10 Great Quebec City Restaurants and Cafes
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Discover ten Quebec City restaurants and cafes where you can eat traditional Québécois food unless you’re more in the mood for ramen or a burger.
Quebec City’s connection to France isn’t limited to language – it’s also evident on the menus at many of the city’s restaurants and cafes. However, French-inspired cuisine is only one part of the walled city’s food story.
This is a Canadian city that’s just as famous for serving Québécois comfort foods like poutine and tourtière as it is for its trio of Michelin-starred restaurants. Locally produced maple syrup flows freely and eating locally is a concept that residents adhere to with pride.
Overshadowed by the sports teams and commerce in bigger cities like Toronto, Vancouver and nearby Montreal, Quebec’s capital more than holds its own when it comes to food. This is a city filled with culinary surprises that fill the belly and warm the heart regardless of the season.
Must Eat Restaurants in Quebec City
You won’t go hungry when you travel to Quebec City whether your visit is a day, week or even longer. Sure, you could wing it and wander into one of the many restaurants in Old Querangebec and eat decently. However, with this approach, you miss out on exciting restaurants hiding in plain sight in nearby neighborhoods like Saint-Roch and Saint-Sauveur.
The key is knowing where and what to eat during your visit. We did our research, both in advance and on the ground, to find a variety of Quebec City restaurants ranging from cheap eats to destination dining. These are our favorites and the ones you should check out:
1. La Bûche – Traditional Québécois Food
La Bûche is popular with both locals and tourists for a reason. Modeled after the province’s famous sugar shacks, the Old Quebec restaurant serves a gluttonous menu to crowds that fill long tables in its funky interior every day for breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner.
You can order Quebec food favorites here unless you’re more in the mood for salmon or steak. However, if you’re looking for the sugar shack experience, the best choice is La Bûche signature brunch plate. It comes with a variety of classics like crispy pork rinds, maple bacon, cretons and baked beans.
If you visit La Bûche at night, as we did, pâté chinois is a great option. The dish is ure Québécois shepherd’s pie made with mashed potatoes, creamy corn, red-wine-braised-beef, fruity ketchup and green onions.
Pro Tip
End your La Bûche meal with a sweet maple treat. Options include maple fudge, maple syrup pie, maple toffee and pouding chômeur.
La Bûche is located at 49 Rue Saint-Louis, Québec, QC G1R 3Z2, Canada.
2. Diner Saint-Sauveur – Comfort Food with a Hipster Vibe
Start at Diner Saint-Sauveur if you want to experience the modern side of Quebec City’s food scene. This may sound odd considering its snacky Québécois menu but there’s something chef-driven at this funky spot that’s been in the Saint-Sauveur neighborhood since 2018. In fact, if you sit at the bar, you’re just as likely to see perfectly grilled asparagus roll out of the kitchen as a grilled cheese sandwich.
Elevated comfort foods like Mac ‘n Cheese and Chicken ‘n Waffles are popular, though you can’t go wrong with a burger served on either a brioche roll or waffles. Plus, unlike American diners, this diner’s menu has poutines with toppings like bacon, buffalo sauce, chili, tomato sauce and wild mushrooms.
We went big during our visit and shared a ginormous burger stuffed with two juicy beef patties, homemade mayo, tomato, lettuce, pickles, grilled cheese curds, American cheese, bacon and fried onion. We also ate poutine fungitown – fries topped with a medley of mushrooms, cheese curds, gravy and herbaceous garlic sauce.
Pro Tip
No time for dinner? Pop into nearby Supérette du Diner for take-away diner food plus a dazzling selection of craft beer, cider and wine.
Diner Saint-Sauveur is located at 450 Rue Saint-Vallier O, Québec, QC G1K 1K8, Canada.
3. Pâtisserie Chouquette – Exquisite Pastries
Pâtisserie Chouquette is special and not just because of its tempting selection of cream-filled pâté à choux. Rachel Parenteau and Olivier Verdot opened the pocket-sized Saint-Jean-Baptiste pastry shop in 2022. Their selection of exquisite pastries goes beyond chouquettes to include an array of sweet treats that includes croissants, cinnamon buns, éclairs and mille-feuille.
