Mad City Frites
320 State St, Madison, WI, 53703
Mad City Frites Menu
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Visit below restaurant in Madison for healthy meals suggestion.
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Address :
320 State St
Madison, WI, 53703 - Phone (608) 204-6150
- Website https://www.madcityfrites.com/
- Click To Get Directions
Opening Hours
- Tue
Specialities
- Takes Reservations : No
Delivery : No
Take-out : Yes
Accepts Credit Cards : Yes
Good For : Late Night
Bike Parking : Yes
Good for Kids : Yes
Good for Groups : Yes
Attire : Casual
Ambience : Casual
Noise Level : Average
Alcohol : No
Outdoor Seating : No
Wi-Fi : No
Has TV : No
Waiter Service : No
Caters : No
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Bridget S.
FRITES ON POINT. GENERAL: Great flavor, check the specials card for even more sauce variety, order 'em how you like 'em (extra crispy for me), check apps for frequent coupons/deals/steals! I love love LOVE fried potatoes of any kind. These ones are delicious. Once you order, your frites are made fresh, which is always an added bonus. FLAVOR: the seasoning is BOMB--a great combination of salty, tangy, smoky, garlicky, and every other delicious flavor you can imagine. There are maybe 10-15 sauces that you can choose from, and while I've enjoyed every one that I've had, the biggest standout for me is the sconnie sriracha. PRO TIP: don't get 100% set on your sauce decision based on the menu board; there are monthly specials on cards located up at the register. My favorite sauce so far has been the Roasted Red Pepper Aioli, which was a special sauce for this month. TEXTURE: texture hasn't always been totally consistent for me here--sometimes I get a crisper order, sometimes I get a softer one, but every time, there are a handful of really crisp little guys that are my favorite. Don't be afraid to tell them what you like! I've learned that they key is to order them extra crispy or "well-done" so that I get all of my frites just the way that I like em! PRICING: They definitely need to change this up--how? I'm not sure, but it doesn't make THAT much sense the way they have it now. They're not overpriced by any means, but it is a bit strange. The regular size is priced at $4.50, and it comes with one sauce. Large is $5.50 and comes with two sauces. Additional sauces can be purchased for $1.00 a piece or $2.50 for a combo of three sauces. If you're a sauce lover like me, you'll need an extra sauce no matter which size you go with...and while I'm not a fan of wasting food, at times it seems like it might be most cost-effective to just upgrade to the large for the extra "free" sauce and then get rid of whatever frites I don't eat. There are generally coupons on apps like Hooked that will get you a discount of some sort though, so that comes in handy for me a lot. STAFF: The staff here is phenomenal. They are happy to answer questions and they're always polite, upbeat, and happy. I've seen them when I'm sober and I've seen them while I'm on the verge of blacking out, and they've always been kind and helpful. ATMOSPHERE: Urban chic, with specialty tables that have holes to insert your fry-cones into! It's a great place to stop in off of state street. You can hang out with friends and play a board game from their selection, sit by the window and people-watch, or just chill out and enjoy your frites! 5 stars! I hope this place sticks around for a long time!!!
(5)Barbara G.
I was really excited to try Mad City Frites, but I was a little disappointed. The dipping sauces were good, the seasoning on the frites are great, but they are missing that critical "crunch" that is the hallmark of a European Frite. It says they are double fried, but I am skeptical. If they are, they need to work on technique. Traditional Frites are double fried with puffy soft potato on the inside and the outside has a distinctive crunch. This is missing from Mad City Frites. I hope that they can master that crisp crunchy frites need. Prices are good. In fact, the 'Large' for only $5.50 is a steal.
(3)Miranda K.
Went here a little before bar time. Services takes a minute but because they make everything fresh for you, which makes it totally worth it. We got the garlic and Mad City sauces. I recommend both highly. Can't wait to go back and try others. I love it for late night food, but not sure when else i would want to go and just get fries.
(4)Gordon R.
