There has been no arm twisting to find reasons to visit local restaurants serving poutine. It merely takes being “in the neighborhood.” Oh, we’re in SE Portland? There’s a restaurant serving poutine just a mile away? A couple streets over? Well, we should go. We’re in the neighborhood.
With the increasing amount of restaurants serving poutine in Portland, we have no reason to neglect our investigative journalistic duties. We are cognizant of our weighty responsibilities. Though we are trying to limit our poutine intake to one session a week. Before my ass gets too weighty.
We surely didn’t get enough calories over the Thanksgiving holiday, so we were delighted this past weekend to find ourselves near Savoy Tavern and Bistro. We got ourselves warm drinks and ordered the poutine as our appetizer.
To the uninitiated, this may look less than appetizing. But the generous cover of poultry gravy concealed a nest of crispy shoestring fries and divine melted cheese curds. This was perhaps the first instance of restaurant poutine that did not leave us wanting for more cheese. The portion was generous and required twirling our forks to capture all the melty goodness.
The gravy was tasty and well seasoned, even if our server wasn’t exactly sure what kind it was. The fries were crispy enough not to get too mushy. Of course, we ate it fast enough that the fries didn’t have a chance. Poutine, like biscuits and gravy, is best hot and eaten quickly.
We were happy about enjoying traditional poutine without someone having to make it fancy or interpretive of something else. There was no bacon, or mushrooms or other weird stuff. Sometimes the original concept is just fine.
Poutine at Savoy Tavern is the real thing.
The rest of our meal, mine mac and cheese, his a smoked trout plate, were both quite good. We will surely go back to Savoy Tavern.
Savoy Tavern and Bistro
2500 SE Clinton St
Portland, Oregon 97202
Phone: 503.808.9999
Web: www.savoypdx.com
Heather
on Dec 1st, 2009
@ 4:54 am:
It will be much better for me if my Dad does not ever find this website.