Let Me ‘A Tell a You’ About Frites Atelier in Antwerp

How many times have you gone to an absolute tourist hotspot of a restaurant, queued for an exorbitant amount of time, received your food, taken a bite, and realized, like Gob Bluth in Arrested Development, that you made a huge mistake? I know that feeling all too well. I feel you brother (or sister). I feel you. 

So, you can imagine my skepticism when I landed in Antwerp for the second time and kept seeing one name appear over and over when searching for a legit frites shop, Frites Atelier - a “fast-casual” frites brasserie with locations all over Belgium.

After a quick run several times around the triangular Stadspark (just next to the Diamond District), I decided that enough was enough. I was going to get myself some ‘mothaflippin’’ frites and I was going to gamble on a spot with over 6,000 Google Reviews in the heart of Antwerp. 

Here’s what I found. 

Let Me “A Tell You” About Frites Atelier

Website, Address, & Details: https://www.fritesatelier.com/en 

• Location: Korte Gasthuisstraat 32, 2000 Antwerpen, Belgium

• Price: $-$$

Started in 2016 as the answer to the traditional “Belgian frites” experience, i.e. crispy golden fries served with a side of mayonnaise, three-Michelin-starred proprietor Sergio Herman sought to bring this beloved comfort food to the masses but with an upgrade. This time around, frites were set to come “loaded,” and with more topping options than you could shake a stick at. 

After an 18-month process of being courted by various types of potatoes, soils, baking processes, and other essentials for crafting the perfect frite, Frites Atelier sailed its maiden voyage across the ferocious frites seas of the ‘Battlefield of Europe’ (Belgium’s nickname). How would it fare in the “battlefield of frites?” Only time would tell.

Well, I’m here to tell you that Frites Atelier emerged victorious. While I am not writing/telling this with a sigh, somewhere ages and ages hence. Frites Atelier, when presented with two diverged roads in a yellow wood, took the one less traveled. 

And that has made all the difference.   

Frites Atelier can now be found across the country, with locations in Antwerp (of course), Ghent, Brussels, and even the Netherlands. 

Loaded Frites - Don’t Mind if I Do

Here’s a short video I made on Frites Atelier in Antwerp!

If you know this Big Body already, then you know how much he (I) loathe mayonnaise. Love Belgium. Love frites. But loathe mayonnaise. 

I was honestly a bit worried before arriving in Antwerp that their reverence and use of mayonnaise in every dish would be so ubiquitous that I’d have no choice but to flee in a state of terror - like when they chased Frankenstein’s Monster out of the village with pitchforks and torches.

However, I quickly learned that like clothing at an Ibiza beach in mid-July, it was optional. 

Frites Atelier caught my attention not only due to the sheer volume of reviews that fortified their Google My Business page but also after taking a look at the menu online. “You’re telling me that I can have frites with a side that doesn’t involve that white glob of disappointment?” 

Side note: I’m sure that I’ve been called a “white glob of disappointment” before. 

With menu options like (1) Parmesan and Basil, (2) Indo Peanut, (3) Flemish Beef Stew, and (4) Veggie Alla Norma (and Italian-inspired frites), I knew I stood a chance. 

A Not-So-Surreptitious Frites Affair Begins

Originally planning to get the Indo Peanut, due to being based in Asia and having realized just several weeks before that I actually miss Asian cuisine far more than I thought, a ‘holy frites spirit’ washed over me when ordering, causing me to audible and blurt out ‘One Flemish Beef Stew’ please. 

“Good choice,” my Flemish compatriot and Frites Atelier team member affirmingly replied. I noticed a gaggle of several different croquettes on the menu and thought back to my first week and a half in the Netherlands to the sheer joy such a simple fried food brought me, and opted for a Zeeland shrimp croquette.

I had already learned firsthand, after spending several days in the capital of the Dutch Bible Belt, Middelburg, that the good Calvinists of Zeeland, a region in the Netherlands (and only just a less than 45-minute drive northwest of Antwerp), knew how to make a mean shrimp croquette. So I tacked one on.   

I was in the mood for some booze as it was a Friday. Or maybe it was a Tuesday. Or a Thursday. It was a day of the week and I had just completed a run around Antwerp’s Stadspark that wasn’t half-assed for the first time in a while so I felt like I deserved a little liquid reward (not mayonnaise). When in Belgium, drink Stella Artois. So I ordered a draft Stella to wash down my 1.5kgs of fried foods that would soon be placed before me.

Oh, and if things weren’t already grand enough at Frites Atelier, there is a free-flow sauce station, with what looks like classy fire hydrants filled with every major sauce you ever learned about in ‘Sauce 101’, including Béarnaise, ketchup, truffle mayonnaise, and Andalouse. I ponied up the 1 euro for some Béarnaise sauce as I had always wondered what sound ursine would make if bred with a horse.

Bear neighs.

I’ll see myself out.

Pale Ale Travel Side Note: Yeah, I do understand that Béarnaise sauce and mayonnaise are really only separated by the use of clarified butter so whatever argument you’re currently formulating against my disdain of mayonnaise is a strong one. I agree. But sometimes things in life just aren’t meant to make sense.

