Make Crave-Worthy Poutine At Culver's With This 3-Step Ordering Trick

While we will always mourn those beloved Canadian fast food chains you can't find in the States, we at least know how to replicate that iconic Northern nosh of poutine at Culver's. It's all thanks to a wave of social media hype. A typical Québécois poutine is made of crispy French fries, squeaky fresh cheese curds, and lashings of savory beef gravy. Now, the poutine we're about to spell out is not strictly authentic, so if you're precious about tradition, this may not be the snack for you. For our fellow adventurous drive-thru denizens, however, worlds are about to be rocked with this three-step process.

First, order Culver's crinkle-cut fries, Wisconsin cheese curds, and a couple sides of gravy. That last part is the tricky one, since gravy is not a standard à la carte offering on the canon menu, so this will have to be an in-person order. The size of your fries and your curds will depend on how big a poutine you want to build. If you want to guarantee that your fries will hold up to the onslaught of gravy, order them well done or extra crispy! Secondly, obtain a cardboard serving tray from your friendly Culver's employee, who you previously plied with a smile and excellent manners. In this tray, dump your fries and your curds. For the pièce de résistance, smother the entire tray with gravy. We previously gave Culver's cheese curds 20x the flavor with two simple additions, but this combo may just hit the proverbial ball out of the park.

On the whole, we appreciate the quality-to-price ratio at Culver's — we even broke down how it bests fellow burger chain Five Guys for value. It can't be denied, however, that your DIY poutine is going to be a little expensive, depending on its size. Our pricing info was derived from a Culver's located in the Tampa Bay region of Florida. There, a medium cheese curd side (the smallest option, despite the name) goes for $4.99. If you want to make it large, that's $7.79 — and the biggest "family" option is a princely $11.79 for a serving that, if you go strictly by calorie count, is about three times the helping of a medium. Fries are quite a bit cheaper, at $3.79, $4.39, and $7.49 for medium, large, and family size, respectively. Note that fries also come in a small portion. 

The real whammy here is the gravy. According to multiple social media sources, beef gravy, the standard for a plate of poutine, may not be available at many locations due to the discontinuation of the pot roast dinner (gravy's normal use on the Culver's bill of fare). There is always the chicken gravy used on the mashed potatoes, however. Still, even without the wildcard that is the gravy pricing, a modest plate of poutine is going to run you around nine bucks. Whether it's worth it is, of course, subjective. The only thing for sure is that we can't think of any other U.S. chain where such a plate is possible, so kudos to Culver's for giving us a way to satisfy our Canadian cravings.