Fry-day night lights: 11 of our favorite DFW fries
When the french-fry gods shine down their golden-fried goodness upon you, it’s something you can’t ignore.
I realized this at a Wendy’s outside Santa Fe, N.M., a few weeks ago, as we pulled away from the restaurant and I divvied up my kids’ lunch. What happened next I have ranked slightly below the day I got married and the days each of my kids were born: The drive-thru attendant had bestowed upon us a large order of fries — WHICH WE DID NOT ORDER.
It was the fourth-greatest day of my life.
If you think I’m exaggerating, then you don’t know with whom you’re dealing. Flash back to me at age 11, and my brother Al, 9. On a visit to see relatives in South Florida, he and I take a vow: To eat french fries at every meal out possible — contiguously, continuously.
Would it be a surprise to note that we succeeded? Effortlessly (and disturbingly so), I might add.
As years fried by, my infatuation — emphasis on the fat — with the side has never wavered, even during the sweltering months when heavier foods are pushed asunder and the word “fries” more routinely connotes sun damage.
So what better time, then, to go on a spud-fueled road trip and tour DFW’s best french fry haunts — and to do a little dietary damage of my own? (I never liked bikinis anyway.)
First stop: Magnolia Avenue, our city’s heralded gateway to mostly stellar, independently owned restaurants. But with three entries on this list of our area’s best bets, perhaps it should be renamed Fry Way.
Bentley’s
Regular seasoned fries ($4); Parmesan or Buffalo blue cheese ($5)
Bentley’s, opened in late June, is so new that it didn’t have indoor seating when I stopped by (it does now), but the restaurant’s quaint little patio made for an ideal venue to get down to business.
While Bentley’s focuses on serving craft coffee, crepes and gourmet hot dogs, some serious fries abound, including regular and Parmesan and blue cheese.
The latter two were understated yet fabulous, with the medium-cut fries, their ends slightly crispy, sopping up the respective seasonings. The Parmesan serving, flecked with chopped flat-leaf parsley, was lighter than the Buffalo-sauced blue-cheese version.
But the liberal amount of blue-cheese crumbles was hardly an issue, and at times, we forged french-fry sandwiches, wedging the cheese between two fries.
Addiction quotient: 3 out of 5 (Five meaning: You’re going to have to purchase a new pair of pants before you leave the restaurant.)
1515 W. Magnolia Ave., Fort Worth, 682-715-4530, @bentleysdogs on Facebook
Lili’s Bistro
Gorgonzola fries, $10
It’s the least best-kept secret about the food at Lili’s: You have to get the gorgonzola fries.
They’re astonishingly similar in size and look to those at Chick-fil-A, except that they come on a kitschy platter and they’re dusted with a snowfall of gorgonzola and chopped green onions. Crispy and slightly salty, the waffle fries stand up to the cheese — or rather, they hold the cheese up.
Neither belt-busting nor grease-laden, they are wondrously (and weirdly) buoyant, and pair well with the globally minded comfort food like the turkey burger ($10) or lamb pita ($15).
Addiction quotient: 3 1/2 out of 5
1310 W. Magnolia Ave., Fort Worth, 817-877-0700, lilisbistro.com
Shinjuku Station
Tok fries, $6.25
These fries at the elegant sushi restaurant are so thick-cut and long that one dip in the spicy mayo and your first Tok fry may topple over onto the table like mine did.
The small, sculptural serving here is aggressively covered in chili seasoning and gets a further layer of spice when dipped in the ramekin of furikake, a dry-rice seasoning. The textures are fabulous, with the crispy furikake providing a crunch to the fries, which otherwise would be lacking. But each fry is pillowy perfection inside, with a tender skin.
Add the creamy mayo and the piquant spices, and the dish hits all of the right notes. Also, full disclosure: I broke a rule I have about abandoning any food that falls onto a restaurant table. I ate that first fry, and it tasted just as good as all of the others on the plate — maybe even a little bit better.
Addiction quotient: 4 1/2 out of 5
711 W. Magnolia Ave., Fort Worth, 817-923-2695, shinjuku-station.com
Pacific Table
Shoestring fries
If shoestring fries, thinly sliced and salted within an inch of their lives, are your thing, get a table at, well, Pacific Table.
Here, I’m most familiar with them as a thrilling plate-mate to the pecan veggie burger ($12) — one of the best veggie burgers in town, but that would make for another story. The sandwich is hearty and blessed with a gooey slice of jack cheese on top. Sometimes, the cheese intermingles with the pile of fries, kind of like cheese fries-lite, which is definitely not a complaint.
Flecked with rosemary and garlic and anointed with the aforementioned salt, the fries conjure up a really on-point McDonald’s kitchen that is working with better-than-usual ingredients.
Addiction quotient: 4 1/2 out of 5
1600 S. University Drive, No. 601, Fort Worth, 817-887-9995, pacifictableftworth.com
Railhead Smokehouse
Large fries with onions, $5.75
There are people who eat fries in a ladies-who-lunch kind of way, delicately and perhaps open to sharing them with a group.
And then there is me at Railhead, the old-school west-side barbecue joint.
Ordering the fries with the sauteed onions here is akin to dietary suicide and, well, all I can say is that sometimes you need a few extra thousand calories in your daily intake. What puts these fries over the top is the boatload of roughly chopped onions, which are slicked in oil and are a good counterpoint to the starchy potatoes.
This rough-hewn presentation means that they’re hard to eat with your fingers, and sometimes, I admit I’ve been reduced to using a fork. Which is all the better for shoveling.
