For out of this world twists on Quebec's worldwide famous dish go to Planète Poutine. Poutines with names like General Tao chicken, pâte chinois and duck confit are just a few of the stellar offerings at this poutinerie.
Started in Trois-Rivières, the planetary poutine shop has set up a 2nd poutinerie in Montreal. Housed in the former walls of Le Roi du Plateau we did get the feeling of sacrilege when stepping into this familiar territory. Thank goodness we found salvation in some great tasting poutines.
Given the famous heritage of the location the new business might consider creating a poutine in honor of the former King (Roi du Plateau).
The Planète Poutine secret in offering so many bold flavor combos seems to lie with the tastiness of the ingredients used in making each poutine. The meat sauce for the Italian poutine, for example, was some mighty fine sauce in its own right. We were extremely pleased with the amount of cheese (and big size of some of the curds) used in our poutines. With the price of dairy products on the rise we have noticed a dwindling with the amount of cheese used in poutines. We assume most places want to avoid serving pricey poutines but there is nothing worse than a measly portion of cheese sprinkled on top of some fries. At Planète Poutine we found very good cheese to fry ratio including some mega curds that had the mythical squeak when chewed.
Don't be frightened by some of the outlandish sounding combos because the flavors really work well together. You sometimes wonder when establishments offer crazy concoctions if the ingredients are just thrown together for the sake of being zany. The Planète Poutine combos seem to have had some real thought put into the overall taste.
The caramelized onions in the pâte chinois poutine (a show stopper) added a nice sweet taste to the dish. The vegetarian poutine with green olives, tomatoes and iceberg lettuce surprised us with how good it tasted with our gravy cheese and fries.
If there is one thing Montrealers like to argue about it's whose poutine reigns supreme. Don't be surprised if the time you talk poutine you hear the name Planète Poutine because this is a world-class poutinerie.