Chez Mathilde - Tadoussac

Better late than never. We ate here last September in my pre yelping days. As one of the more memorable meals of last year I feel that I would be remiss in not reviewing this restaurant. First of all Tadoussac in and of itself was a pleasant surprise. The tourist part of the village was lovely nary a McDonald 's or tacky chain restaurant in sight... charming quaint and beautiful despite the high traffic they get each year. And don 't get me started on the whale watching, hiking, the fjord, etc... or I will never get around to reviewing this lovely restaurant. Elegant upscale bistro decor. Check. Great ambiance. Check. Funky live jazz trio playing jazz versions of familiar rock songs that have you humming along before you realize you know what song it is. Check. Pleasant and efficient service. Check. And the food. Oh. YUM!!!! Our shared starter was scallops on a deep red beet puree. The scallops were insanely fresh and seared to carmelized perfection. Presentation was in line with upscale restaurants ... the beet puree was brushed along the length of a large rectangular plate and the scallops artfully arrayed at one end. Like all fine restaurants, care was taken for presentation artful and pleasing to the eye. Then the mains. Venison for my honey and quail for me. The venison was perfectly (I mean PERFECTLY) cooked and served with wonderful sides at least this is what my honey said I didn 't taste them... I tasted the venison but honestly I was too absorbed with my own dish to pay attention to what was going on with his after the negotiated trading of a small taste of the meats... Mine was the quail stuffed with venison served with wild mushrooms and had the MOST AMAZING hazelnut caramelly sauce on the side. I think if memory serves correctly that there were also smashed parsnips on one of the dishes... but honestly the quail stuffed with venison and the hazelnut were extra ordinary. Beautifully plated and I can still taste the hazelnut. Funny thing is that aside from frangelico and the occasional nutella craving I can honestly say I dislike most things with a hazelnut taste. I can also honestly say that the hazelnut based sauce served with the quail was one of the best things I have ever eaten in a long time. Dessert was fun. Small mason jar of ridiculously rich pot au chocolate but the best was a mini tire .... a mini hollowed out log filled with snow brought to our table onto which they poured the liquid goodness of hot maple syrup and we did a mini cabane au sucre tire at our table... kitsch? Yes. A little touristy? Yes. A little expensive for what it was? Yes. But delightful and a fun way to end a perfect meal in one of Quebec 's most beautiful areas. This restaurant was our most expensive meal here but it was better priced than similar quality in larger cities. Interesting and well priced wine selection which compliments the locally sourced food. Well worth a visit if you ever make out here. I have been plotting our return ... we want to try the local crab dish that looked to die for at the next table.

Yum! The food is delicious and the restaurant is conveniently located near the ferry. They offer four draft beers, including some nice craft options. The lobster linguine was a standout dish. It's the perfect place to stop, rest, and enjoy a nice meal after a day of sightseeing. And to top it off, there is an ice cream parlor right next door.

Delicious ! We went two nights in a row since it was the ideal place in town. Small and cosy with live jazz music, yet the food was distinguished. Had seafood both nights, and also venison cerf . Everything was well presented and flavorful. Service is friendly. Local products. Will definitely go back next time we come to Tadoussac !

The restaurant was fully booked but they found a 90 minutes slot for us. Service was not rushing us and being very supportive. The terasse was heated after sunset to keep us warm. I had the Assiette de la Mer au Curry, that was just perfect. If you want to have your seafood moment on the riverside, this is the dish to have. I definetely recommend this place.

We tried to walk into Chez Mathilde on a Wednesday night during the summer around 8:00 and despite the fact that there seemed to be a lot of empty tables they were not able to seat us without a reservation. They were, however, able to give us a reservation for the next night at 8:30. The dishes that were coming out looked delicious so I gladly took it. We came back at 8:30 on Thursday and the restaurant was way more crowded. Every table was packed except for one directly next to the musicians (bass and piano), which is where we were seated. It was a little bit loud but not actually too bad. Fortunately the waitress spoke very good English and was really helpful. She explained the specials to us and let us know that they didn't have the rain deer but that they had replaced it with veal. My partner ordered a lobster mushrooms with bacon and I ordered a crispy egg, which was a poached egg deep fried with red peppers and chorizo. My partners also ordered the king crab and I ordered the seafood platter. The king crab was roughly one full king crab nicely cooked and broken to make it easy to eat. It also had some small shrimp floating around in the broth. The seafood was two king crab claws, a lobster tail, mussels and shrimp floating in a salty but light coconut curry. Unfortunately, the waitress was slammed and it took more than an hour for our appetizers to get to us. When they came they were both beautiful and delicious. It then took a good bit longer for our food to come. Both of those dishes were good as well, though the sauce on the seafood platter was overly salted for my taste. We ended up eating our meal as the waitstaff was closing the place down, the music had already stopped for 30 minutes and the energy of the whole place was gone. In the end dinner took us 2.5 hours for two courses. The waitress was apologetic and nice about it, she even tried to offer us a dessert on the house but at that point we just wanted to leave. The restaurant is modern, fun and the food was great. We probably hit them on a bad night and overall it was far better than the other dinner we had in Tadoussac, but the kitchen was just not able to handle the flow that they had when we were there and it spoiled the experience.