Where to Eat in Quebec City: Oh! Pino

Happy New Year. Although firmly back in NYC, thanks to a delayed, joyless flight on Continental (the sir-Charge airline), I still have more restaurants in Quebec to write about: Oh! Pino (1019, avenue Cartier, Quebec, QC, G1R 2S3: 418-525-3535). The restaurant is near the intersection of avenue Rene Levesque, which, from our point of view, seems to be the best area to eat and hang out in Quebec City. Oh! Pino was certainly the most airy restaurant ate at: it is an inviting space with comfortable seats, mirrored walls featuring lots of wine choices and no creton. Like almost everywhere in Quebec (the friendly taxi driver city), the servers were extremely nice and made great effort to overcome our French and their English.

The food was more typically French Bistro than any other place we had eaten in Quebec City. Boy 1 had Coq au Vin and I had the Cassoulet: both were quite tasty. The lovely wife and "bottomless" mussels: the "non bottomless portion" would have been sufficient it was so large. Boy 2 had the duck leg confit: it was a success as well. They also have good fries. Appetizers were tasty, but not as good as the main courses (how often do you write that!). Dessert was fine. They have a large selection of beers and wines b y the glass. I tried a Montreal beer called belle geule, which is a tasty amber lager.

The neighborhood around Oh! Pino looked to be quite livable, as opposed to the touristy old city where we were staying. There were lots of restaurants, including ethnic ones and, of course, another branch of le Cochon Dingue. If you do go to Quebec City, this area would be the one I would defintely explore to eat.