Not surprisingly, eating one (or more) filled choux pastry ball is a must. We tried three chouquettes during our visit – seasonal rhubarb, chocolate cassis and salted caramel. We also tried a flaky croissant plus a cinnamon bun made with shokupan, a special Japanese milk bread. A refreshing iced matcha latte completed our decadent research.
Pro Tip
Pâtisserie Chouquette is closed on Monday and Tuesday. Plan your visit accordingly.
Pâtisserie Chouquette is located at 778 Rue Saint-Jean, Québec, QC G1R 1P9, Canada.
4. Le Clocher Penché – Upscale Neighborhood Bistro
A local favorite since it opened as a cafe in 1995, Le Clocher Penché is now a Quebec City restaurant stalwart. The Saint-Roch bistro welcomes guests to its aesthetically pleasing, windowed space and keeps them happy with a hyper-local menu that changes with the season.
Served atop spätzle, celeriac and salty herbs, freshly caught halibut was the highlight of our weeknight meal. And while we appreciated the white turnip starter plated with stracciatella, peas and za’atar, our second favorite ‘dish’ was the plump, seeded bread served with compound butter.
Pro Tip
Check out Melba in the Saint-Sauveur neighborhood if you love Le Clocher Penché. The two bistros have the same ownership and similar philosophies.
Le Clocher Penché is located at 203 Rue Saint-Joseph E, Québec, QC G1K 3B1, Canada.
5. Chez Mag – Popular Roadside Shack on Île d’Orléans
Located on Île d’Orléans, Chez Mag is a popular casse-croûte (roadside snack bar) that serves familiar foods like burgers, hot dogs and onion rings. But, more important, Chez Mag also serves excellent poutine along with some of the best lobster rolls we’ve ever encountered: split, sesame-seed-dotted brioche rolls jampacked with big pieces of fresh New Brunswick lobster and tangy salad.
Sweet lobster rolls may seem ke lian odd accompaniment for beefy, hearty poutine, but the combo worked beautifully during our afternoon visit. Loaded with huge cheese curds and lots of gravy, the poutine provided a squeaky yin to the lobster roll’s buttery yang. If you only eat one poutine in Quebec City, this is the spot to eat it.
Pro Tip
Rent a car and take a day trip to bucolic Île d’Orléans. Located just 15 minutes from downtown Quebec City, the island has a plethora of artisan producers including bakers, chocolatiers and winemakers that you can visit.
Chez Mag is located at 2460 Chemin Royal, Sainte-Famille, QC G0A 3P0, Canada.
6. Restaurant Tanière³ – Destination Dining with Two Michelin Stars
The buzz around Tanière³ has been palpable since the restaurant became Quebec’s first two-star Michelin restaurant and the second in all of Canada. The restaurant, which operates in a subterranean space below a historic 17th-century Old Quebec building, isn’t new to accolades. It’s also not new. While the current and third iteration has been operating since 2019, the original Tanière goes back to 1977.
Working in an open kitchen, Chef François-Emmanuel Nicol and his team create dishes that celebrate locally sourced Québécois ingredients including boreal items foraged from the forest. Diners get a real sense of the province’s terroir whether they dine at the chef’s counter or in the dining room.
Pro Tip
Make a reservation at L’Orygine or Légende if you can’t score one at Tanière³. Both acclaimed restaurants are part of the same restaurant group.
Restaurant Tanière³ is located at 7 Rue du Don-de-Dieu, Québec, QC G1K 3Z6, Canada.
7. Maude Épicerie – Chef-Driven Brunch
Open since 2020 in the Maizerets neighborhood, Maude Épicerie is a local favorite that operates as both a hyper-local grocery store and a chef-driven cafe. Owner Maude Desroches is fully committed to creating great food using traceable products that provide a sense of place. And, while her shelves are filled with jams, honey and other locally sourced products, brunch is why most people venture to Maude Épicerie.
Desroches serves great hearty brunch food like the gaufre grilled cheese that we ate during our morning visit. Simultaneously sweet and salty, the dish’s two waffles were stuffed with ashy Cendré des Grands-Jardins cheese, apple slices, caramelized onions and candied pecans. Maple syrup, candied pecans and a slab of bacon provided the finishing touches. We washed the decadent dish down with flat whites crafted with beans sourced from deTerroir (see below).
Pro Tip
Take a bus or Uber from downtown Quebec City when you eat brunch at Maude Épicerie. You could hypothetically walk but that would take about 50 minutes each way.
