After an evening on the town, we thought we would check out Smoke's Poutinerie on Queen Street West.
It gets points for ambiance...a big chalkboard with plenty of chalk kept us amused while we waited to place our order. And good tunes kept us in the mood.
When we got to ordering, we skipped the vast range of poutine flavors available and went straight for the classic!
We split a small poutine and it was just the right amount of food for the time of evening. The fries were good and tasted like real, fresh cut potatoes. There was a good amount of cheese, but the gravy could have been a bit tastier. Unfortunately, the take-out container dish was too deep so the cheese/gravy didn't permeate enough to the bottom fries. But all-in-all a great place to get a good poutine in Toronto!So Sam and Ziz, sounds like it might be a 4 out of 5 curds?
Smoke's Poutinerie has five locations in Toronto, and is also in Ottawa. Coming soon to Kingston and London. To read more about Smoke's Poutinerie, click here.
2 comments:
I'm originally from Hawkesbury but have been living in Toronto since 2000 so my standard of Poutine is pretty high and picky!!
I went to Smoke Poutinerie last Fall to see how their best offering would stack up to poutines made in Eastern Ontario/Western Quebec.
I will agree with the poster! Smoke's only positive is their fresh cut fries as it's very rare to associate Poutine and Fresh Cut fries in Toronto restaurants.
The cheese was fine so no complaint there as I like mine with either curds or shredded cheese.
Here is where I was totally turned off:
1) Sauce was awful! I found it bordering too salty to not eatable. I haven't found anywhere in Toronto where they have the RIGHT poutine gravy like back home.
2)Too many fries in a such a tight container which made impossible for the gravy to reach the bottom.
3) I had the bacon poutine. The bacon was greasy so it didn't help the cause.
I'd give Smoke's Poutinerie a borderline 3 out of 5 curds!
PS: I think the reason this place gets good to great reviews is because the majority of Torontonians have never had a poutine from Eastern Ontario/Western Quebec to be able to compare it to this GTA product.
I went to Smoke's in Toronto on Adelaide Street tonight and I got the Double Pork (pulled pork and bacon, with peppercorn gravy) topping on my large poutine. I am somewhat ashamed to say that I didn't finish it.
However, size wasn't the only reason why I didn't finish it -- the taste seemed a bit off to me. The fries and curds were good and there wasn't anything wrong with the PILE of bacon, but the pulled pork started to taste like canned chili and the peppercorn gravy was super salty -- I saw the attendant pour a cup of water into the gravy and stir it around with the ladle before serving it up, so I'm pretty sure it had completely congealed (I was in the shop a little before 11pm, so I suppose that gravy had been out a long time).
Anyways, it was super-tasty for the first little while, but there were some flaws in the execution that really put me off. Otherwise, I really liked the aura of the place.
I would still go back and try some of the others sometime. I am too big a poutine fan to write this place off on the first visit.
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