I KNOW I wrote a review of Mad City Frites a couple of weeks ago. It's disappeared for some reason. I'm in a writin' mood, so here goes another. Interior was spacious, clean and bright, with fun holes in each table for the paper fry-cone holder to sit in. The lone woman on duty was very nice, and rather excited to bestow the frites upon us! I take that as a sign of a new business populated by energetic young folk. Oh, to be in the flower of youth again! The frites were nice and crispy on the outside, and creamy on the inside, with a sprinkle of season salt to spice them up a bit. We ended up getting three of the dipping sauces: the garlic, the honey-mustard, and the mad sauce. The garlic was not super flavorful. It helped to glob the sauce on each bite. Perhaps more of this sauce is required to accommodate such globbing. The other two were much better. The honey-mustard was nice and tangy-sweet (HM is one of my fave combos), and the Mad sauce was really good too. It's been a few weeks, so I can't remember what was in it exactly, but it was very flavorful, kind of like sweet pepper maybe? AGHH my memory! Anyway, I enjoyed these two sauces a lot. Several reviewers have dinged this place because the frites are "too thick." I wasn't aware that there were standard specs for this kind of fry. I LIKE thick-cut fries, and this joint does them well as descibed above. But then, I also like steak fries, so I guess that makes me, what, a philistine? Probably! I guess these sort of one-item menu concepts are au courant. This one makes a lot of sense for a snack mid-afternoon, as I had. They are open super-late on weekends, so the other obvious time is after-bar for State Street drunkies. Whatever floats your boat. I would go again, and probably will soon as I have been having cravings for fries this week and I have to go downtown every day. Kinda inevitable! I've never been to Belgium, so I can't speak to how "authentic" they are ( I find this term used as a criticism of restaurants to be tendentious and tiresome anyway) but I can say the frites are plenty tasty and satisfying, the portions are good for one, or to share with a friend (unless you're a fat-ass) and the sauces I've had are a nice tasty addition.
(4)Kate F.
Cool concept. The fries and the sauces are delicious--my friends and I got a bunch of different ones... the garlic/rosemary and the madcity sauce were my favs. But be forewarned... this is literally just fries and sauces to dip them in. Nothing fancy.
(4)Tenny D.
I was craving fries and this was the right spot. The fries were little thicker than my liking. I got sriracha and the sauce was yum. We also got poutine. It's not the best I have ever had but it was pretty decent. Will visit again.
(3)Logan S.
I'm mad for Mad City Frites! If you're on Madison's State Street and hungry for a quick snack, this place is a must stop. Fun atmosphere, friendly employees, and great fries.
(5)Jesse S.
I must have eaten half a ton of fries in my day, but these were the best by a longshot. It's not even close. Just try them. You will not regret it.
(5)Belinda L.
They are located right in the middle of State St. They are open late. They serve thick hand cut fries and poutine. Need I say more? A small order of the fries comes with choice of one sauce while the large version comes with two. Of course you can always ask for additional sauce for an extra charge. For me the small is perfect, sometimes it might even be too much, depending on how hungry I am. My favorite sauce is the madtown mango, mango chutney aioli with garlic and lemon. There's a reason why this sauce is the first one on their list, number 1. Poutine is also great, made with Wisconsin cheddar and gravy *yum yum* For those looking to spend the afternoon or a couple hours with friends munching on fries, there are plenty of games in store to keep you occupied.
(4)Rebecca L.
Impressions: solid fry seasoning, not quite frites IMO. Probably works best as a post-bartime snack stop. They're fast and greasy and have a lot of open space in the shop. I really wanted to love this place because I LOVE fried potatoes! However, the general lack of options, too-thick cut fries, and lackluster dips meant this fell short of my expectations. Dips I tried: garlic and pesto ones. I forget the clever names they had, but I ended up preferring the ketchup.
(3)Summer P.
Delicious. Perfect. I will get them every time I walk downtown Madison. I had the Mad City sauce! Best fries in Madison. And I know fries.
(5)Emily S.
