Quebec City/Charlevoix, Canada

Eating out in Quebec City/Charlevoix, Canada

The restaurants are as provincial as the city itself, with bistros and the occasional Italian trattoria presenting the majority of your dining options. In addition to traditional fare, there are Canadian specialties cooked up in nearly every kitchen to add variety to your meal. Wild game is popular, with venison, rabbit, duck, quail, goose, and caribou featured on many menus Curiously, seafood makes a minor appearance in this waterfront city. Many restaurants offer complete fixed-price lunches and lighter "snack" meals to accommodate differing budgets and activity schedules. Regardless of where you choose to dine, whether in a sidewalk café on a busy square, a modern riverside restaurant, or in an intimate 18th-century home, you will find that the enchanting ambiance is the best "side-dish" available - free of charge!.

Gourmet

Le Paris is a busy modern restaurant set in a historic building. The chef serves a gregarious crowd that's always eager for the tasty French dishes, specializing in traditional fare artistically presented, such as escargots au Pernod and steak tartare. An excellent wine selection accommodating the most modest to the most carefree of budgets is also available. 590, Grande Allée.

Highly Recommended

Aux Anciens Canadiens has an enviable setting along the main cobblestone road, with the city gates to the east and the Statue of Champlain overlooking the river to the west. The white walls and red roof of this oldest of homes, built in 1677, stand out among the gray granite and slate of the buildings that surround it. Waiters dress in colonial costume and wooden bas-reliefs of regional genre scenes carved into the walls. Its cuisine includes flawlessly prepared recipes from the early days of New France. Caribou and maple syrup, for example, are prominent in many dishes. 34, rue Saint Louis.

Local Flair

Buffet de l'Antiquaire is the most modest resident on Antiques Row, with exposed brick and stone wall decor sufficing for the no-nonsense locals. When all the other cafés are closed, you can count on the Buffet for native Québecois cooking like pea soup and poutine. Sunday breakfasts are a favorite, and even if you're not hungry, late-night drinks or afternoon cocktails are always available at the full bar. 95, rue Saint-Paul.

Romantic

Le Saint-Amour greets you with a lace-curtained front room and potted greenery that leads into a covered terrace lit by candles and Victorian gas fixtures. On warm nights, the roof is drawn back and replaced by a canopy of stars. In a city celebrated for its ability to enchant, this is easily the most romantic dinner setting of all. Delicious meals like herb-crusted rack of lamb or saffron-touched fillet of pike garnished with seafood niblets is followed by desserts as sweet as your beloved! 48, rue Sainte Ursule.

Going party in Quebec City/Charlevoix, Canada

For such a tiny city, Vieux Quebec has quite lively nights, mostly centered around the cafés and clubs of rue St Jean, avenue Cartier, and the Grand Allée where the music and chat often linger until 3am. There is also an impressive array of cultural entertainment, headed by the renowned Quebec Symphony Orchestra and several small theater companies. Indoor concerts, plays, and other shows are steadily presented from September through May, and in summer the productions move to outdoor stages. Arts and entertainment listings in English are found in the Québec Chronicle-Telegraph.

Chez Dagobert

Quebec City's favorite disco is a three-story club with an live bands (mostly rock). A large dance floor, several bars, TV screens for sports, and video games occupy the upstairs. The crowd is a mix of street chic college students and a sleeker, older Gen X crowd.

Bar Chez Son Pere

Québecois folksingers often get their start here with roof-raising performances that draw in big crowds for sing-and-clap-alongs!.

Saint Alexandre Pub

Spacious and chic, this British-style pub is free of tourist trappings and laden with polished mahogany, exposed brick, and a working fireplace. The bar is stocked with 40 single malt scotches and more than 200 beers (24 of them on tap), and a kitchen serving hearty meals. Jazz musicians perform weekly.

Vogue/Sherlock Holmes

A double-decker nightspot, fun and lively but calmer than a disco. The cool and casual dance hall, Vogue, is upstairs and a pub/restaurant with a pool table and dartboard sets the downstairs scene. The crowd is a hip mix of students and Gen Xers.

Grand Théâtre de Québec

Two halls, one of which has the largest stage in Canada, host classical music concerts, opera, dance, and theatrical productions. When resident companies are on tour, the show goes on with visiting conductors, orchestras, and dance companies.

Aviatic Club

A local favorite since 1945, the aviation theme is particularly interesting given that it's located in front of the city train station. Thai to Tex-Mex food is on the menu, along with local and imported beers. The owners of the club also run the adjacent Pavillon, a casual Italian restaurant with pool tables.

Kiosque Edwin-Bélanger

Summer rings in a 10-week music season centered around the bandstand at the edge of the Battlefields Park. From mid-June to late August, operas, chorales, classical recitals, jazz, pop, and blues entertain a milling, picnicking audience!.

D'Orsay

Where the grown-ups go. Most of the clientele at this friendly pub/bistro is well settled in the 30- to 40-something age group, and engaging conversation flows easily. A DJ keeps the small dance floor busy and in summer a folksinger croons on the terrace. Drinks, music, dancing and a full menu of international dishes round out the night.

Common events in Quebec City/Charlevoix, Canada

Carnaval D'Hiver

Bonhomme, a merry red-capped snowman, ushers in the festivities on a dog sled and for the next 10 days, the regal city of Quebec turns into an icy playground. Dog sleds race along the Grand Allée, a high, giant ice toboggan zooms you down the Terrasse Dufferin, canoe racers push through ice floes, ice sculptors create intricate works, and an ice palace glows along the walls of the Old City. February.

Festival de Théâtre des Amériques Contemporary artists through the Americas screen their often-cutting-edge work for two weeks at theaters throughout the city. Late-May to early-June.

St Jean Baptiste Day

This event honoring the patron saint of French Canadians is an unofficial national holiday celebrated with more enthusiasm than any other. A famous parade and boisterous festivities mark the occasion.

Festival d'Ete International

This summer festival is the largest cultural event in the francophone world, with more than 250 events showcasing theater, music and dance by over 600 performers from 20 regions including Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. Ten days and nights of free performances include jazz, folk, dance, and folklore troupes. July.

Les Medievales de Québec

Knights, troubadours, and ladies-in-waiting stream into this ancient city to recreate the days when knights jousted to defend a lady's honor, minstrels sang tales of glories past, and wizards advised kings. Come in costume if you're bold enough - many do! August, Odd-Numbered Years.

Fall Foliage

Nature puts on this show, and most everyone agrees it's the best one of all. Technicolor forests dazzle "leaf peepers" who stroll through the city parks and along the rural lanes of the Île d'Orléans, while more intrepid peepers take a chairlift ride up the Laurentians for a bird's-eye view. This being harvest season, farmers host "pick your own fruits and berries" days, welcoming you into their fields to fill a basket or two! September.