Bruce C.
Yelp
(We visited Restaurant Tanière³ a year ago; this review is therefore from my long term memory; I thought I had written a review, but apparently not)
We visited Quebec City during the summer, actually during the week of the music festival, and were delighted to secure a reservation here relatively last minute because when we travel, we like to go to a "destination" place. Restaurant Tanière³ definitely qualifies as worth a special trip.
At the time though, we didn't really know what to expect. The restaurant seemed to be rather under the radar for those outside Canada, and even just a year ago (that is to say, 2023), the pricing was pretty reasonable; looking at their site today (2024), it's gone up appreciably, presumably because seats are now more in demand. Good for them!
I won't go into details of the dishes. While we have photos, and everything was really good, the experience was more than just the food. The setting is fantastic, with the coursing through various atmospheric rooms, after the entry through the purposely obscure unsigned doorway. From the bright outside, we were suddenly in a cool dark place. We were served champagne and some initial bites in the introductory room, then the main courses in the fantastic main room, a sort of stone wine cellar-ish space with arched ceilings. Not claustrophobic in any way, by the way. Followed by dessert in yet another room. The meal flowed, nicely paced, somewhat slow in parts.
We had the wine pairings, which were good, but because we were eating with a kid, we ordered their non-alcoholic pairing for her. Honestly, we should all have had the non-alcoholic pairing -- it was so good. Inventive, interesting, tasty. Who knows what those drinks were made of, but it was so different to have pairings with each dish that were not wine. Don't get me wrong, we've had some really wonderful wine pairings, where the taste enhancement was almost surprising, but when you get down to it, wine is wine. This non-alcoholic pairing just showed how much more versatile drink pairings can be, and a good side effect is that one's tasting capabilities are not stymied by alcohol consumption, nice as that might be.
(BTW, and we tried to investigate this before we went here with the kid, they are very kid friendly. They told us it's not uncommon for them to see kids as guests. Ours was 6 at the time. She was already a foodie, appreciating good food, and she ate everything with gusto, only complaining toward the end that she was kinda full. As I mentioned, at the time, the price was relatively reasonable, but with the now higher cost, might have thought twice then).
We loved our experience here, and if we've ever back in Quebec City, we'd go here again.