Ottawa Foodies

The interesting thing about poutine, having been raised in Ottawa as a French Canadian, I grew up knowing poutine as a mish mash of leftovers fried up in a pan and not fries, cheese and gravy. It wasn't until I was 17, waiting for a plane at Ottawa Uplands airport to take me to Cornwallis (to start my military career)did I have poutine. It wasn't memorable, but it was good. There was no such thing as poutine in Nova Scotia back in 1983, nor did poutine exist in B.C. or Calgary. When I returned to Ottawa in 1992, I tried many different poutines, the best so far is my own home made poutine with a mixed gravy.
It took two years of convincing my Calgary born son to try it (he thought it looked gross and food for the poor), but when he did - that was it for him!
If Homer J. Simpson, tried poutine his reply would surely be "Mmmmmmm, poutine...."

Had a poutine today at JP's and it was good as usual. There was loads of cheese curds, almost as much cheese as fries in the box! The fries seemed a but on the crispy side compared to normal, but were still quite tasty.

But sssshhhhhh.... let's stop promoting it. The lunch hour line-ups are getting too long! ;-)

Like pizza is to the Newport Restaurant, poutine is to JP's! This little clogged artery piece of heaven is poutine fantasia. I LOVE JP's poutine, best anywhere, period.

My favourite Poutine in town. Lots of cheese curds and a nice light gravy.

Back to the standard Medium Poutine. We just had to go twice in one month, seeing as they close for the winter on Dec 1. I had my real camera with me this time so the picture looks phenomenal at full resolution -- great desktop wallpaper! ;-)

If you love poutine you owe it to yourself to try this place!

After wondering about it over many visits, I bit the bullet (and a whole lot more) and tried the belly busting "Sausage Poutine." I went with the Polish sausage option pictured here. It's a Medium Poutine with a slight reduction in fries to make room for the well-distributed pieces of a chopped up sausage.

Very tasty, but it throws off the carefully balanced ratios of fries to cheese to gravy. I ran out of fries first, then sausage and cheese, and was finally left with a little puddle of gravy. Next time I'll go back to the plain Medium Poutine!

This is most likely the best poutine in town. Excellent fries, loads of cheese curds and the perfect amount of tasty beef gravy. The fries are properly soaked but still manage to stay a bit crispy in places. As you reach the bottom and eat your last delicious fry, you'll notice that there's exactly one cheese curd and a little bit of gravy left to go with it. This is the epitome of poutine perfection!

Love it because it is VEGETARIAN! That's right, apparently it's a mushroom based gravy!

The poutine here is way too salty and I find it has an aftertaste. The fries are often limp and get soggy too fast.

I'm a hardcore poutine nut, and every time I go to ESD (at the request of my not-so-French spouse), I order the poutine; not because I enjoy it, but because I forgot how lame it was the last time.

Their fries are just too small and shriveled to adequately serve as a vessel for the gravy and cheese. If only they'd cut them twice bigger, it would be pretty darn decent.

I had an underwhelming smoked meat poutine last Friday. The meat was not the problem (fairly average yet tasty), but the poutine itself just wasn't up to snuff. The skinny fries were off-putting, and it didn't feel like there were enough cheese curds. Still, where else is an inebriated person going to get poutine after midnight?

I like it thin and salty - you can better eat it with a knife and fork. The gimmicky experimentation also kind of charms me. But really it's just the fact that they celebrate poutine and give it special billing on the menu that urges me to celebrate alongside. I think my fave for the actual food is the light blue fry truck that parks(ed) along Slater near Kent and Bank Streets.

Count me in that camp too. I found it way too salty (and I like salt) and with the skinny little fries it's nothing like real p'tin. But... it's still better than no poutine!!

I am in the camp of people that don't get the "love Elgin Street Diner Poutine" mentality. Give me Sasha's or give me death!

mmmmm. OKAY so I waited for almost 45 minutes for a poutine at 2:30 in the morning, BUT, IT WAS WORTH IT! It was amazing.

Crazy poutine 24 hours a day. They've got something good here. I've walked out of here wondering what inspired me to order the smoked meat poutine. But then I've had a poutine in smalltown Quebec covered in shredded BBQ chicken! Awesome (stomach ache!)

the sheer variety of poutine is amazing.