Addiction quotient: 5 out of 5
2900 Montgomery St., Fort Worth, 817-738-9808, railheadsmokehouse.com
Velvet Taco
Tater tots, $5.25
French-fry purists may call foul, but it would be a crime not to include Velvet Taco’s tots on this list — they are made with potatoes and fried, after all.
Make no mistake, they are far from the pre-fried frozen cylinders from our collective childhoods; Velvet Taco’s take has all of the trademarks for which the restaurant is known, including a locally sourced sunny-side-up egg atop a mini-mountain of tots.
Underneath the perfectly Crisp Tots, as they are known, is an avocado crema, smoked cheddar and goat cheeses, and tabs of bacon, as if to mock: You thought this was low-cal? It all works, and then some — the creaminess from the cheeses and crema, the runniness of the yolk and the crunch from the tots.
Squirt a little Valentina sauce (or a lot) and the heat makes the dish even more irresistible.
Addiction quotient: 3 1/2 out of 5
2700 W. Seventh St., Fort Worth, 817-887-9810, velvettaco.com
Terra
Handcut fries, $4
It’s all about the dipping sauces at Mediterranean restaurant Terra, whether it’s the baba ghanouj (roasted eggplant dip), hummus, tzatziki or that amazing nectar that comes with the roasted cauliflower. So it makes sense, then, that the fries here are worth your while, too.
Traditionally seasoned, medium-cut and crispy, they benefit from a slosh or two in whatever sauce you fancy. The creamy, thick tzatziki does it for me every time, because the fries stand up to the viscous dip, emerging even better for it, each bite with a touch of garlic and dill.
Addiction quotient: 4 1/2 out of 5
2973 Crockett St., Fort Worth, 817-744-7485, terramedgrill.com
Southern Classic Daiquiri Factory
Avery Island Fondue Fries, $9
This is as close to poutine as you get in Fort Worth so if I never visit Montreal again, that would be OK so long as there’s Southern Classic.
Enter the first (and only) entry on our list for crinkle-cut fries, which languidly bathe here in a cheesy concoction called Thibodaux Fondue, rife with sausage, shrimp and crawfish and meted out with melted cheese, bell peppers, onions and Cajun spices.
The fries don’t get annihilated by the sauce, but that might be because they disappear ridiculously quickly from the plate. Salty, cheesy and spicier than you may think, they’re a wonder.
Addiction quotient: 5 out of 5
6751 Bridge St., Fort Worth, 682-213-2893; 6256 McCart Ave., Fort Worth, 682-385-9050; @southernclassicdaiquiryfactory on Facebook
Café Medi
At either location of this Northeast Tarrant fave, you’re guaranteed excellent Middle Eastern food, from the avgolemono soup to the Zeus Burger. No surprise, then, the fries: Dusted with Greek seasoning and a welcome sight on virtually all of the entrees (if you choose to substitute for rice), they’re crispy, salty and ideal for a DIY cheese-fries concoction I’ve dubbed Feta Fries.
Order the feta and kalamata olive appetizer ($7.95) and add an order of fries. Crush feta on top. Tzatziki sauce (and bib) optional.
Addiction quotient: 4 out of 5
420 Grapevine Highway, Hurst, 817-788-5110; 129 E. Olive St., Keller, 817-337-3204, cafemedi.com
Dallas fries
Tillman’s Roadhouse
Trio of fries, $12
Its time in Fort Worth was short-lived, but Tillman’s — and its heralded trio of fries — lives on at its original location in Dallas’ Bishop Arts District. Made with Kennebec and purple varieties and sweet potatoes, this upstanding (literally, they stand up) entry comes with a few sauces, house-spiced ketchup and horseradish pickled mayo, which enhance the well-seasoned fries. The Parmesan-dusted, black-pepper-spiced Kennebecs and chili-tinged purple potatoes have almost creamy interiors, while the sweet potatoes (admittedly, not my favorite kind of fry) are bolstered by the fabulous mayo. It all results in a satisfying, almost well-rounded dish.
Addiction quotient: 4 out of 5
324 W. Seventh St., Dallas, 214-942-0988, tillmansroadhouse.com
Toulouse Café and Bar
Pommes frites, $4.50
Any time fries are served on a pedestal or in a cone, I’m there. It’s as if they add to the allure and taste, and at Toulouse, this is certainly the case. Slightly wider than shoestring, salty, and occasionally dusted with minced greenery, the fries here are as authentic as you can get, without heading straight to Les Halles or St. Germain in Paris. I like to kick the French quotient up a notch by eating them with the moules (mussels), which are also terrific. The Green Room mussels ($24) are made with jalapeños, ginger, shiitake mushrooms, garlic and a hint of champagne, and the broth is a wonderful swimming pool for the fries. I throw a few in, as if to test the waters, dunk a couple into the wonderful aioli that comes with, and then retrieve the submerged ones before it’s too late. It’s an altogether transformative experience.
So was a trip there with my mom and daughter about five years ago, when Maya was about 2. Now, she’s a chatterbox, but back then, she was a bit stingy with her words. As we were leaving the restaurant, after a particularly lovely lunch of moules et frites, my mom and I said goodbye to the staff. Out of nowhere, I heard a little voice, a bit high-pitched, chime in as well: “Thank YOU!” Maya said.
To all of the french fries mentioned here (and even those that I have yet to eat/meet), I echo Maya’s words: Thank you, indeed.
Addiction quotient: 5 out of 5
3314 Knox St., Dallas, 214-520-8999, toulousecafeandbar.com
This story was originally published July 28, 2016 at 3:31 PM with the headline "Fry-day night lights: 11 of our favorite DFW fries."