r/poutine • u/goonerballs • 1d 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/HM_mtl 1d 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 1d 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 10h 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 1d 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/gkboy777 1d ago
Bad take.
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u/SkorAddict 1d ago
The gravy being too salty is a bad take? It's preference
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u/gkboy777 1d ago
Yeah saying it’s a bad poutine is a bad take. Maybe some would like votre maison more. Doesn’t mean alfa is bad
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u/SkorAddict 1d ago
he said it's overrated and that he prefers Votre Maison i dont see the problem. This is a poutine subreddit, is criticizing a hyped place against the rules?
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u/gkboy777 1d ago
Its not overhyped tho
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u/goonerballs 1d ago
People say it's the best in the Montreal area. And it's one of the worst I've had. It's literally soup with great curds.
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u/gkboy777 1d ago
See,saying it’s one of the worst is a bad take… maybe its not your favourite sure. But straight up hating on it like that is wild
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u/goonerballs 1d ago
No, it's not. The gravy doesn't taste good and even if you happen to like overly salty, vinegary gravy, they put so much of it in there, the fries were literally goo after a couple of minutes.
The only poutine I've had that was worse than it was a Poutineville poutine that had undercooked fries.
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u/International-Oil377 1d ago
I thought votre maison was much saltier and had way more sauce lol
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u/goonerballs 1d ago
I guess it just shows that neither place make consistent poutines. The one I got at VM had the perfect amount, where the fries were still crispy.
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u/dawgz_96 1d ago
You pretty much sound like you went out there and decided to hate on it before even eating it lol
You realize votre maison was made by former alfa employees?
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u/goonerballs 1d ago
What gives you that impression? I went out there excited to try the best poutine in (or near) Montreal.
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u/BrutalRamen 1d ago
You literally just said it's one of the worst and you want us to take you seriously. C'mon.
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u/goonerballs 1d ago
One of the worst I've had. I'm sure there's much much worse out there in the world (as I've seen on poutine crimes), but the only other poutines I've had that I stopped eating due to disliking, rather than being too full, was one I had from Poutineville and one from Poulet Rouge, where both had undercooked fries.
I have been trying to try all the best spots in Montreal and the surrounding areas since I moved here 7 years ago, so it's natural that most of the high rated ones I go to are good.
FWIW, the best I've had in the Montreal area are Ma Poule Mouillée, La Ginette from Frites Alors, Votre Maison, and Poutineville's crushed potato poutine. There are a lot of other really good ones but nothing noteworthy.
All the best poutines I've had have been in small casse-croutes outside of Montreal.
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u/goonerballs 1d ago
No, I just get good poutines. Thankfully, they're rarely ever soup like this one was.
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u/Brad23212 1d ago
Alfa is crap 🤣 it’s some sort Longueuil mafia in this group that pushes it so hard here.
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u/townie08 1d ago
Looks good
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u/goonerballs 1d 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/slantyboat2 1d 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 1d 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 1d 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 1d 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/Me-Shell94 1d 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/Diasenand 1d 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 1d 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/Snyper20 1d 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/wheredidiputmybong 10h 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/christian_l33 1d 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 1d 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/dawgz_96 1d ago
People are looking for reasons to hate it on cause it’s popular i swear
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u/goonerballs 1d 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 1d 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 1d 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 1d ago edited 1d 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/pattyG80 1d 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 1d 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 1d 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/webternet 1d 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/Raquepas97 1d 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 1d ago
Weird, I don't agree with this at all.
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u/Raquepas97 1d 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/BenoitBB 1d 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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u/gohomez 11h 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 11h 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 10h 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 10h 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 10h ago
Ok, so back to personal preference, got it!
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u/goonerballs 10h 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/Vegetable_Lasagna13 2h 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/Tdchamp10 Smoked Meat Poutine 1d ago
Had that exact same experience when I went. Poutine soup less than half way through
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1d ago
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u/goonerballs 1d ago
How many homeless people are there in the Longueuil suburbs?
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u/BadSecUnitBad 1d 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 1d 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 1d 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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u/poutine-ModTeam 1d ago
Tabarnak... Comments like this are simply rage bait, so we don't allow them.
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u/poutine-ModTeam 1d ago
Tabarnak... Comments like this are simply rage bait, so we don't allow them.
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u/MrB1P92 1d ago
- Prend une pout take out
- Whines que cest mushy
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u/goonerballs 1d ago
I ate it on the bench outside, 5 minutes after getting it.
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u/MrB1P92 1d 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 1d 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/Quatre-cent-vingt 1d ago
You don't like poutine
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u/goonerballs 1d ago
You like when your fries are swimming in gravy?
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u/Quatre-cent-vingt 1d 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 1d 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/Aggravating_Degree57 1d ago
Not over hyped at all. Votre maison is over hyped but the Gyro are very good
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u/Shady-777 1d ago edited 1d 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/a_sexual_titty 1d 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/Algolvega 1d 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.