Review of 'Poutineville'

Having had some pretty good poutine on my trip to Quebec so far (for example, see my review of Resto La Banquise we decided to give Poutineville a try having heard that it was quite good as well…though perhaps that was just the tourist magazine that said so (complete with discount coupon)? In any case we braved the windy, cool weather to travel to the Saint-Roch area of Quebec City to give it a try. It is located one block over from the busy Boulevard Charest in a newer section of the city below the highway 440 overpass.

The interior is cool and industrial with wood floors, brick walls, high ceiling and spot lighting on the tables. When we visited at 5:30 on a Thursday there were only a few other diners. We were seated near the front window with a sheet of paper immediately placed before us from which we could basically customize our own “poutine” (generally fries, gravy and cheese curds) including the style of cooking for the potato, cheese used, toppings and even the type of gravy – “poutine”, red wine, pepper, “spicy 911”, tomato meat sauce and gratiné (grilled, melted cheese crust).

Intrigued though more than a bit overwhelmed our helpful and attentive waitress (speaking very good English) thankfully offered a menu containing some more typical options and included not only poutine but also salads, sandwiches, burgers, hot dogs, appetizers and side dishes.

I decided on their featured “Poutineville” ($13) “crushed potatoes, fresh cheese curds, mozzarella, with braised beef and our red wine sauce” while my companion, feeling a bit adventurous, ordered the “sampler poutine” ($12) which had two bowls of different poutines: “(1) Crushed potatoes, fresh curds and red wine sauce. (2) Sweet potato fries, fresh curds and 3 pepper sauce.” We also ordered soft drinks which were delivered to the table by our server along with some complementary ice water.

My “Poutineville” was good but very odd with the red wine “sauce” which added an unusual and unexpected sweetness to the dish. The beef was tasteless and added little to the dish. The cheese curds were too cool causing the entire dish to quickly become cold and cloying. It is definitely not poutine as you know it.

My companion's “sample poutine” was altogether odder. She preferred the crushed potatoes version over the sweet potato fries one but neither really got her too excited despite normally being a huge fan of sweet potato fries (they just did not work in a poutine for her particularly with the toppings). She also was a thumbs down on the red wine sauce.

At $29.80 (before tip) for two people it was not too expensive for the quantity of food we received but we were not overwhelmed by the taste. The portions were good but perhaps sticking to more standard poutine would have been a better choice despite hitting their specialities…

Rating: “Average, but who wants to be average?”

Review Date: 2019-04-25

Cuisine: French

Address: 735 Rue Saint-Joseph Est Québec City, Québec G1K 3C6 CANADA

Location: Quebec City (Canada) - Saint-Roch

Map:

Telephone: +1 581-981-8188

URL: http://www.poutineville.com/