le Saint Amour

The light and airy le Saint Amour Garden Room

Restaurant	le Saint Amour
Address	48, rue Sainte-Ursule Québec, QC G1R 4E2 1 418 694-0667 www.saint-amour.com
Hours	Mon-Friday, 11:30 am - 2:15 pm, 6 pm - 10:30 pm Sat-Sun 5:30pm - 10:30pm
Cuisine	French Canadian
Scotch	Glen Breton Rare

For their final evening in Québec City, the CA Scotch Couple were joined by one of CA Scotch Gent's colleagues for a lovely evening at a restaurant long known for its cuisine, le Saint Amour. Now, CA Scotch Chick had waffled a bit over whether or not to include le Saint Amour on the itinerary. It had recently received mixed reviews on Chowhound, with a couple of individuals posting reports of understaffed service and disappointing food, and others vehemently defending both the food and the service. Once again the decision was made for the CA Scotch Couple when CA Scotch Gent's colleague suggested le Saint Amour for dinner.

Let's just dispense with the question of the service and food right up front. Both were excellent! The CA Scotch Couple and their guest were seated in the light and airy garden room, really one of the most pleasant rooms they have been privileged to dine in. It was staffed in a tag team style, with a concierge and head waiter attending to the patrons' needs but numerous other servers circulating with water, bread, food, and drinks. The staff was attentive without being overbearing or patronizing.

The CA Scotch Couple were back on their foie gras hunt, so CA Scotch Gent ordered seared foie gras, while CA Scotch Chick went with the parfait de foie gras with smoked duck. CA Scotch Gent chose the lamb for his entrée, and CA Scotch Chick opted for the red deer. The seared foie gras was fantastic, perfectly done, rich and tasty. The parfait de foie gras wasn't anything special, and the duck was just a tad tough. However, the red deer was definitely something special. It was a tender, full flavored piece of meat, with a taste unlike anything CA Scotch Chick had experienced before. The lamb was also exceedingly tender and quite excellent.

The highlight of the evening, however, was not the food or the normal aspects of service, but rather an interesting series of exchanges CA Scotch Chick had with one of the waiters. When CA Scotch Chick asked for the whisky menu, the concierge brought it and explained that not all of the whiskys available were on it. The restaurant had a new waiter who was a whisky enthusiast, so there were several interesting whiskys not listed.

Of course, CA Scotch Chick had to meet this whisky enthusiast and check out these interesting whiskys. The concierge called a young looking red headed waiter over. He took CA Scotch Chick to the bar area and showed her some of his finds, among them a blended malt bottled in France, a Canadian Club in a cognac cask, and a whisky produced by the first single malt whisky distillery in North America, the Glenora Inn and Distillery in Nova Scotia. She ordered the Glenora Inn and Distillery's Glen Breton Rare for herself and a more mainstream Glenfiddich 30 for CA Scotch Gent.

Turns out the Glen Breton Rare was pretty raw tasting stuff. CA Scotch Gent described it as alcohol and burnt cork. However, CA Scotch Chick's time with the waiter led to numerous discussions with this interesting individual whenever he made his way to their table. Seems that he had spent a couple of years training in England and had taken the opportunity to learn everything he could about whisky. They discussed their favorite whiskys, the wonder of the Japanese whiskys, the difficulty and fun of living abroad, and the problems of obtaining whisky in Québec, even for a restaurant with a liquor license. It was great fun to share in this young man's enthusiasm for the finest of liquids.

The evening at le Saint Amour was simply delightful. The service was excellent, the setting was lovely, and the food was quite good. It was a fantastic cap to a wonderful week.