I'm not really familiar with Quebec/Montreal but you HAVE to try poutine when you're there. It's SO good. Not very healthy but it's nice treat.

You're right about restaurant prices in Québec City. The top restaurants there are all well above your maximum. One place you might consider is Aux Anciens Canadiens in one of the oldest buildings in town (ca. 1625). It has tons of "atmosphere". If you really want a bargain, the lunch menu goes until 5:45 but is a bit limited. After that with judicious choices you could likely manage for $150.

http://www.auxancienscanadiens.qc.ca/home.php

One restaurant I like very much is La Crémaillère. I think it's just as good as some of the more expensive places such as Le Saint-Amour. With the table d'hôte you can probably dine within your budget.

http://www.cremaillere.qc.ca/quebec-restaurant/about/menu.shtml

Poutine is best bought from a chip wagon late at night (that is unless you go for Normand Laprise's version with fois gras at Toqué in Montreal--but of course the prices there are stratospheric).

I am also planning a trip to Quebec City, Patrick, so it is too early for me to make suggestions..other than, check the Trip Advisor forum for Quebec City. It is very active and there are a number of interesting suggestions there.
Be sure and do a trip report.

Hi, Patrick!
Happy Birthday!

My favorite Montreal restaurant is Il Cortile, on Sherbrooke, just West of Peel, especially in July when you can sit in the outdoor courtyard. It is near the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts where there is a Jean Paul Gauthier "guided tour" on July 16 ( I just did a random search of events at the Museum...when is your birthday?)
Il Cortile, 1442 Rue Sherbrooke, (514)843-8230.

I cannot comment on Aix au Cuisine du Terroir b/c I have never had dinner there.

Enjoy Montreal! And, Quebec City!

Ocean

Skip Aux Anciens Canadiens in Quebec City. It is tourist trap. There are many moderate restaurants in Quebec City. Check out SSS, Le Lapin Sauté, Cafe Conti, Le Pain Beni, Le Clocher Penche, to name just a few. If you want authentic crepes then venture down the Rue St. Jean to Le Billig-very casual and informal with a neighborhood feel. It is about 6 minutes walk from your hotel. There are also many high end restaurants in Quebec City, but it does not sound like that is what you are looking for. If you want to splurge, Panache is a good option as is l'Initiale and Toast. You can also grab very nice high end take out (or eat in if you wish) at Paillard, inside the city walls on Rue St. Jean. Chez Ashton have excellent and cheap poutine. Enjoy!

We enjoyed meals at Le Lapin Sauté (nice terrace), and Le Pain Beni mentioned in the last post. Friends have also recommended the Restaurant Café St-Malo on rue St.-Paul in the Lower Town in your price range. Some of the more expensive restaurants have good deals at lunch.

The restaurants in the Lower Town would be a fairly long walk but certainly doable. We walked back and forth to a B&B not too far away on Rue Ste-Anne. You could get quite close to your hotel by taking the ecolobus.

several strong recommendations for Café du Clocher Penché on this thread
http://www.fodors.com/community/canada/quebec-city-favorites.cfm

I ate at Aix au Cuisine du Terroir this past March and very much enjoyed it. I'd recommend it.
I also ate at Bar et Boeuf (B&B) and really enjoyed that too. Its a little dark (low lighting) but you get used to it once there for a few minutes. Best of all, our food was fantastic. Creative, carefully plated and down right delicious.

There are lots of fantastic restos in Montreal. Toque, as someone mentioned above has a long standing reputation with a price list to match. I've eaten there on company dime and enjoyed it but not sure I'd spend that kind of money unless it was a really special occasion.

Verses Restaurant located in the boutique Hotel Nelligan in the heart of cobbled-streeted Old Montreal is also a good place for a very nice dinner for one of your other nights in Montreal.

If I think of any others I'll let you know.

Forgot to mention that I don't think you'd be less than $150.00 for two with wine at any of the restaurants mentioned in my above post unless you opted for their prix-fixe menus or specials (which could also be very good). You'd likely be below $200.00 though. Its the wine that would do you in, but many restaurants in the province of Quebec allow you to bring your own wine and only charge you a corkage fee, if at all. Its not considered gauche either.

