NYC Tour De Poutine

The Last Supper Poutine: Shopsin’s

This quirky lunch counter inside the Essex Street Market serves up the poutine to end all poutines — a giant bowl of super crisp French fries completely doused in the requisite dark gravy and cheese curds and then topped with not one, not two, but three runny poached eggs. The seemingly bottomless bowl is an amazing feast, but do exercise caution. Because Shopsin’s is only open ’til 3 p.m., when most of my “real job” friends are unavailable, I had to approach this monstrous meal on my own, and while I didn’t come anywhere close to finishing, suffice it to say my stomach was not on speaking terms — or more accurately, was on speaking terms — with me for the rest of the day. 120 Essex Street, $13

Poutine Lite: Sheep Station

We love that this Australian pub in Park Slope makes room on its menu for a great Canadian dish, and they start strong, with beautiful golden-brown fries — thick but not too thick. Unfortunately, they seem to be afraid of really embracing the whole poutine mentality, drizzling on just a few cheese curds and a woefully small amount of gravy, which tasted canned and was way too salty. Our tasting team recommends the fries on their own, but this isn’t the best stop for poutine, unless you’re unsure you’re ready to handle the real deal. 149 4th Avenue, Brooklyn. $6

Street Poutine – Pommes Frites

This late-night East Village standby gets plenty of props for their double-fried Belgian fries and wide array of dipping sauces, but they also deserve credit for their less frequently ordered poutine. Served just like it is at many Montreal establishments, in Styrofoam to-go cups, Pommes Frites’ version is designed to keep you warm on that winter walk home, and while neither the gravy or cheese curds were the best of what we tasted, the grease-soaked fries are great as always, and they do an excellent job on the ratios — ensuring that every bite has a well proportioned mix of all ingredients. Bonus points for being the cheapest poutine in NYC. 123 2nd Avenue, $5.

Elitist Poutine: Hotel Griffou

OK, fine — we didn’t actually visit ever NYC poutinerie. Our tasting team decided to skip this West Village hotspot, most well-known for Leo and Lindsey sightings but also home to some ridiculousness known as duck confit poutine (seriously!) The place sounds a little too scene-y for my tastes, plus the food gets not great reviews and Yelp-ers report they don’t allow photos anyway. But if anyone has tasted this dish, we’d love to hear your thoughts. 21 West 9th Street, $12 (Photo: The Jedi Foodie)

Best Poutine In Show: Mile End

This just-opened Brooklyn eatery, named for a hip Montreal neighborhood, aces poutine with a classic version that features a super-thick, housemade chicken-mushroom gravy (there’s also a just-mushroom version) and cheese curds from Silver Moon Creamery in Maine, by far the lightest and freshest we sampled on our poutine tour. But they top themselves by finishing the dish with bits of savory smoked beef brisket. In fact, with a laid-back atmosphere; friendly service (owner Noah Bernamoff gladly chatted with us about ingredient sourcing even while busily slicing his straight-out-of-the-oven brisket); and Stumptown coffee to boot, Mile End may be my favorite new NYC restaurant. Note: they’re struggling a bit to handle Brooklyn’s surprisingly feverent appetite for Canadian cuisine, and as of now are only serving from 8am ’til whenever they run out of meat (usually between 3 and 4 pm). 97A Hoyt Street, Brooklyn, $8 – $11

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