Maude Épicerie is located at 1501 Chemin de la Canardière, Québec, QC G1J 2C8, Canada.
8. Honō Ramen – Inspired Ramen Shop
Locals have been happily slurping ramen at Honō Ramen since the ramen joint opened next door to Honō Izakaya in 2021. The two restaurants, which share the same owners, serve a variety of Japanese foods, with Honō Ramen’s menu focused on, you guessed it, ramen.
Ramen options include miso (miso broth), shoyu (soy broth), tantanmen (spicy vegetairrian broth) and tori paitan (creamy chicken broth). All of the broths are made in-house and the soups are filled with tasty bits like chashu, corn, kamaboko, pickled egg and puffed rice.
During our lunchtime visit, the menu added mazesoba (brothless ramen) to the mix as well as tartare and a fried chicken sandwich. We opted for miso ramen and mazesoba. Both bowls were excellent. Plus, as a bonus, our midday meal included an appetizer of pickled vegetables and small matcha cakes for dessert.
Pro Tip
Honō Ramen takes a limited number of reservations but most diners are seated on a first-com, first-served basis.
Honō Ramen is located at 680 Rue Saint-Joseph E, Québec, QC G1K 3B9, Canada.
9. La Souche – Creative Microbrewery
La Souche is a must-visit for craft beer enthusiasts. Open in the Limoilou neighborhood since 2012 and Stoneham since 2017, the creative microbrewery serves a rotating roster of beers that ranges from IPAs to sours to stouts. Locally sourced ingredients make them unique.
We tried a few beers plus a bowl of poutine topped with cheese curds, red ale gravy and a lumberjack ball, i.e., a battered and fried cheese curd. While we appreciated the pine-flavored Gros Pin and the sour yet fruity Mignardise #5, our favorite brew was the creamy St. Michel crafted exclusively with Québécois ingredients.
Pro Tip
You can buy colorful cans of La Souche’s beer at local grocery stores if you don’t make it to one of the microbrewery’s two locations.
La Souche has two locations. The original Limoilou microbrewery is located at 801 Chemin de la Canardière, Québec, QC G1J 2B8, Canada. The second Stoneham microbrewery is located at 22 1re Avenue, Stoneham-et-Tewkesbury, QC G3C 0K7, Canada.
10. deTerroir Café – Specialty Coffee Roastery and Cafe
Open since 2022 in the Saint-Jean-Baptiste neighborhood, deTerroir Café is an intimate space where coffee geeks can sip excellent flat whites and other specialty coffee drinks. It’s also a passionate micro-roastery that sources sustainable, traceable beans from countries like Brazil, Burundi, Colombia and Peru
Owners Pier-Paul Fortin and Allison Van Rassel aren’t just passionate about coffee beans. Their passion extends to sourcing local products, like milk from Ferme Phylum, and serving treats like homemade whippets and croffles (i.e., waffles made with croissant dough). We paired our flat whites with the latter and added a side of ooey-gooey caramel for good measure.
Pro Tip
Start your day at deTerroir Cafe. You can go as early as 6:30 am on weekdays and 8:00 am on weekends.
deTerroir Café is located at 752 Rue Saint-Jean, Québec, QC G1R 1P9, Canada.
💡 Frequently Asked Questions
Quebec City restaruants serve traditional Québécois foods like tourtière and poutine as well as global foods like ramen and burgers.
Quebec City restaurant prices are comparable to prices in other Canadian cities.
Yes. Plan to tip 15-20% at Quebec City restaurants.
Bourdain ate at The Continental and L’Affaire est Ketchup while filming the first season of Parts Unknown.
People in Quebec City typically eat dinner between 7pm and 9pm.
Yes. Reservations are necessary at Quebec City’s better restaurants.
Currently, five Quebec City restaurants have Michelin stars. Tanière³ has two stars while ARVI, Kebec Club Privé, Laurie Raphaël and Légende have one star each.
🇨🇦 Quebec City Travel Checklist
🎥 Video Recap
⚙️ Disclosures
Article Updates
We update our articles regularly. Some updates are major, while others are minor link changes and spelling corrections. Let us know if you see anything that needs to be updated in this article.
Sponsorship
We thank the Alliance de l’industrie touristique du Québec, under the Bonjour Québec brand, for sponsoring our trip to Quebec City.
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