If fries are your favourite fast food side, you will have a reason to rejoice as the famous Martin Zwerts has opened its first outlet outside of Europe in Holland Village.
Dubbed as the number one fries brand in the Netherlands, Martin Zwerts has brought its classic flavours and introduced other fusion flavours to its takeaway stall.
You can choose to get your fries with a preset combination of sauces, or choose to get them plain and then get a small cup of your desired sauces on the side.
We started off with the Martin Zwerts Special (Small: $6.50, Large: $7.50), which came with a mixture of Frites sauce, and Kerrie Sauce with Onions.
The best part about getting the preset sauces with your fries is that the sauces are layered, which means that there’ll be saucy goodness all the way through the cone.
The Kerrie sauce helped to cut through the heaviness of the Frites sauce with the tang from the vinegar. Unfortunately, the fries became soggy under the blanket of sauce.
However, the crunch factor wasn’t completely lost — the onions in the Kerrie sauce still remained crisp despite bathing in the sauce for as long as it had.
If you’re more particular about having your fries crispy, you can order the plain Frites which come in two sizes, Small ($5.50), and Large ($6.50). Some of the side sauces you can opt for include Honey Mustard, Sweet Chilli, Chefs Chilli Sauce and Joppiesaus.
We wanted to try some of the more interesting sauces such as the Meat Sauce and Salted Egg Yolk Sauce, but to our dismay, they weren’t available when we went down.
The fries themselves were crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, with just the right amount of salt on the surface. I wasn’t impressed with the sauce options that were available, because they just weren’t very special.
The Chefs Chilli Sauce tasted like a saltier and spicier version of the garlic chilli sauce you’d get at McDonald’s.
Joppiesaus is something that is less commonly seen here in Singapore, but is widely available in the Netherlands. So, if you want a taste of truly authentic Netherland fries, you can opt for the Joppiesaus.
The taste is little familiar, as it contains both onion and curry powder. Just imagine, a tangy curry mayo sauce.
I had high hopes for the Japanese Sweet Potato Fries ($8), since any kind of fries at a fries shop should taste good right? However, our fries were dry and chalky and tasted better only after dipping it into the sweet chilli sauce.
Perhaps the wrong variety of sweet potatoes were used; the fries were lacking in flavour and sweetness. It was a struggle to even finish the small-sized cone of these dry fries.
Of course, fries aren’t the only things they offer; you can get your hand on other traditional snacks to accompany your fries.
We got to try their Bitterballen (Price TBC), a creamy minced beef ball. Fair warning before you eat it, the inside is really hot so take your time to savour it.
The Bitterballen was served with Frites sauce, which really just tasted like mayonnaise and mustard.
The inside of the Bitterballen was so creamy it was almost like a thick mushroom soup. I really recommend having it with the sharp mustard, as it helped to cut through a lot of the heaviness.
These fried Pork Dumplings ($4.50 for 5 pieces) were nice and crispy on the outside while the pork filling remained juicy.
I’d say that these dumplings resembled Korean dumplings more than anything else, as the pork filling contained some chewy sweet potato noodles and chives. It felt a little out of place at a European fries stall, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
Another side we got to try was the Prawn Fritters ($4.50 for 3 pieces), which were served with Frites sauce as well. These breadcrumb coated prawns were delightfully crispy without being greasy.
The prawns used were fresh and succulent, which created a nice balance between the salty breadcrumb coating and the sweet prawns.
While I felt that some of the sides stood out more than the fries themselves, I’m hoping that the more unique sauces that will be released in the future will add more substance to the menu.
Head down and try the Martin Zwerts Special to get yourself a taste of authentic Netherland snacks.
Expected Damage: $5 – $10 per pax
