Double Decker Diner & Dairy Bar (Manotick)

Regular: $4.75
Large: $6.00
Overall rating: 7.2 non-scientific points out of 10

My second foray into the seedy underworld of Ottawa poutine began much like any other day (by waking up and wondering if it was too early for poutine). I tried to repress the inner whispers of the poutinaholic ("just a little one can't hurt...") but others were complicit in making me break my one-a-week promise to myself... and after all, it's not a problem if you aren't poutining alone. Right?

After breaking the news about my poutine blog to my cousins, they were pretty adamant that we needed visit the Double Decker Diner and Dairy Bar in Manotick, just south of Ottawa. If you don't know about Manotick, it's this idyllic village comprised mainly of an upper-middle class, family-centric commuter population (side note: I did no journalistic research whatsoever into this; it's an assumption that I consider true until proven otherwise). The Double-Decker Diner & Dairy Bar actually is a double-decker bus, kitted out as a chip stand and painted red for visibility, parked at the corner of Manotick's Main Street and Clapp Lane. The upper deck is purportedly a seating area for nastier weather conditions, but it was another beautiful day in Eastern Ontario so our group (five plus corgi puppy Finn) opted to sit at one of the picnic tables.

Side note #2: Considering the corgi addition to our group, I was immediately taken by the diner's menu, which listed the hot dog menu as "Palace Corgis." It doesn't take much, and I am officially enamored.

Service was fast and friendly for the mid-afternoon clientele and while I was mainly focused only on poutine, I noticed a number of people were opting for the vanilla shake, so I think we can be suitably impressed by the menu's "other" items. A sign stating that clients should take note of the reflections caused by the red umbrellas over the picnic tables before fearing that their burgers could lead to salmonella mayhem (admittedly very loosely paraphrased) made us laugh - you have to wonder how often the owners had heard that complaint before resorting to signage.

To the poutine: as with any respectable chip stand trying to make a mark in the oversaturated Ottawa Valley, the fries were served hot, fresh and crisp and the cheese was all curd. Gravy was a bit thicker than I am used to in the chip stand market, but one of our group was insistant that it should be even thicker -- another split opinion. Cheese portions were decent but again, not generous enough to take this poutine over the top. In the end, the poutine was just decent and entirely too much like the chip stand poutine in my last post.

It's just this: there are dozens of chip stands and trucks in Ottawa, and to make one stand out above the others -- well, you gotta work for it. Ottawans and Quebeckers love us some good poutine, and we want tasty, stand-out gravy and massive amounts of the gooey cheese curds that make our mouths water with pouticipation. While the Double-Decker may do stand-out burgers and 'dogs (I'll probably never know), the poutine was basic and fairly unremarkable. I definitely have no credentials in food critiquing, but I do know excellent poutine. And this wasn't it.

Overall, the standout on this poutine location is just that - location. The double-decker bus is great and makes me wonder how Londoners would take to poutine. I'd like to think the English would be accepting and that if only the Queen had the chance, she would take the word of poutine back to her people. Preferably on a red double-decker bus.

Coming soon: Quest for Poutex: Finding Poutine in Texas. Can it be done? Can it be done right?