Hello lovelies! Yes you’ve read right although no I haven’t suddenly embraced politics and gone over to the “dark side” and become a politician 
. Although I think there might be some merit to NQN-land where the shops are open late, bakeries and patisseries abound, street signs are represented with “fruit” and there is no tax on designer shoes, clothes or bags. I digress though…. Quebec’s Parliament House contains a restaurant where ordinary people and tourists can come to enjoy a meal. The building is an enormous and beautiful stone structure and we pass through several very polite and friendly security checkpoints including one where we show them a copy of our passports (as they require photo ID) in order to get to the restaurant.
We reach the restaurant which has two stunning Art Nouveau stained glass windows that are almost worth a special trip to see. These were made by French native glass maker Henri Perdriau. The room was inaugurated in 1917 and is enormous as it plays host to visiting dignitaries and politicians. In the neoclassical Beaux Arts style of architecture, the room has heavy curtained windows and signature crockery with the signature Fleur de Lys pattern.
We take a look at the menu which is quite reasonably priced and as we aren’t particularly hungry, we share an appetiser and order a main each. There are about six other tables of people in the enormous room so it does feel a little empty although we would imagine that it would be gorgeous for a wedding reception when full.
Bread and butter
Hooray! I miss my sourdough bread 
Wild Caribou Pate $9
The pate is served without toast so I use the bread. It has a mild gamey flavour and slightly rough texture and gelatinous mouthfeel. It pairs well with the thinly sliced apple and radish salad and juniper berry compote.
Split Pea Soup
All meals come with a soup and today’s soup is a split pea soup which is thick and rich and warming (and much better than the one at Aux Anciens Canadiens we had the other day).
Fillet of Walleye Almondine $23
The fillet of walleye fish almondine comes out pan fried in butter and coated with flaked almonds on one side. It’s a huge serve of fish and not bad although it isn’t anything particularly outstanding. It’s served with steamed cauliflower, a carrot puree and what seems to be instant mash (which I can’t stand I’m afraid). Actually I lie, the lemon was pretty nifty as they had cut the lemon just so, so that you didn’t get any lemon juice on your hands and it squeezed the lemon effectively!
Cleverly cut lemon
Roast Pork medallions with maple caramel $19
The pork medallions are a little tough to cut and come with apple and almond “nuggets” which are just small cubes of apples. It comes with the same steamed cauliflower and carrot puree as well as some nice parsley potatoes. The mapel caramel sauce goes well with the pork and isn’t too overpoweringly sweet.
Maple Cream Timbale $7
The maple timbale looks nothing like I expected. I had expected an individual cake in the usual timbale shape but instead it’s a pastry crust with overflowing maple cream. The cream itself is quite tasty although I’m not quite sure how to eat it so after a few spoonfuls of the maple cream I end up dipping the wild blueberries, raspberries and strawberry in it. I tried eating the cream with the pastry and it wasn’t particularly tasty so I left that behind. All in all it wasn’t terrible food, it was more at the level of function food and service is a little strained and stuffy (it’s probably the least friendly we’ve received here in Quebec). The room is stunning though and I adored the stained glass windows and it was great to poke around Parliament House, even if I didn’t see any politicians
So tell me Dear Reader, have you had any brushes with politicians or do you have any political aspirations?
NQN and Mr NQN travelled to Canada as a guest of Tourism Canada. This meal was paid for independently.
Le Parlementaire
www.assnat.qc.ca
1045 Rue Des Parliamentaires, Quebec City, Quebec G1A 1A3, Canada
(418) 643-6640
Summer hours: open 8am-2pm Monday to Friday and weekend brunch
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30 Comments | Add your own
I like to write politicians letters to remind them they committed to the millennium development goals!
Pity the food was a bit disappointing but i can see it might just be worth it to eat somewhere so grand.
such elegant food in such an elegant building!
It looks like the restaurant was suffering from a case of the “not quites”. Presentation could have been a little better and more elegant but the dishes sounded good to eat. The room was very grand and that can be fun… YOu did go to a lot of great places when you were in Canada!
I love your spreading out of your posts on Quebec! Every now and then a new one; I hope there are more! I could do with some pork medallions right now.
love the lemon shape, great idea.. the interior of that restaurant is stunning! i also think it would make a perfect wedding reception setting..
Loving the stained glass windows. I can see that it would be worth it for that. I see no use for instant mash outside of KFC though…
Ah, function food! My least favourite of all foods
Nice setting though.
What a memorably beautiful place! Gourmet-style food would not have been in my expectations!
The atmosphere of the room is amazing! What a lovely place to eat.
Haha, Sir Joh was in my local electorate – he was the first ever official interview I did as a journalism student. I just picked up the phone and rang him as his number was in the phone book. He was premier then. And Lady Flo gave me my Principal’s Prize in gr 12. And of course, since then I have interviewed loads of pollies.
What a beautiful restaurant. A pity the food looks so… institutional… I have to say the fish looked lovely – I do love a fish almondine! But instant mash? really? Didn’t people stop eating that after WW2? I’m sure I saw Giles and Sue talking about it’s demise…
A boss in a previous job is now a member of parliament. He wasn’t very impessive at the time I knew him – in fact I did the vast majority of his work! It wouldn’t surprise me if a lot of them were like that…
Our kitchens claim to political fame is that our coffee machine that we bought second hand/refurbished, used to belong to little Johnny Howard when he lived at Kirrabilli
Hmm for the first time, I found myself admiring your shots of the building and the intricate cornices and pillars instead of the food. I’m sure if you were NQN MP, you would put a ban on instant mash!
What a building and what beautiful crockery…, I’ve got a thing for beautiful crockery. I would have absolutely checked out that restaurant too.
What a gorgeous place to eat!
I wish they had food as good looking as that at our parliament house!
I saw Mark Latham and his fellow Labour pollies at The Ottoman once, back when he was still in teh party and wasn’t a complete fool, and I’ve met John Howard a couple of times as a primary school kid.
Never led to maple syrup desserts though
As a guest of Tourism Canada??!!! I am sooo jealous! Hope you have a great time and that restaurant looks fabulous! Happy Chinese New Year – I’m still in the 15 day window to wish you!!
Oooh, I think we should start a campaign to elect you to Parliament. You’d make a fine representative. Oh, I guess there’s that pesky question of citizenship in Canada. But I bet they’d get over that if you just baked them some of your specialty sweet treats.
This place looks beautiful. I met the Kevster at our flooded house in Brisbane recently.
All I can say is that function food is usually a hit-or-miss affair.
Since you were in Quebec, did you get to sample some poutine?
What’s with the security check? 0_0
Wow! How could the food possibly live up to the decor? I love the stained glass ceiling, I’ve never seen anything like it! And the tall columns..I was just thinking it would be perfect for a wedding too.
When Julia G. was just deputy PM, we sat at the table next to her at Portias Restaurant in Kingston Canberra on Valentines Day. We hadn’t booked and had to sit outside on plastic tables and chairs, but so did she!
Apparently she also ate there the night they announced her as leader of the Party as well. Yummy food, and lots of political people watching.
What a feast in that gorgeous setting!
I miss my sourdough too!
NQN-land sounds like so much fun, Lorraine! Very nice meal, and I’m definitely going to try to cut a lemon like that, lol!
cleverly cut lemon indeed! and that timbale–wowza. nice review!
Oh what a breathtaking building!
As far as politics go, it was my minor at uni, and I once stood out the front of the White House when I visited DC. Lots of politicking going on in that city!
What a beautiful space. Those stained glass windows are amazing! The food looks lovely too. Maple caramel? Wow.
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