Steak frites, meaning "steak fries" in French, is a dish consisting of steak paired with French fries. It is commonly served in European brasseries, and is considered by some to be the national dish of Belgium, which claims to be the place of its invention.
Historically, the rump steak was commonly used for this dish. More typically at the present time, the steak is an entrecôte also called rib eye, or scotch fillet (in Australia), pan-fried rare ("saignant"—literally "bloody"), in a pan reduction sauce, sometimes with hollandaise or béarnaise sauce, served with deep-fried potatoes (French fries).
Francophilia led to its generalization to the Portuguese-speaking world, where it is called bife e batatas fritas or bife com batata frita, especially in Brazil, where the sauce is usually just onion rings cooked and fried in the steak's own juice and frying oil, being the most popular dish to go aside rice and beans.
Steak frites is also common in other countries, such as Anglophone and Spanish-speaking Latin American countries.
Steak frites is the subject of a semiotic analysis by the French cultural theorist Roland Barthes in his 1957 work Mythologies.
- Steak frites prepared using flank steak, at a San Francisco restaurant
- Steak frites in Fontainebleau, France