Smoke’s Poutinerie

This is probably the best poutine in the town. We love the vegetarian gravy with caramelized onions and mushrooms. I have tried poutine at other places too but so far this is the best vegetarian gravy. Love it!

And on the eighth day, God made poutine, and it was good. Poutine is just that good. People seem to hate on Smoke’s a lot, and although it is fast food chainish… It’s still good. I mean we’re buying poutine here. Clearly we are not that picky in this moment about our food choices. I like smokes because I enjoy all the topping choices. I just ordered and ate the county style. Although it was good, it was too smothered in toppingy goodness. Which made it difficult to get to the fries, gravy and curds. Who are the clear stars of the show. Next time I will go with something like pulled pork, or straight up bacon.

I hate Smoke’s.
Actually, hate it. It is by far the most overrated chain of restaurants ever. People everywhere talk about Smoke’s as if its the absolute holy grail of poutine but it really isn’t. I’ve been to Smoke’s a lot, mostly out of suggestion of my friends as they seem to fall in the above category. I’ve therefore tried a lot of stuff on their menu.
The poutine gravy here is too salty and it sucks. They don’t put enough curds on it and they aren’t really fresh either. The vegetarian poutine is also far far too salty. I’ve tried several of their other poutines too like the nacho grande (garbage), peppercorn chicken (tasteless), veggie deluxe (tolerable with sriracha), and the chili cheese bacon — by far the most tolerable out of the Smoke’s menu options, the cheese sauce is flavorless though so make sure to load up on the sriracha. The staff at this particular Smoke’s also suck and are borderline rude.
Pros of Smoke’s: they sell pop shop pop, they also have a great amount of vegetarian options. Go across the street to Willy’s. Do yourself a favor.

Today I finally had my first official Poutine from Smokes.
My daughter highly recommended this place and I must say it was a home run.
I ordered the Chicken Curry and she had the pulled pork. wow both hit the spot.
The guy working was very friendly and had us laughing.
Can’t wait to order Poutine again!

The cheese curds have a tendency not to melt fully which may or may not be your preference but regardless that’s what it is.
I had a very pleasant conversation with the person behind the counter there which made the anxious (hyperbole) wait for my delicious poutine go by that much more quickly!

Our first stop after we landed in Halifax! And our first poutine ever! They had so many choices, it was hard to decide but I ended up with the bacon poutine. Wish there had been a few extra cheese curds, but otherwise very tasty. Tried some of my sister’s pulled pork poutine and that was good, too. The only other «negative:» for me was that the fries were a bit soggy by the time I got to the bottom — not sure if that’s normal for poutine though.
Wish I had had a chance to try the other kinds!

Love the veg poutine. Tons of onions and mushrooms with peas. Loads of cheese

While I enjoy the food at smoke’s, I often find it too expensive for a regular meal. As a treat though, they are a good go-​to. They do have vegetarian and gluten free gravies at no additional charge, but I found the gluten free variety to be somewhat flavorless and overly spicey. However, their bacon cheeseburger poutine, deluxed with onions and mushrooms, is amazing without gravy.

The bad first: The service is usually sketch, though today it was good. That being said, there was one girl who was delightful and gave me an extra fork because I ordered two poutines. When I gave it back, she said, «you’re going to eat both of them?» and I said «yeah, I’m a growing boy» and she said «be careful or you’re going to get fat» and I said, «darlin, I’m already fat» and she said «no you’re not» and I believed she believed that, but I am fat.
The good: Any place that sells vegetarian poutine with mushroom gravy is alright in my books. If they turned the crappy music down, this place would get four stars from me.

Too much hype and no substance for overpriced pile of mess.
Went their Saturday night after reflections, sadly it was all that was open. This was my 5^th time eating here. I was never satisfied before but chalked it up to being a bit too drunk. This time I was sober and was very clear that this would be my last time eating here.
We only wanted a small but were told we could only get medium. I got the beacon cheese burger and my friend got the donair. $ 23.00 later! Once we got home which took less than 15 minutes we began to eat. The toppings were good on mine. But my friends the donair meat was hard and old tasting. We got to the fries and they were gross and soggy. Neither of us ate any of the fries. At that point I remembered that every time we order from there we never eat the fries, now I know why.
This is a place I have no plans no matter how hungry or drunk I am to return to pay, again $ 23.00 for soggy fries!

