THE WORKS, Gourmet Burger Bistro - Barrie, Ontario, Canada

My family and I had a blast visiting Toronto, Canada this summer. After exploring the city and some of its great attractions using the Toronto CityPASS, we were ready to slow down a bit. We wanted to go a little deeper into Canada and spend the day touring Barrie, Ontario.

First and foremost, we chose Barrie because it's a beach town and only a short hour drive from Toronto. As much as we enjoyed hitting all the must see attraction in Toronto, I always try to add a chill day at the beach whenever we travel in the summer as a family. We only spent 24 hours in Barrie, but we sure felt like we had enough time to see what the town had to offer including the food scene, the beach and a evening outing at the horse races. I'll be sharing all the hot spots over the next week, but up first, What's Good on the food scene in Barrie?

Some of the super cute shops in Downtown Barrie 

Food: THE WORKS, Gourmet Burger Bistro

137 Dunlop Street East, Barrie, ON

When we arrived in Barrie it was lunch time and everyone knew exactly what they wanted to eat... poutine! The kids had tried it during our visit to Casa, Loma earlier in our vacation and were looking for their next opportunity to indulge in this Canadian specialty. At the hotel we asked where we could find the best poutine and we were given a list of restaurants in downtown Barrie. We chose THE WORKS, Gourmet Burger Bistro, because my kids heard gourmet burgers and were all in....Did I mention, these kids have distinguished taste in food.

The WORKS Menu had something for all taste

Cool Kids!

This place had a cool industrial vibe with fencing used to separate sections of the restaurant, exposed brick and a garage door that opens for outside patio dining. BTW, I loved the Anchor Hocking measuring cups used as drinking glassed, 32 oz. of  ice cold beverage genius if you ask me.

Just us, hanging!

Poutines:

The Longhorn Poutine

Fresh cut fries, cheese curds, gravy, smoked beef brisket in a bold BBQ sauce - $11.91

Did they say beef brisket? What??? That's like sprinkles on an ice cream cone, or French fries on your burger in Pittsburgh. You just can't NOT go for it. Yes, please, I would love to try that! So glad we did, it was Awesomeness.....so tender and juicy.

Poutine Chez Guy

Fresh cut fries, cheese curds and gravy - $9.25

The food WON us over completely! The Poutine was seriously the MVP of all poutine we'd tried during our trip. I love hand cut fries, especially when they are piping hot. They were so hot and fresh that the cheese curds began to melt, with just the right amount of gravy so the fries still had that perfect crunch and weren't soggy. The prices were good and the servings were huge; which allowed us to share and not drain the budget.

Lunch was a great way to start our tour of Barrie, up next the Beach. 

Check Out More From Our Trip to Toronto, Canada:

Visiting Toronto's CN Tower
Ripley's Aquarium of Canada
Visiting the Ontario Science Centre
Visiting Casa Loma in Toronto, Canada