Poutinerie Jean Talon is a Japanese style French Restaurant in the Mount Pleasant area on East Broadway featuring poutine and other classic bites like sandwiches and burgers that they put their own interpretation on. The place has been open for over a year now, but has not generated much of a buzz compared to their sister restaurant Café de L’Orangerie. Walking in, I had pretty high expectations for this place since I’m a huge fan of Cafe de L’Orangerie – I knew I had to try their poutine since that is what they specialize in.
I met up with Chingoo Jack here for a long overdue catch up on a weekday evening. We really did not know what to order aside from their poutine so it did take us a while to come to a consensus. The menu is pretty disorganized as the food and drinks menu are not properly separated. We were flipping back and forth repeatedly which was a bit annoying in my opinion.
Poutine (Small $6.25, Large $12.00)For the poutine, you can customize your dish from a variety of sauce which includes: Japanese Curry, Beef Stew, Cream of Mushroom, Classic Gravy, or Plain Gravy. Every sauce is vegetarian friendly except the beef stew. Toppings can be added for an extra cost ranging from as little as $0.50 to $5.50. I ordered a small with mozzarella cheese and Japanese Curry Sauce. My Japanese Curry sauce came with diced peas, carrots, and zucchini. Although I do appreciate the variety of diced vegetables in this dish, overall, I wasn’t a big fan. The curry sauce came out thick and the taste was very mild.Fries on the other hand were pretty crispy, but then again it’s really hard to screw up on fries.
If you opt for cheese curds, it’s $8.25 for a small and $16.00 for a large.
BBQ Chicken Wings ($5.50) They had their chicken wings on special for tonight on the board. Normally, it’s priced at $6.25 for 7 pieces and $12 for 14 pieces. Spicy sauce is also available as the other option for chicken wings. It took a while for my chicken wings to come- the marinade was passable, however, the meat was super dry and way overcooked. I have a strong feeling that they were just reheated.
Hickory Burger with Japanese Curry Poutine ($14.25) Jack didn’t really have much to add on this burger. He thought it was pretty average.
Jack’s burger came with a side of poutine. He chose beef stew as his sauce with cheese curds. The beef stew sauce tasted much more flavourful and complimented the fries and cheese curds very well. I enjoyed his poutine a lot more than mine!
They have daily food and drinks specials and happy hour runs from 3:30-7PM for those who are interested in coming down here for some casual snacks and/or drinks.
Location:
670 East Broadway
Vancouver, BC
Rating: 2.5/5
Price: $
Reservation? No
I’ve tried the curry poutine at cafe de l’orangerie and I found that it was more sweet than savory which was weird. I do recall it coming with cheese for no extra cost though there … Cause really if you’re calling it a poutine, it should come with cheese curds. Now all I can think about is cafe de l’orangerie’s creamy masago spaghetti!
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but jean talon’s curry
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Hi Bob,
Haven’t tried cafe de l’orangerie’s poutine myself but jean talon’s is definitely more on the savoury than sweet side. Mozzarella or cheese curds is already included in the poutine- extra is only if you want more cheese on top of the existing amount that they put in. I’ll have to meet up with you over lunch or dinner to try cafe de l’orangerie’s poutine to see which one I prefer more!
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hahah. You can get the POUTINE for one, I’d rather stick to the usual creamy masago spaghetti. Their chicken karrage is pretty good too, nice batter!
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interesting I haven’t read much about this place! I really like the poutine from cafe l’orangerie and the fries are like Costco fries lol
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