Smoke’s is the epitome of what happens when you go against the common mantra ‘less is more.’ The extra toppings ruins the poutine by making the fries far too soggy and overpowers the cheese, gravy and fries, which is the whole point of a poutine. The only combination I can possibly recommend is the bacon poutine, but that’s only because the bacon bits aren’t large enough to overpower the flavour of the curds and fries.
On it’s own merits fries are not entirely great, they taste pretty generic and almost cardboard-​y. Gravy is too sticky and lacks the regular consistency of gravy. Curds are ok. Portions are decent, but the dollar to food ratio is certainly not in the cosumer’s favour and hasn’t been since they opened for the first time in 2010-​ish. If you’re looking for better poutine, just go across the street to Willy’s.

This was our first time trying poutine, so I did some research. My husband is a vegetarian and this place had the option of a vegetarian mushroom gravy– so we had to try it.
I got a little adventurous and tried the Philly cheesesteak poutine. I’m a Philly girl, had to get it. It was good, but obviously extremely heavy when it hits your stomach! My only critique is that the roasted red peppers on top are not really Philly cheesesteak related at all. My husband got the vegetarian poutine and his was really good.
Not crowded at all in the middle of the afternoon, food came out quickly. It’s open super late for your drunken poutine needs. Tons of options on the menu.

I had the traditional poutine and hubby had cheese steak poutine. The fries were hand cut but soggy and dry in the middle. Hubby says the steak was bland and mushrooms tasted old. We won’t be going back.

I will preface this by saying I am not well versed in drunk eats as I rarely drink or go downtown to party. However, I recently went out with a couple of friends and was out quite late. We decided to stop here (around 1:30am) while waiting for our drive home. I was not intoxicated, my friends were slightly buzzed. However, it was clearly obvious that everyone else ordering/​eating were beyond drunk. I ordered the poutine that had chicken, and peas in it. My friend had a regular poutine. The cost was moderate but I was not a fan. I found the fries underdone, the cheese lacking, chicken very freezerburnt tasting (and clearly not «real»), and the gravy had no flavour. This might have tasted good if I was drunk though. Next time I will go across the way to Willy’s.

I thought it was reasonable enough to go here and get my poutine fix, but I was wrong. Their quality is so inconsistent — this time around I got cold curds and cold gravy on my fries. To add to it, it felt a little sandy. I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone at all.

This is a bit of a specific review. I’m not very adventurous with my poutine, as I used to have «weird meat rules». This meant it was pretty rare that I ate anything but vegetarian foods when eating out. Even though I’m no longer that fussy with my food, I still prefer the delicious mushroom gravy available at Smoke’s to their standard.
It’s surprisingly thick for a veggie gravy, which are usually too runny and bland to do much of anything to fr. Occasionally you’ll even find a chewy mushroom hiding under some of your potatoes.
Shannon Secret Tip: Put leftover poutine in fridge for the next morning. When you awaken in the morning (or afternoon), you can haul yourself into the kitchen and just chomp on down on that cold goodness. Don’t judge me until you try it– it’s so weirdly good.

Super disappointed after everyone said it was great. Gravy had absolutely no taste and the cheese didn’t even taste like cheese and there was barely any. Fries=super soggy
I got the nacho grande without chili and the salsa was overpowering. Basically just small smushed tomatoes and onion. And only a tiny squint of sour cream and maybe a teaspoon of guac. The cashier went back and made it in about three seconds. Didn’t like that much.
I’ve come to the conclusion that those who get the ones filled with meat like them because the meat taste good and masks the Poutine really. However for me and a friend who got the traditional. It was soooo bland. And $ 11 with a drink. Urgh. I would rather Willis any day!

