If you are working out where to eat in Quebec City, split your time between two areas. Inside the walls of Old Québec, eat traditional Québécois food at Aux Anciens Canadiens, grab breakfast pastries at Paillard and a poutine across from the Château Frontenac at Le Chic Shack. Then walk down to Saint-Roch, the lower-town district where the city’s more modern cooking lives, for dinner at a place like Le Clocher Penché.
Round it out with a trip to Le Grand Marché de Québec and a taste of maple taffy on snow, and you have covered what makes the city’s food distinct: tourtière and meat pies, poutine, pea soup, maple everything, and a younger restaurant scene that leans on Québec producers.
Every place below was checked against its own website, the Michelin Guide or a current Visit Québec City listing while this guide was being written. One well-known name is missing on purpose, and the market section explains why.
Key takeaways
- Aux Anciens Canadiens, at 34 rue Saint-Louis, occupies a house dating from 1675 and serves traditional Québécois food, including meat pie.
- Le Chic Shack on rue du Fort, facing the Château Frontenac, is the easy poutine stop in Old Québec.
- Saint-Roch, below the cliff, holds Le Clocher Penché, a Michelin Bib Gourmand in a former bank on rue Saint-Joseph Est.
- The Marché du Vieux-Port closed and was demolished in 2019; its replacement is Le Grand Marché at ExpoCité.
- Sugar shack season runs from late February to the end of April, but you can eat maple taffy on snow year-round in Petit-Champlain.
In this guide
- Quebec City at a glance
- Old Québec: the classics inside the walls
- Petit-Champlain and the lower town
- Where to eat poutine
- Saint-Roch: the modern dining district
- The market and the sugar shack
- FAQ
- Plan your first two days
Quebec City at a glance
Old Québec sits on top of the cliff and around its base; Saint-Roch and Saint-Jean-Baptiste are a walk or a short bus ride away. Use this table as your shortlist.
| Place | Area | Go for |
|---|---|---|
| Aux Anciens Canadiens | Old Québec (34 rue Saint-Louis) | Meat pie and Québécois classics |
| Paillard | Old Québec (1097 rue Saint-Jean) and Petit-Champlain | Bread, pastries, sandwiches |
| Le Chic Shack | Old Québec (15 rue du Fort) | Poutine and burgers |
| Le Lapin Sauté | Petit-Champlain (52 rue du Petit-Champlain) | Country-style cooking, weekend brunch |
| La Petite Cabane à Sucre de Québec | Petit-Champlain (94 rue du Petit-Champlain) | Maple taffy on snow |
| Au Bonnet d’Âne | Saint-Jean-Baptiste (298 rue Saint-Jean) | Neighbourhood bistro, poutine |
| Le Clocher Penché | Saint-Roch (203 rue Saint-Joseph Est) | Market-driven bistro dinner |
| Casse-Croûte Chez Gaston | Saint-Roch | No-frills poutine |
| Le Grand Marché de Québec | ExpoCité (220 boul. Wilfrid-Hamel) | Regional producers, year-round |
Old Québec: the classics inside the walls
The upper town is where most visitors stay, and it is easy to eat badly here if you follow the crowds. These are the addresses worth seeking out.
Aux Anciens Canadiens
Visit Québec City describes Aux Anciens Canadiens as the oldest house in Québec, built in 1675 and transformed into a restaurant. It has five dining rooms filled with antiques and collectibles and seats 128, so it can take groups. Destination Canada sums up the appeal: authentic Québécois cuisine, where meat pie and poutine are always on the menu. This is the place to try tourtière, the spiced meat pie that turns up on almost every Québec holiday table.
Paillard
Paillard is an artisanal bakery founded in 2006, with a large café at 1097 rue Saint-Jean and a second Old Québec shop at 58 rue Sous-le-Fort in Petit-Champlain. Expect bread, viennoiserie, pastries, sandwiches and soup. It is the obvious breakfast stop before a morning on the ramparts, and the sandwiches travel well if you want a picnic on the Plains of Abraham.
In Quebec City, the best meals are rarely the ones with the biggest view. Walk two streets further and eat where the locals queue.
Petit-Champlain and the lower town
Head down to Petit-Champlain, the narrow shopping street below the Château Frontenac. It is busy, but two stops earn the detour.
Le Lapin Sauté
At 52 rue du Petit-Champlain, Le Lapin Sauté offers what Visit Québec City calls a country-in-the-city feel, with creative cooking, grilled meats and gratins. Weekend brunch is popular, and you can sit by the fireplace in winter or on the terrace in summer.
La Petite Cabane à Sucre de Québec
This maple shop at 94 rue du Petit-Champlain has been trading since 1996. The reason to go: La Petite Cabane à Sucre serves hot maple taffy cooled on snow year-round, so you can have the sugar-shack classic even in November. It also sells syrup, maple sugar and other maple products to take home.
