Le Moulin de St-Laurent — Restaurant in Saint-Laurent-de-l'Île-d'Orléans

My wife and I drove over an hour to attend this restaurant for our anniversary. She has celiac disease and the restaurant was highly recommended in the “Find me gluten free” app as they have many gluten free options.

We arrived at the restaurant at 6:55pm and it was absolutely full inside, with many tables seating 6 people or more. We sat outside in their beautiful patio, overlooking a little waterfall.

After being seated and given our menus, our waitress came relatively quick and asked us if we were ready to order. We were, but my wife being celiac, had a question about the gluten free meal she was going to choose. The waitress rudely dismissed her and said she’d come back because “she had other people waiting on her”. We were stunned at that response and being dismissed in such a manner. After a few minutes she came back and I made my order and my wife asked how the raviolis were made gluten free, which she was told that it was gluten free penne and the filling would be in the dish. My wife needed a few seconds to decide if she was going to go with that, and again the waitress said she’d come back - to which my wife simply said she’d go with the chicken. The waitress said ok and just left, leaving us unable to please ask her to inform the kitchen that the dish is for a celiac person (despite the dish being marked as gluten free, we always ask to mention it to make sure there is no cross contamination when making it). We felt really uneasy at that point, being practically dismissed again when trying to convey a food safety concern.

Over half an hour later we got our appetizer, the caprese salad, which tasted very fresh, although for $17, there was a very small amount of buffalo mozzarella. We waited an entire hour before our mains arrived - which when I flagged the waitress down before our appetizer even arrived, to make sure my wife’s meal would be mentioned as celiac to the kitchen, she realized she reversed our order. Finally our mains arrived at 8:05pm (burger and chicken dish). My wife really liked her chicken dish, and I would say the burger is one of the best burgers I’ve ever had. However, the chips that came along with it were completely stale, to the point where they barely crumbled. The salad had a nice dressing, but lacked any type of seasoning. Funnily enough, when the waiter brought everyone’s dish around us, he always came with a pepper mill, but didn’t when our meal was brought to us. I also asked the waiter for some ketchup, to which he told me there was ketchup already in the burger - which for one, there wasn’t, and for two, I like extra ketchup on the side regardless and didn’t understand why my request for it had to be questioned.

The restaurant was clearly busy with large groups inside. We had to ask our waters to be filled, were dismissed at the simplest question about a menu item, and I had to even ask our waitress if our meal was coming anytime soon after waiting an hour after being seated. Another couple behind us had the exact same treatment from the waitress, the had been waiting to order and she simply dismissed them when they were fully waiting and ready to order - she said “I’ll give you more time to see the menu” and fully walked away from them while the gentleman clearly looked at his partner and made a gesture in disbelief.

We didn’t bother staying for desert as we completely turned off by the service. We felt like second class citizens, partially felt because we didn’t order any alcohol (which to be honest with you, we saw a completely different service type by the same waitress at tables who had ordered a bottle or a liter of wine - much more engaging, returning to fill their glasses, and sympathetic). Being told that “other clients are waiting” is extremely rude when someone is trying to find reassurance in your menu.

This restaurant has a very high tourist demographic. It’s likely many people will come once while down on a trip to Quebec City. I feel like the dismissiveness of the waitress can be due in part to that - we’re not locals and won’t...

I was really looking forward to this, having booked online weeks in advance, but the experience was a let down. If you decide to dine here, be prepared for a SLOW experience. Painfully so, making us regret having ordered multiple courses, as at that point we were hostages to the slow pace. It took my wife and I three hours to get through the table d'hote menu, and not at all because we enjoy dining that slowly. The dining room was about a quarter full, but we were all right next to each other, and in such a quiet place, it's difficult to converse without the whole room hearing every detail of the conversation. I enjoyed my vegetable and fruit salad, but my wife's bison tataki was uninspired and boring. The onion soup was bland and took nearly an hour to arrive. My stew entree was just chunks of meat in brown gravy, and lacked any flavor. It looked and tasted like dog food until I added enough salt to bring it to life. Cauliflower puree also lacked any character and needed a healthy amount of salt. Maybe chef misplaced the salt this evening.

Dessert was redemptive, enough to take this review up to 3 stars (this was a1.5-2 star experience). The chocolate-orange mousse cake is truly special. Sadly by that point we were approaching the 3 hour mark, and just wanted to be done with it. In our mid 30's, we were the youngest ones there by far.

If you have an evening to kill, order carefully, and are over 60, this might be the place for you, but we regretted spending so much on such a mediocre meal when Québec city is packed with fun innovative restaurants. A drive around the island is definitely a trip worth taking, but I would skip this place and head back into the...

Overall was an okay restaurant. Nous avons été servis en français, mais nous sommes parfaitement bilingues. Great location with the fall and architecture of building. We started out on the patio but our table was on a slope and chairs kind of uncomfortable so we moved inside to the main section. Service was fast at that point (6pm), our waitress seemed a bit impatient for us to order. We understood why when a bus full or tourists showed up at 6:30pm. Then it became very loud and so hot inside. Service was bad after we got our main dish. Food was good but not exceptional. We had Table d’hôte grillade (beef) and Raviolis (butternut squash). Raviolis were good and beef was ok. Pleasant presentation of plates. We took our desserts to go, we couldn’t deal with the heat anymore. Waitress seemed overwhelmed. AC option would be good to consider for customers comfort, but especially for the employees who walk so much for an entire shift. I’d recommend to go earlier for dinner as they seem to be getting lot of tourists around 6:30pm which kind of change the vibe inside. 4 stars overall. We...