"1"^^ . . "Oh poutine, where has your creamy fried richness been all of my life?\n\nResto la banquise is the mecca of poutine spots. They make it practically any which way you want. \n\nA couple hours after landing in MTL, we decided this is where I should have my first poutine experience. It was about 1pm or so, and there was no horde of people waiting to be seated but we were left waiting at the host area for a good sub 10 minutes while servers walked back and forth, passing by the very obviously waiting US numerous times. Minus a point for that. \n\nWe were finally seated, a nice little booth by a window overlooking the outside. The menu was a bit overwhelming, not necessarily because it was written solely in french (I have a fair aptitude of the language), rather because there were so many options! \n\nNow I'm undoubtedly a carnivore, no ifs ands or buts, so I had to get myself a meaty dish of poutine. We ordered the Poutine Mart (bacon, smoked sausage and mushrooms) and Poutine Italienne (meatsauce). \n\nThe dishes are large, even their regular sized plates. And their poutine is oozing with toppings. \n\nThe fries were cooked well enough, lacked that bit of crisp that I generally like. The gravy was a nice rich brown gravy. Fair amount of cheesecurds, but you can never have too much of that anyway. I was disappointed in the lack of bacon, and the fact that they used hotdogs (i think) vs smoked sausage. Overall, not bad, but not what I was expecting.\n\nThe 2nd dish of poutine with the meatsauce was pretty good. The cheesecurds were melty and the sauce was reminiscent of a filipino meatsauce, with a slight sweetness to it. \n\nPrices are moderate, under $10 a plate.\n\nWould definitely return to gain some redemption for my first experience, as I'm sure they can pull off something magically and deliciously fattening."^^ . "1"^^ . "2010-09-01T00:00:00"^^ . "1"^^ . "3"^^ . . .