Le Clocher Penché represents a refined intersection of traditional French culinary techniques and modern regional influences. The kitchen prioritizes seasonal produce sourced from local growers, ensuring the menu reflects the shifting bounty of the surrounding landscape. Signature offerings frequently showcase elevated takes on bistro classics, emphasizing precise preparation and balanced flavor profiles. Diners encounter a space defined by high ceilings and exposed brickwork, fostering a focused environment conducive to concentrated appreciation of the meal. The kitchen maintains rigorous standards, crafting everything from artisanal terrines to complex sauces from scratch. Every dish serves as a testament to the versatility of core French principles adapted to the ingredients found within the province. This commitment to provenance and technique dictates the cadence of the experience, prioritizing clarity of flavor over excessive ornamentation.
Le Clocher Penché is widely regarded as a standout dining destination in Quebec City, known for its creative menu, professional service, and inviting atmosphere. Guests frequently praise the high-quality ingredients, with many highlighting the hanger steak, homemade bread with compound butter, and inventive desserts as memorable favorites. The restaurant is often noted for its warm and welcoming staff who take the time to guide diners through unique culinary offerings, making it a reliable choice for both special occasions and casual visits. While most visitors leave with high praise for the consistently excellent food and wine selections, a few noted that the intimate space can become warm during peak summer weather, and individual tastes regarding the menu's adventurous combinations can vary.
From the moment we walked in, we could tell this was going to be a wonderful dining experience. Beginning with a dozen freshly shucked oysters complemented with a wonderful'pepper' sauce served cleverly in a dropper. & a shaved ice Bloody Mary compote. Our second course was a halibut crudo with pickled ginger & curry. Complimenting our first two courses were wonderful cocktails. For the entrees, we shared the Black Cod which was the fish of the day & the homemade pasta of the day. We topped the evening off with the white chocolate crème broule & an espresso martini. The service was wonderful. Our server was friendly & attentive. Michelin star? No argument here.
I came in on a low-appetite day & left having eaten one of the most coherent meals of my trip. The scallop crudo was the best I've ever had - & crudo is unforgiving, since there's nowhere to hide behind heat or sauce. Just precise knife work, candied orange, lemon, poppy, & a tiny kohlrabi (?) brunoise that added a bitter, radish-like crunch. Quietly brilliant.
The fish of the day, cod, confirmed it. A sour sorrel leaf & a knob of lemony maître d'hôtel butter melting over the skin - two different registers of acidity layered on one plate rather than just doubling the same note. I'd nearly written off'catch of the day' as boring; trusting it was the right call.
By dessert the pattern was unmistakable. The roussette - a lacquered spiral of caramelized pastry with candied almonds - sat on a vanilla cream made with cultured, fermented cream, so even the sweet course carried a clean tang that cut the caramel.
That's the thing about this kitchen: acidity & fermentation are its grammar, sour & bitter threaded through every course, savory & sweet alike. It's confident, grown-up cooking that never tips into cloying - & on a day I barely wanted to eat, it's exactly what kept the palate awake. Unhurried service, striking value. I'd come back.
Amazing! The portion sizes were perfect for sharing (party of 2).
We started with the homemade bread & oysters. The sauce for the oysters was very flavourful & really brought out the flavour of the oysters.
Then we had the beef tongue. Not knowing what to expect, we were pleasantly surprised with the roast texture & flavouring.
Our two mains were the lions mane (mushroom) & pork belly & lobster dish. The lions mane blew us away with the sauce, crunch of the pistachios & sweetness of the green grape.
Finished it off with the homemade crueller which was so crispy yet soft.
Jun 21, 2026
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Food was excellent though a bit over priced for the portions but it has a Michelin honor so i can see the pricing. Great wine list, especially the champagne. Service people extremely knowledgeable about the food & the wine. Never have i had someone know intimitely about the wines i was deciding on & that really impressed me. All the food was prepared with precision. It was all perfect. We had oysters with a tomato ice of sorts & i really loved this. It was surprising simple & delicious. I will try to make at home. A dirty martini paired perfectly with it. Comte flan with morels rich & strikingly complimentary to the flan. Fried mushrooms in a type of rice flour tempura (maybe?) were good with the sauce. Looked like the sauce would be spicy but it was not. The star, though, was the beef tongue. If you are eating at this restaurant you probably already eat, & love, organ meats. If not, now is your chance because this is the tastiest, most tender piece of meat we've ever eaten. In a demi-glace sauce that was perfect. The pork belly & lobster was so good we ate it even though we were getting pretty full. Just so delicious, &, again, both lobster & pork so perfectly cooked & a perfectly made sauce as well. So we were so full after that we....... OF course we had dessert! All 3 items. A crueller with creme (anglaise?) sauce, a baked Alaska & a creme brulee with a few candied orange zests. I wish there were more zests! Just fab with that brulee. All 3 were fabulous but the creme brulee was my fave. All in all a great experience we won't forget & hopefully will return to at a later date.
