Here Are Montreal's La Poutine Week Frontrunners — At Least One Is Beyond Outrageous

If you're looking for some comfort food to treat your winter blues, La Poutine Week 2023 is here to save you. There are currently three Montreal poutines on the leaderboard that you'll probably want to taste sooner than later.

The festival is on until February 14, so you still have plenty of time to try different creations and vote for your favourite one on the festival's website. Eventually, an overall champion will be declared based on the votes.

As of Friday, February 3, the top three Montreal poutines are Le Gras Dur's "Poutine au boeuf birria de Jalisco", Chez Simon Cantine Urbaine's "La Polpettine," and La Belle Tonki's "Poutine Tonkiyaki" — and none of them include the traditional brown gravy.

For $18, you can try Le Gras Dur's dish, made of braised beef, tomato poutine sauce, fries, cheese, cilantro, sour cream, tortillas with birria sauce, and onions.

Fans of Italian cuisine can opt for the saucy La Polpinette instead, which costs $17 and is the cheapest of the Montreal poutine frontrunners.

The restaurant Chez Simon Cantine Urbaine specifies that its offering is made with fresh cheese curds and homemade fries covered with spaghetti sauce, fried Italian meatballs, parmigiano reggiano and fried prosciutto.

If you're feeling adventurous and you want something very unusual — it's La Poutine Week, after all — the next option is the way to go.

La Belle Tonki offers a poutine "inspired by Japanese street food", including a brown sauce made with sake and dashi, octopus, fries, cheese curds, okonomikayi sauce, furikake and green onions. You can taste it for $20.

Whether you're a poutine lover looking for new flavours, or you're planning a delicious V-Day date night, bon appétit!