Frietmuseum Brussels

Located in Brussels, the Frietmuseum offers an interactive journey through the 8,000-year history of Belgian fries, featuring over 1,600 exhibits, vintage posters, and a fry shop serving authentic Belgian fries.

Planning your visit

Belgians are emphatic that fries are Belgian, not French, and the Frietmuseum exists substantially to make that case. The claim rests on documented frying of potatoes in the Meuse valley in the seventeenth century, and on the theory that American soldiers in the First World War encountered them in French-speaking Wallonia and misattributed them.

The museum covers 8,000 years of the potato — its domestication in the Andes, the Spanish introduction to Europe, the initial suspicion, and its eventual role as the staple that fed industrialising Europe and whose failure caused the Irish famine — before turning to frying technique, the double-fry method, the friteries that dot every Belgian town, and the sauces.

Over 1,600 exhibits, vintage posters and equipment fill the displays.

The fry shop at the end serves the real thing, and tasting is included in most tickets.

Note that the original and larger Frietmuseum is in Bruges.

Bookable options include admission with tasting. Current availability is shown below.