r/poutine • u/goonerballs • 5d ago
Alfa is Over Hyped
Went out to Alfa after hearing so many great things for so long. I was just so confused as to why. The only positive was the amount of high quality cheese curds. Super fresh and super squeaky. But the gravy was way too salty and had kind of a vinegary taste to it that wasn't pleasant. They also put way too much gravy, so the fries (which looked good when they came out of the frier) were a mush and it turned into a fries soup. I only ate a quarter of it before giving up on it because it tasted that bad.
In this area, I'd recommend skipping Alfa and going to Votre Maison instead. That is possibly one of the best poutines I've ever had.
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u/Algolvega 5d ago
Votre maison’s poutine is pretty salty as well. I like it that way but choosing it over Alfa because the latter is too salty gives me pause.
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u/goonerballs 5d ago
All poutine gravy is salty. Maybe Alfa's is equally as salty, but there was too much of it so it tasted overly salty? Either way, there's a strange taste that I was describing as vinegary, but someone else said "tinny", and that's it, that extra weird taste lingers and leaves a really bad aftertaste.
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u/bobthebobbober 5d ago
Maybe there was too much gravy ? Last time I went there it was quite good and balanced, salty yes , but there wasn’t any weird tin flavours. Some poutine sauces have various aftertastes which I don’t like but I don’t recall this being one
It’s a bit of a challenge too since a lot of places buy the Sysco (and a few other) type gravy mix which in theory should make it taste the same everywhere. That can in theory make a poutine stand out if it isn’t using one of those I think.
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u/goonerballs 5d ago
Yeah, there was too much gravy, and another person said they use cayenne, so that must be it. I didn't think it was spicy, but it definitely had a tang that I'm not used to, and personally didn't like. And yeah, maybe my wife and I just got bad ones with too much gravy.
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u/slantyboat2 5d ago
I agree it's overhyped, it's good! Not amazing. I disagree with the too much gravy (did you take the Alfa poutine to go? It's never been a mush to me when eating on site) but I think they could tweak the gravy a bit to be better. It's almost tinny but better than most.
I haven't tried Votre Maison, I'll have to give it a go.
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u/goonerballs 5d ago
Yeah, I got it to go and ate it outside, and had to wait a few minutes before eating it. Maybe it would've been a little less mushy if I ate it at a table inside straight away.
Definitely try Votre Maison. To me, it's up there with the best.
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u/DaddyMoustache 5d ago
You had it to go, but didn't ask for the sauce to be on the side, then complain about the fries being soggy. C'mon man what do you know about poutine.
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u/goonerballs 5d ago
I ate it on the bench right outside because there were no free tables inside.
And I've eaten countless poutines in my 7 years in Montreal, and my wife has been eating them her whole life (and she also didn't like her poutine at Alfa).
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u/HM_mtl 5d ago
Tu confonds le vinaigre pour du poivre de cayenne. Parce que la sauce est un peu épicée avec un peu poivre de cayenne.
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u/gobby94 4d ago
It OP can’t differentiate spicy from acidic, I don’t think I trust their critique of any food.
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u/goonerballs 4d ago
Maybe go there and try it yourself? Both my wife and I thought it was vinegar they added. And she's from a small town in rural Quebec which has some amazing poutines.
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u/goonerballs 5d ago
Yeah that might be it. If the amount of sauce was better balanced, maybe I'd have enjoyed it like a lot of people on here do, but as a soup, it was just too much. I wish I'd taken a photo of what the fries looked like after 5 minutes, they were just disintegrating.
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u/Diasenand 5d ago
That's a weird take to me saying Alfa is disgusting and votre maison is delicious when they are both so similar seems like shilling to me
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u/goonerballs 5d ago
VM just had the right amount of gravy so the fries were crispy until the end. It's clear from the responses here that it's not always the case at Alfa, but that was the experience I had.
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u/christian_l33 5d ago
Dear u/goonerballs,
There is a pretty solid consensus that Alfa is among the best out there. Definitely the top tier.
Is very likely that you either got a bad example (employees can have a bad day), or maybe your personal taste isn't in line with many others.