If budget is a constraint, check out Prince Arthur street. All of the restaurants allow you to "Apportez votre vin" (bring your own wine) with no corkage fees. Food is Ok, nothing fancy, but a fun party atmosphere.
For fast food, get a couple of steamies at Retaurant La Belle Province, a provincial icon. The dogs plus a plate of poutine and a pepsi is a very authentic experience.

Great suggestions. I'm now having trouble making up my mind. So is that really true about taking your own wine? We're in New Jersey and I love the local concept of BYOB restaurants, but only those that don't have a license themselves. My partner has a really nice cellar here with some outstanding bottles -- and we'd love to take along our own wine especially for my birthday dinner -- something we couldn't even think about buying from a wine list. I'll look -- I guess we can drive into Canada with a couple bottles of wine?
But not comfortable if it gets us shrugged shoulders or raised eyebrows at a nice restaurant that has a decent wine list.

I made a reservation for Cafe Cloche Penche' but for 8:30 as that's the earliest (other than super early) available. And I think we'd love the rabbit and duck for two at Le Lapin Saute.

I have now also made a reservation at Aix au Cuisine du Terroir on Sunday for my birthday. On Saturday we're seeing Cirque du Soleil at 5, so would like to do something near there afterwards.

And while poutrine sounds like a disgusting cholesterol insult -- I think we must do that in QC -- especially at Chez Ashton (since that's my last name -- and my home kitchen is often referred to with that name -- hopefully they have some sort of souveniers!)

Just returned from a conference in Quebec city. Ate at an amazing restaurant in the old city. It was Panache. It was expensive but AMAZING!!!! We were there on a a Thursday night and had the chef table, 4 courses with wine pairings. I think dinner was about $60 each without wine but definitely call and find out

You must check with the restaurant first before you take your own wine as not all restaurants allow this, but many do. If their website doesn't make this clear, call them and ask. I don't believe that Aix allows you to bring your own wine but check and see before showing up with bottles in tow to avoid any embarrassment.

If you tell us where your Cirque show is playing (address) we might be able to give nearby restaurant suggestions.

Poutine is either ghastly or delicious but you cannot leave Quebec without eating it once. And you're likely to return for more. Often best bought from a street truck.

Gee, I've been to Quebec several times, but have never had poutine -- does that make me abnormal? More abnormal than also admitting I grew up in the 50's and 60's in the midwest of the US and have never eaten a big plate of chili cheese fries either?

Cirque is at the port in Old town -- "Sous le Grand Chapiteau, Les Quais du Vieux Port de Montreal".

Deebers, I had looked at Panache on Trip Advisor. While I have to read the reviews there with a huge grain of salt, I had eliminated Panache based on a few dozen very negative (but believable} comments. While there are a number of raves like yours, there are way too many specific nightmare stories about the service, food prepared or delivered wrong or even cold, waiting for hours, and on and on.

Patrick, when you do your trip report would you mind mentioning those restaurants which allowed the byob?

there are also many BYOB restaurants on Duluth in the Plateau neighborhood of MOntreal.
Restaurant Julien is a good bistro in your price range

I have been to Quebec many times without having poutine.

I did send an email to Aix au Cuisine du Terroir about bringing our own wine for a special occasion. (I was thinking of a rare bottle worth a couple hundred dollars for my birthday dinner), and would gladly pay a corkage fee to do so, but I guess they don't like that.

This was their reply -- "We do not accept wine from outside.
We have a really nice wine liste. See attached."

The idea wasn't just about saving money and I'm not really interested in taking wine to a more casual typical BYOB restaurant for a special dinner. So I get the idea that Quebec really isn't so different from the US in the idea of BYOB, in fact perhaps more restrictive as I can't imagine most fine restaurants in the US not stating that we could bring our own special wine for a corkage fee.

