Quebec City: Where to Eat
Where to Eat in Quebec City
Quebec City’s food scene splits cleanly into the historic Old Town restaurants tourists already know about and a newer wave of tables in Saint-Roch that most visitors never make time for. Both are worth the trip, but the second is where the real value sits.
The two names worth knowing by heart
Aux Anciens Canadiens occupies Maison Jacquet, built in 1675 and one of the oldest houses in Quebec; the restaurant has run there since 1966, with staff in period dress serving tourtiere, caribou, and sugar pie across five small dining rooms. It is touristy on purpose and genuinely good; reserve a day ahead in high season. Chez Ashton is the opposite kind of institution: a Quebec City poutine chain founded in 1969 as a $5,000 food-truck operation, it added poutine to the menu in 1972 and never removed it. Locals treat it as the default late-night stop, not a novelty.
What to actually order
Poutine (fries, cheese curds, gravy) is non-negotiable once; the curds should squeak faintly when fresh. Tourtiere is a spiced meat pie eaten across the province. Cretons, a pork-and-spice spread, shows up at breakfast. Pea soup, traditionally simmered with a ham hock and a touch of maple, is the cold-weather order. If a cabane a sucre (sugar shack) meal is on offer, classically a spring tradition but available year-round at some Old Quebec spots, expect fèves au lard, tourtiere, and tire sur la neige, maple taffy poured onto snow and rolled onto a stick.
Marche du Vieux-Port
The Marche du Vieux-Port, the year-round indoor public market by the Old Port, is the honest alternative to a sit-down restaurant: local cheese, charcuterie, baked goods, maple products, and stalls serving classic Quebecois dishes at market prices rather than tourist-strip markups. It runs daily.
Saint-Roch, where the value actually is
Saint-Roch, once a working-class industrial district, is now the neighborhood locals eat in on an ordinary Tuesday. Quebec City carried 18 Michelin-starred restaurants as of the 2026 guide, and the Bib Gourmand and one-star tier concentrates here and in neighboring Limoilou at real prices rather than splurge-only tasting menus. Skip the restaurants lining Rue du Petit-Champlain entirely for one night and take the short cab ride instead; the food-to-price ratio is simply better.
The tax that isn’t on the menu
Quebec adds GST of 5% and QST of 9.975%, about 14.975% combined, at the register on every restaurant bill, and it never appears on the printed price. Tip 15-20% on the pre-tax subtotal, the standard local move, not on the total after tax. For a full day-by-day plan that folds these meals into a trip, see Quebec City: 3-Day Itinerary .