Those potato-length wedges with seasoned crispy exteriors and fluffy interiors seemed to be ubiquitous at restaurants in the 90s. They are perfectly balanced between a thinner french fry and a baked potato. I can’t remember the last time I saw one on a plate. Is that just a regional thing? Where did they go?
(A quick google search turns up one version of a steak fry that could maybe be compared to a 2x6 piece of lumber, with “regular” fries being a 1x1 or 2x2. I’m not thinking of that, but rather of potatoes cut radially, skin-on, and fried or maybe oven-baked/”air fried”).
This picture is from Red Robin, so the answer to your questions is… Red Robin.
Also you can find them in your grocer’s freezer section, next to the conventional fries, the shoestring fries, the crinkle cut fries, and of course, the tater tots.
Also, it seems like there’s a decent amount of disagreement about whether a potato wedge is a steak fry or not. Without getting into a debate about what is or isn’t a steak fry, I’ll clarify that:
Around here, restaurants used to advertise steak fries. Those were almost always fried potato wedges, looking similar to what @Johnny_L.A posted. If I make them at home, it’d be a recipe like this, but with a different spice blend.Here’s a reddit post where folks are talking about some possible regionality wrt steak fries, potato wedges… and there’s mention of Jojos as well.
At any rate, these wedges, sold under the name steak fries, used to be common. Today I think I can get a version in the hot bar at the grocery store, but beyond that, every restaurant serving a fried potato is doing some version of normal to excessively thin fries. I miss wedges.
I’ve always thought of them as the same thing; inevitably fried, covered in possibly sour cream, bacon bits, and cheese (or a sampling of each). Jack in the Box has them:
My 2¢: When I hear ‘steak fries,’ I assume the fat fries as opposed to potato wedges. As someone who eats out a lot, it would be uncommon to see potato wedges described as steak fries. . . Unless it’s a smothered/loaded fries kind of dish (cheese, bacon, etc.) In that case the fries might be any shape other than tots.
Edit: (Mainly) Southeastern chain Texas Roadhouse has steak fries. The local grocery stores and Wal-Mart often have potato wedges (as shown above) on the hot bar.
Agreed. And, as we’ve seen already in this thread, the term “steak fries,” by itself, means very different things to different people, and doesn’t seem to have one clear definition, the way some other French fry varieties (shoestrings, waffle fries, curly fries, etc.) do.
Today I Learned that “jojos” aren’t a Cleveland thing, they’re actually a PNW thing, but also randomly popular in Northeast Ohio and we all think they were invented here.
And yeah, “steak fries” are what @Just_Asking_Questions posted, sold at Red Robin and in the freezer section (I have some in my freezer!)
The red package strip in @Just_Asking_Questions’ photo looks like Ore-Ida Steak Fries. They’re what I think of as steak fries and what I would expect to have if I went to a good restaurant for steak. The best steak fries I’ve ever had were fried in duck fat, but that was at the most expensive restaurant in town for our 50th anniversary dinner. Ore-Ira can’t match that.
The deal with good steak fries is that the ratio of volume to surface areas is much different from those of fast-food fries. Properly done, they have the good potato taste of a baked potato with the tasty outer layer the fat provides, but with much less fat overall. Steak fries have 3 grams of fat in 3 ounces while skinny frozen fries have 8 or 9.
Potato wedges have similar volume but are spoiled by all the crap that restaurants put onto them. If your fries need that stuff to taste good, I’m not interested.
