POUTINEVILLE ~ Montreal QC

JUNE 2013

Back in June 2013 (yes last year, this is the first of many delayed posts, please bare with me!) I was off to La belle province, Quebec, Montreal specifically, for a conference. That was awesome I have to say. I took the weekend before with LJ to have some time together, and then after she left, I had some time on my own to do some culinary exploration. 

I was looking to see if I could combine 2 loves, wings and poutine, and my search discovered Poutineville. This small chain took me away from my hotel and a chance to explore Montreal transit. The location I went to was in the outer Gay Village part of downtown Montreal. The place was hard to miss, and with a little bit of rain it was great to find some cover.

The lunch crowd was there in force, so I felt this was going to be a tasty place. I got seated in one of the big window seats. I sat facing in to take better photos, but I kinda missed looking out on the street. The crowd was mixed from families to people on lunch from work. The place kinda feels like a pub, with a focus on fries. My server was Laurie, and after butchering my French, she happily switched to English, gave me an English menu, and off I went.

Poutine is the specialty here, and the way it works is they give you a card with pencil, and you fill out what combonation of poutine you want. The choices are staggering, from 4 different types of fries, to the type of cheese, sauce and tons of toppings. How do you decide?

While I wanted to try the house Crushed potatoes, I went with fairly traditional with shoestring fires, cheese curds, poutine sauce, and bacon.

I went with the large not because I was hungry, but because I wanted leftovers (I love leftover poutine).

The poutine was a-mazing. Fries were crisps, the gravy had just a hint of peppery spice. The cheese curds were squeeky and fresh. The bacon, mounded on and was crispy but got soggy eventually with the gravy.

Each mouthful was heaven. This was everything I love about poutine. It smelled good, it looked good, it tasted good. Poutineville was definitely a neighbourhood in Flavourtown.

And how could I pass on ailes poulet (chicken wings) when I had the opportunity?

Wings come in orders of 6 for $8 or 12 for $14.

 I was looking for a snack with poutine being my main, so I just went with 6.

These wings are listed as 'Jumbo' and they are a jumbo wing. Huge. There in lied the problem: the wings were mega rubbery, tough and difficult to eat. The first problem is that they are baked, and that they aren't baked hot or long enough. The skin was also soft and rubbery, and no one wants to eat that.

There are 2 sauces to choose from; BBQ or 911. I went with 911, but these were maybe a medium. And truth be told, this tasted very much like a BBQ sauce. My guess is that they take the BBQ sauce, add some chili's and call it 911. It was sweet and tasty, but the chicken was so tough to eat, it put a damper on it all.

FINAL SCORE: The wings are a major pass. Rubbery, tough and just poorly made. Sauce was ok though. Deep frying would have really helped in my opinion. Now the Poutine, that's the thing to get. I highly recommend, especially the shoestring fries with bacon as my choices.    Wings: 3/10

Poutineville
1365 Rue Ontario East, Montreal QC
poutineville.com