Lord of the Fries, Melbourne

True Story: on New Years Eve a few years ago I boldly declared that 2009 would be a year of no fries/hot chips/French Fries/deep fried potatoes of any sort for me. 

The next day (the 1^st January) I caught up with some school friends who’d I not seen since we finished high school about 100 years beforehand. As I tucked into my fish and chips I thought to myself “isn’t this a lovely way to spend the first day of 2009, with friends and hot chips”...and then I thought “oh crap, I’m not supposed to be eating chips”, shrugged my shoulders and finished the whole darn lot of them.

Needless to say I think of myself as a bit of a chip fanatic connoisseur. The “Lady of the Chips” even. So isn’t it only right that the “Lady of the Chips” should be excited to meet the Lord of the Fries on a trip to Melbourne.

After our fabulous lunch at Maze The Boy and I wandered around Melbourne for awhile and checked out the laneways and well as the Immigration Museum. All of this was basically a strategy to allow enough time for us to race to Lord of the Fries post-lunch without seeming like total and utter piggies.

As we were visiting Lord of the Fries for a pre-dinner snack I opted for sampler serve of fries ($3.00) with Belgian Sauce ($0.75) which is a European style Mayonnaise.  I’d had mayonnaise on chips when I was in Amsterdam about 12 years ago and this brought back memories. Creamy sauce, piping hot fries, a little wooden fork to eat it all with  – it would only have been more authentic if my fries were served in a cone.

The Boy opted for a cone sized serving of fries ($4.20) with American Sauce ($0.75). I was jealous of the cone his chips came in, but not the boring BBQ style sauce. 

The next day, our last in Melbourne, we went back to Lord of the Fries for breakfast (they don’t open their Flinders Street store until 11am so it’s not as bad as it sounds).

I really wanted to try the fries with Canadian Sauce ($1.75 as this is a “fancy sauce”).  This time I meant business and ordered a cone, but as the mix of melty cheese and gravy is so oozy and runny it was served a foil lined carton. Big bummer.  The sauce was amazing though – as naughty and guilt inducing as it sounds.

The Boy also opted for a cone with a regular sauce. Although his Thai Sauce ($0.75) sauce resembles baby poop he assured me it was lovely. Ah, sure.  I just couldn’t get my head around chips with satay sauce – a bit to gourmet (aka weird) for my tastebuds.

For me the Lord of the Fries experience was always going to be about the sauces, rather than the fries – so I was pleasantly surprised at how lovely the actually fries were - hot, crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside with the skin still on for that "rustic" feel.   A disclaimer at the store (well, all the stores we visited actually) stated that due to the recent bad weather we’ve been having customers will notice some irregularities with the chips – blemished skin, dents and weird sizes. But despite all of this Lord of the Fries was not going to stop using home-grown Aussie potatoes. And good on them too! 

And isn’t this little guy just fabulous. He’s the Lord of the Fries in the pigeon world I’m sure! As we stood and snapped our pictures of this pigeon he ate about a third of the chips. Way to go.

There are quite a few Lord of the Fries scattered around Melbourne. We visited the store at Flinders Street Station and also their store on the corner of Elizabeth and Flinders Street. You can find other locations on their website.