Café St-Malo

What a cute and quaint place. I had a typical Quebec meal cousselet. It was like a stew. The place had a romantic tone to it.

I’m not an expert on French cuisine but I know what I like and I really, really liked Café St-​Malo. Hubby had French onion soup which was rich and full-​bodied while I had a salad with garlic dressing. My main dish came with salad, too, but I really wanted salad. Both versions of salad were great, but the garlic version, with chopped tomatoes, sesame seeds, and, of course, a nice portion of garlic, was especially nice to start. Hubby had tartare de boeuf — his first time — and it was rally tasty with a blend of fresh flavors. I even tried it and found it delicious and I’m not at all comfortable with the tartare concept. I had duck confit and found it nicely roasted with just the right amount of unrendered fat to complement the crispy skin. We had a half liter of the house white wine which was more than passable. I had a chocolate mousse dessert while hubby had a bold coffee with a creamy top layer. The café is cozy with just the right amount of noise from quiet conversations to create energy without making it difficult to interact with your dining partner. Neither of us speak French and it was no problem.

Best french place ever! Great service and quality french food. Had the ravioli venison which was absolutely amazing! The pink sauce was extremely tasty and it matched the sweetness of the venison perfectly. Ambience was definitely on point with the dimly lit atmosphere and soft classical music playing in the background. A must try when you’re in Quebec!

First night in Quebec City and it started off with a scrumptious meal.
The staff was very courteous and friendly as we struggled to order with our grade school French — lucky for us they were understanding and spoke English as well.
For appetizers we started with the French onion soup ($ 9), which was fantastic! The broth was nice/​light and the cheese was amazing… best French onion soup we’ve had in a while.
Quenched our thirst with some Boréale blonde beer, two glasses ($ 4 each) to start off the night along side some sliced dinner baguettes half toasted and half regular.
As for entrees…
1. Osso Buco /​Braised veal shank ($ 27) served with pasta and roasted vegetables.
This was an awesome dish with the flavors very balanced and the meat just so tender. Portions were just about right and I couldn’t help but to finish the entire plate. Great dish
2. Venison ravioli in rose sauce
Really nicely done ($ 19) with rich flavors and great sauce. The venison was tasty and overall was a very good dish.
Finished another pint ($ 8) pint of Boréale midway through dinner.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough room for dessert but we will definitely be back to try.
Really nice French dining experience overall and would recommend to anyone.
Enjoy!

Very quaint cozy bistro. Perfect on a cold snowy day of sightseeing. Lunch was green salads with a wonderful dressing. Onion soup and the osso buco was just what we needed to warm ourselves. A nice red Côte du rhone and lunch was exactly what we had hoped for. Waiter was very friendly and welcoming.

this place really felt like the quintessential, charming French restaurant. our waitress was very sweet and very accommodating.
food:
blood sausage appetizer — not the best blood sausage i’ve had but good nonetheless. surprisingly, the salad it came with was my favorite part!
seared salmon — cooked perfectly! it was buttery but not overly rich and came with a delicious side of lemony risotto
osso bucco — delicious! HUGE portion and tender to the touch. my favorite thing we tried all night.
would definitely recommend to anyone visiting quebec and hoping for an intimate dining experience

The fish and French onion soup were good. They gave generous portions of mussels for a small bowl of fish soup.
Main course, however was subpar. The duck confit and lamb shank were fried, oily and dry with no additional sauce or garnish to complement it. There were no choice for sides, just french fries and a simple salad greens/​diced tomatoes.
Service was okay initially however during main course there was very little service (ie. Refilling of water).
Perhaps we chose the wrong main courses at this restaurant. Food quality was average for the price we paid for.

This place is absolutely spectacular. Service, food, atmosphere, location. Everything was perfect.
The space is cozy and a little quirky. It’s in a great area just off the more touristy area of lower old Quebec, on a fairly quiet street. We were lucky to get in on a Sunday night when it was a little less busy without a reservation.
The food was tops. Smoked salmon, duck confit, osso bucco, venison ravioli, all fantastic. I don’t think you can possibly go wrong here.

Probably the best French restaurant in Quebec. We went there twice and were not disappointed. Good service and food. Fish soup is amazing, cassoulet and rabbit are perfect. Goat cheese salad is huge and fresh. Make a reservation if you are planning to go there after 7.00 pm.

Got in earlier around 5:45pm, the place fills up with diners quickly. Two of us ordered 3 main dish plus a couple appetizers. Our friendly waitress saw just two at the table and asked if we ordered for three people. We had a little laughter. The French onion soup was great, a large pot of mussel was the best cooked mussel I ever had, fresh and delicious, we loved it so much and even ate a great deal of the soup in the pot, if not for saving some space for more main dishes coming, we would have finished the whole pot of mussel soup.
My wife had venison ravioli which she loved very much, I had osso bucco, which had been reviewed here by many, I am not going to repeat the rav. In short it meets expectations.
Overall a great meal and reasonably priced. We will definitely be eating here again if coming back to Quebec next time.

