Some claim that Maison Antoine has the best fries in Belgium and the world, but of course this is all based on personal taste. They have been voted as one of the best and have been all over the media. The fritterie is now operated by its fourth generation so it’s been around for a long time! After C and I took a quick walk to the EU building and the arc, we headed over to grab some lunch here. Yup, we eat fries for lunch. But apparently, a bunch of other people do too! We got there at around maybe 11:15 and there was already a small line up! We quickly lined up too, and later found out they open at 11:30 am. Wow, people actually line up for this place! It was a mix of locals and tourists, and there were several local families as well. The kids were so excited to get their fries! The gates rolled up, and the line began to move quickly on two sides.

They have an extensive menu! Apparently, when they first started, they only had fries and two sauces though! Now, they have their fries in two sizes, and a whole menu of sauces! The Tartare Maison (House Tartar) still seems to be the most popular. Other than that, they also have a huge menu of snacks and even sandwiches. What surprised me was that many people also ordered items other than the fries. Shows that the rest of their food is also pretty good! However, I can say that pretty much everyone left with some fries!

When in Belgium, get the Belgian fries. So of course we did. Since it was only ,30 euros more to get a large size and we were sharing, we got the large. It was huge though! We probably would’ve been fine just getting the small. Belgian fries are extremely popular because they are thought to have originated from Belgium, although some say that the French did, hence the name French fries. Belgian fries are cut a bit thicker than French fries though, as French fries are known to be skinny. They are also deep fried twice, therefore it’s soft in the middle and very crispy on the outside. I loved how they continued the tradition to serve the fries in a “cornet de frites” where your fries are wrapped in cone shaped paper. And you get the small plastic forks so you don’t need to get your fingers all dirty. Were the fries good? Yup. Were they amazing? I don’t know if I would say they were amazing. After a while, we both agreed we were sort of sick of the fries and they weren’t that special.

Oh and of course, we got the sauces. These are for additional costs, and we decided to try two. We got the Maison Tartare and I think the one in the back was the Chili (since we asked the lady which spicy sauce was recommended). The Maison Tartare was our favourite. The Chili was just okay, and it wasn’t even really spicy. Belgian fries always seem to be eaten with some type of sauce. The most popular ones are actually mayonnaise and ketchup. However, today, friteries have come up with a variety of sauces.

Since we lined up, we also decided to try some of their snacks. We got the Lucifer and the Loempia. The Loempia, which is pictured as the darker brown one was sort of like a sausage roll. Loempias are really spring rolls, so it was a thin outer layer deep fried with some meat inside. It was just alright and nothing too special. The Lucifer was what we liked! It seemed like a new product and they had some advertisements on the windows of it. We weren’t exactly what a Lucifer was but it looked like a matchstick! I did a quick search and still, I’m not sure what it is. It seems like a name that Maison Antoine has just come up with since Lucifers in Belgium usually refer to the beer. Anyways, it’s this crispy coating around some meat like thing, and on the red part, it’s this spicy sort of sauce that is kind of dried up. Not very descriptive I know, but just think of it as some spicy deep fried meat! Pretty good!

Anyways, Maison Antoine was a nice shop to grab a snack, although it ended up being our lunch. The fries are pretty good, but I wouldn’t metro all the way here just for the fries if I wasn’t going to tour around this area as well. I hear there are also great friteries elsewhere in the city, and I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to tell much of a difference. Still, the line up here was constant and longer once it got later in the day. Good thing we came a little earlier!