Canada has a cheap fast-food chain famous for its poutine, and it's actually very good

Sophie-Claire Hoeller/Insider

• Poutine — or french fries topped with cheese curds and gravy — is an iconic Québécois dish.
• In Quebec, there's an entire fast-food chain famous for it called Chez Ashton.
• I sampled two kinds of poutine — the classic and one with sausages on top — and found it to be fast and cheap.
• I found the poutine delicious, though I felt a little sluggish afterwards, as I do after most fast food.
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Poutine — french fries topped with cheese curds and gravy — is probably the most iconic French-Canadian dish there is. So it comes as no surprise that, in Quebec, there's an entire fast-food chain famous for its poutine.

Despite finding the dish on the menu of even the most high-end restaurants around Quebec, when researching the best poutine in Quebec City, I kept seeing recommendations for the fast-food version at Chez Ashton, so I had to try it.

Here's what the poutine at Chez Ashton was like.

Chez Ashton currently has 24 locations around Québec, a predominantly French-speaking Canadian province.

Sophie-Claire Hoeller/Insider

The chain dates back to a food truck founded by Ashton Leblond in 1969, though poutine wasn't added to the menu until 1972. The first brick-and-mortar shop opened in 1976.

Sophie-Claire Hoeller/Insider

The design is simple, almost bare. With the red benches it felt a little like a McDonald's, but starker.

Sophie-Claire Hoeller/Insider


See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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