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.

Where to eat (breakfast) in Quebec City: Le Cochon Dingue

Eating at the Chateau Frontenac isn't great: expensive and tortured (and with long lines during the holidays!). So, with the weather being pretty good, we set out down the "Breakneck Stairs" to Le Cochon Dingue, which our friend Lisa recommended to us (46 blvd Champlain, QC). We left our names, came back about a half hour later (we later found out that you can make reservations (418-692-2013), which I strongly recommend) and sat.

Le Cochon Dingue is one of four restaurants of the same name scattered throughout Quebec City. It is part of a larger group of four other restaurants, including the Petit Le Cochon Dingue, a bakery down the block from the restaurant in the lower city. I wouldn't eat anything but breakfast at Le Cochon Dingue, but breakfast is definetly worth eating if you want lots of pork, eggs and, of course creton, the Quebec spread of pork butt, onions and spices (it beats scrapple). They have ok french toast and ok crepes as well. "Light" is not really on the menu. I would stick with the eggs, personally. The service is friendly but uneven. I would also add that boy #1 did not like the scrambled eggs as we think they were mixed in with cheese: stick to fried, poached or omelettes. If you have small children, they have an excellent bargain of a kids menu. The lovely wife really like the jam they serve, FYI.

Where to Eat in Quebec City: La Girolle

Greetings from the Great White North. One of the things we have noted in our brief time here is that the food, while good, reminds us more of eating in a French restaurant in New York circa the 1970s. This seems particularly true in the walled old city area, where our hotel and many others are. We were looking for a restaurant that 1) you could bring boy 1 and boy 2, 2) had good food that was not tortured, and 3) wasn't ethnic (there seem to be a lot of good ethnic places up here, but its not why we came from NYC). Last night, after a bit of a cab ride, we found it.

La Girolle (1383 Chemin Ste-Foy, Quebec, G1S 2N6: 418-527-4141) is a 10 minute cab ride from the Chateau Frontenac. They have a BYOB policy, and our cab driver was nice enough to take a pit stop so I could pick up some wine (did I mention that everyone in Quebec is scarily nice?). The restaurant is in a residential part of Quebec: we were the only English speakers in the place. There are two large rooms, and there is a lot of space between the tables. We were not the only ones with children (thankfully) and because the place is so spacious, you don't mind your own or the others around you.

The menu is written on a blackboard, and is changed daily. Each entree comes with soup or salad. The soup was a favorite of all four of us: it was exceptionally good. The salad, made with zuchhini, was good as well. I had the assiette d'jour, which was tasty, although I probably don't want to know what meat products I ate. The lovely wife had warm goat cheese, which is the one thing I would avoid. It wasn' bad, but it wasn't great. The entrees were quite good. We had a pork dish, a lamb dish, a steak and shrimp and scallops (everyone in Quebec sells this combination, it seems). It was clearly the best food we had eaten in Quebec to date, and I would clearly recommend the cab ride or short drive to anyone coming in from out of town.

Greetings From Quebec! Bistro Sous le Fort

Greetings from Quebec, where its cold and its French.  Its hard to get worried about the recession when you are worried about your toes having adequate circulation, and Quebec is extremely close, and exotic, in a I see McDonald's but don't have to deal with existence kind of way.  We are staying at the Chateau Frontenac, where we have a commanding view of the St. Lawrence River.  There is also pretty much non-stop hockey in both French and English: the boys and I are happy.

One of the things that excited us about Quebec was the food: although the reality has been a bit spotty to date.  The hotel itself has a crowded dining room, and the food, even for a hotel, is nothing to write home about.  Given the cold, especially at breakfast, this can be a problem.  But there are places to eat, many within quick walking distance.  The first of these is Bisto Sous le Fort, which is located at 48, rue Sous-le-Fort, Quebec, G1K 4G8 (418-694-0852).

The place is quite small, with about 30 seats.  I do not believe they take reservations.  The service is good, and the food was quite good.  I had an elk burger (they also had caribou sausage and venison), which was good and distinctly different from beef (but not too much!).  The kids head steak frites, which was good as were the fries.  The lovely wife had "La assiette tout canard" which was pretty much that: lots of duck done lots of ways.  Each way was good, as were the little roasted potatoes that were served with it.  We also had cider wine, which tasted more like white wine than cider and was therefore quite good.  The service was reasonable, and the location, right near the funicular, making getting up easy even after you eat and drink a bit too much (not that we did, but you never know!)