Smoke's Poutinerie St. John's — Restaurant in St. John's

This place is probably your best bet to get a good poutine downtown. The only other one I've had that's downtown that I would consider better is at the Mary Brown's Centre. Firstly, the service was awesome. I didn't catch the guy's name but he was the only one working on a Friday night, and he was killing it. He was fast and friendly and everything was fresh. The atmosphere was okay. The bathroom is where I had an issue. There was no hot or warm water. Like no water came out when you turned the tap. There was barely any soap left, and there was no toilet paper or paper towel in there. However it was pretty busy and the guy was working alone so you can't fault him. The dining area was clean though. The food was actually good! The fries are really tasty! We got the boneless chicken wings and they were gross. They're just frozen chicken nuggets from Costco, the chicken has a disgusting texture. Our poutine also had a piece of cardboard in it. I thought at first it was a piece of potato skin but as I was chewing it, I noticed it tasted really bad and was impossible to chew, so I spit it out .When I looked it was most definitely cardboard. That's disgusting. Overall I'd come here again and try a different time and a different type of poutine. Also the food in the photos came to $27 after tax for anyone...

The poutine was decent. What bothered me was the fact that the only employee working that day directly filmed my family without our consent. He walked up to our table, and stood there and began filming, with his camera directly pointed at us. He asked us to say 'hi' to his friend which he was doing a FaceTime call with. When he approached us, I had my infant daughter over my shoulder and she was sleeping. My partner also didn't like being filmed without her consent as well. So it did feel like a violation of our privacy. I had to tell him to stop filming us. He did comply thankfully.

This is an employee recording customers for a personal FaceTime call. (I should note he was on a voice call while taking our order) I do forgive the guy, and hope he stays employed. But I do think management needs to have a stern talk with him, because his actions aren't exactly what I would expect out of a well run business...

Unfortunately, I had a disappointing experience at this restaurant. The poutine I ordered was of poor quality and didn’t meet my expectations, especially considering the high price I paid. On top of that, the strong ginger flavor in the poutine was completely unexpected and wasn’t mentioned anywhere on the menu.

When I raised the issue, they replaced the poutine, but unfortunately, the new one had the same problem. In the end, when I asked to speak with the management, they decided to refund the full amount, which I appreciate. I hope this restaurant focuses more on food quality and ensuring it aligns with the menu descriptions...