One of the finest dining restaurants in Quebec known for it’s authentic French food. I only came here because it was the 2^nd highest rated restaurant on Unilocal and in the $$ category. I wouldn’t even put it in the $$ more like the $$$ category. It’s definitely a very fancy restaurant, a bit pretentious but still a bit casual. Most of the people there were tourists from English speaking places.
The place itself is very cozy and there is a lot of memorabilia and paintings that are reminiscent of the founding of Quebec.
There was a bit of a language barrier in ordering. I thought Entrée meant like main course like in English but in French it means appetizer. So we all ended up ordering «Entrees» which were 2 smoked salmons and me trying escargot for the 1^st time. Portions for appetizers were small of course but they were good. The salmon was on a bed of arugula sprinkled with capers and chives while the escargot in butter sauce was excellent. I didn’t know escargot was so small.
Service was very slow. We just wanted to try our appetizers and leave but it took a while to get our check. Overall, I would come here if you want to impress a date or want to have something fancier. Definitely not for me.
P. S. The kitchen closes at 9:30 so try to come before that, Quebec dies at like 10:00. We came at 9:30 the day before and the woman told us the restaurant was closed because the kitchen was closed.

This restaurant is apparently usually very busy, but on this particular Monday night, it was easy to walk right in and sit right down. The service was very attentive; I ordered a glass of wine, a Cotes du Rhone, which was boldly tasty. I also ordered a small plate of goat cheese as an appetizer; though normally that sort of thing is ordered as an after-​dinner thing, but I wanted it first! The server looked surprised, though had no issue with it. :) The cheese came on a bed of arugula with walnuts, grapes, apples and teeny little raisins and tasted wonderful.
The main course was the house-​made Cassoulet, one of the few French dishes I’m actually familiar with. I very badly wanted beef bourgnion, but failed to find it on any menu in the area. I also like Coq de Vin and considered ordering the beef tartare, but I decided on the cassoulet and I’m glad I did! It was very hearty and simple. I feel like they could have bumped up the flavor a little more, but it was satisfactory as is. The portion size was just enough; I didn’t want for more and felt full after eating all of it. It was served with the whole sausage, unsliced in the bowl, as well as some delicious beef/​steak, savory duck, carrots, tomatoes and of course, those big beige beans. I would love to make a version of this, myself, and add some greens as I think that would add to the diversity of the dish and sort of «southern U.S.» it. Anywho, definitely check them out if you want a nice meal near Old Quebec.

As wonderful as Old Quebec is, this restaurant is seriously a big deciding factor in my need for a return visit to the city. I’ve had some great meals in New York City, San Francisco, London, and Paris but this place is probably my new top favorite restaurant.
This restaurant hits all the important points:
Great service
Great prices
Great food
Great atmosphere and décor
Great location
This place is hopping (probably due to the great Unilocal reviews and its location), so if you go check it out and are turned off by the line outside, be patient and wait and it will be worth it. I went with my Mom and it was a busy night, but the staff were great at getting patrons in and out without making us feel rushed.
My Mom had the Steak et Frites and loved it. (Said it was one of the best steaks that she has ever had.) I went with the Cassoulet and it was wonderful. A sizable portion with a delicious golden and moist duck leg on top, along with other portions of meat included (lamb chunks and a sausage). We went with the hostess’ Spanish red wine recommendation, which went well with the meal. We were too full for dessert, but dinner for the two of us plus a carafe of wine came out to CAD $ 70. (And that might have been with the tip added – my Mom took care of the check. Thanks, Mom! :))
I was there with Mom, but it’s also a great date night restaurant, too. Very cozy inside – and more casual tables outside on the front patio.