A friend and I stopped in here one day mid morning to check it out. We were the only people in the place and had our choice of tables. The interior is very urban industrial and I love that there are little spaces in each table to hold the fries. After we ordered, we watched the employee grab the potatoes and cut them fresh right in front of us. I love this - they are truly made to order and are not a bunch of precut frozen fries that they make up. I am not a fry person by nature. I never order them when I am out, and if they happen to come with the meal, I rarely eat them. However, I was super impressed by these fries. They were nice and thick and fried perfectly. They weren't overly greasy or soggy, nor were they hard and crunchy. I liked them a lot. We chose the "Campus Queso" and the "Game Day Garlic" sauces. The cheese looked totally not special, but it actually had a strong (though not too strong) beer taste to the cheese. It went well with the fries. I was more a fan of the garlic, which was creamy and garlicky (obviously) and just...better. My friend and I shared a large, which was more than enough food for both of us. And $5.50 for the fries and two sauces? Maybe I'm still thinking in terms of Chicagoland pricing, but that seemed pretty darn reasonable to me. I realize that this is a very limited menu, but personally, I think that's okay. You go to Mad City Frites for fries and you get...fries. Good ones. :) I'm excited to go back!
(4)Shruti W.
Mad City Frites is definitely a nice addition to State St, especially as a place to hang out and catch up with friends or study. They have games, plenty of space, outlets everywhere, and a nice ambiance. I was not a fan of the frites, however. The place is small but spacious, with some fun little nooks facing State St (perfect for people watching!) and a few comfortably sized tables. You order frites or poutine at the counter, with your choice of sauces (1 or 2 depending on the size of your order). The food is made to order. I tried a large order, which comes with 2 sauces. The sauces I chose were garlic and the Mad Sauce (a tangy-sweet sauce). The frites were way too large for my tastes. They were too big and thick to get crispy at all, and after eating a few it was like just eating starch. This could have been redeemed with flavorful sauces, but I found the sauces lightly seasoned and very heavy. Both were aioli-type sauces and were more sweet than savory, which was surprising for the garlic sauce. I think Mad City Frites could benefit from offering a thinner cut fry for those of us who enjoy crispier frites. I also feel that beer would be an awesome addition to a place like this, so I hope they are working toward getting an alcohol license! I did enjoy the ambiance here, and would recommend it as a spot to meet up with friends if you don't mind a thicker cut fry.
(3)Grace C.
Oooooh yes, this is one of the good ones. IMO, the State Street area has always been kind of lacking in non-food cart, non-sit down/dine in snack places. There are some, and it's expanding, but not much else as you move toward the Square. Enter Mad City Frites. As others have said, they only do one thing - but they do it well. If you're looking for hot, perfectly textured fries with delicious dipping sauce or some good poutine, get here. Plus, cool design stuff: the tables have little holes in them for the fry cones!
(5)Chelsea M.
So delicious! The frites were thick cut, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside and piping HOT! The saracha sauce was amazing! They need to bottle that so that I can put it on everything! It is mild but flavorful, not overly spicy. We also tried the garlic lime sauce. It was thick with a mild garlic flavor and the bright touch of lime. Also good, but that saracha sauce... OH MY! This was my first time trying poutine, so I don't have anything to compare but it was spectacular. Rich gravy and soft cheese curds. It was salty so I can't wait for them to have some beer to pair it with. Service was quick and they came to check on us twice. Exceptional service, food, and attention to detail. In fact, I think one of my favorite parts, besides the food, were the holes cut into the tables so that you can place your cone of frites upright. I'll be back!
(5)Katie K.
You say "fried potatoes" and I'm interested! While I've not been to Belgium, I do consider myself pretty knowledgeable when it comes to fries, frites, and chips, and I've got to say these are different from any I've had here in town. Thick-cut, almost meaty, skin on frites tossed in seasoned salt, served hot and fresh. Could it get better? Add some "game day garlic" sauce or malt vinegar, and yes, it can. I loved the garlic sauce-- thick and flavorful. Also tried the beer cheese dip made with PBR, served warm, which was good. You could really taste the beer! My friend and I thought picking up an order of frites would be a good side to our lunch, but really they could be a meal in themselves. The atmosphere is nice and clean. The tables have holes for you to set your paper frite cone in, which is awesome. And they're working on implementing an automated ordering system which is pretty cool. We met the owner (and her mom) and they were both so very nice! I am excited to go back soon!
(4)Ka L.
