I have a dear friend who thankfully loves to eat as much as I do, is in the same stage of life as me and coincidentally went through the same culinary program I did a couple of years before me. About once a month we make time to hit a local spot thats been on our list. With 5 kids between us, that’s no easy feat.

La Frite is a quaint bistro nestled in store fronts in south town. Simple clean linens and dimly lit narrow dining space is cozy and friendly. The servers are knowledgable (but maybe a tad slow so be prepared if you’re in a rush) and their menu is short and sweet, which as you know, I love. Quality over quantity friends.

We started with a salad of white Belgian endive with walnuts, apples and morbier cheese. I don’t love a mouth full of endive, but I loved the combination of ingredients. Fresh and crunchy, sweet and slightly bitter. It was a good note to start on and follow with the onion tarte. If French onion soup was a tarte, it would be this one. It had rich depth of sweet onion flavor with buttery tarte crust and creamy brie cheese. It was my favorite of all the things we enjoyed at La Frite.

La Frite is known for their Moules and Frites so we of course had to see what the fuss was about. While the sauce the mussels we’re cooked in was very flavorful and rich, the mussels themselves we’re on the small side which is to be expected when they aren’t in season (October-March usually). They do purchase their seafood daily so I will have to come back later in the year when mussels are full and fantastic. We chose the tomato, garlic, onion and white wine preparation which was similar to a bouillabaisse in flavor and it was perfect for dipping bread into as we neared the end. The frites were well done, crunchy on the outside and creamy inside with the perfect amount of golden brown char. The buttery garlic aioli that comes with them was also pretty fantastic.

La Frite has an ever changing prix fixe menu, size options and several small plates which really allows you to try quite a bit of the menu. It’s location in the art district of south town and proximity to Hemisfair park also lends to a nice evening stroll to walk off any accidental over eating 😉