Restaurants in Quebec City

Located near the entrance to the fortifications of Old Quebec City and just steps away from Parliament Hill, this informal vegetarian restaurant offers a range of hot and cold dishes (including some vegan choices) from serve-yourself stations. Desserts are the highlight. Food is sold by weight, which means your bill is a bit of a guessing game until you get to the cash register. On the other hand, it's a bring-your-own-bottle restaurant, making wine a bargain.

Québec's Lower Town has a fair share of gourmet restaurants, but L'Échaudé stands out for doing so at a reasonable price. Classic and bistro dishes like salmon tartare, confit de canard and frequently changing seasonal specials are served in a bright interior or on the terrace on the pedestrianised street. The international wine list has a variety of excellent vintages by the glass.

The sleek, modern décor might fool some passers-by that this is a lounge bar, but in fact it shares a kitchen with the adjacent gastronomic restaurant, Le Continental. Dishes are lighter but of an equally high quality, with a focus on Italian cuisine: in addition to pasta, there are seafood and grilled meats, with veal (served as escalope or medallions) a particular speciality.

In one of the city's most romantic restaurants, an elegant interior gives way to a glass-covered courtyard framed by stone walls and mirrors. The foie gras is a house speciality. The menu also features finely prepared rack of lamb, caribou and the like, accompanied by an extensive wine list, which has received Wine Spectator 's Best of Award of Excellence multiple times.