I have been pressured to review more poutine by my encouraging (a.k.a. pushy) colleagues. Being a push-over, I was going to sacrifice my health even further but then my health sacrificed itself with a nasty flu. My appetite was lost but now it's found -- and my colleagues have resumed pushing me. As we had a visitor in the lab, we went out to lunch to Grad Club, one of the restaurants/pubs on campus. Of course, being a professional poutine critique (or a whimpy pushover), I needed to try their poutine.Poutine: $5.25 (...i think)
Location: 162 Barrie Street (Corner of Union and Barrie)
Overall: INSANELY SALTY. This reminded me of poutine from Bubba's in the hub, which salt-burned my throat. Actually this was the 2nd time I've had poutine at Grad Club and they were consistently on the salty side. With a sprinkle of chopped parsley, the poutine was presented well, but the fresh look betrays the incredible amount of salt. With the small fry within 2 minutes' of walk, you can absolutely skip this poutine -- unless you have a pitcher of beer to wash down your throat. This is the first poutine that I COULD NOT finish. Had it been less salty, it would have been decent.
Fries: They were fried very well with crunchy edges all around but were salted way too liberally. Are they trying to cure the fries??
Gravy: A lot of dark beef gravy, and it is very thick. Although the flavor of gravy is good, because of the overpowering saltiness of the entire poutine, the gravy was getting a bit too much to my taste after three bites.
Cheese: A combination of real cheese curds (they weren't particularly squeaky) and shredded melty cheese (chedder and mozzarella??). I really like this combination and the curds were actually big.
**** digg it ****
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2 comments:
Another take... as always...
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I've eaten this one a few times; its saltiness is the reason it’s been more than one. I happen to have an unhealthy addiction to salt, and although I rarely gorge myself on it any longer, the health risks haven't stayed my fork.
Fries: Well cooked but salted as if they were being served a la carte; admittedly too much salt for an already unhealthy dish.
Gravy: A nice flavour that differs nicely from the all-too-standard dark beef gravy affair.
Cheese: A mixture of cheese curd and what I assume is grated marble cheese. To it’s merit, the grated cheese didn’t take away from the dish, but it was little more than filler. I would have preferred that if they had to augment the cheese curd that it had been with some variety with a little more flavour.
I would only recommend this poutine to customers who are willing to specify that they hold the salt, or to those with palates with a significant tolerance for salt.
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