After yesterday’s post where I made myself available for lunch or coffee anytime during the day, Jared took me up on a long-standing offer to try out a poutine restaurant that popped up a few months back in our old hood near Dundas and Jarvis streets. It’s one street east of Jarvis right on Dundas on the south side and it’s called Smoke’s Poutinerie.
Click on any of the thumbnails below to view images full-size.
The classiest joint in the neighbourhood
Although the outside is pretty unassuming, it does bring a LOT of class to corner that is better known for the bright lights and dingy dank of its neighbour across the street, Filmore’s Hotel, which is definitely NOT a real hotel, but one of the most notorious strip clubs in Toronto. Hopefully this place brings the neighbourhood up a few notches in the eyes of city-dwellers, at least the fat ones.
The interior isn't much to look at
There’s no seating in Smoke’s, just an order counter and a small counter by the window at which you can gulp down your sinfully fatty delights. This makes the whole thing more efficient as someone who’s just eaten poutine would be more likely to stay and have a much needed ‘fat nap’ if there were chairs.
A special to die for, or from
I was really tempted by this offer advertised by the register, but for the sake of a solid review, I passed on it. In case you can’t read it in the thumbnail version, the Slaughterhouse Poutine has six meat toppings of prime beef, pulled pork, sausage, bacon, italian meat sauce and shaved roast beef for a mere $12.95. That’s a small price to pay in order to eat a bit of nearly every animal on earth with a side of fries, cheese curd and gravy.
The perfect combo
For the measly price of $8.63, I retired to the eating counter with a healthy helping of the small Traditional Poutine (for the integrity of the review, I opted for the standard) and a Black Cherry Soda from the Pop Shoppe, which is possibly the finest black cherry pop ever bottled. That it’s hard to find only makes me want it that much more.
Up close and personal
The ratio of curd and gravy to fries was absolutely perfect. My fries weren’t drowning by the end, and I didn’t have to ration my curd. Each bite had plenty of both without a soupy cheese and gravy leftover. As a fan of salty foods, this was ideal. Both the fries and gravy had been well salted (and other tasty, but not overpowering seasonings) so the pop was a must. Two might even have been a good idea.
The only word I can use to describe the experience is one that I’m making up right now; it was absoultely “poutine-a-licious”. I could not have been happier with the experience and plan on making infrequently regular trips there in the not-too-distant future. Given the fat content of all their food, and just how much my body was ruined after eating it, this might be a once-a-month kind of treat, especially on those late Saturday nights when my body is craving grease (more on hours in a second).
Definitely not kosher, take my word for it
Jared had eaten there a few times, and he spoke VERY highly of their Pulled Pork, but opted to try something new and potentially life-threatening on this trip. Needless to say, the aptly named Triple Pork is a quadruple threat (think bypass here). It has chipotle pulled pork (nice and sweet), double-smoked bacon (nice and salty) and italian sausage (nice and spicy) and the clogged arteries are no extra charge.
He opted for a large portion, and for someone with two hollow legs, I was surprised to see him struggling at the end. It’s amazingly dense and the one forkful I tried was literally teeming with flavour. I’ll have to try this again.
Smoke’s has three locations in downtown Toronto (click the links for Google Maps); 218 Adelaide Street West, 578 Queen Street West and the location we visited at 203 Dundas Street East. Their hours are absoultely pheneomenal too.
Mon-Wed 11:30am – 11pm
Thu 11:30am – 3am
Fri-Sat 11:30am – 4am
Sun 11:30am – 9pm
Apparently those hours can fluctuate a bit by location, so check out the actual hours for your local store. Needless to say, after a long night at one or more of Toronto’s elbow-resting establishments (read ‘bars’), late night hours at a greasy poutine restaurant are a godsend.
Be sure to check out their menu online to tease your tastebuds and to plan your next heart attack. In the meantime, I plan on doing some serious lying down for the next few days as my body deals with all this awesomeness. If it does happen to kill me, be sure that everyone knows my dying words were…
“It was worth it”.
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