Big Cheese Poutinerie

After sharing our crepe at Holy Crepe Food Truck, we decided that we needed something else to complement our meal so we walked to Big Cheese Poutinerie on 17th Avenue to continue our Quebecois-themed lunch. While the wife has already determined that her favourite poutines come from Maaam Bolduc and La Banquise in Montreal and La Belle Patate in Canmore, there was definitely interest in seeing what this Calgary poutinerie had to offer.

The nice thing was that there were hardly any people at Big Cheese Poutinerie so we had some time to think about what to get.  As the husband is usually more traditional in his poutine selections (give him squeaky cheese curds, good gravy, and the occasional smoked meat over his fries and he's happy), the wife suggested ordering the Hogzilla with Carolina pulled pork, double smoked bacon, and peppercorn gravy as a compromise.  Since we were sharing the poutine, we split a large order but learnt that in the future, sharing a small poutine would suffice.

The Hogzilla poutine: Definitely larger than we anticipated and just as tasty as we hoped.

This poutine choice was delicious; however, after a few bites, we realized that the husband ended up getting more of the pulled pork and the wife got more of the bacon and gravy so if you're sharing, you might need to switch sides after a while due to the uneven layering.  The bacon added the right crunch and the small bits of pulled pork tasted great with the peppercorn gravy but it didn't seem as though there was a lot of pulled pork in the first place.  We didn't try the Montreal smoked meat poutine here so we can't compare it to our local favourite at Alberta King of Subs but the husband is willing to make another trip to Big Cheese one day (although parking is not very conducive at this location).

Seafood-free friendliness: We love that this poutinerie is absolutely seafood-free, which means that we can come back and try anything on the menu.  There are no concerns about cross-contamination with either the poutine toppings or the fries, which is already a treat in itself.  The cheese may not be as squeaky as out east but it's a step above fast-food fare with interesting selections, so we probably wouldn't mind attempting more menu items.