Triangle Spirits’ Tower-O-Fries takes the potato to new heights.
The Washington Middle School cafeteria, circa 1997, served the best french fries in the world. I’ve been chasing that exact medium-thin, fresh-from-the-fryer, extra-salty high for almost three decades. Since my time machine never quite works right, and I have, in the intervening years, expanded to other sizes and shapes, I set out to find the best french fries of any style in the Seattle area today.
There are many, many good french fries. Hell, a bag from a frozen food service and a hot, clean fryer gets you three-quarters of the way there. But the truly great ones set themselves apart—with toppings and spices and by staying crispy for a mystifyingly long time. Whether you like them curly or crinkle-cut, thick or thin, smothered or dipped, these are the best french fries in Seattle.
A sainted take on animal-style fries.
University District
No need to head south—we’ve got “animal-style” fries at home. Except these long, thin, nori- and scallion-seasoned fries don’t limp out under their heaping of caramelized onions, American cheese, and doubutsu sauce. Doubutsu is Japanese for “animal,” and a sprinkling of furikake and togarashi ensure the Thousand Island dressing retains its accent.
South Park
All too often, all-day cafés meet the mood of various meals by starting with a blank canvas of bland decor. Good Voyage refutes that, with the charm of a Parisian bistro and the functionality of a high-volume coffee shop. Which makes it the ideal place to linger over the thick, skin-on fries, idly dipping them in aioli or garlic shallot mustard while sipping an espresso tonic or an orange wine.
Fremont’s Finest Fries at Dreamland
Fremont
For those weaned on Red Robin’s bottomless baskets of seasoning-sprinkled steak fries, the girthy golden ones at this whimsical bar are the platonic ideal: thick like Belgian frites, delicately crisp on the outside, and ethereally fluffy inside. Each order comes with a choice of two dipping sauces, including the rarely-seen-in-these-parts fry sauce, though the fries need nothing more than the salty seasoning with which they come dressed.
Milk Drunk potato ringlets play the straight man to their whimsical ice cream flavors.
Curly Fries at Milk Drunk
Beacon Hill
Objectively, a curly fry requires more skill and effort for a restaurant to make well than a straight fry. The bulky shape takes extra space to store, the fragile curls are prone to breakage, and the doubled-over shape can steam the crunch off even the best fry job. None of that matters to a place that traffics in things like pineapple and green peppercorn tepache slushies and fig mascarpone soft serve. Milk Drunk commits to the bit, turning out crispy battered spirals, ideal for dunking in green aioli, whipped garlic, or the bright, herby housemade ranch.
Belltown
The second-best fries of my youth, after the school cafeteria, were the McDonald’s fries of yore. And this delightfully irreverent bar makes something darn close to those (far closer than, say, the current McDonald’s version): feather-light and barely blond, snappy and salty on the outside, with soft insides that reveal more potato flavor than seems possible in such a slim structure. They come on their own in the evening, but also as part of one of Belltown’s better lunch deals during the day: six wings, fries, and a soda for $12.
The higher the fries, the closer to heaven.
Fremont
Long, thin, and elegant, Triangle’s fries come more in a narrow, precarious pile than the tower implied in the name—all the more fun for sharing with a group. These are crowd-pleasers: svelte enough for those who prefer them so, but with a hint of potato fluff inside; cooked barely beyond pale, but to full crispness. They arrive salted but not otherwise seasoned, letting diners choose their own adventure with the accompanying ketchup and choice of sauce. They’re unobjectionable, in the most complimentary and literal way: There is simply nothing somebody could claim is wrong with these fries.
Bait Shop Fries at Bait Shop
Capitol Hill
The house-cut, skin-on fries come straight from the fryer to the table, ultra-crisp and glistening with oil. These are bar fries, and a paradigm of the genre, designed for soaking up booze and devouring with the spirit of a late-night hungry raccoon. The perfect accompaniment to, say, a frozen passion fruit margarita.
The creamy garlic sauce on the Greek Fries at Gyro Heroes deserves a seat on Mount Olympus.
West Seattle
The mysterious action behind the counter of this unremarkably generic Mediterranean restaurant could be sorcery, it could be skill, but whatever it is, it involves plenty of garlic. These pudgy battered fries stayed beguilingly crispy for hours, even under the blanket of soft crumbled feta cheese and creamy garlic sauce—which also tasted as cool and refreshing on the last bite as they did on the first.
Basket of Fries at Skål
Ballard
With no shade intended toward the Brits, putting vinegar on fries makes no sense. Why would you wet your dries? (Consider this also an argument for dipping over drizzling any condiment.) Skål has solved this problem. The medium-thick, beer-battered fries get a sprinkling of dill and vinegar powder, blessing them with the potato-awakening power of vinegar without sogging them out. That leaves the fries plenty crisp for a dip in the accompanying curry ketchup and lemon aioli, or maybe some leftover beer cheese if you ordered the pretzel. (You should order the pretzel.)
Capitol Hill
Fried to a dark golden tan and hefty crisp, which steams the inside to a velvety fluff, these thick and slightly stubby fries take a simple seasoning of salt, pepper, and granulated alliums. But there’s something else that makes these special, a gentle, almost buttery umami flavor. When I asked about it, general manager Valeria Alarcon insisted there’s no magic ingredient—just how they treat the fryer: “We clean it every night, we change the oil constantly, we use canola oil, and we drain/filter it so it stays fresh.” It seems too simple, and I might have been more dubious of this before so many fries I researched for this list (many highly recommended) were eliminated solely on the taste of dirty or turned fryer oil.
