Café Buade — Restaurant in Quebec

We were walking thru Old Town Quebec late evening yesterday looking for a place for the four of us to have dinner. We were not looking for fancy high end dining that comes in at $100 per person. We just wanted good food and service after a very long day of site seeing.

We came across Cafe Buade, looked at the menu on the wall outside and all agreed it looked great! We walked in and asked if it was too late to be seated for dinner (we were uncertain of the hours and would never walk in for dinner if a restaurant was closing in a half hour or so). They told us we were fine and they’d be happy to seat us.

We were blown away throughout our dining experience! My apologies for no pictures, but among the four of us we ordered Escargot, a Garden Salad, two different Pasta Dishes, Pea Soup, a Cheeseburger, Crème Brûlée, Cheesecake and Queen Elizabeth Cake along with drinks and coffees at the end with dessert. Each and every dish was absolutely delicious! The pasta sauce on my dish was amazing. In fact we liked the food here so much we’re going back for lunch tomorrow during our final pass through old town.

I would be remiss if I didn’t include the high level of service we received from the waitress, Stephanie. She was extremely attentive while not being “too much”. She was pleasant, welcoming and funny and gave zero indication of the time getting late when we ordered dessert. The delivery of our courses was spot on and she truly helped make the perfect end to a great day.

If you think this review is too good to be authentic you are way off base. We dine out at a lot of different places in our travels and I have written many reviews both good and not so good. Though human nature has it that we are quicker to write a bad review than a good one, I have always believed if a restaurant truly stands out they deserve the recognition for it. Cafe Buade stands out. Go there and you’ll find out...

After a couple hours freezing while touring the city we wanted a meal that would give us a taste of Quebec! We thought “wow the oldest cafe in Quebec? This will be perfect for us.” We love history and culture which did not thrive in this establishment to say the least. We were seated next to high chairs and the drink station, which in turn left us crammed during our visit. I couldn’t even put my coat on the back of my chair we were so tight.

The restaurant did not have any historical decor or any sense of ambience. You would think the oldest cafe would have a buck better theme to go along with that title. Very lacking in that department.

We paid outrageous prices for a small burger and 4 extremely micro size chicken tenders. ( not joking, a little bit bigger than McDonald’s chicken nuggets). The fries were decent enough to enjoy.

The waitress (blonde and with glasses) never refilled our small glass on water. We requested the bill as soon as we finished eating due to the atmosphere not being homey and really not enjoying our service.

The waitress brought the credit card machine over and we left an ok tip since the service was lacking and she did nothing but take our order and get a bottle of ketchup upon request. She looked at her tip as we were gathering our personal belongings and put the receipt down and began to complain about her tip was not “good enough” she pointed out that tip is not included in the meal and that we need to leave her more. We told her we already left the tip we are satisfied with leaving. She threw her hands in slightly in the air, huffed, and made a smirk as she walked away in disgust.

WE WILL NEVER BE BACK HERE. Horrible service and the waitress needs customer service training. She did not make us feel welcome to the restaurant nor did not paint a very good light on the city as first time visitors, this was our first meal...

I’ll be honest that I am usually quite persuaded by a restaurant’s online rating and if I had seen this place online prior to visiting I probably wouldn’t have planned on dining here. BUT! I am glad I didn’t make that mistake of judging a book by its cover. My company & I happened to stumble across this place randomly and saw a sign for poutine + beer special for 17.90 CAD. It was getting dark and we were hungry so we walked in without much expectations. We were greeted and were offered menu and water as soon as we were seated (you’d be surprised at how many places leave you sitting there thirsty). The waitress was amazing. She even offered to take a picture of us and was kind and accommodating. When she saw me going to the restroom she told me I’d need a coin to access it and gave me one of her own!! There was another older man working (in a red shirt) and he was also very attentive. When he saw me eating pizza on my poutine plate, he came up to me and handed me a small plate for the pizza. It was such a nice gesture. The poutine was nice and hot and delicious and so was the pizza. It was fresh and warm, with the crust flat just like we had asked. We got dark beer, and although I don’t know the name of it, it was SO GOOD that we ended up ordering another glass. We actually couldn’t finish the pizza and felt too embarrassed to ask for a take out box as we know it’s not a norm outside of the US. When asked, they gave us an aluminum container which allowed us to take the leftover back to our hotel!! My only suggestion for improvement is perhaps closing the restaurant door during the evening hours. We sat by the entrance and although the interior of the restaurant was warm the front door was left open and it caused the wind to blow inside. Overall I was satisfied by my experience, and I definitely plan on coming back one day. I recommend this...