Location:

65 rue de Buade, Québec City

Cost: $60 for two

www.restaurantpubdorsay.com

Bonjour tout le monde!

I must admit, my French is atrocious, but by the end of our Quebec City trip I was readily throwing out "bonjours" and "mercis", not to mention fully formed-sentences, at my husband, at least.

But enough of the French lessons, let's go back to the beginning.

By the time I landed in Quebec City it was past 9pm and then past 10:30 by the time we got to our hotel and were ready to go out to eat. We then realized that almost all the kitchens around the Chateau Frontenac were closed.

Finally, we were directed down a side street and then just around the corner we saw it. The D'Orsay Pub. Which was one of the restaurants on my list to try!



We were quickly seated at a beautiful folding window in the very charming, rustic interior, with its checker-board-floors and cobble-stone fireplace. Their terrace is a terrific people-watching spot as well as a great place to catch some sun. Unfortunately the weather was too chilly for us to enjoy the outdoors that night.





Seeing Leffe beer on the menu got me excited as it's not easy to find in Toronto, so we got a Leffe Blonde, $8.50 and a Belle Gueule Rousse (from Quebec), at $7.50 (which was mighty tasty!)



My husband had already had dinner, so this, in LOTR form, was second dinner for him. We knew poutine was a definite and I was feeling fishy, but almost all the seafood was in a cream sauce and while the wall-eyed pike sounded good, the salmon fillet with balsamic vinegar and orange sounded better. At $18.50 though, I assumed the salmon would be stuffed with oranges or orange chutney or something....again, too unusual to be true and sadly the dish was again what we conjure up at home. I was ravenous, so it didn't matter, but I wouldn't order that again.



The poutine on the other hand.....



MMMm......my mouth waters now just thinking about it!



I am no poutine expert, in fact, I'm lactose-intolerant and can't really stand cheese and this was only my second time eating poutine, but I must say, those cheese curds were something else. So spongy, so succulent, so very filling! Lookit how big that cheese curd is!!

Mmm.....is it correct to say it was tout le gout???

I could have eaten that all night!

The next day, D'Orsay's kitchen must have been an assembly line of poutine 'cause the terrace was packed with hungry patrons scarfing down the cheesy goodness, but alas we had other sites to see and a variety of other places to eat!!!

D'Orsay is a definite don't-miss!