This was my first Ontarion Canada Day, so it seemed most appropriate to go to my nation's capital and do it right. Naturally, being in a new city meant there were new food opportunities along with the Ottawan celebrations. Edesio and I made it our mission to find the best poutine in our trip. Yes, we did sacrifice our poor trans fat deposited arteries for the good of the minimal amount of mankind (you, the reader, you fellow nerd :P) could learn where to get kick ass poutine in and around Ottawa city. We may also love the combination of cheese, gravy and French fries to sacrifice our health anyways…
So it turns out that Ottawa is a huge city that has a lot of outskirt towns that do not open on Canada Day or most Sundays for that matter. We were pretty hungry on Canada Day morning and went on a mission for mucky Canadian food. In all the strip malls, Gabriel Pizza was one of the only one open. Assuming all places thisclose to Quebec have amazing poutine, we tried it out. About six dollars later, we were fairly unimpressed with the shredded cheese over crispy, but definitely not fresh cut, fries and super salty gravy. For the only place in Kanata, we were happy the friendly staff suffered the time-and-a-half wages to bring us some food.
Downtown Ottawa was a different story on Canada Day. It was so busy with so many people at the actual poutine stands (try at least 15 minutes to wait EVERYWHERE) we decided to jump a short Beaver Tails line and grab a snack before the fireworks (so on a side note, we tried Maple Butter and Lemon Sugar; Maple Butter was basically amazing and Lemon Sugar was pretty good; both totally worth it). Warning to other tourists during Canada Day: make sure you bring some colourful Canadian money to your food adventures downtown, most places were "cash only" to ensure quick transactions. After the fireworks, we had the 4 Cheese Poutine at Zak's Diner (by suggestion of some true Ottawites(?)). Usually an American size portion of this Canadian treat is $9.49, it was about $12 for the festivities. We definitely approved of the food, but definitely not the price! It was also super busy leaving the restaurant and we needed to get stamps on our hands to show the bouncer (for a diner!) that we paid before we could leave.
Our final mission was to go to an actual chip wagon. The locals of Richmond, Ottawa swear by Tony's, the local chip wagon. Sadly, July 2nd we went to Richmond and Tony was hit by a car. So in the end, we hit up Richmond Bakery and loaded up on fudge ($4.50), jelly and Boston Cream donuts ($1.50 each), which were all amazing. On a serious note, our positive thoughts are with Tony and we hope he gets better for our next chip wagon mission. I'll believe Tony's has the best poutine for now.
Unable to find the best poutine of our lives (we are convinced Vancouver, New York Fries or Pierre's maybe have the best poutine of our lives), we drove back to Guelph. The final stop we made for poutine was Golden Boat Fish and Chips (if it was successfully done, a Street View photo is attached). For four dollars, it was very impressive we got a huge portion and that the fries were hand cut and very crispy. However, they used shredded marble cheese and sub-par gravy. I recommend getting just their fries (super cheap!) and cross to McDonalds to get a large pop for a dollar. Or try their fish and let me know how it is (they seem to have pretty good deals).
So all in all I learned a few things: 1) Ottawa may have the best poutine in the world, but I was unable to try some; 2) It is necessary to not do the Drive Thru when on a road trip because drivers and passengers need to walk to regain circulation; and 3) I just wanted to reiterate what and confirm what everybody (should) already know: cheese curds on poutine are way better than shredded cheese!
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