Spud’s Potato Bar and Poutinerie

this place rocks! lots of gravies and toppings to mix and match. I got the one with smoked meat and pickles (don’t remember the name) and it was great. ultra squeaky cheese curds and the staff is nice too!

Worst fries I have ever had.

I’ve tried a lot of different combinations but to be honest, do yourself a favour and stick to the original poutine. It’s the best. Also ask them to take it easy on the sauce… They tend to make it a poutine soup… Unless you like it that way of course!

I’ve passed this Spud Bar a few times and always want to eat in, today was the day!
I am a huge fan of mac and cheese, so I opted for the Return of the Mac poutine. I was slightly disappointed by the mac part of it… it seemed a little dry, and powdery… and like the mac was reheated before topping off my poutine.
The poutine itself was delish, I should have had something more traditional…
I might go back to try another item, but I don’t know…

Generous portion sizes for a reasonable price. My favourite combination is the Montrealler with smoked meat and a pickle. I live just around the corner and visit once every couple of months and have never been disappointed with burned gravy or potatoes that taste like they haven’t been washed. Let’s face it, poutine is pretty simple, but like a good Bechamel sauce, the simplicity doesn’t allow you to hide mistakes. Every time I visit, Spuds gets it right.

I had a personal poutine (Piggy Gone Wild or something, can’t remember the name) but it had bacon, pulled pork and sausage with peppercorn gravy. The first bite I had blew my mind. The poutine was so delicious, I’m getting hungry just writing this! The only drawback is that it is quite expensive.
I will definitely be back, especially since I saw that there are Groupon deals. If it weren’t so pricey I would go a lot more.

The poutine is amazing! They have many different meats and gravies. The sandwiches however are very dry. I had to ask for gravy to be added. The meats are a bit dry as well. Almost like they have been sitting there for a while.

Had the Montréal smoked meat poutine, fries were a little bit bland, but the gravy was excellent. There was perfect distribution of cheese curds and gravy. The smoked meat was great, could have used a tiny bit more of it. Pickles were a nice added kick. The service was great and the staff was very nice. Will definitely go there again!

Very good not to salty and lots of cheese curds and gravy enough to not make it soggy so the fries keep crunchy

Excellent pulled pork, especially when it’s on poutine. Tried the shepherd’s pie poutine and it was a little bland — the beef could have used some more seasoning and the peppercorn gravy wasn’t nearly as good as the regular beef gravy.
Almost everything here is deep fried, including the sausages. It makes it delicious, but I felt sorry for my heart.
Ambience is nice, bright colours, clean. Service was a little slow, but having everything fried made to order is worth it for the freshness.

Spud’s has been open at Elmvale Acres for about a week now. Things are still actively being installed at the store — for example — menus. So this is a pretty early review and my opinion may change over time.
They’ve got a nicely decorated place — and it’s already got a fairly steady stream of people thru the door. Fairly comfortable seating for a fast food joint, good parking access and in a fairly useful strip plaza (with Starbucks, Library, LCBO, Beer Store, Pharmacy and (IMHO) the worst Loblaws in the city) make this a great location for Spuds to open. Get your errands done — then reward yourself for your great work with Spuds! :-)
Basically Spuds has gourmet toppings and gravy for poutine. Toppings range from bacon/​sausage/​ground beef to green onions/​olives/​carmelized onions etc. They have about 6 different gravies — including peppercorn and beer. You pick your meat, your veggie and your gravy. Serving sizes are deception — a medium *easily* feeds 2 — 3 people. A large is enough for 4 or 5.
We’ve been happy with what we’ve tried. (Yes — having this so handy to us is dangerous!)
Service is ok — sometimes great, some times not so great, never bad — but kinda normal for a newly opened place, so this reviewer is assuming those kinks will get worked out as things settle in.
At this time they are *CASH* only. This may be a short term thing, but that’s how it stands today (fall 2012).
We do think the following still needs to be worked out:
— Traffic flow — am I supposed to order, then pay? Or pay then order? Signs telling me what to do would be great. Maybe these are on order.
— This is a big thing — i.e. — it costs money to fix — so not expecting — but the kitchen design seems wrong — there’s a lot of criss-​crossing to get fries, then back for this ingredient, over to the cheese, back to ingredients, more fries… It seems like the fryers shouldn’t be at the back wall, but at the start of the production line. Cheese should be by the fries — then progress from there. There’s a lot of inefficiency in making a batch, and it’s slowing down service to the customer. *However* it may just be training, and the kitchen is actually perfectly laid out. Time will tell. A visit to a Chipotle store in the U.S. might be a good investment to see a perfectly tuned production line that gets customers in/​out with their fairly complex and highly customized orders. There’s some real similarities in their needs.
At the end of the day:
Would I recommend: Yes
Would I return: Yes