Where to eat poutine
Poutine is simple. Visit Québec City’s poutine guide lists just three ingredients: French fries, fresh cheese curds and plenty of good gravy. The curds should squeak and the gravy should be hot enough to soften them slightly without melting them into a sheet.
Le Chic Shack, Old Québec
Directly across from the Château Frontenac at 15 rue du Fort, Le Chic Shack describes itself as gourmet comfort food, with poutines, burgers and breakfast, plus vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options. The tourism board’s pick is the poutine forestière with a wild mushroom ragout.
Au Bonnet d’Âne, Saint-Jean-Baptiste
Just outside the walls on rue Saint-Jean, Au Bonnet d’Âne is an old-school neighbourhood café-bistro with a long draft beer list. Visit Québec City notes that it serves a traditional poutine alongside rotating international versions, such as an Indian-style poutine with butter-chicken gravy.
Chez Gaston and Chez Ashton
In Saint-Roch, Casse-Croûte Chez Gaston is the tourism board’s no-frills favourite, praised for fluffy fries, homemade gravy and extra-fresh curds. The same guide calls Chez Ashton, the local chain, the most popular poutine in town, with more than 20 branches around the region.
Saint-Roch: the modern dining district
Saint-Roch sits in the lower town below Old Québec, and rue Saint-Joseph Est is its main street. Visit Québec City’s Saint-Roch dining guide is a good measure of how much the district has changed: ramen, Neapolitan pizza, izakaya plates and tasting menus now sit side by side.
Le Clocher Penché
The anchor is Le Clocher Penché at 203 rue Saint-Joseph Est. The Michelin Guide gives it a Bib Gourmand for good-value cooking, and describes a restored former bank with tiled floors and woodwork, modern market-fresh cooking and a well-priced wine list. It serves dinner Tuesday to Saturday, and Michelin warns that weekend reservations are essential.
Other Saint-Roch names to know
- L’Affaire est Ketchup: a small, unpretentious room with an inventive kitchen built on local ingredients.
- Nina Pizza Napolitaine: wood-fired pizzas topped with local ingredients, artisanal charcuterie and Italian cheeses.
- Hono Izakaya: Japanese small plates that the tourism board calls textured, colourful and plentiful.
- Tora-ya Ramen: rich broths for a cold evening.
The market and the sugar shack
Le Grand Marché, not the Marché du Vieux-Port
Many older guides still send visitors to the Marché du Vieux-Port by the Old Port. It no longer exists. Le Soleil reports that it closed and was demolished in 2019, the same year Le Grand Marché opened at ExpoCité. Le Grand Marché de Québec, at 220 boulevard Wilfrid-Hamel, is open year-round and brings together roughly a hundred regional food producers. Come for cheeses, charcuterie, maple products and Île d’Orléans produce, and eat as you browse.
Sugar shack food
The cabane à sucre meal is Québec’s spring ritual. According to Visit Québec City, the feast includes pea soup, baked beans, cretons (a spiced pork spread), crispy fried pork jowls, omelettes, and ham and sausages soaked in maple syrup, followed by maple sugar pie, grands-pères dumplings in syrup and taffy on snow. The season runs from late February to the end of April, and Île d’Orléans sugar shacks such as Le Relais des Pins and Sucrerie Blouin are among the closest to town.
Out of season, get your fix from the taffy counter in Petit-Champlain, a slice of maple sugar pie, or a bottle of syrup from the market. For more cities, browse our dining guides or the restaurant directory, and read our guide to poutine before you order your first one.
FAQ
What food is Quebec City known for?
Poutine, tourtière and other meat pies, pea soup, maple products and sugar shack meals. Aux Anciens Canadiens is the classic place to try the traditional dishes in one sitting.
Is the Marché du Vieux-Port still open?
No. It closed and was demolished in 2019. Le Grand Marché de Québec at ExpoCité replaced it and is open year-round.
Where is the best area for restaurants?
Old Québec for classics and atmosphere, Saint-Roch for modern cooking and better value. Saint-Jean-Baptiste, along rue Saint-Jean outside the walls, sits between the two.
Can I visit a sugar shack in the autumn?
Sugar shack season is late February to the end of April, though some shacks take group bookings year-round. La Petite Cabane à Sucre in Petit-Champlain serves maple taffy on snow all year.
Plan your first two days
Day one: pastries at Paillard, a walk on the ramparts, lunch at Aux Anciens Canadiens, then taffy in Petit-Champlain. Day two: the Grand Marché in the morning and dinner in Saint-Roch, with Le Clocher Penché booked ahead. If you are adding Montréal to the trip, our Montréal food guide picks up where this one leaves off.
Featured photo: Poutine coques frites by Safyrr, BY-SA 4.0.