Frites is on. What can you get? Thick cut double fried fries. With sauces to choose from. The venue was clean and spacious and I loved the cut out holes in the table so we can put our fries and sauces. I wasn't very impressed by the mad sauce but I was pleasantly surprised by how good the fries were, despite being really thick. There was a nice crisp on the outside, and lots of flesh in the inside but yet was not too dense. Poutine was not to my liking. Why isn't the cheese curds more melty... And the sauce was too salty with the fries. Need to adjust the amount of salt. As for variety.. How about some curly fries? Waffle fries? Potato chip? Thin cut frites? And I just really want aioli to go with my frites. Thank you very much. Verdict: Try it! Great place for snack, but I wish there was more variety on the menu.
(4)Tammy B.
Excellent poutine! I tried poutine twice while in Madison, and Mad City's is the closest to the poutine served in Quebec. Mad City's thicker-cut fries held up beautifully to the delicious gravy, yet they weren't so thick that they were a distraction. Perfection.
(5)Bobb S.
If you are only going to do one thing in your restaurant, you better do it right. In the case of Mad City Frites, I was expecting more and got less. I thought the fries themselves were perfectly cooked-crispy on the outside, nice and soft on the inside. Complaint #1-Why put seasoning salt on the fries? They change the flavor and clashes with the sauces. Simple salt works just fine. Complaint #2-The sauces didn't hit the mark. With a small order, you get a choice on one sauce. With a large, you get 2. So, of course, we opted for the large. With the choice of 10 sauces, we opted for the Game Day Garlic and Sconnie Sriracha. The game day garlic was light on the garlic and heavy on the lemon. The sriracha sauce was spicy but didn't real bring anything else to the table. I was also surprised they didn't just offer a simple aioli. Remember guys, sometimes less is more. I was pleased to see they will be bringing wine and beer to the menu as I think this will be received well. Sober, I probably won't be back. After few beers and without any other options available, well then, all bets are off!
(3)Sara M.
I thought the fries weren't nearly crispy enough, even though the gravy on the poutine was very good. Madison needs more late night food spots, so I'm still glad that Mad City Frites opened and is open late.
(3)Brian P.
I love a place with a small menu that they do well. And this place nails it. Fries were great, as were the dipping sauces. We also ordered poutine which was on point. Will definitely be stopping back.
(5)Ashley H.
Simple menu--potatoes and poutine only, and they do it well! Order your fries (small or large) and choose your sauce. The large included 2 sauces, and ketchup, mayo, and malt vinegar were available at each table. My sauces were garlic and sriracha mayo. Personally, I would have preferred a less citrusy/bright garlic sauce with more of a roasted garlic flavor. My fries were made to order. For to-go orders, they'll put your cone in a paper bag. As for the fries themselves, they were very good. For frites, a thinner fry than what's available at Mad City is more my preference, although these were excellent. Restaurant has wi-fi and the tables have handy holes so that you can have your cone upright when you eat. Tip--the lighting is a bit dim. I was almost positive that they were closed when I walked by. Overall, I recommend!
(4)Marcie W.
This might be a bit snobby, but after spending some time in Belgium last year, I was excited to hear that Madison was getting a Belgian frites place- I could relive my time wandering around eating delicious frites! Mad City Frites, however, did not live up to my expectations. The frites weren't terrible, just nothing special. I went with a group of friends, so we were able to try each others' sauce choices, and these were also good, but nothing exceptional. I do like the handy holes in the tables for the cones of frites. They also have a pile of board games, which is a fun idea. I really wanted to love this place, but it fell a little short of my expectations.
(3)James M.
My wife and I each ordered a regular size with an extra dipping sauce. This turned out to be more food then I thought, almost enough for a full meal. The fries were seasoned very well with seasoned salt and came out in just a few minutes. Most of the fries were well cooked but there was an undercooked one or two in my cone. I had the mango and the teriyaki sauces. Both of the sauces were thick white sauces. They both tasted good, but they didn't taste like mango or teriyaki. My wife and I couldn't even agree which was which. The sauces were labeled on top and the one label appeared smudged. I'm curious if we possible got one wrong sauce. The two sauces my wife got were better, but I don't remember what they were. The decor was simple, but nice. The tables with the custom holes for your fries are fun and I always enjoy window seating on State, which there is plenty of. It's worth the trip and something refreshingly new to town.
