Paillard - Quebec City, Canada

Paillard is a cafe-style eatery that has several locations in Canada. The restaurant serves a combination of fresh breads, pastries, sandwiches and ice creams. The food was so good that we had to stop here twice on our vacation - once for a late night snack and the other for a small lunch.

The long communal tables were very cool

The restaurant has the feel and taste of a traditional French cafe but the fast speed of the American eatery Panera.





For our late night visit, my family ordered coffee and desserts.

Charles and I tried the macaron choco-banane. At first, I wasn't sure I would like it but soon after the first bite, my judgement completely changed. My first thought was it tasted like a banana dipped in chocolate fondu, which is delicious.

Napoleon

Then, Charles and I spilt a napoleon pastry.  This traditional French sweet is made up of three layers of puff pastry sandwiched in between two layers of pastry cream with the top pastry layer glazed with icing.

The pastry layer was filled with flaky and buttery goodness. The layers surrounding the pastry layer cream were dense and rich in yellowish cream. FYI this is a messy dish and whatever you eat it with (fork, spoon, fingers, ext...) it's still going to leave crumbs behind. But don't worry because the reward is worth it.

Unfortunately, we don't have the pictures from our lunch because we ate in a hurry to catch our flight home.  The lunch service has a number of choices such as sandwiches, soups, salads.  But the star of their lunch entres is definitely the fresh, home made breads. Honestly, it really didn't matter what they put in the sandwiches because the breads were amazing.


If you're in Quebec, definitely check out Paillard's.  It's a fun place for everyone - individuals, couples, families and students - where the food is fresh, fast, fabulous and famously reasonably priced. I only wish they had restaurants in the U.S.

- Thomas