Spud Shack is a weird little poutine place tucked into the New Westminster Skytrain Station on Level 3. They specialize in frites and craft beer!

Weird feeling, walking from the skytrain and coming across a Beglian frites place with craft beer.

Ok, let’s see what this place can muster up…

Two craps on tap but good bottle selection.

Hmmm, Four Winds stuff looks good but I haven’t tried any Bridge Brewing stuff yet. Saison Dupont and Pranqster would be great choices too.

Basically a lot of unhealthy but delicious stuff. Their full menu is online. Frites, poutine, fish ‘n frites, nachos made with frites, burgers, sandwiches…hey, a couple salads!

Reviews say this “Effin’ Good Burger” is good, but I’d have to come back some other time to try it.

I like that they have proper branded glassware.

Red Betty.

I think I remember a Bellerose beer being on the menu at Tableau.

One of the better Belgian beers. Although I would’ve sworn this place had a more Belgian beer focus when they first opened. I guess they’ve adjusted their beer list over the past few years. I can’t see a ton of people ordering the Belgian stuff though…this is New West…

I chose the Bridge North Shore Pale Ale. Not bad… Not quite the hop profile that I prefer…I like more of a fruity and floral hop character, and this one skewed towards herbal but it went fine with my food. The glass had an interesting shape that was nice to drink from, but it was quite a dirty glass, as you can tell from all the bubbles clingling to the sides. But this is New West, and it’s a very casual place, so I was ok with it. Hey, it’s craft beer inside New West Skytrain Station and that’s a big accomplishment!

We got the Grilled Sweet Italian Sausage Sandwich with brie, arugula and slices of apple.

I liked the bread too, which was lightly toasted on the outside. A tasty little sandwich and not overly heavy even though it was sausage and brie.

All the sandwiches come with frites and they gave me the option to upgrade to poutine, which of course I went for. These frites really kick ass. They don’t look like they have enough colour on the outside but they were perfectly crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside. They were as light-tasting and fresh as frites can be. The gravy was good, not salty at all, totally enjoyable. The curds were as squeaky as I’ve ever had in Vancouver.

Of course someone had to order a large poutine with Montreal Smoked Meat on top just to see if they could finish it. They couldn’t.

They were almost going to launch a new dessert, The Chocolate Chalice but the recipe was still being tweaked a bit. We went for the Banana Bread Ice Cream Sandwich.

This was pretty damn good. Chocolate ice cream inside two slices of banana bread, lightly grilled on the outside and served with cherry compote. Nothing was overly sweet, including the compote, so this was really easy to eat. Melts fast though, so be quick! Banana and chocolate go so well together. A stout would go great with this. Too bad they don’t have any stouts.

I’d go back if I was in the area and wanted well-executed frites and craft beer. A one-of-a-kind restaurant.