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u/goonerballs 5d ago
Did you read the part where I said it was like soup? Isn't this sub in consensus that poutine shouldn't be soup?
I'll admit it might have been just a bad day, but from the photos I see on their Google page, a lot of them looked similar. Also, my Quebecoise wife didn't like it either, and she's been trying poutine around Quebec for over 30 years.
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u/Snyper20 5d ago
People go to these places and are expecting an epiphany as they are tasting it… In the end it’s a poutine, people should manage their expectations.
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u/dawgz_96 5d ago
People are looking for reasons to hate it on cause it’s popular i swear
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u/goonerballs 5d ago
That's my point. Why is it popular? It isn't better than any other poutine place, and they have a different gravy to anywhere else and not in a good way. It's also pretty widely accepted that the fries shouldn't be drowning in gravy.
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u/dawgz_96 5d ago
Because it’s a good poutine and people are just looking to hate at their popularity.
It’s better than le petit quebec and better priced
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u/DjAlex420 5d ago
Because Alfa poutine is kind of the perfect basic poutine. Some places can do fancy poutines with added ingredients better. All restaurants have slightly different sauce so finding the perfect one for you is hard, cheese to fries ratios are often bad compared to Alfa. I don't think Alfa is my favorite poutine of all time, but I'm never dissapointed by it. It is a proper poutine. The true best poutine will probably be found at a random rural cantina or food truck that you'll never see again.
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u/bdart1980 5d ago edited 5d ago
I'm a little late to the party here... I haven't had VM or Alfa, but from being on this sub for a few years, I always know an alfa poutine when I see it... it's looks fantastic visually and that terrific portion of curds seems unbeatable to me.. I'd def seek it out when given the opportunity.
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u/townie08 5d ago
Looks good
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u/goonerballs 5d ago
I agree! I was very happy when I saw it, even happier when I ate a big squeaky curd, I got a couple of the fries that had escaped from being covered in gravy and they were great, but then it was all just mushy potatoes in a tangy gravy.
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u/Me-Shell94 5d ago
I’ll admit looking at this one the first thought I had was too much gravy. But when I went I enjoyed it and don’t find it to have the vinegary taste you mention…. Maybe a bad day? To me it was a very good 8.8/10, and yes the sauce was the weakness.
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u/pattyG80 5d ago
The funny thingbis that votre maison's poutine is not tremendously different...but hey, we all have our favorite team.
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u/wildething1998 5d ago
When I went to Alfa I felt like I died and went to poutine heaven. Definitely worth the hype for me
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u/goonerballs 5d ago
Genuinely curious, do you live in Quebec, or have you tried many poutines in Quebec? I get a sense a lot of this community is from outside of Quebec and they might go to Alfa when they're here to try the best one, and from an outsider's perspective, I'm sure Alfa is 10x better than the lower quality poutines from outside Quebec.
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u/Raquepas97 5d ago
Si tu trouves que la poutine Alfa est trop salé... Votre maison est 100x pire.
Tu veux un criss de bonne gyro = Votre Maison.
Tu veux une crisse de bonne poutine = Alfa
En plus au Alfa est genre 12$ pis aussi grosse qu'une poutine familiale du Benny à genre 26$
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u/goonerballs 5d ago
Weird, I don't agree with this at all.
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u/Raquepas97 5d ago
I hate 2 poutines at Votre Maison, the first one was great, the other one a bit too salty. But honestly Votre Maison is still a 9/10 for me. It's a bit farther from home so i go there for Gyros now because they're just so good.
But Alfa for me is just the best.
Then again everyone likes something different, i can see why people like Votre Maison more, everything they do there is very good
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u/gohomez 4d ago
Personal preference against a majority that consider this the best, good luck... and Votre Maison is a copy and nearly identical
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u/goonerballs 4d ago
I don't think fries and gravy soup is a personal preference. Most of this sub would agree that's not how a good poutine should be.
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u/gohomez 4d ago
You spend most of your time defending your own take on this. And you think Votre Maison is so much better. I see a troll......
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u/goonerballs 4d ago
You don't. You see a guy that's had a lot of poutines and found out they don't like gravy with cayenne pepper in it.
