Child-friendly restaurants in Montreal and Quebec City?
 

Hi fellow fodorites,
Could you Quebec experts help me out by sharing some family-friendly restaurant ideas? Preferably non-chain, sit-down ones, but any and all recs would be appreciated.

I'll be visiting at the end of August with my wife and 2.5yr-old son.

There are lots of casual, child friendly restaurants, particularly in Montreal. One good choice, especially for lunch, would be Le Commensal, which is a large vegetarian cafeteria. Don't let the vegetarian aspect turn you off - Commensal offers lots of intesting pasta, asian, mexican, desserts, etc, in a spacious, upscale, comfortable environment. They offer a good atmosphere for travel weary families with small children. There several Commensals on Montreal - one on St Catherine near University, one on St. Denis near St. Catherine. There is also at leat one in QC.

Lebanese and South American restaurants in Montreal are all very child-friendly. There are a number of South American restaurants near Jean-Talon market.

thx zootsi and pavfec for your suggestions

any good ideas for QC? i didn't see much in fodor's or even frommers guidebook, which usually provides "best" family-friendly choices

or how about just good, casual french near typical tourist locales? i know that's a tall order :S-, but i won't have a car to venture out much. btw, i load up on lots of good asian, mexican, lebanese and south american cuisine here in los angeles :D, so food unique to quebec would be most inviting

"Food unique to Quebec"--as with most places, there is high-end and low-end, and low-end anywhere is more child-friendly. In Montreal and Quebec there is an abundance of fine-dining French restaurants, which means a certain amount of waiting for meals, which means your 2.5 year-old may get fed up, start fussing, and ruin your dinner and everyone else's. If you want fine dining, get a babysitter at your hotel. As far as the lower-end restaurants, there is classic Montreal barbeque chicken, originating with Laurier Bar-B-Que, on the street of the same name, and Chalet Bar-B-Que; these have morphed into chains--Chalet Suisse and St-Hubert--and they are family-friendly, cheap, and unique to Quebec, but I think you probably have something else in mind. In Quebec/Montreal, as in other cities, once you get a bit out of the downtown business/tourist/expense account core, there are many good neighborhood restaurants, which would not mind putting together a little plate for your young one. In Quebec, unlike many south-of-the-border cities, it is really hard to find bad cooking (sorry!). Just look for a crowded place. Also, Quebec is more of a melting pot than you may think, so it may take some searching to get beyond imported cuisines.

As for QC, just returned a week ago from there with our toddler. In the area outside near Chateau Frontenac there are a number of places with great outdoor seating. This allowed us to try some great fresh seafood and allowed our daughter a bit more flexibility - being outside and all, watching people and the festivities, etc. Another area you might want to try would be a few blocks outside the wall (West) down Rue St. Jean. Our first night there headed that way to find a Laundromat and found a number of places away from the tourist area. We ate at a small place called "Diana's" and had a nice casual meal all three of us enjoyed.

Speaking of cafeteria-style places (as zootsi did), in QC on Rue St. Jean (inside the wall) there is a place called "Paillard" that has great food - even the grilled cheese is terrific with their own bread - good coffee and a huge selection of desserts. Worth a stop.

Also - during the summer there is the farmer's market to visit (walking/stroller distance outside the wall - North - I think off of Rue St. Paul) Great place to pick up a bunch of locally-produced food and to put together a nice picnic lunch.