It Was in That Moment, I Felt Flemish

It might be that it was roughly 34 degrees Celsius (93 degrees Fahrenheit) that day but the Stella Artois beer they had on tap never tasted so good and set the tone of the meal to come. The only Stella I’ve had that was better in my life was the first Stella I ever drank at a house party in my mid-teens when all I knew was boxed wine, light beer, and Sour Apple Pucker. 

It was the first alcoholic drink that had any sort of discernible flavor and taste - and it came in those fancy bottles so I thought all the ladies would see what a refined 16-year-old I was and swoon over me. 

My first sip at Frites Atelier almost topped it. Drinking Stella Artois in its ancestral land over a hearty bowl of fluffy yet crisp fries with a generous helping of a savory and sweet stew. Does it get any better than that? 

I’m All About That Beef (Stew)

The frites then came. I didn’t know beef stew could shimmer so strongly. But I then remembered that Rihanna said it best, “Shine bright like a beef stew.” The frites themselves, which sat somewhere between a medium-thick fry and a steak fry, crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside. There was structural integrity to the lot and minimal variance between each. 

It was the exact opposite of the oily serving of frites I had consumed 1.5 bags of just several days prior while slugging several Leffe Brunes out on a terrace with my best buddy and his wife. 

Frites Atelier uses a Zeeland clay potato for its frites. While I can’t say I’m particularly well acquainted with this type of potato (only Zeeland crustaceans), it did boast a slightly earthier and richer profile than say a Russet potato or Yukon Gold. This is thanks to the fertile clay soil in which they are born. 

There’s also a hint of sweetness, which when paired with a beef stew that is slow-cooked and braised in the bold, malty (a tiny bit sour) Petrus Old Brown (beer), with caramel notes, is as close to loaded frite perfection as you can get. Topped with tangy, pungent pickled mustard seeds (that are like acidity ‘Pop Rocks’), and slightly bitter (yet fresh) garden cress to cut through the richness, there’s undeniable depth to what I imagine many consider to be a “simple” dish.  

After ensuring that I paired a bite of tender, fall-apart braised beef with a bundle of frites, I felt Flemish. Even if just for 9 and a half minutes. Unfortunately, I can’t even really speak to the Béarnaise sauce as it was a bit superfluous to my order and incongruous with the amalgam at hand.  

We All Need More Shrimp Croquettes in Our Lives

For me, the biggest Achilles’ Heel of shrimp croquettes is that they often come out tasting “too fishy,” which is almost certainly due to the seafood not being particularly fresh. The fact that Big Body, should he feel so inclined, could feasibly run to Zeeland from Antwerp within several days (or simply go by car in under 45 minutes) was already an assurance that fresh seafood was/is expected at Frites Atelier. 

The interior was a smooth, velvety shrimp-based roux or béchamel that was slightly briny (yet not overpowering) and sweet, thanks to the North Sea waters. There weren’t particularly any larger chunks of shrimp for textural contrast but it wasn’t needed - as the croquette’s crunchy, golden brown breadcrumb shell was working overtime. 

It was as if a thicc (I think that’s what the teenagers say these days) Dorito was stuffed with a seafood bisque. A combination that appeals to both the white-collar and blue-collar life I lead. 

Frites Atelier: The Verdict

“The Verdict” on all fronts, said best by the ‘Jiggaman’ (aka Jay-Z). “Not guilty, he who does not feel me, is not real to me, therefore, he doesn’t exist.” 

I think this essentially means that haters aren’t even on the radar. There’s such an earned greatness to this fast-casual frites brasserie that those who are hatin’ don’t even get a second thought. 

And, I have to wholeheartedly agree. If you’re a Frites Atelier hater, “Poof, vamoose, son of a…”

Pale Ale Travel Note: If you’re in a rush and prefer to eat your frites on the go, don’t worry. There are several standing tables placed out front for you to hunker down like a New Yorker with his/her daily slice of tangy, tomato-ey pizza, all with political pundit opinion columns and the weekly crossword tucked under your arm. 

Frites Atelier Emphatically Lives Up to the Hype

I think the biggest lesson to take away from this post, other than that Frites Atelier in Antwerp will have you doing the Snoopy dance after you take your first bite, is that sometimes your gut instinct is wrong. 

I’m wrong all the time and it really ain’t that bad, especially when you end up with a piping hot loaded bowl of Flemish stew frites in front of you as consolation. 

That’s not to say you shouldn’t trust it but sometimes it’s worth taking that gamble on a spot that you might otherwise avoid due to having been burnt by former establishments in the past. It’s completely alright to go to touristy spots. They are often ubiquitous and popular for a reason. 

And Frites Atelier has definitely deserved its spot in the ranks of the frites legends of Belgium. 

If you have any questions about traveling to Antwerp, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at [email protected]. I’d also love to hear from you if you have any favorite frites spots or restaurants in Antwerp!

Eat well everyone,

Big Body