Also, this particular one had double the amount of gravy than the one I got at Votre Maison. I'm sure if I got less gravy at Alfa and double the amount at VM, my opinion would be flipped.
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u/gohomez 4d ago
Ok, so back to personal preference, got it!
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u/goonerballs 4d ago
Sure, the flavour of the gravy is personal preference. The amount of gravy was objectively too much, a good poutine is balanced, not fries soup.
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u/_tax_noob 1d ago
Haven’t been to Alfa’s but I’ve had vinegary gravy many times and it’s honestly off putting.
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u/MrB1P92 5d ago
- Prend une pout take out
- Whines que cest mushy
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u/goonerballs 5d ago
I ate it on the bench outside, 5 minutes after getting it.
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u/MrB1P92 5d ago
5 minutes is like steamint your vegetables for 5 minutes. It will get mushy. I had some two days ago, fries were crispy.
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u/goonerballs 5d ago
Okay. I've had plenty of poutines that I ate in the same time period and they weren't soup-like.
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u/webternet 5d ago
Most poutines are over hyped. Every time some tells me I direly need to try some place it's okay at best.
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u/Quatre-cent-vingt 5d ago
You don't like poutine
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u/goonerballs 5d ago
You like when your fries are swimming in gravy?
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u/Quatre-cent-vingt 5d ago
You can ask them to add less sauce if you think its too much, but yeah thats the normal ratio of sauce/fries for a poutine
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u/goonerballs 5d ago
I would definitely ask for the sauce on the side next time and add it myself.
And it's hard to tell from this photo, but this wasn't the normal amount of sauce for a poutine.
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u/wheredidiputmybong 4d ago
that gravy looks like shit tbh. I don’t fuck with light gravy one bit. Give me that dark brown beef gravy, anything else I’ll send back
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u/Vegetable_Lasagna13 3d ago
I presonally much prefer extra gravy to not enough gravy. I always hate when I get halfway or 3/4 through a poutine and there's barely no gravy left
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u/Dabidokun 3d ago
This is the correct take. Alfa is definitely overhyped and there are way better spots in Longueuil, Votre Maison being one of them.
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u/EstablishmentFit8508 1h ago
I agree, massively over hyped, i was dissapointed when i went, and im from greater montreal area.
Those people coming from afar with "pilgrimage".
Yea thats basic casse croute experience, and theres much better out there.
Let the downvotes begin.
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u/Tdchamp10 Smoked Meat Poutine 5d ago
Had that exact same experience when I went. Poutine soup less than half way through
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u/Aggravating_Degree57 5d ago
Not over hyped at all. Votre maison is over hyped but the Gyro are very good
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u/BenoitBB 4d ago
Elle goûte la bouffe a chien... For real. Un goût de boeuf bizzare. Je vous conseille Cantine Ti-Wick a saint jean sur le Richelieu 10/10
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5d ago
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u/goonerballs 5d ago
How many homeless people are there in the Longueuil suburbs?
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u/BadSecUnitBad 5d ago
There's a dude with his cat who is often sitting on the side of Alfa building. And many, many others, recently, have tents on vacant lots and in parks.
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u/goonerballs 5d ago
I'm really sorry to hear that. I didn't see a homeless guy there, if I did, I would've offered it to him of course
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u/BadSecUnitBad 5d ago
He's not always there. He's super nice. A few weeks ago he was devastated because his cat got away. I was happy to see him reunited with his cat last week.
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5d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/poutine-ModTeam 5d ago
Tabarnak... Comments like this are simply rage bait, so we don't allow them.
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u/poutine-ModTeam 5d ago
Tabarnak... Comments like this are simply rage bait, so we don't allow them.
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5d ago
[deleted]
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u/a_sexual_titty 5d ago
I’m sorry your tongue was ripped out at birth. It must suck not to be able to taste.
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u/Shady-777 5d ago edited 5d ago
Poutine is a basic food, it isn’t as complex so most hyped places are gonna be overhyped. Plus I’ e never heard of Alfa in my life
EDIT: Wow that actually offended ya’ll 😭 I ain’t even mad just suprised
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u/gkboy777 5d ago
Bad take.