(4)Shannon H.
We stopped here because my daughter loves french fries and she was on vacation too. I love this idea and concept of business and was so happy to see it doing well. The fries had season salt on them and were very addictive. I wasn't a big fan of the sauces but both my kid and husband love them. I will definitely come back here.
(4)Do T.
Frites, that's what they do. Good variety of sauces. Fries are a little on the salty side.
(4)Caroline K.
I was so excited when I heard this place was coming to Madison--but alas it ended up being a disappointment. I was hoping it would be just like Pomme Frites in Manhattan, which I make devoted pilgrimages to every time I'm in New York. Unfortunately, the Mad City version falls far short with fries that are too thick, not quite crispy, and sauces severely lacking in flavor. The roasted garlic sauce barely tasted like garlic. I would rather go a couple doors down and get bubble tea as my State Street snack.
(2)Carrie W.
Really perfect frites. Perfectly salted. Love when I don't have to grab the shaker. Staff was helpful. Food came quickly. Poutine was absolutely delicious, plenty of cheese and gravy. The dipping sauces were plentiful and tasty. Very reasonably priced. Will be back and will bring others.
(5)Alexandra P.
Three months later and MCF is better than ever! I am enjoying the new additions to the menu, especially the wasabi ginger aioli! So delicious! I just wish that there would be *weekly* specials as I have already tried all of the sauces! Game Day Garlic, Campus Queso, Sconnie Siracha, and Madtown Mango are definitely the favorites for me. Reasonable prices, excellent service, a great atmosphere, and being able to pay with Red Card keep me coming back week after week!
(5)Adam R.
My thoughts on Mad City Frites are pretty similar to what Shruti W. said in her review. The layout is spacious, the ambience is nice, but the frites themselves are lacking. I also felt like they were too thick, and were way too soft than I wanted them to be. I kept hoping to get some crunch in a few of them, but it never happened. Also, while the sauce texture is there, the flavor is not whatsoever. My group ended up getting 4 sauces, and we could not tell the difference between any of them except for the honey mustard. Way too mild of flavor for a sauce that's really thick. In addition, I feel like the pricing system here needs some improvement. There's two sizes: regular for $4.50, which comes with 1 sauce, and large for $5.50, which comes with two sauces. And then you can get another sauce for $1 (or 3 for $2.50). The large is likely going to be too much for one person to eat (I have a large appetite and finished a large, but my stomach didn't feel great in the end), but getting just 1 sauce is lame (especially with how flavorless they are). So you want to get at least 2. But you feel like you're getting ripped off if you just buy the1 sauce, because you should just get the large then. But if you get the large, then you're going to feel sick/bloated/greasy/fat after you eat it from eating too many fries. Overall, change the price of extra sauce to 50 cents, because 1) Other places don't charge nearly that much for more sauce (See below), and 2) It would give people incentive to actually get more sauces and not more starch. And in case you're reading this review because you were searching for places with good fries, here are 3 places that do fries/frites in Madison way better than this place: Jac's on Monroe Street: You can get a frites basket that has crispier frites, and is the size of MCF's large, for $5, and that comes with an aioli. If you add $1 (the price of 1 sauce at MCF), you get 3 extra sauces, all of which are very tasty. So you can spend $6 at Jac's or $7.50 at MCF for frites and 4 sauces. Easy call to me! Tipsy Cow on the corner of King/Main: They have a good selection of specialty baskets of fries, ranging from $7-$9. So it's more expensive, but it's meant for sharing, and therefore you get more. Options includes buffalo blue cheese, truffle, carnitas, and many others. DLUX on MLK Blvd: If you're on more a budget, you can get speciality fries for $3 here for 1, or a basket for $6. Similar to Tipsy Cow, they have Truffle, but they also have sweet potato w/ Sriracha Mayo, a real goodie. So there you go. In addition, you can get things other than fries at those places, like alcohol and entrees. I would give Mad City Frites a 2.5, but i'm rounding down here because frites are the only thing they do, and I wouldn't put them in the top 5 for Fries in the city, so why I would ever go here?
(2)Alessandra G.
