Chez Boulay - Bistro boréal

Cecilia

5.0

Excellent service! The waiter introduced himself & asked where we were from. He was very friendly & helpful. The entire staff was well-trained. The food was excellent-great flavor & a wide variety. The onion soup is the best I've ever had. The portions are decent, & the price is reasonable. It's a very pleasant place.

Olga

5.0

The best French onion soup of my life! The service was wonderful - even though we didn't have a reservation, they seated us at a lovely spot. The food, wine & atmosphere were all so enjoyable. We had a wonderful experience & would absolutely recommend this restaurant!

Jonathan

5.0

Fantastic place to have dinner. Very nice ambiance. An app & a dinner plate will leave you full but give you enough room for dessert, all without breaking the bank. They source many local fresh ingredients for their dishes & you can tell. Highly recommend the onion soup as others have suggested. I had the scallop ceviche & the flat iron, both were awesome. Definitely worth going to, would have posted pictures but was too excited to eat everything they put in front of us!

Juliebourdelais1

5.0

Notre souper était plus que parfait. Les attentions de notre serveur à influencer positivement notre expérience. De l'explication du menu, des recommandations & de la petite attention au dessert… ce fut magique.
La nourriture était délicieuse & bien présentée.
Je recommande fortement !

Rororosa

4.0

We were visiting Quebec City, & it happened to be my child's birthday that day, so I wanted to choose a restaurant that felt distinctly Quebecois. Chez Boulay turned out to be a good choice for our family. We were traveling with several children, & the atmosphere was relaxed, lively, & welcoming rather than overly formal, which suited us very well.

Overall, the service was very good, & most of the food was enjoyable. The biggest disappointment was the fries - they were almost burnt, & none of the kids wanted to eat them.

For my main course, I had the beef cheek. It was quite good, with a very pronounced beef flavor. The eggplant purée was a little too salty for my personal taste. My husband had the blood pudding, which was also good, & the layered potato that came with it was especially well done. My father ordered the bison steak, & that was probably one of the best main courses at the table. It was cooked very nicely & arrived at exactly the right doneness.

For appetizers, we ordered the scallops, fish, French onion soup, & foie gras. The onion soup was the one dish we did not really enjoy, as we found it too salty & felt that the saltiness overwhelmed the other flavors.

My personal favorite - & the standout dish of the meal for me - was the scallop appetizer. The scallops were incredibly fresh & flavorful. My husband thought the sauce may have been made by blending & straining fish into a very smooth purée. I honestly couldn't tell exactly what it was made from, but I absolutely loved the dish.

The foie gras was also very good. The berry sauce helped balance the richness of the foie gras, & I personally preferred this pairing to foie gras served with pear.

The dessert was chosen by the kids, so I'm not completely sure what it was called, but it had a pudding-like texture with a strong strawberry flavor. I really enjoyed it.

Overall, we had a very good experience. The atmosphere was family-friendly, the service was solid, & there were several dishes that really stood out.

Jade

5.0

Everything was amazing from start to finish - lovely atmosphere, great service, & mouthwatering food! The flat iron steak & the onion soup were definitely highlights but everything was delectable & we would absolutely come here again

Lisa

5.0

Standout dishes were the pork loin special, onion soup, & sea buckthorn tart. They also make it a point to have at least one vegetarian entree as well. The wait staff was very friendly & attentive.

Theatre

5.0

My go to restaurant in Quebec city. The food is unfailingly good to great, the service attentive & thorough, & the atmosphere relaxed. On our recent visit, the onion soup (which I hesitated over because it's heavy for me as an entree) was sublime. The rest of the meal, bison, braised beef cheek, the halibut & pasta were each delicious & subtle. Dessert was creme brulee which can often be pretty boring, but this was not. I have never had a mediocre experience here. Highly recommended.

Aimgé

4.0

Deux agréables visites chez BBB, l'une dans la belle salle à manger, l'autre sur la terrasse. Dans les deux cas, nous avons très bien mangé & dans les deux cas, l'excellent flétan était à l'honneur. L'utilisation d'ingrédients de la nature boréale du Québec nous a permis de déguster des nouvelles saveurs & cela a été excitant & a été parfois surprenant. Le très bon pain est présenté de façon très originale! Monsieur Boulay est un des grands chef du Québec & nous sommes contents de pouvoir bénéficier de son expertise autant à l'émission de télé Les chefs que dans les assiettes de ce beau restaurant. Service agréable, compétent & connaissant. Bien hâte d'y retourner pour y déguster la soupe à l'oignon gratiné!

Graf

5.0

We went one night for dinner on a lark & it was so good that we came back the next day first thing for brunch.

It's an understatement to say the food here is extremely good. The onion soup in particular was amazing but everything was great.

Despite the extremely good food, it's not quite fine dining. There are paper napkins, the waiters have stories about the food but it's more relaxed. The portions are filling (especially the meat dishes).

It's hard to really explain why it was good without sounding like I'm being paid. Maybe the truest thing I can say was that mid-way though the 30 dollar price fix lunch I started to feel a pang of real guilt, like it was so cheaper we were stealing from them. Honestly in NYC this place would be 4 times the price & you still wouldn't be able to get a reservation.

Although it doesn't matter to me much in terms of rating I will say that the staff were nice, attentive & funny.