A local Fish store in Seattle sells Westside Poutine: It's fries topped with Salmon Chowder and deep fried cheese curds. I quite like it, but it obviously doesn't taste like poutine :)
As a frequent flyer of SFO, congrats, you managed to find one of the worst restaurants in SFO. The food options here is actually pretty great for an airport, but unfortunately still can’t escape some shitty airport restaurants.
Not to victim blame, but you ordered the national dish of Canada, that has famously never been made well south of Wisconsin, in CALIFORNIA! In an AIRPORT! What did you expect?
I would honestly want to try poutine, but not being near canada makes getting good stuff... well, impossible. If anyone has a recipe for authentic poutine, I would love to give it a try. Looking recipes up online is a hit or miss scenario since I have no real way of knowing if something is real or a not-very-good take on something.
Don't get to stressed out about ingredients, as most are pretty common. You'll want fries, brown gravy, and cheese curds. We made poutine at home for Canada Day and added green onions, sauteed mushrooms, and bacon, too. I'm lazy and grabbed frozen fries and packets of gravy mix, and it turned out delicious. The hardest ingredient to find is typically the cheese curds, but a lot of grocery stores will carry those over in the deli/fancy cheese area, so check there. In a pinch, I'll cut mozzarella string cheeses into chunks, as that's close-ish. Good luck!
Everyone from Canada will have their favourite recipes, but here is a good looking one that is a good base- simple ingredients, an explanation for cheese curd substitutes if you can't find them in the cheese section at the grocery store, and some good footnotes and tips- no backstory to read through, either.
Once you try the basic recipe, you could try different spices, toppings, combinations etc.