Fromagerie Lemaire

A cheese shop that double as a road stop, a fast food joint and an ice cream shop all rolled in one. The poutine is pretty delicious, squeaky cheese and hot gravy. This is pretty much everything you want in a fast food poutine. I also bought some fresh curds, which she picked up from a new batch and weighted it before handing it to me. It was amazing snack with a few beers that night. The cheese selection was solid, mostly stuff from the region. The usual elusive Cendrillon, from the Alexis de Portneuf which was declared the "best cheese in the world, 2009, can be found there.

Many rank this place has the #1 poutine, so the bar was pretty high. The cheese is great and the quality can be tasted considering the cheese, but everything else is pretty disappointing. You can have better poutine at Ashton or even at Poutini's in Toronto. Even the grilled cheese was garbage. I could make a better grilled cheese than them in jail with my iron.

Stopped by this fromagerie on my way back to Montreal as I missed a couple other fromageries that I wanted to hit up! The great thing about rural quebec is there is a really solid amount of cheese shops all with an incredible selection of cheese! Entering in here it was roughly 6:30 PM and the parking lot was quite full so that's sign #1 for me. The cheese shop also has a restaurant so this was my prediction for the large volume of cars! You enter into the place to a nicely decorated cheese shop- restaurant where there is a big selection of cheese at the first counter at the restaurant at the second counter. I ended up buying an $8 bag of cheese curds and was pleasantly surprised to see the girl working the counter break them up from a fresh batch, weigh them then had to the cashier. I also bought some poutine sauce and some apple cinnamon bread. The bread was fantastic as breakfast toast then next day and I'll update how the poutine sauce was! Walking over to the restaurant it looked pretty lively. I'll have to check it out another time on the way back and provide an update!

This place can get super busy, especially on a Saturday afternoon. Luckily, this place is pretty huge with loads of seating area. They have one main dining room and an extra one in the back near the dairy bar. At Fromagerie Lemaire, ordering a poutine is a must. I expected a lot from this place considering the long lineup to pay and pickup food. I opted for the original poutine, with French fries, gravy and cheese curds. The portion sizes are pretty big and the cashier made sure to remind us that the regular size poutine was good for 2 people. The cheese curds were tasty, but the fries were cold and the gravy wasn't that hot. As a result, the cheese curds didn't melt as nicely as a piping hot bowl of poutine. Overall, I liked the cheese curds, but the cheese in only one third of a good poutine. I may try this place again in the distant future.

We came really early in the morning for breakfast. Unfortunately they weren't serving poutine, so we got some stuff off their breakfast menu. We were very satisfied by the quantity and quality. It was a very hearty breakfast with fruit, cheese curds, different meats, and potatoes (SO GOOD). The garden breakfast is def worth it, I shared it with a friend and we were stuffed. This was our first time having cheese curds and they were so delicious and squeaky!