Restaurant Le Clarendon - Québec

Located inside a historic hotel currently undergoing renovations due to a recent fire, this restaurant will not be fully open until the end of 2019. The food is delicious, though on the pricier side. The restaurant has garnered a reputation as a favorite spot among politicians, which is a testament to its quality. I would give it 4 stars.

My wife and I decided to stop by the bar around 2:00 for a quick break and a drink. The restaurant and bar were quiet, but the staff member who was setting up for the evening kindly offered to open the bar for us. Although he was unsure about making the drinks, he sought assistance from another staff member. Together, they both took great care of us. Their service went above and beyond our expectations!

We were four people, and decided for this restaurant as they have live jazz music on Fridays. A young couple performed. The food was pretty good, in particular the salmon steak. And the desert choices were good as well. Service was fair, but appeared rather busy (it's Friday night... .

My husband and I stumbled into the restaurant one dark, chilly rainy evening. Because of our afternoon activities, we hadn 't thought ahead to make reservations and could not be seated at 2 other fine dining establishments until very late. It was our wedding anniversary, too. After asking if we had a reservation, we were told, No problem! by the hostess and seated immediately. The menu was a very broad menu of rather nice selections. We bothh had the day 's soup offering, a butternut squash purée with root vegetables, which was excellent. I ordered the duck, which was prepared extraordinarily well and my husband ordered the cod. It, too, was excellent. When my husband went to the the men 's room, I asked the hostess (Tina) if she would mind taking a photo of us to commemorate our anniversary when he returned. She did, so, after returning to the table with a card that she had written to us, wishing us Happy Anniversary! This may not mean much to others, but little things like this matter to us. We have dined at some fairly pricey and impressive places through the years, incuding Le Jules Verne, an Alain Ducasse resto on the second stage of the Eiffel Tower. I told Tina to express to the chef that the food was extremely well prepared and very nicely presented on par with the best. To our amazement, Tina informed us that the chef (whose name I was not given and I failed to ask) had formerly worked at Buckingham Palace and also under chef Gordon Ramsay before falling in love and moving to Quebec. It really is THAT obvious and the evening was a genuine treat!

The server was friendly, but the food was awful and overpriced. The combinations of ingredients were strange and everything on the plate lacked flavor. We spent $100 for two people and it was the low point of our trip.