Mr. Fries Man Review

On August 26th, our community team went to try Los Angeles based restaurant Mr. Fries Man. We were interested in the new franchise location since one of our members ,Cobi, mentioned the place when he visited Los Angeles. Although he didn't try it in LA (maybe next time) it definitely piqued our interest.

Mr. Fries Man, a small business turned franchise that started from Craig Bastiste’s home, opened their first location in Gardenia, California. This underground LA food chain has expanded to North Carolina, Texas, Georgia, etc and has eventually found their way into Greenville, South Carolina. 

This fry-based restaurant has an assortment of toppings to choose from, nine sauce options, seven protein choices, three of them being mixed with shrimp and a plant based option as well, and ten different add-in toppings as well. But if you don’t feel like choosing your assortment, they have a menu to choose from with customer favorites. When entering the restaurant we were appropriately greeted and welcomed with great hospitality. Instantly the kitchen's aroma hit our noses giving us a scent of the great food we would soon be tasting.

We visited the restaurant on a Saturday at six pm; it was clean, cool, and wasn’t very packed. When we ordered, the staff was kind and patient. When we got our food it was hot: We ordered the Fry Box which came with BBQ Bacon Ranch Chicken, Buffalo Chicken, Lemon Garlic Shrimp, and Honey Garlic Shrimp and Steak. For a total of $59.24 we got a ton of food, it could easily feed up to six people.

The selected favorite was the Honey Garlic Shrimp and Steak which had a nice flavor to it. The garlic wasn’t overbearing and the sweetness created a dynamic flavor. It's a unique concept, normally something that would pair with rice combined nicely with the fries. 8.5/10

The second was the Lemon Garlic Shrimp. The garlicky flavor wasn’t overbearing but it was a tad salty overall. The fries helped tone down the saltiness of the sauce and were really enjoyable. 7/10

The third was the Buffalo Chicken (which was personally my favorite). The Buffalo Chicken wasn’t too spicy and held a slight kick but not so much that you'd need milk on the side or greek yogurt to eat before. We chose grilled chicken instead of fried. Overall it held a nice flavor and the ranch sauce really topped it off. 7/10

Last was the BBQ Bacon and Chicken. The fries were crispy with a layer of bacon and garnishes topping the fries with a grilled layer of shredded tender chicken. These fries were interesting and a combination you wouldn’t expect to work as well as it did. The fries overall were good but not the most favorite out of all the flavors. 7/10.

On Tuesday, August 29, 2023 We interviewed Sheena Benton, the owner of the Greenville Mr. Fries Man franchise. It was two in the afternoon and we had just got out of school.

Walking in the restaurant was clean and booming with “Every Little Step” by Bobby Brown, the yellow walls were bright and happy, a TV was set in the corner playing the sports channel, and an elderly couple were seated eating with people walking in and out picking up online orders from the counter.

Before the interview Ms. Benton was kind and somewhat nervous. She wanted to know beforehand what the interview was going to be like but after our interaction she was excited to be interviewed again.

What challenges have you faced working at a fry based restaurant?

Ms. Benton: ”So for our restaurant specifically the biggest challenge would be the number of orders we were getting in. Because it's a made to order concept, it was a challenge you know with trying to service a lot of customers and trying to deal with time. With several of our customers, many thought that were we kinda like a McDonald’s or Burger King setup where the fries are already cooked and so with our model we make each fry to order and I would say one of our biggest challenges in the beginning was keeping up with the traffic stall and of course making sure our fries were always made to order.”

Do you know if there’s any more plans for more Fry Man locations?

Ms.Benton: “So I don’t know. This is an independent franchise so hopefully, you know, if this goes well and if I still have the drive and the energy, I certainly would want to consider opening another one in-state. It's a franchise operation so people can always do that, so if it’s not me then someone else.”

Why was South Carolina picked for a franchise location?

Ms. Benton: “So South Carolina was as a franchise location because I live here and I went to LA in 2020 and tried Mr. Fries Man and came back home and a year later I had a aha moment, and I said I want to move a Mr. Fries Man to Greenville South Carolina.”

Will there be any Southern Inspired Fries like pimento cheese fries?

Ms. Benton: “So we don’t have anything on the menu or in the future on the menu for Southern inspired fries, but you never know you know once we get more comfortable with our presence in the area. It may be possible a customer may suggest it can be worked up to something and presented to the founder of Mr. Fries Man and that might be something we can add to our menu one day.”

Do you know where the food inspiration stems from?

Ms. Benton: “The food inspiration all started with Craig. His food inspiration just stems from childhood. He always liked to eat and fries were his favorite and so for him that's where his inspiration comes from. For me it's similar. I grew up in Tokyo, Japan and heavy heavy on street food. So for me it based on childhood and I always loved to eat as a child, from eating street food and I like to call myself a foodie and as a child always sat around food and just having a good time.”

What’s your most popular dish on the menu?

Ms. Benton: “The most popular dish on the menu I would have to say there are a few because we have a variety of customers essentially, so for our customers who don’t exactly eat seafood our chicken dishes are really popular and the top five popular dishes are our lemon garlic crab and shrimp,our garlic shrimp and steak, chicken bacon parmesan, our BBQ bacon and chicken, and garlic chicken.”

Do you guys have any memorable customers?

Ms. Benton: “We get a lot of stories from them. They like to tell us how they found Mr. Fries Man. They like to talk to us about their favorite dish; we see a lot of customers who come back. You know we start to memorize their orders so there's just too many of those to name but that's because we… genuinely like talking to them. So so many of them have created memories for us.”

Have you ever tried a customer's fry combination?

Ms. Benton: “So um we uh we had what we used to call a, sorry we are going to have to pause this one, cuz as I answer that question I was thinking of a staff member, he came up with a plate…I was thinking of Tims plate”.

Have you ever tried a fry combination from someone else?

Ms. Benton: “ I have been inspired by customers to make dishes like when they customize their own. One of them that I actually love to make myself is lemon, garlic, crab and shrimp; but instead of lemon garlic sauce, I like to add honey garlic sauce and ranch so it gives it a sweet savory taste. So that's probably my favorite customer inspired dish.”

Who's your target clientele?

Ms. Benton: “So we don't really have a target clientele. I will say initially I guess I just assumed it would be customers between a curtain age group but we really cater to everybody. French fries is American food; it's one of those comfort food that people like at any age no matter their background. It really seems to be a very inclusive food and so all age groups come here, all backgrounds come here and team with us. Even our proteins, I mean we've got that variety here as well. So we got chicken for our meat eaters; we got seafood for seafood lovers. We even have plant based meat for our vegans, so because of that I don't think we have a target clientele.”

Have you had any celebrities come in here?

Ms. Benton: “ I don't know. I think this one should be considered a celebrity. So we actually have had a famous influencer come in here from Greenville South Carolina. He goes by the name of ‘Poundcake’ and he is a celebrity makeup artist and he was here recently. He tried our chili fries and even posted about it so that was really exciting for us mainly because he was from Greenville, South Carolina and it was just really fun meeting him and watching his video which was hilarious and it really showcased Mr Fries Man really well. We’ve had a lot of customers come in and say they've seen that video and they didn't know we were here until they watched Poundcakes’ video so that was fun and we hope to have more in the future/”

After the interview we sat and talked with Mrs. Benton generally about what we wanted to do in our futures; she offered us considerable knowledge. Mrs. Benton was definitely a lot less nervous after the interview and when talking still kept her ambitious and bright attitude. Our overall impression and experience at Mr. Fries Man was a great one. They have friendly workers and a very calm and comforting atmosphere. We would recommend it for others to try when you can.