We had a wonderful dining experience at Le Clocher Penché during our visit to Quebec City. The restaurant has beautiful interior design & the customer service was warm & attentive throughout the evening.
We ordered the fried mushrooms, bread with compound butter, lion's mane mushroom dish, & the fish of the day, which was halibut. The staff was incredibly accommodating with my dietary restrictions & kindly substituted the nduja sauce with a salsa verde instead. The salsa verde was fresh, vibrant, full of texture, & paired perfectly with the fish. It ended up being one of my favourite dishes from the entire trip.
We also really enjoyed the bread & compound butter along with the lion's mane dish. The fried mushrooms were good, though we felt the batter absorbed a bit too much oil & could have benefited from more crunch to better highlight the flavour of the mushrooms themselves.
For dessert, we tried both the baked Alaska & the salted crème brûlée. Although the presentation of the crème brûlée could have been a bit better, the flavour was excellent. The addition of sea salt gave it a unique twist that made it stand out from a traditional crème brûlée.
Overall, this was a memorable meal with thoughtful service, creative dishes, & a beautiful atmosphere. We would gladly return on a future visit to Quebec City.
At first, I was a little skeptical about going to this place, but honestly, all my doubts disappeared as soon as I walked into the restaurant. The staff were very attentive, & we were seated right in front of the open kitchen. It was great to see the team interacting & working so professionally while preparing the food.
I had the hanger steak, cooked medium-rare - it was perfect. My wife had the fish of the day, served with a white sauce mixed with spinach, & she loved it. Our experience was flawless.
The reason I was skeptical at first was because we were staying in the old part of the city, where there are plenty of dining options, & I didn't really want to drive. But it was truly worth it.
The difficult-to-decipher menu tells you everything you need to know about Le Clocher Penche. It strives to be different strictly to be different. The menu is smoke & mirrors, telling you little of what to expect & leaving it to the evening's server to translate. Ordering an item from the menu amounts to a leap of faith... & the results, on our recent visit, were dishes of contrived eye candy. Flavor seemed to be beside the point.
We began with an excellent Spanish red, short-poured by the glass in gorgeous stemware.
The bread arrived ($8) with flavorless whipped mushroom butter (why mushroom?). The Panna Cotta appetizer was a rectangle of Migneron cheese on a stiff pastry base that required a sharp knife to navigate. The entire piece then deconstructed into a pile of bland fluff ($18). It felt designed more for the eye than the mouth.
The Fried Maitake appetizer ($19) was lightly tossed in a buttermilk batter & deep-fried to perfection. It presented beautifully & promised hints of black garlic & mint, neither of which were discernable. The Maitake mushroom, also known as'hen-of-the-woods' or'dancing mushroom,' is a type of edible & medicinal fungus with a rich, earthy flavor. We were unable to denote any sort of flavor, & as the batter cooled, the piece devolved into a lump of nothingness.
The Casarecce pasta entree ($31) was a thick ragu sauce with dollops of beef cheek swimming in a puddle of melted mascarpone cheese. The beef was cooked to tender perfection, but the flavor was hidden beneath the overpowering ragu. The mascarpone added little to the dish other than color. I picked out the cheek & left most of the remaining sauce.
Our server was sweet & accommodating but distracted. The room, a former bank, was close & noisy & the front entrance step was treacherous. The neighborhood is iffy...but there's a Michelin logo displayed prominently on the outside wall.
We left with the impression that it was all a show put on for gullible diners seeking a pricy Michelin experience.
Après une dizaine d'années de visites, je suis toujours ravis de rendre visite a ce restaurant.
Les plats sont excellente avec un soucis sur l'origine des ingrédients. L'onglet était merveilleux avec une sauce qui complémentait le tout. Le menu est mis à jour régulierement, un plus pour tous restaurant.
La réservation a été très rapide même à un délais très court. Nous avons trouvé un stationnement gratuit à deux pas, un cout de chance, aussinon il y a souvent des espaces payant pas trop loin.
Seul hic a été le reste de la bouteille de vin que nous avons bouchoné mais oublié de récupérer :)
As this was our first night in Quebec City, we did not know what to expect from the food scene. We were delighted with our meal. The service was excellent & the ambiance, casual, but clearly serious about food & wine, right up our alley. The hanger steak was excellent, perfectly prepared. The house made pasta in a tomato cream sauce was special. Definitely get the bread, the compound butter will blow you away. They were happy to let us split a delicious mozzarella & tomato'salad'…we wanted to save room for dessert. The crème brûlée was the best I have ever had. Thankfully a large portion because I practically had to fight my husband for my half! Such a delightful start to our Quebec vacation!!
