Boston?s Top 5 Fries

GRAVY FRIES: Cocktails and pony beers are typically the big draw at this Inman Square neighborhood bar, but the gravy fries will have you love-drunk before your first sip. For the dish, a generous bowl-sized portion of crispy hand-cut fries are drowned in a rich brown gravy, dotted with bits of beef and covered in cheese. Pair it with a beer, and you've got a recipe for sheer carbohydrate ecstasy and bloating for the next 72 hours--it's well worth it.

HERB FRIES: Located in the Hotel Marlowe, Jay Silva's American bistro Bambara boasts high-end cuisine that rivals many options on the other side of the river. But even the most pretentious of dishes pales in comparison to a taste of the herbed fries--salty shoestrings doused in an herb mix with rosemary, black pepper and thyme. They're delicate enough to slather in ketchup, but flavorful enough to savor on their own, and the perfect sidekick to a burger or seared steak.

WAFFLE FRIES: If you're weary of straight spud sticks, Gargoyles? thick waffle fries go the extra (second and third) dimension. Purists go crazy for a sprinkle of a salt and a slather of ketchup, but there's a sweet potato variety as well. The even more daring can opt for the steak, egg and cheese fries, where the potatoes soak up delicious jus and gooey egg. The melted cheese is merely gilding the lily, but we're nowhere close to complaining.

FRENCH FRIES: There's plenty of student-friendly options in Kenmore Square, but UBurger sets itself apart from the fast-food frenzy by using only the freshest ingredients and cutting its potatoes by hand, in-house. UBurger's fries are classic and simple--slim shoestrings sizzled until golden with crunchy ends and a soft middle--and are brilliant enough to dim any golden arch. They may not be gourmet, but they're certainly glorious.

ROSEMARY FRIES: The American definition of fast food typically involves a drive-through, but the folks at Clover Food Lab flip that mentality on its head by serving food out of a truck in Kendall Square. The scent of rosemary fries floods the streets, making it easy to follow your nose to Clover's parked perch. Hot and fresh, the fries are rosemary-pine-y and salty, and beg to be washed down with one of Clover's freshly pressed juices.