I think one difference is some of the BYOB places are not casual but actually "special occasion" type places; the restaurants Le P'tit Plateau and le Poisson Rouge in Montreal come to mind in this category, but there are others. However, I have noticed that if a place is not BYOB, they are often quite rigid about that policy.

Had a fantastic meal at DNA in Montreal this weekend...best meal of the weekend! Great dedication to seasonal and local...creative menu.
Cheers,
CC

saving for me

OK, here's a follow-up from my great birthday weekend in Montreal and Quebec.

Dinner in Quebec at Le Clocher Pence: very slow service -- we waited nearly 40 minutes after sitting to get a drink, the waiter told us twice he'd be right back to take our order, but it was another 20 minutes. The place was quite warm also (no AC, and the open windows and slow moving fans didn't do much). But the food was great. We shared salmon tartare and a cocotte of seafood for two that had the most amazing sauce!

Dinner in Quebec at Le Lapin Saute, doing the rabbit and duck for two which was wonderful. Delightful server, nice corner table. The food was delicious. Super creme brulee for dessert.

Dinner in Montreal at Modavie, a delightful jazz/wine bar/restaurant in the Old Town after Cirque de Soleil. We sat upstairs with the music which was pleasant. Had super service, good food -- pastas and shared salad, nothing too exotic. But good enough to make us go back the next day for lunch where we sat outside and shared calamari and carpaccio plus some nice wine.

Birthday dinner at Aix au Cuisine du Terroirs. I had requested a "quiet and private table" and we were rewarded with the little almost private corner dining spot -- but we soon discovered a large group of businessmen right "outside" our space was so loud we couldn't hear ourselves think. Efficiently and quickly, the staff moved us to another nicer spot with their apology that normally that is the prime table, but they agreed it wasn't so great with the noisy party adjacent. The food was wonderful. The best fois gras I've ever had outside France. A very nice Bordeaux. I had great medallions of lamb (long tenderloins actually) topped with strips of polenta mixed with pesto and lots of veggies in a wonderful rich sauce. My partner had slow cooked pork belly which he loved.

No desserts those last two nights. On check in to the Regency Club level at the Montreal Hyatt, I was greated in our room by a huge birthday cake from the hotel -- chocholate cake with layers of both white and dark chocolate mousse and covered with chocolate ganache and beautiful carved chocolate flowers. There was a refrigerator in the room so we kept in and had more the second night, still leaving well over half the cake in the frig when we left. We won't discuss my (diabetic) glucose levels for the weekend!!!

Merci beaucoup!

A person has been posting raves about Que Sera Sera at the Courtyard on the TA Quebec City forums. Did you try it by any chance?

Really? That's where we stayed and did have the breakfast buffet there one morning. It was open till 10:30. We arrived about 9. The "pancakes/crepes" pan was empty when we arrived and still empty when we left. The waffle pan had one quarter of an overcooked waffle in it when we arrived, and that same one was still there with no new ones when we left. There were two containers for juice, one was empty, we tilted the other one to get a three quarters glass out of it. It was never refilled. The fruit platter had a couple pieces of pineapple, a few slices of melon, and apparently did have some strawberries which were gone. It was never replenished. No one ever asked if we wanted more coffee -- but since it tasted like weakly coffee flavored dishwasher we wouldn't have wanted any anyway. After breakfast we immediately headed out to find a cup of coffee. We had to ask for bowls for cereal, there were none, but after a few minutes someone found a stack of them in the kitchen and brought them out.

I realize that's only a breakfast buffet (at $15 per person) but there was nothing about the service, atmosphere, or food quality that would ever make me want to eat a REAL meal there!
Incidentally, we liked the hotel and its location -- although we were also a little turned off by returning at 3:30 PM after a full day out to find our room still not made up -- we called and they came to do it immediately, though, while we went down to the lobby to have a drink.

the poster on the Quebec City forum on TA is very enthusiastic and the regulars are very skeptical. Your remarks are enough for me to give it a pass. Thank you for the feedback and happy birthday.

Glad to hear you ate well in Montreal and Quebec City