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Where To Get The Best French Fries In New York City

By

Garth Johnston

Published Nov 30, 2011

Modified Nov 30, 2011

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Mmmm... Pommes Frites

 

christiNYCa's flickr

By

Garth Johnston

Published Nov 30, 2011

Modified Nov 30, 2011

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For the first time since 1998 Burger King is changing its French fry recipe. According to the company, its new fries will be thicker and slightly wider, with less salt and a "coating that makes them crisper and keeps them hotter longer." All well and good, but serious French fry aficionados never really turned to the King for their fry fix anyway. Not when New York is chock full of excellent fried potato options like these:

The Best Fries in Town, Period: We've said it before and we'll say it again, Pommes Frites makes a damn good French fry (technically, Belgian). Double-fried and perfectly golden, there is a reason there is always a line of tourists, drunks and locals winding out the door. Back when it first opened, Pommes Frites even managed to start a mini-boom of frite shoppes across town (of which it is all that is left). Everyone has their favorite frite sauces, but we're partial to the wasabi, the Vietnamese pineapple and the sweet mango chutney sauces. And the poutine is pretty damn good, too.

Best "Gourmet" Fries: At this point most of the fancy restaurants in town serve one variation of a French fry or another—most of them are too thin or undercooked for our tastes—but the one that comes up again and again as a favorite is "thrice cooked chips" at The Breslin in the Ace Hotel. Imagine the fries at Pommes Frites being fried again and you'll understand the love.

Best Fries With The Skin Still On: Lots of people make their fries with the potato skin still on, but we're pretty partial to the ones at Bark Hot Dogs. They're extra-long, really salty and often made with local potatoes. Plus, if you want a tasty variation on poutine you can't go wrong with their cheese and gravy doused disco fries.

Best French Fries Fried In Duck Fat: In a similar vein to gourmet restaurant fries, the duck fat fry is exactly what it sounds like. A few restaurant's have been adding the delicacy to their menus. For the best of the breed though, TriBeCa's lovely restaurant The Harrison serves a delicious batch of them at lunch and dinner.

Best Fast Food Fries Y'know what? Sometimes you want a French fry that has been carefully made by hand. And sometimes you want a reconstituted piece of potato product that has been fried to within an inch of its life and is really just acting as a means of taking on massive amounts of salt. For those times, there is McDonald's. While we've talked to a surprisingly large number of fans of the fries at Shake Shack (really guys? Love the burgers but their fries? Meh) we respectfully disagree. The fries at McDonald's taste exactly the same as they did when we were little and begged for them from our parents and we are grateful that now we can get them whenever we please (you paying attention Burger King?).

The Rest of the Best: Of course, everyone (EVERYONE) has an opinion when it comes to French fries. When we asked around Gothamist HQ and Twitter we got a whole lot of options including:

Got a favorite fry in town you don't see here? Give 'em a shout out in the comments!

Tagged

bark hot dogs

french fries

french fry

mcdonald's

pommes frites

the breslin

the harrison

Garth Johnston

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