What to Order at a Belgian Friterie on Keto

The friterie, the Belgian chip shop, is a cultural institution. They’re on street corners, in converted trailers, in small rooms with a counter and a deep fryer and a laminated menu of sauces. Brussels has hundreds of them. The frites they produce are genuinely good, cooked twice in beef fat or oil, and the smell is designed to make you forget what you were trying to do.

You are not there for the frites.

What’s actually on the menu

Some friteries, particularly the larger ones, do more than frites and sauce. Brochettes (skewers of pork or chicken) are grilled, not fried, and are usually just seasoned meat. Merguez sausages are another option; the pure lamb or beef merguez without filler is keto-friendly, and at a decent friterie they’re grilled over charcoal. A few places do whole chicken pieces, also grilled.

The question is whether your particular friterie offers these things. Some are frites-only operations. The ones in more residential areas tend to have a wider menu, partly because they serve a dinner crowd. Worth looking at the menu before you commit to standing there trying to construct a keto order.

The sauce situation

Belgian friterie sauces are mostly not your friend. Andalouse, américaine, cocktail: these are mayonnaise-based sauces that often contain sugar and sweet peppers in quantities that add up. Samurai sauce, which is a spicy mayo, varies by recipe. Plain mayonnaise is the lowest-risk option and also one of the classic Belgian pairings for frites, which is slightly ironic given your current situation.

Asking for sauce on the side and using it sparingly is the practical approach. Or just eat the meat plain. A grilled brochette doesn’t need sauce.

Is it worth it

Compared to going to an actual restaurant: probably not. You’re working around a menu that isn’t designed for you, you’re paying friterie prices for what amounts to grilled meat on a stick, and you’re standing on a pavement doing it.

But there are situations where the friterie is what’s there. A Saturday afternoon in Ixelles when everything else is full. A late evening when nothing is open. Post-concert in the centre of town. In those situations, a merguez or a brochette is a perfectly reasonable decision. Just don’t go in thinking you’re going to have a full experience.

The frites smell incredible. That part doesn’t change.