I have this more often than I should considering it really doesn't compare favourably with good chip-wagon poutine. But it's often the best choice in a mall food court.

New York Fries poutine is just okay. The fries are all right, the cheese curds are scant, and the gravy has a strong beefy flavour that isn't quite traditional. Still, bad poutine is better than no poutine! :)

I went by today to try the poutine and was totally floored by how good it was. The gravy had herbs and spices (not sure which ones but it tastes lovely). The ratio of fries/cheese/gravy is perfect. No cheeseless bites! No dry fries!

Best of all it's a block away from my work...or maybe that's worst of all.

I never used to be a big poutine fan but unfortunately for me my wife is. And with these guys practically in front of my house I guess I have become a fan as well over the last few years.

So good. If you are ever out in Embrun for some reason (lol) try some Poutine at The Hot Potato! Perfectly crispy but tender french fries, tasty gravy with a good consistency and the right amount of curds. Yum!

After finding out Perogies Takeout closes at 5pm on Mondays, my woman was pretty down. So I had to think quick, had to find a place to take her for dinner. Then it dawned on me, S&G Fries was just up ahead (just like the cartoons where the hero with the great idea has a light bulb appear above his head). So I made a quick right turn off Carling, because my idea came to me seconds before the entrance. We got out of the car and started making our way towards the chip wagon, greeting the annoying seagulls with a "shoo shoo". I also noticed their "Voted Best Poutine By The New RO Viewers" poster...why is it still up? New RO changed to The A-Channel in the summer of 2005. Should you be allowed to keep up Food Awards like that one, if it’s out dated? Anyways we checked out the Value Combo menu and got what we wanted; the food was so-so except for the server being on the phone the whole time... what’s up with that? (this is where I do the laser beam sound effect)

S&G has my vote for best poutine in Ottawa. The fries are fresh and somewhat soggy, there is an abundance of cheese curds and the sauce is gently herbed and spiced and always piping hot! A delicious and addictive combination!

I lived within walking distance of this place for about 20 years and I've eaten their food about 5 times or less. In contrast, I eat poutine an average of twice a week or more.

A lot of people like La Pataterie, but I don't. Something about their gravy and cheese just doesn't sit right with me, it reminds me of the cheap junky poutine they serve in pizza joints. You can get a better poutine from most chip wagons for cheaper than this!

This identical dish (Balderson, duck, frites) was on the Elgin Freehouse menu when it opened. Same chef? Coincidence? Blatant ripoff?

@ terra grill for duck poutine which was composed of duck meat on fries, mushroom au jus, and balderson cheese. a very nice touch of class! definite reorder on future visits.

The fries here are pretty good, so the other night I thought I'd get poutine. When I checked the menu, I was disappointed to see they use grated mozzarella instead of cheese curds.

Our regular truck near our house wasn't there today and my wife absolutely wanted a poutine fix for mother's day, so we went to Glen's. I like the long flat containers better than the narrow, deep ones that most other places have. There seemed to be more there as well. And to top it off, I do believe it was just a bit yummier than our regular (Frenchy's). I think the gravy is a bit better.

I've had this a few times and I can't really recommend it. The only reason I've repeated my experience is that it's the only thing on the menu that would qualify as a good deal! For five or six bucks, you get a rather large poutine topped with delicious smoked meat. The smoked meat is great and the fries are okay. There's very little cheese (excusable because the smoked meat is so rich) and the gravy leaves a powdery feeling on your teeth. Still.. it's really filling. :-)

The menu claimed it was large and... it was! I had a salad and a diminutive milkshake with it and was holding my gut together on the way out. Their poutine isn't quite chip wagon grade but is certainly good enough to order again!

Everything about this poutine was average. The fries were okay (not crispy or tasty enough to be great), the cheese curds were okay (insufficiently squeaky), and the gravy was okay (a touch powdery). I didn't regret ordering it, but I wasn't exactly thrilled either.

The poutine at the work's is good enough to be a meal in itself. With all that ooey gooey cheese. And that gravy! Delicious! And its vegetarian gravy. Which is great for me.

The fries at Lick's are nothing special. They use grated cheese for their poutine instead of curds. But what really gets my goat is that this poutine is expensive!