Ma Poule Mouillée — Restaurant in Montreal

🔥 When “Best in Montreal” Turns into “Meh on a Plate” 🔥

You know that one restaurant everyone swears by? The “must-visit,” “best in the city,” “worth the wait” kind of place? For Montreal roast chicken, that’s MPM. I’ve been there a few times over the years, and my relationship with it has been… complicated.

The Honeymoon Phase The first visit was magic. The spinning fire-roasted chickens, the smoky aroma curling through the air, the buzz of the line snaking out the door—it all promised something legendary. And the food delivered. That night, the long wait felt like part of the experience.

The Middle Chapter The second time, it was… fine. Not “write-home-about-it” fine, but maybe-it’s-a-off-night fine. Still, I gave it the benefit of the doubt.

The Breakup Then came last Saturday. Plan was to get food from MPM and go across to Parc LaFontaine for a family picnic. We arrived hungry and optimistic. Forty-five minutes in the sweltering heat later, we were ready to devour anything. But the chicken—their crown jewel—was a letdown. Instead of that juicy, fire-kissed flavour, we got something that tasted suspiciously like it had been hiding in a drawer for hours. Dry, bland, and about as spicy as plain oatmeal—despite asking for “extra spicy with sauce.” Honestly? I make better chicken at home over charcoal.

The rice? Let’s just say my fridge is currently babysitting a family-sized tub of it, untouched. No seasoning, undercooked—an afterthought at best.

One of my kids got a plain poutine… or so I thought. When we opened it later, surprise! It had chicken and sausages, and we don't eat pork. Not what we ordered. By then, I didn’t even have the energy to go back to complain and check if we’d been overcharged. It went to trash!

And the cherry on this disappointing sundae? When I asked for a few serving plates or cardboard containers for our large family order, the cashier wanted to charge $1 each. For paper. In 2025.

Even hunger couldn’t save the meal—we didn’t finish a single chicken. We brought it home, determined to “rescue” it with some seasoning and reheating.

The Bottom Line After $100+ and nearly an hour of waiting, what should’ve been a weekend treat turned into one of the worst dining experiences I’ve had in Montreal. MPM feels like a place riding its own hype wave, with quality and service left paddling far behind.

My unsolicited recipe for redemption: • Train your staff. • Quality Check food and service. • Serve chicken fresh, not from storage drawers. • Season like you mean it (especially for “extra spicy”). • Cook rice properly—bonus points for using chicken broth. • If a family drops serious money on a big order, give them a few plates without nickel-and-diming.

Montreal has too many places bursting with flavour and heart for me to settle for dry chicken...

Chicken, calamari, poutine, potatoes, salad, natas, charcoal. If any of these are staples for you then Poule Mouillée will become a staple for you like it has for us. We go there embarrassingly too much.

Charcoal roasted ckicken that actually tastes like it is grilled. ALWAYS moist, ALWAYS perfectly seasoned and FOREVER good good good charcoaled quality.

Ask for the grilled calamari. At least 2 or 3 hulls per order. Made per order so you have to wait 15-20 min but always well worth the wait. Sometimes a tiny bit undercooked but nothing to freak out about unless you freak out about how good it is. And their accompanying pico is amazing.

Poutine is one of my top 3 in the WORLD! Not for the sauce, not for the fries and not for the cheese but for how well balanced it is. All the flavours make this poutine STANDOUT. The purist will dislike that it comes with chicken and chorizo but it is the perfect filling for this beauty. Forget what they serve across the street at La Banquise. Poule Mouillée only have 1 poutine but it gives any of the poutines across the street a run for their money. (Idea: hit the 2 resto. You won't regret having gone to Poule Mouillée to redeem your trip to La Banquise).

Fries are good but the round potatoes cooked in chicken dripping is where it is at! Soft and hot. SAY WHAT?!?!? Get them before they sell out because trust me, they sell out. If you are not convinced you can ask for half potatoes and half fries or rice (which also sells out).

The salad is nothing special but it is fresh and their dressing makes it work! Sometimes, all I want is a large salad with chicken. So satisfying.

Their natas are amazing. If you have no idea what they are, you ought to do yourself a favour and buy yourself a couple.

And their hot sauce. Aaaaah. Must have! Not really hot if you usually eat hot but it is creamy, oily and savoury. Must have dip for your chicken and poutine.

Last but not least. P-O-R-T-I-O-N control...these people don't care. They just want to make sure you eat well AND A LOT. GENEROUS people. I like generous people.

Hats off to Tony and his staff. Amazing humans.

Seating is limited and it is tight but you'll forget all about it when you take your first bites. Also, during the Summer, there is Parc Lafontaine next door...

That is the beauty of travel, you come up with something that you will always remember. This is not super fancy, or fine dining, in fact, this is your daily around-the-corner restaurant, but trust me, this is the best rotisserie chicken with potatoes I ever had. and I mean it.

Especially Potatoes - what is this? super soft, not dry, juicy - how do they cook it? I know a thing or two about cooking and I know my boiled potatoes can never be this soft.

and though this is super popular across social media, - it deserves all those hypes.

Luckily, I reached by 12 so I did not have to be in the 40 mins, 1 hr long line. I did not try their poutine (to be honest- I did not like the idea of it)

I ordered- 1/2 Chicken served with fries & Salad.

and being how greedy I am with food; I was about to order 2nd item - but as usual "an unknown hero (aka my wife)" came to save me and said- "let's finish this first then we will order again".

and glad, she saved me because that one order- we both were not able to finish that- it was too much for us. not sure half chicken is how many pieces, but it was like 2 legs, and one breast with wings - with like 10-15 pieces of "amazing soft juicy [and I know I never going to have them in the future, no matter what unless I visit Portugal or visit Montreal again] potatoes", with salad at the side.

man, if I visit Montreal again, trust me I will visit for this only.

Quantity: too much, one item can be enough for 2 people unless you are Dwayne Johnson

Ambience: In two words, very cool. I like how the establishment has managed to have a decent amount of seating while keeping the disturbance of the line flow to a minimum... first you order at the entrance and then you pay. There are a couple of two 6-seater tables and 6 long stools facing roads. that it

Price: it was our cheapest and best meal of the Montreal trip- that says enough about this.

Ma Poule Mouillée is a counter service restaurant - great food for a reasonable price. The place is popular, drawing a...