La Poutine

8720 109 Street
Edmonton, AB

This might sound crazy, but for the longest time I didn’t like poutine.

Let me clarify, I didn’t think I liked poutine, because I hadn’t tried it. And maybe that sounds crazy too, but there was a reason for it. Poutine is just so incredibly unhealthy that I thought I might as well never try it so then I could never like it and therefore save myself from liking something unhealthy. Crazy logic, huh?

Well, a couple of months ago I was in Eastern Canada visiting my boyfriend and we went to Montreal for a weekend. Clearly, I couldn’t go to Quebec and not have poutine, so I finally broke down and tried it. To be totally honest, I actually had my first poutine in Ottawa (spaetzle poutine from Murray Street, which was amazing by the way), which paved the way for my second poutine experience, which was the Lobster Poutine from Chuck Hugh’s restaurant, Garde Manger (also, incredibly tasty) in Montreal.

By the end of the trip it was official; I was a poutine convert.

And then a month or so ago I was wistfully remembering the poutine in Eastern Canada and wondered aloud where I could get some good poutine in Edmonton. My friend and coworker, Dayna, who sits in the cubicle beside me, overheard and we got talking about where we could go for good poutine in the city. A quick Google search lead us to La Poutine, a restaurant on 109th street that’s sole focus is Poutine.

We both had a Friday afternoon off coming up, so we decided we’d treat ourselves to poutine for lunch that day and see what La Poutine was all about.

We each ordered a regular size poutine, and at about $9 each I thought the price was a little high for the portion size. With that being said, however, the poutine was very filling and I could barely finish what I had.

I decided to try the Supreme Poutine which included hand-cut fries, cheese curds, gravy, sour cream, bacon and green onions. I thought this poutine was super tasty. The fries, gravy and cheese curds were already really good, so the addition of green onions, bacon and sour cream just took it over the top in the best possible way.

Dayna decided on the Québécois Poutine which was hand-cut fries, cheese curds, gravy and Montreal smoked meat. While this poutine was good, the Montreal smoked meat didn’t taste quite right to us. Maybe it was because I was just in Montreal eating smoked meat at Schwartz’s, but the meat just didn’t taste quite like I wanted to. It had a bit of that deli meat taste to it.

We both agreed that the fries and gravy were excellent and that the Supreme Poutine was the better of the two by far. I think it was a combination of the fact that the Montreal Smoked Meat wasn’t the best tasting smoked meat and that the green onions, bacon and sour cream just worked so well on the poutine. I would definitely order the Supreme Poutine again.

The Poutine from La Poutine was quite delicious and very indulgent. It certainly isn’t somewhere I would go on a regular basis but it was a fun place to try with Dayna and a great way to start our Friday afternoon off.

Happy Monday!