The review. An in-depth analysis of new and existing restaurants in the Vail Valley.

Last night we enjoyed visiting Frites in edwards.

Frites is the third invocation of a restaurant on this same site located close by the eagle River in the main Edwards shopping center.

Originally called Zino's, more recently changed to the Riverhouse, and now as Frites, the current owners have definitely the "right stuff" in place to make it long term in this nicely appointed and spacious dining facility.

Darker hues and tones dominate the interior which still remains plenty airy and light due to high ceilings and numbers of windows facing the river.

There are two main dining areas - a lower, ground level section reached by descending a long curved staircase (or by elevator) and an upper area which adjoins the bar.

Happily the acoustics permit quiet conversations as there's plenty of spacing between tables and sound deadening material on the ceiling.

Meal Highlights:  Pretty much everything.  Sue had the saffron cream mussels as an appetizer and declared them to be absolutely perfect.  She followed with the inexpensive bar steak topped with blue cheese and the obligatory frites and was thoroughly pleased by the entire meal.  The seafood bisque was a bit too smoky for my taste, but it was quite pleasant.  My filet was perfectly cooked and the frites again were outstanding.  While this restaurant's French fries are voted best in the valley, my all time favorites still remain those on the deck of the St. Bernard in Taos.

Wines by the glass were relatively inexpensive, frankly as is the menu in general.  Management has done a great job of finding a good value niche in the restaurant market here.  The overall menu, while appearing quite restricted in terms of variety of offerings, still strikes a good chord in the choices of different food types.  Prices were decent throughout - something that cannot often be said here in the Vail area.

Lowlights:  Not much to mention.  The wine list is pretty sparse and is dominated by a few decent and some obscure French wines to the point that we found it somewhat difficult to make a selection.  A few more domestics would be appreciated.

On balance this simply is "our" kind of place.  Definitely our favorite spot down valley and comes close to our overall value choice restaurant - Bighorn Bistro in Vail.  We happily bestow and will return again later this summer.

Reviewed by ORP on 5/12/2006

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