Just wrapping up a quick three-day trip to Québec City, and it has been a great time. Québec is a charming small city well worth a visit. In many ways, I prefer it to Montreal - it is prettier, cleaner, quieter, and has restaurants of equal caliber. Old Québec is basically almost entirely intact. The city avoided heavy industrialization, which mainly happened in Montreal and, later, Toronto, and therefore its colonial era architecture and neighborhoods remain much as they were. The old city walls are beautiful, and the citadel at the top of the hill is impressive. It is fascinating to see the Plains of Abraham, where the 1775 American attack on Québec was repulsed.
It is clear that the province has recognized the tourist potential of Québec, as most of the old buildings have been cleaned, various neighborhood streets cleaned up and repaved, etc. It really is pretty. But it’s not just a tourist economy; Québec is the province’s administrative center, where the seat of power is located, and there are important insurance, financial, another industries centered here. The unemployment rate in Québec is the lowest of any large city in Canada.
The food here is totally fantastic.
Melba - dinner, in Saint-Sauveur. This quiet residential neighborhood has a beautiful, recently revamped main street, the Rue de Vallier: the road is freshly paved and the sidewalk is nicely laid with new stone tile. The street winds through the neighborhood and has become something of a restaurant row.
Melba is really good and has been recognized with the bib gourmand. There are small bites and larger but modest-sized mains and everything is very creative and at times surprising. Standouts were the egg mimosa with tuna tartare, bagna cauda, and Pernod emulsion; the cured halibut with cucumber, peach, basil, and horseradish cream; and the raviolis with Comté, zucchini, bacon, and corn cream. Cocktails are very good and the wine list is well chosen. Loved this place.
Échaudé - lunch, in Vieux-Québec. impromptu lunch, as we were hungry from walking around the oldest part of town down on the St. Lawrence river. This bistro was perfectly adequate and correct and a pleasant place to sit outside and have lunch.
Restaurant Wong - dinner, in Vieux-Québec. Standout Chinese restaurant that has been open since 1960. The current chef is the founder’s grandson. There are Chinese classics and other dishes that incorporate western ingredients, like mussels and burrata. The food here is delicious and the atmosphere is festive. The hoisin-glazed, sous-vide baby back ribs were amazing, and the Oysters Wongefeller (scallion-ginger sauce, Asian mignonette) were really nice. The Cantonese chow mein was a lavish rendition and very well done. This was a great break from the richer French(ish) food we had been eating and I would be happy to return.
Chez Boulay - lunch, in Vieux-Québec. A “boreal” restaurant, where they incorporate Nordic ingredients into Québecois cuisine. It made for a pretty nice lunch, but it wasn’t anything exceptional.
Le Clocher Penché - dinner, in Saint-Roch. Rue Saint-Joseph is chockablock with fantastic restaurants. There are Michelin placards everywhere. Le Clocher Penché has a bib gourmand and it deserves it. We really loved this meal, which was super creative and unusual with plates alternating between intense pops of flavor and more savory and richer dishes. We loved the picked shisitos with anchovies and smoked eggplant - piquant like a pintxo, outstanding contrast of flavors. The halibut crudo with kohlrabi, fresh ginger, and a light curry sauce was so good. A very surprising main of seared crisp pork belly with lobster, sauteed kale, and fresh peas and sauce Américain was an umami bomb and absolutely delicious. Wow!
And the wine list … let’s just say that I was thrilled to choose the 2019 Raveneau Chablis Foret for about $165 US. Our server immediately suggested decanting, which definitely helped the wine open up, though a few more hours would have helped even more. (There are many very well priced treasures on their list, like 2020 Allemand Cornas Reynard for $280 US.)