I’ve posted already on my favourite poutine place in town (Willy’s) — but I still want to try different poutines from all around. I heard about this place from a friend who raved about it. Unfortunately, I’ll be taking her dining advice with a grain of salt from now on — but I supposed to each their own.
I enjoy the simplicity of a poutine — 3 ingredients, made to work together in a great mix. I personally don’t like all the complexity of Smoke’s poutines. There are just too many ingredients for my liking and my taste buds get confused — like I said, I like simplicity. I’d rather have 3 ingredients done really well instead of 8 done so-​so. However, I will say that the portions are really big for what you order, even the regular is more than enough.
Now some of you might be saying ‘well just get the regular poutine!’ and I’d reply with ‘I did’ — I went there more than once. The second problem that I found with Smoke’s is that the gravy is just too bland. I think they try to cover that up with all the other ingredients — but when one of your main ingredient of 3 isn’t good, then it doesn’t matter what you add.

I’ve just popped a TUMS as I’m writing this. Those with stomach of steel can read further.
Just got out of a late meeting and wanted something within a few blocks and cheap. Being after 1pm, the joint was empty. I quickly went up to the counter and asked the advertised poutine outside — beef curry poutine.
I wasn’t sure of the size, so I picked large. Well mistake #1. Unless you’ll be sharing this, go for the regular.
After a 8 min wait, I got my hot box of gooey fries. At first it tasted fine, fries were still incredibly hot if you dug to the bottom. But as time went on the heaviness of the poutine was coming on. Cheese was a bit light and the fries were ok.
Not overly impressed for what I got for 12 $ (large poutine & pop) especially now the flavors have lingered and the meal has settled. I think the sauce is a bit off. From the previous reviews I will +1 to that.
Presentation and service was fine, maybe I’ll stick to the traditional dishes next time, or if I happen to in the area at 1am. Seating is limited ~10 so this is a take & go spot.

Tossing down against the local king of poutine, Willy’s, Smoke’s recently opened up directly across the street from Willy’s, and with more regular hours, a more diverse menu and a less sketchy set up, Willy’s has some serious competition on their hands.
I come in on a Thursday after work and upon entering I am immediately greeted by loud rock music and and equally loud design scheme. There’s a chalkboard and available chalk and what looks like random scrawling of people who were out at the Dome on the previous night. I may be in a suit and tie, but I dig it. Smoke’s isn’t large and seats no more than 12 at bars in the middle of the room and around the sides. There’s a steady flow of people coming and going, running the gamut of all levels of society — suited professionals, starving students and a lovely young lady who was rocking the «hot librarian» look like no other, and probably wasn’t a poutine regular judging from her figure. But yeah… back to that food stuff I’m supposed to write about…
With a menu that sports what I counted to be 18 different poutines, there is a lot of choices here. I settle on the Country Style, and choose the regular size ($ 6.99) as I want to be able to walk out of here. With large chunks of chicken, bacon and caramelized onions and mushrooms in addition to the usual gravy and cheese curds, this was a meal unto itself. The chicken is seems too uniform in shape to be anything but from frozen, but it isn’t dry and let’s face it, it’s chicken. The chopped bacon is plentiful and delicious, and is still crisp with lends a nice textural contrast to the rest of this hot mess. The onions and mushrooms soothe my food guilt by being vegetables and are quite tasty themselves, although the caramelized onions have been seasoned with too much thyme and in the absence of any bacon, tends to dominate the flavour of a given forkful of poutine. The gravy is good, although thinner and somewhat lost amongst all the other toppings. The curds, while tasty, don’t seem to have that squeak that poutine pros require. Me, I love anything cheese and continue to stuff my face. The fries have a good potato flavour and are crisp, even to the very last chip.
The containers are cardboard boxes that are reminiscent of your stereotypical Chinese-​takeout box, and are lined with some sort of plastic which will keep your pants grease free when one of these nights you’re sitting on the wall by the church, munching on Smoke’s and watching some poor drunk get thrown in a paddy wagon.
Also, they have sriracha as a condiment. Bonus points!