Smoke's the Queen of Poutine?

I can’t resist poutine.  It’s probably one of the worst meals you can eat but at the same time it can also be one of the most tastiest.  A few years back, I tried my first Montreal poutine and haven’t been able to find anything nearly as good within the confines of our city.  Everytime I mention how much I long for Montreal poutine, someone usually brings up Smoke’s.

Smoke’s opened their first location about a year ago and recently opened up another one, with plans to open up about 3 more locations.  So it seems they’re doing quite well for themselves, but do they live up to the poutine hype I’ve been hearing about?

The menu

With it being so close to the holidays, I decided I’d try their festive special which is some poutine, with ham, turkey, cranberry sauce and homemade stuffing.  It only came in one size though, regular.  Antony went with the double pork poutine while Tona decided to try the curry chicken poutine.  Three very different poutine choices.

The festive meal

My festive poutine dinner was pretty good, actually.  Sure, it’s no Swiss Chalet festive special, but going to Smoke’s, it’s more about the poutine.  I like the fact that they use cheese curds and their gravy is pretty good as well (a mix of beef and chicken gravy).  The fries they use are fresh cut and seasoned, making them a few steps above what you’d get from New York Fries.

double pork

Antony’s double pork contained too much pork!  A mix of smoked meat and bacon, he says he should have just gone with the regular smoked meat poutine (single pork, I guess?).  I tried a few pieces of his smoked meat and they were excellent, with a nice hint of smoky flavor cooked in.

curry chicken

Then we came to Tona’s curry chicken poutine.  It was probably the worst of the bunch.  The curry wasn’t really all that great and tasted more like a watered down version of the curry you can get on your fries at the french fry truck.  And the chicken, I know it’s slow roasted, but it had a really weird texture.  I’d say it’s almost like it was soy vegetarian chicken, much like the kind you get from King’s Cafe except no where near as yummy.  Infact, it was a little gross.  Tona asked for light cheese on her poutine, and oddly enough the receipt came out printed as “Light Cheese Bitch”.  Not sure if this is a characteristic default in their for when someone asks for light cheese, or if it’s just the snarkiness of the cashier.  I’d probably go with the former here but Tona was a little bit shocked.  She said the cashier tried to hide the receipt from her, then wanted to scratch out what it said but she told him it was no biggie.

light cheese...wah?!

So is Smoke’s a good substitute for the excellent Montreal poutine?  No, not really… but it’s a good start, and I look forward to seeing a few more openings though I’m sure my clogged arteries aren’t.