Restaurant review: Marina Market's Street Frites is love at first bite
Street Frites in the Marina Market alongside their Frites with Belgian Mayo
Many, many moons ago, on a stopover in Brussels, I had my first ever cone of frites with mayonnaise: love at first bite. Street Frites in the Marina Market is a sister outlet to the Dublin-based original and I rock up, readymade scepticism to hand, doubting they will come any way close to the original of the species. I am wrong.
Though not the best I’ve ever eaten — which seems to require a ‘pre-saucing’ of Belgian lambic beer over the course of a wild night on the tiles — these are good chips, (Original fries, €6.95). Irish potatoes (possibly, Maris Pipers) are chipped with skins left on, always my preference, skin adding further chew. Immaculately cooked to a lovely dry crisp with a sweet-ish fluffy interior, seasoned salt adds a peppery herbaceous cast to the overall effect. The Belgian-style mayonnaise is infinitely superior to any of the stuff available in most fast food outlets; creamy, rich, and tangy, it marries immaculately with the chips.
The classic Belgian partner for ‘frites’ is mussels, as in ‘moules-frites’, an utterly exquisite pairing. When I first sampled frites in Belgium all those years ago that was pretty much the extent of the menu, at least at the outlet I frequented.
Times change and multiple pairings abound. It’s no different at Street Frites, with 11 ‘signature sauces’ (including miso and wasabi mayo, kimchi mayo, and Indonesian curry sauce). There are also ‘gourmet’ frites options, including chicken curry, Mexican taco, Korean, and Rebel County Cheesy fries.
Having returned for a second look, I opt for tempura prawn fries (€13.50), served with saffron aioli, wakame, nori salt, and chilli, piled on top of those glorious frites. The batter is way denser than traditional, airy-light tempura batter, over-dominating any potential succulence of tiger prawns, but I am really impressed by the garnishes: fresh chilli and wakame, finely sliced into long thin strips along with ‘shavings’ of dried nori; and the saffron aioli has that plangent depth of flavour that only comes from an emulsion made with olive oil.
Now, if only Street Frites were to offer a bowl of ‘moules’ alongside.
- Bill: €20.45
- streetfrites.ie
