[caption id="attachment_840062" align="alignnone" width="778"] Stephen Starr’s new spot at Ocean Casino features unlimited frites. Photo: Courtesy of Ocean Casino[/caption] By now, even casual restaurant-goers may know the name Stephen Starr. Now proprietor of 43 restaurants in high-market locations, Starr, who grew up in Woodbury Heights, has returned to his roots, so to speak, with the July opening of Chez Frites, a French-inspired eatery at Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City. While many of Starr’s restaurants lead with over-the-top concepts, like the 10-foot-tall Buddha at the now-shuttered Atlantic City Buddakan, Chez Frites offers quiet, upscale simplicity, a soothing note in the sensory overload of the Atlantic City gaming scene. The inverse of the circus-like lights and clanging slot-machine bells of the casino floor, the décor sets the tone with a calming taupe palette, a handsomely coffered ceiling peppered with unadorned high hats and globe pendants, unclothed wooden tables with rattan chairs, and comfy, semiprivate banquettes generously spaced along the walls. Chez Frites’s menu is also a refuge from overstimulation. It is not a big, busy tome of choices, but a compact, well-curated offering. [caption id="attachment_840332" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: Courtesy of Ocean Casino[/caption] An easy-peasy first course of delicate mixed greens with a gently herbed, white-balsamic vinaigrette is triumphantly fresh and light. A handful of elevated à la carte starters and sides are, again, simple and well thought out. Crispy artichoke leaves with a refreshing lemon aioli, as well as scallop crudo drizzled with hazelnut oil and a purée of lime and passionfruit, are deliciously flavorful. There’s also mac and cheese with stewed tomatoes for a brightening effect that adds to the creaminess; and a shrimp cocktail with oversized crustaceans and a punchy cocktail sauce. Up next, choose a protein to accompany the crisp, grease-free, thicker-than-a-shoestring-yet-smaller-than-a-wedge frites, which are unlimited. The preparations come from the kitchen with the speed and seamlessness of a well-oiled machine. The prime New York strip was expertly cooked medium-well, with a pink center. Choose your sauce: peppercorn, béarnaise, or the bright chimichurri. While technically a prix fixe, the price points range from $39 to $109, depending on your entrée selection. Beef choices are prime strip steak or filet mignon; add a South African lobster tail for surf and turf, or have it as your main. A generous slab of salmon or the PEI mussels in a shallot-laden white sauce were recently added as mains, along with a roasted half chicken and a smash-style cheeseburger. All, of course, come with unlimited french fries. From the bar, the wine list has more than two dozen reds by the bottle, with an emphasis on French varietals, along with whites, bubblies and rosés. Cocktails and wines by the glass are also available. A slice of silky passionfruit almond tart is balanced by a gentle almond crunch, ending things on a very high note, leaving you sated and ready to roll the dice on the rest of the night. HOW WE REVIEW: Restaurants are chosen for review at the sole discretion of New Jersey Monthly. These unstarred reviews of more casual restaurants are written after a critic visits once, with a guest; the magazine pays for these meals.

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