Quebec City Restaurants

Visitors to Quebec City will be pleasantly surprised by the variety and number of bistros, cafés and new Italian trattorie. Although most of the menus have a distinctively French flair to them, there is plenty of continental food around to satisfy even the most discerning diner.

For the Quebecois, diner means lunch and souper means dinner, while an entree in Quebec is actually an appetiser and a plat principal is a main course. Lunch is generally served between 11:30 and 14:30, and dinner from 18:30 until around 23:00. Waiters expect to be tipped at least 15 per cent. Reservations are necessary for most of the city’s restaurants during the peak tourist season from May to September as well as at holiday times and during the popular Winter Carnival.

Local cuisine

Quebec cuisine is typically hearty fare. The province’s unique style comes from blending traditional French cuisine with local ingredients such as game meats, cheeses, maple syrup and cranberries. Game in particular, is very popular with venison, rabbit, duck, quail, goose and even caribou appearing frequently on menus. Surprisingly, seafood isn’t prevalent among the city’s restaurants, apart from salmon and mussels, which can be found at almost every restaurant.

The best French-Canadian cuisine is robust but uncomplicated, focusing on the abundance of fresh produce in the region. Specialties include creton (paté), tourtiere (meat pies) and tarte au sucre (maple syrup pie). Another superb local specialty is the selection of cheeses, which are made across the province. Cheese-making has become something of a niche market in recent years, with over 100 small operations using milk from their own cows, goats and sheep.    
 

Where to eat

The Grande Allee is the busiest part of town for dining out, with a large number of excellent bistros and casual cafés, which are packed around the clock. During the summer, many of these restaurants put tables outside for a delightful al fresco dining experience. Even the more touristy places around the Place d’Armes and along rue St Louis do a decent job of it, but it’s usually better to avoid restaurants that rely on sidewalk hawkers to bring in their customers.

The best dining deals in Quebec City are the table d’hote, or fixed-price meals. Nearly every restaurant offers them, particularly at lunch. As a rule, they include a soup or salad, a main course and a dessert. At the nicer restaurants, the daily plate is determined by the chef, but you can rarely go wrong. At dinner, it’s more likely you’ll see a menu degustation (tasting menu), which includes a five to seven course banquet of the chef’s finest creations.