were dry and crispy, almost as if they had been sat out too long before being re-fried. There were a lot of crispy ends which contained no fluffy potato, which was disappointing. The mayonnaise was quite nice but fairly bland.

Overall, I was quite disappointed with these are they were my first taste of Belgian frites and I had high expectations (after eating some delicious fries in Amsterdam). It may have been a case of wrong place, wrong time, but they were too overcooked for my liking.

Maison Antoine

Having got into the swing of the frites ordering, I used my best high school French to order a small portion of frites with Andalouse sauce at Maison Antoine.

Maison Antoine is the second most revered frites stall in the city by local standards, so was naturally our second choice when comparing to Frit Flagey. I ordered the Andalouse sauce because that is one of the most popular sauces in the city, made with mayonnaise, tomato sauce and peppers. It isn’t spicy, just rich and tangy.

Some of the frites in the cone were crispy like Flagey, whereas others were soggy, so it was hard to decide whether I enjoyed them overall. They had definitely been sitting out when we ordered them as it was during the day, which seems to be their quietest time. We passed the stand during the night and there were two huge queues at either end, so I suspect with such a high turnover the frites are a lot hotter and fresher.

The frites were average, although I enjoyed them better than Flagey. There was a bit too much sauce on them for me, which made them slightly sickly by the end, but still a tasty lunch nonetheless. 

Fritkot Bompa

We had read about Fritkot Bompa online because of its homemade tartare sauce which the owner makes every day before opening. This intrigued us as most of the friteries use bottled sauce, so we set off walking from our apartment.

As we were staying outside of the city centre in Ixelles, Fritkot Bompa wasn’t too much of a walk, however it definitely isn’t on the tourist trail and would probably require a metro or decent walk for anyone staying in the centre.

This was ideal for us as it was a locals-only place. We of course both ordered tartare sauce with our frites and watched as they were cooked fresh in front of us.

Instead of the typical cone, the frites here were served in a tray, although I’d guess that you get a similar amount of frites and we ordered our sauce on top (in the typical Belgian style). The tartare sauce was creamy and delicious and would offer sporadic tastes of pickle. The frites were crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, just as you would expect.

Fitkot Bompa was delicious, although was a little more pricey than the first two friteries.

Fritland

A tourist favourite, Fritland is located in the centre of the city. I was really reluctant to eat here, knowing that it would probably be poor quality, but was interested to see how it would compare to the other neighbourhood friteries.

I wish we hadn’t bothered.

I ordered mayonnaise, which came on the side with no option for anything else (I suspect this is to save time and because many visitors prefer a dipping sauce rather than having it slathered on top). The frites were greasy and overcooked and the mayonnaise was flavourless.

This was the only time eating frites in Brussels that I actually felt a little sick afterwards because of the grease on the potato, and I didn’t even eat half of the sauce I paid for. Definitely not a good experience and I’m sad that most visitors will think of these frites when they think of Brussels. 

Friterie Barriere

Friterie Barriere was a long walk from our neighbourhood (so much so that we had to take a Metro home – not sure whether that was because of our feet or the fries), so it definitely isn’t frequented by many tourists. Because of this, they don’t speak any English, so I wouldn’t recommend placing a long and complicated order if you don’t speak any French.

A welcome sight on the menu here was aioli; something we hadn’t seen anywhere else, so I ordered this because I was craving something with a little garlic and a little more taste than plain mayonnaise. 

The photograph does not do the frites justice. On first sight they are paler in colour than all of the others, but they were perfectly cooked and pillowy in texture. The potato inside was fluffy and they were all even in colour and crisp because they had been cooked fresh to order. The aioli was a bottled sauce, not fresh, but still tasted a lot nicer than the regular mayonnaise at some of the other frit stands.

There is nowhere to really sit and enjoy your fries here, but you’ll probably be enjoying them so much that you’ll have eaten them before you notice!

The overall winner? Fritkot Bompa for the homemade sauce and Friterie Barriere for the quality of the frites. The moral of the story is: get out of the centre if you want a good potato.