Eating in Quebec is my favorite thing
That's right eating in Quebec is pretty epic.
Quebec City has to be one of the best foodie designations in North America
combing French gastronomical traditions
with the uniquely Canadian twist.
We've been to Quebec City twice now,
once in the winter and once in the summer,
and we've eaten at some incredible restaurants.
So without further ado, these are our 17 favorite restaurants
and the best foodie experiences in Quebec City.
First up: L'affaire Ketchup.
Basically in French it's a saying that means everything's cool, everything's gravy, and it's an
unpretentious bistro that cooks everything over two four- burner stoves.
It's situated in a former house.
The menu is written by hand on a chalkboard every day.
So the menu is always changing.
It's not a big place, so it can be difficult to get in,
but if you do get in, expect inventive cuisine,
plenty of booze, and a soundtrack of heavy metal.
Another favorite of ours is Biceps Barbecue,
which is a collaboration between a notorious bartender
who serves shots of bourbon with bacon and a chef who spent seven years traveling the United States in a van,
perfecting his barbecue skills.
The result is a beautiful baby of southern and Quebecois cuisine.
Brisket with a slab of foie gras on top.
Instead of chicken wings, frog legs and
obviously meat, meat, and more meat.
Come hungry, leave stuffed, and come back for more.
It's located a little bit outside of town, and the building is kind of a dive.
But when you walk in, you will be blown away,
welcomed and so well fed that you won't have to eat for another week.
The next morning you'll probably be looking for some brunch.
You should go to Clocher Penche.
And by the way, if we're mispronouncing any of these names,
"Nous sommes desoles." Sorry. We're trying our best.
Clocher Penche is one of the best brunch spots in Quebec.
It's named after this crooked tower that's right across the street.
It's like a church, and all the dishes have this religious theme,
but they're completely unorthodox.
There're waffles with a mushroom bechamel sauce, fried eggs over zucchini, salad with a hoisin sauce.
Everything is amazing. Everything's decadent, decadent, decadent.
Did we mention that you're probably not going to be losing weight on the trip? Yeah? That's guaranteed
Yeah
Definitely good though. It's a good sort of.... unless you walk everywhere
because Quebec City is built on a hill, and
there's plenty of staircases to burn these meals off.
Yeah, just plan breakfast lunch and dinner in three different parts the city and walk between them,
and you have an exercise plan done, built in.
For coffee head over to Maelstrom in the neighborhood of Saint Roch.
During the day it's an incredible place to grab a coffee.
Obviously, their baristas are on point, and all of their coffee is really, really good, especially their cold brew.
But the best part about it
is that when the sun goes down, it turns into a cocktail bar,
and they have some incredibly inventive cocktails using coffee.
Back in the Old Town check out Chez Boulay,
which was probably one of my favorite spots we went to.
It specializes in what they call boreal cuisine, which essentially is like a québécois
interpretation of new nordic cuisine.
If that sounds complicated,
basically nordic cuisine is focused on local sustainable organic food
with ingredients you can only find in the area
It's the same thing but in a québécois interpretation.
They reject a lot of traditional spices and other flavorings in favor of
local products that they can find in the forest or on local farms.
Better.. the lunchtime menu is extremely accessible.
It's like under 20 bucks for a big, big portion plus a starter.
It's hard to beat that in terms of value.
Speaking of produce..
most of the produce that's used in these
restaurants in Quebec City is grown on the nearby
Ile d'Orleans,
which is just a short drive outside of the city,
just past Montmorency Falls, but it's full of farms;
It's full of vineyards, and it's got some incredible restaurants.
We really recommend checking out
Cassis Monna et Filles.
This family owned and operated business is run by two lovely sisters
who have very inventive ways of using blackcurrant.
Blackcurrant is a berry from France that grows great on the Ile d'Orleans.
And their blackcurrant is used in all of the restaurants across the city.
Not to mention the fact that they have a beautiful
property, great terrace overlooking the St.. Lawrence River, and a creamery
where they have Incredible gelato, which honestly
you'd never think you'd be eating gelato in Quebec, but...
so good.
Alright, so while you're on the island, if you're there during the summertime,
you should definitely check out some of the wineries.
Huge island the size of Manhattan,
but it only has six thousand residents.
It's basically farm yard vineyards, farm yard vineyards.
We went to a vineyard called Vignoble, which means vineyard and then
Saint- Petronille. This is really pushing the limits of our French.
It's a hard word to pronounce,
but it is a great place to visit and get a sampling of the local wines.
Try to sample their riesling if you can.
It's in high demand at the moment and was really good.
Now if you're visiting the island in the wintertime, make sure you check out some of the sugar shacks.
Sugar shacks are where people harvest
maple syrup from the maple tree and fun fact:
Quebec actually produces
80% of the world's maple syrup.
Sugar shacks are great little traditional restaurants where they serve
traditional food, most of which infused with maple syrup.
