Bistro L'Orygine — Restaurant in Quebec

I've been sitting on this review for a few years now, pondering about its impact and effects. At first I wrote a Yelp review criticizing the restaurant for racist behavior, but then I removed the review in fears that maybe it wasn't in fact racism but instead coincidence or a misunderstanding. I've learned a lot about the different forms and levels of racism over the years, and that leads me now to finally write this review.

I dined at this restaurant on Oct 13, 2019, so it was the before-COVID times. I chose this more upscale restaurant to celebrate my wife's 40th birthday, and dined with her and our two young children.

We arrived without a reservation, so we were surprised and happy to still be able to get a table with little to no wait. That short term delight soon turned into frustration and resentment however.

So while we were seated almost right away, we were sat at a table in the back of the restaurant, in a clearly different section than the immediate, front dining area we walked through. This backroom was much darker and had a very different decor than the main dining area, which is to say it was the worse of the two dining areas. The restaurant was also largely empty as it was an earlier dinner for us, so that main dining area had very few guests, and virtually none in the backroom where we sat. So we continued to enjoy our evening and our meal where we were seated, and over the course of the roughly 90 minutes for our dinner, we noticed more and more guests being sat in our same backroom area. For whatever reasons, this backroom was quickly being filled with almost all Asian patrons, and certainly none were Caucasian. When I had to use the restroom towards the end of the dinner, I walked through the main dining area to get to the washrooms, and all the guests in the main area were the opposite of those in the backroom - here in the main area they were essentially all Caucasian, and almost none were minorities.

It's taken me a few years to learn and understand about these racial microaggressions. As mentioned, at first I thought perhaps this was coincidental. However, intentional or not, coincidence or not, it's still a form of racism, and I'm saddened that I had to face this. Whether or not these Asian patrons had a reservation, by seating so many racial-minority guests into the clearly inferior backroom of the restaurant, it gives off an underlying derogatory and negative racial message. When these things happen, as a patron, what are we really to do, that wouldn't completely ruin the dinner experience for us and our guests? If I were to speak to the staff about the situation, how would that conversation go, and how uncomfortable would it have made my family? How would it have impacted our celebratory dinner? Luckily, we didn't think too much of it at the time, and were able to enjoy our dinner as a family. However upon reflection, whether it was later that evening, later that week, or several years down the road, these types of situations and actions have a marked impact on people, and these racist events shouldn't be swept under a rug...

I'm in the difficult position of being both a vegan and a foodie (as much as I hate that word). It's difficult enough finding fine vegan dining in other places and I found Québec City to be especially lacking in vegan options in general. My partner and I chose L'Orygine for our early Valentine's Day dinner while visiting the city because of the ambiance and the unique vegan offerings and we were NOT disappointed! We both opted for the vegan discovery menu - 6 courses, plus an amuse-bouche, each one phenomenal and totally unexpected. These people really know how to play with taste, texture, and visuals, and the quality of the ingredients (I think they said 90% of the food was locally sourced) really shone through. Everything was clearly thought out, right down to the matching of the plates to the look of the food. My favorite dish was probably the cannelloni with tempeh and maitake mushrooms, but it's so hard to pick. The quality of service was great too. We had multiple servers throughout the evening, but it was coordinated instead of disorganized, and each one was lovely. They were all attentive and professional while still being very personable. My partner has some hearing loss in one ear which one of the servers caught on to and offered to speak louder for him which he really appreciated. The service was bilingual as well, although of course each server will default to French unless they realize you speak English - it's a French speaking province after all! We found ourselves speaking English with some of them and French with others which we enjoyed (my partner speaks it quite fluently, and I'm a learner who appreciates getting to practice my understanding without being totally alienated). The one thing I would have changed was where we were seated. There's a smaller dining room in the back of the restaurant where the decor is not quite as refined as the main dining room and we were sat in the furthest corner of it. We actually came to appreciate the privacy of the corner but it was a little puzzling considering we had a reservation and walked by plenty of other open tables... to be fair we may have been looking a little rough and underdressed after walking around the city all day so perhaps they didn't want us to take away from the scenery in the front ;) However, there was a very large and very loud group of people sitting in the back room with us which detracted from the experience. I would have preferred being sat in the main dining area but it wasn't bad enough to sour our meal. All in all we agreed it's one of the best meals either of us has had in recent memory and we'd recommend it to anyone visiting the city. I'd even suggest to omnivores that they try the vegan discovery menu. The chef lets the plants speak for themselves instead of trying to change them into something they're not and I think that's something the restaurant world needs more of. I hope to come back one day and see how the...

The emperor absolutely had no clothes. The food, which there was very little of in any dish, was tasteless. I don't know if this was because they don't know how to make delicious vegan food at this establishment or if it was in general. I would never recommend this place to anyone. We're used to north american sizes being too much for us to handle, so we explained to our server that we would like to take it slow and order as we go along. The service was horrible at least from our main server, the server was literally making faces at us. We hated this experience so much. The wine and the the starter (little broccoli-mushroom cubes, one per person) they got us were good. We got the pea-tempeh and melon, the oyster mushrooms and harissa, and a glass of red wine. We were planning to get the desert, but decided against it after we'd had the rest of the "meal".

Response to owner: The quantity of the food while a factor wasn't our main concern. If we'd have liked the food, we would have ordered more. The reason i called the food tasteless was because that was exactly our experience. While leaving, when prompted by the other server, I did let him know as kindly as I could that the food wasn't to our liking at all. If I'd felt the restaurant's inherent problems could and would be solved, I would have let you know then and there, but I had no reason to believe that confronting you there would lead to anything good. The purpose of the review is to simply avoid anyone else having the same experience as us. Why would I go out of my to spoil my short trip to Quebec City by giving you more of what little time I had there? I questioned your ability to make good vegan food because you have amazing ratings and I was trying to resolve that dissonance, and the first thought that popped into my head was that maybe they are known for their meat dishes. Me calling the food at your restaurant tasteless (even if that is exactly what we experienced) and you attacking us ad hominem by calling our actions cowardly is as far from respectful as possible so, I'd prefer we not use that term. Also, your response was literally "our establishment was not suited for the experience you we're seeking or your palate and that is perfectly fine", why would this have been any different at the restaurant and how would that have saved people from experiencing exactly what we...