The barbecue sauce is delicious! Great concept for a quick bite! The tables are special with holes for your fries cone. They have some board games by the window so you can people watch and play as you eat! Very chill atmosphere. I wish they gave me more sauce, but at least the ketchup is free.
(4)CJ G.
Great Friday night spot for me and my three year old daughter :-) Mango sauce was delicious and frites had just the right amount of seasoning. Very friendly service. Lots of tables since they didn't have beer and wine available which is a must on State Street but in the mean time good time to try it before the outdoor seating gets sparse.
(4)Lorenz S.
I grew up in Belgium. Frites are important to me and I was extremely excited to see this charming little eatery open on State street. I was there the day it opened. I was probably one of their first customer. I understand the approach. A Madison/College Town spin on a classic Belgian friterie. It's actually a good concept. There's a reason Belgian-style frites are the new hip thing. The restaurant itself is very well thought out, from board games to holes in the tables to hold your "cornet de frites". The problem is the actual food. It's a one item menu. The execution should be perfect or close to it anyways. Unfortunately execution fell short of the mark. The fries themselves feel like a sophomoric attempt at replicating something someone tasted once and then looked up online. The person behind the concept, while well intentioned, clearly has no respect for the product. A frie should be golden and crisp on the outside and silky smooth inside. What Mad City Frites offers is a shadow that vaguely reminds you of what you think you tasted once in a Belgian restaurant. The fries are sometimes crispy but often collapse under their own weight. The rustic approach of using the traditional Belgian "Cornet" (newspaper rolled into a cone) instead of plates does little to absorb the sogginess. The seasoning salt was born out of concept but it just feels like someone is trying to hide the food under a familiar taste and then call it creative. As a frites connoisseur, I felt disappointed; as a cook, I was outraged. The website claims to fry the fries twice in order to attain a crispy outside and a creamy inside. The problem is that the traditional technique does not end there. Each bath the batch of fries go through must have precise but different temperatures. The establishment is apparently quite content with quickly dipping the batch twice in the same temperature oil. This is another aspect that is often misunderstood, oil is a poor replacement for saindoux fat, or pork fat. This gives the fries an unmistakable taste and an unmatchable crispness. This last point is not so relevant since pork fat is not readily available in large quantities and a small establishment would have a very hard time procuring it at a reasonable cost. It would also probably be unsuitable for vegetarians. However, since I'm being precise, I thought I would point it out. The sauces are ok. Unlike previous reviewers, I didn't mind them. While a purist would prefer homemade mayonnaise or aioli, Belgian friteries famously cover their counters with myriads of various sauces. The flavor, while I wouldn't call it "bold" certainly will put a smile on your face. The sauces are very specifically designed for the student crowd and I understood that right away, so I wasn't taken back in any way. Knowing that experiences at new restaurants can vary greatly, I returned to the establishment three times after my first visit. Each time was a different day of the week and a different time of the day and I found my experience to be quite similar each time. Unfortunately. This review really breaks my heart because I was genuinely excited to try this new place.
(3)K C.
Cute and simple storefront/dining area, and unique food. I suppose you could get plain fries with ketchup, but that's a waste. Tried the poutine, which is one of the few or only places in Madison to get it, and it was delicious. Totally trying the cheese and PBR sauce next time.
(4)Nancy T.
The best fries I've ever had. Seriously. And love the variety of dipping sauces. The sirracha lime was my favorite. However, while the fries in the poutine were excellent and the gravy was good, the cheese curds were disappointing. I have eaten poutine in Quebec, where it originated, and the curds are always melted. Or, this being Wisconsin, you would at least expect the curds to be fresh and squeaky. But no, at Mad City Frites, the curds were really cold. Very disappointing. Still, I'd go back just for the amazingly good fries. But please, warm up the curds.
(4)Kathryn C.
Such a great place! The fries are amazing and the staff is very friendly. The inside of the restaurant is super cute and soon they will have self ordering iPad stations. I loved the sriracha lime sauce the best! These were the best fries I have had in a long time.
(5)Rebecca S.
The fries by themselves are worth going for. The delicious sauses are an excellent added bonus.
(5)Teddy R.
They need to make frites like Cafe Hollander not like my uncles backyard fish fry. If they do this I will go back. Respect the sauce game though.
(2)