Now if you guys don't fancy the drive out to the island or you want a more modern version of a sugar shack,
go to Le Bush in the center of the Old Town.
It has to be one of our favorite dining experiences
we've ever had, and it's basically a crash course in everything Québécois:
An over the top amount of red meat drowned in maple syrup and bacon.
Very nice smothered in maple syrup.
You get shots of sortilege, a local liquor, also made from maple syrup, also made from maple syrup and a dessert
of maple syrup on ice.
Sounds great.
If you don't feel like binging on maple syrup,
head over to Battuto, an intimate Italian
restaurant that serves up some of the best pastas in the city.
It's got a clean minimalist aesthetic with a long bar right up against the open kitchen.
So you can watch the chefs cooking your meal,
and you will be blown away when those pastas hit your taste buds.
If you're planning on visiting Battuto,
do know that there aren't a lot of tables,
and it's booked weeks in advance.
So one of the first things you do after you get those plane tickets is make a reservation.
For something more indigenous to Quebec, try La Traite at the Hotel Musee Premieres Nations.
The First Nations Hotel Museum owned and operated by the Wendake-Huron Tribe,
the restaurant uses the boreal cuisine we talked about
earlier with traditional ingredients only accessible to First Nations People.
While you're there make sure you check out the museum and the longhouse where you can even stay overnight.
When it comes to craft beer, you are in luck.
Quebec has always been Canada's best beer province and that can be traced back to colonial times
when French colonists couldn't import or grow wine themselves.
So they decided to start making beer at home
There's a few dozen micro breweries in Quebec City,
and it's easy to do a
self-guided pub crawl using the " Je Bois Local,"
which is basically like a little passport,
and you get a stamp at each brewery.
if you make it to all ten, they give you this cool shirt.
Je bois local.
Each August they have a beer festival called Festibiere,
and if you're not in town for that
there is a pop-up bar on the waterfront every summer that serves 60 beers from
21 micro breweries.
It's also called Festibiere, and it's a great way to sample
the best Quebec beers if you're not there during the festival.
It's a great place to cool off. You can literally take a chair, put it in the fountain, drink a couple of beers,
hear good tunes, plenty of craft beers to choose from, and you're right on the water front.
If you're more into cocktails,
make sure you head over to L' Atelier, which is cool a cocktail bar on the Grand Allee, which is a pedestrian
kind of walkway area full of great restaurants with terazzas.
Definitely a good spot to pick up on the vibe of Quebec City.
The specialties of the house are tartars.
They've got quite a few different kinds.
Grab it. Sit down on the terazza, have meal,
and after dark, the restaurant turns into a nightclub.
It's really a cool spot.
No list about Québécois food could be complete without a fundamental Canadian dish:
La Poutine. La Poutine is the classic Québécois food.
It is French fries with gravy, with curd,
and a bunch of different other ingredients that make each one individual.
It's typically serves between 1:00 and 4:00 in the morning.
But you can get it any time of day in practically any place.
There's a ton of places that serve Poutine,
but Snack Bar is pretty reliable.
It's open all the time and was highly recommend to us as a spot to serve your
late-night drunken munchies.
"Drunchies."
Sooner or later you're going to make your way to the Lower Town,
which is really beautiful.. great spots to get photos,
but the food there can be kind of hit or miss.
Something that is guaranteed to always be good is Chez Muffy.
Formerly known as Panache, this upscale restaurant has become a little bit more down to earth,
but the food has remained impeccable.
It's located in the
Auberge Saint Anton in the
neighborhood of the Petite Champ.
We should also mentioned that the two times we've been in Quebec City,
Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister, was also there,
and he was spotted in this restaurant when we were there our first time.
So you know it's fit for the Prime Minister,
it should be good enough for you too.
Last but far from least is probably the best fine-dining restaurant in Quebec City:
Legende Parla Taniere. I'm not sure exactly what it means in French,
but it sounds legendary because it is definitely legendary.
It's a four diamond restaurant,
which is Canada's equivalent of basically a one Michelin star restaurant there abouts.
Sounds confusing, but what isn't confusing is that the menu and the food is incredible.
So the menu is strictly local.. no chocolate, no sugar.
Everything is from Quebec.
Courses are served either a la carte
or as part eight course tasting menu,
which comes out to 75 Canadian dollars.
You can also do a wine pairing for about the same amount.
150 for just the best slap-up meal you can imagine.
It was our final meal in Quebec City and was the best way to end an
incredible week of fine dining.
Ladies and gentlemen, those are our recommendations for the best restaurants in Quebec City.
We know we couldn't cover all of them.
So if you're from Quebec City, if you've been there before,
please share your recommendations
down there in the comments section.
If you liked this video, make sure you check out the full vlog series
We just did a three part series on Quebec City in the summertime.
We've also done a six-part series in the whole region of Quebec,
including Montreal and Charlevoix from last winter.
So click on the card to watch that.
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In the meantime stay curious, keep exploring,
and we'll see you guys on the road.
Bon voyage. Peace