The best restaurant in Quebec. Although this restaurant is still located in old town, it’s not on the busy strip and kind of tucked away on the outskirts of town. There are still a lot of foot traffic in the area so do stay away if you’re looking for a quiet place to dine. However, I need to rave that the cuisine here is authentic and pretty awesome.
Here’s what we had:
Blood sausage: this was decent. I’m not a fan of blood _​_​_​_​ (fill in blank), but curiosity got the best of me.
Escargot: Fact is, if you order this dish, you really enjoy butter more than snails. This is the case with any french escargot dishes. However, you could definitely tell the snails were fresh based on the texture. Use their bread and soak up all that extra butter. bam.
Soup of the day (fish): This came with our meal package where you add $ 12 to an entrée and in return, you receive a soup, tea || coffee || expresso (that’s an or for you non-​geeks), and a dessert. Anyways, the fish soup was fantastic. The broth was extremely flavorful and the ingredients were fresh.
French onion soup: The broth was a lighter broth but the cheese was excellent. It was pretty mind blowing.
Venison Ravioli: The pink sauce was pretty dang great though the side effect is that it kind of masked the full venison flavor.
Mussels: White wine, garlic, butter, and mussels… what more could you ask for? The portion was also quite large for a pot of mussels.
Osso Buco: Probably my favorite dish of the restaurant. Everything was very balanced and flavorful. See the picture below as I really can’t describe how great this dish was. While the meat was the star, don’t overlook those strands of pasta on the dish. I could have eaten that solo. That’s how tasty it was.
Crème Brulee: This was good. It’s hard to make a great/​bad crème brûlée.
While the service here is a bit slow, it was very friendly… and not in a fake way. They speak English, french, and spanish here so that is a plus as well.
Do make reservation here or else you’ll be out of luck. They turned down every passing patron along the way as they don’t even give you the option of waiting around. However, even though we didn’t have a reservation, somehow I was able to charm the waitress in letting us wait on the first night thanks to my sad puppy eyes. After dinner, we made a reservation for the next day. ‘nough said.

Café St-​Malo is a very good place for lunch or dinner on Rue St-​Paul. I had the steak-​frites for lunch. It was well-​prepared, though I found the steak a bit oily. The fries and fresh green salad were delicious. The meal came with a carrot soup that was excellent and concluded with a complimentary cup of coffee.
A few other notes…
1. They have a lunch menu that is more reasonable than the prices posted outside. On the day I visited, the lunch menu was not posted.
2. Service is good. The service is quick and efficient, while the vibe is definitely relaxed.
3. The space feels like an intimate, country inn. Because it is a bit tight, you may want to call ahead with a group. It is probably also not the best place for young children.

Unilocal led me here and I am glad I was able to eat such a fine meal here. This was probably one of my favorite meals during my 6-​day Canada trip. This restaurant served traditional French fare with a twist of comfort food. For example, there was venison ravioli in a pink sauce and blood sausage with apples! Not only were the dishes served in hearty portions, but the dishes were satisfying and memorable.
I enjoyed the tender sweetbreads in a rich mushroom sauce. Most people stay away from sweetbread, but I actually love it and a simple lemon marinade is enough for me, but the sauce they used with mushrooms really blew me away! I ate every last bite. I would return to Quebec City just for that plate again. Their seafood was also delicious. The mussels came in a large black pot in a herb & wine sauce. My friend could not even finish her meal since the pot was overflowing with shellfish. The server was so gracious and genuinely nice (he spoke French, English & Spanish with us!). He was busy with several tables, but he was friendly and shared stories regarding our trip and his travels. Also, I’d like to note that the chef was kind enough to add some extra seafood sauce so my friend could take it home. I was impressed by the service, the cozy atmosphere and, of course, the food!
What a wonderful find in Quebec City. Tip: make a reservation just in case especially on weekends.

This has got to be one of my all-​time favorite places to enjoy a meal. There’s nothing flashy or trendy about the space or the menu. Food is simple and traditional. Ambiance is warm and casual and service is top notch.
I’ve been trying to write this review for a few days and I’ve been struggling to find a way to explain why I love Café St-​Malo so much and finally it hit me. I love Café St– Malo because when you dine here, it feels as if you’ve been invited to share a very special meal in someone’s charming home. Collections of treasures line the walls and small shelves throughout the space. A fire roars in the downstairs dining area. Small paintings cover the low, beamed ceilings (I like the maritime scenes) and contemporary art adorns the stone walls. The menu is perfectly uncomplicated and the hospitality is impeccable.
I wanted to order everything on the menu but decided on the moules frites, a warm chevre salad and house white wine — traditional French all the way. Sadly, I was told by my waiter that they had run out of mussels, so I took some time to select another dish (I was leaning toward the cassoulet but the venison ravioli looked delicious too). And then a miracle — while I was deciding the other waitress told me that they had enough for one more order of moules. I was thrilled!
The salad was wonderful, prepared simply with some tomato, endive, and the wonderful warm chevre (I don’t know how they got it to be warm but not melted but I vow to figure it out and begin eating chevre this way immediately), it was the perfect start to my meal. Then the mussels prepared traditionally with white wine, shallot and tiny bit of garlic and some fresh parsley. The pot could easily have served two — the mussels were perfect.
I had no room for dessert or coffee but most of the other diners around me seemed to be taking advantage of the prix fixe deal that includes an appetizer, dessert and coffee for an additional $ 10.
Some other notes: the Café is small, but there is additional seating upstairs that would be perfect for a larger group of 4 or 6. Make reservations! Try to speak French. Expect to linger — though service is prompt it’s just a wonderful place to spend time.
Oh and did I mention that my entire meal with wine was $ 50! Honestly, I would have paid twice that for the food and experience I had at Café St-​Malo.