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L'Astral
Category: Restaurants French French [Edit]
1225 Cours Du General-De MontcalmQuébec, QC G1R 4W6
(800) 463-5256
- Price Range:
-
$$$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Attire:
- Dressy
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- No
- Take Away:
- No
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Wi-Fi:
- No
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
10 reviews for L'Astral
10 reviews in English
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Review from Brian W.
3/21/2012 1 Check-in Here
The first time I ate at this restaurant was on my eighth grade French class trip to Quebec. I still remember being amazed at eating in revolving restaurant, it was great fun for a 12 year old on his first real trip away from home and family. We got dressed up, went to the top of the hotel and enjoyed a great meal served in the classic French style. A great memory!
Flash forward 30 years, and the experience was just as good. I definitely recommend getting reservations. When I told the concierge at the hotel that it had been 30 years since I was last here, and I really wanted to have dinner at L'Astral, he was able to find me a table at 8pm. I missed the sunset, but it's still the best view of old Quebec you can get!
The cuisine is still classic French, but they also had a buffet with a variety of great offerings. They even had a Jazz Band play throughout dinner. The view from the restaurant was as awesome as I remembered it as a kid, and I stretched my dinner into a 2 and half hour affair, ending with cafe au lait and a creme brulee, as I listened to the jazz and stared out into the Quebec City night. A great night, great restaurant, and great memories renewed.
Good food and the view is worth the price!! If you want to see the city during sunset for dinner, make sure you reserve ahead! It's not as dressy as it was when I was younger. I remember wearing a suit and tie to dinner, but it's still upscale casual for dining. Although I didn't have one at the time, it is also perfect for a romantic evening with someone you love...Ahh, Quebec! -
Review from Joe W.
8/29/2011
Top of the Hub in Quebec is the best way to describe this restaurant. I go every year mid winter festival. The view is everything and the ability to diametrically see the city only enhances the meal. you'll need to walk here so keep an eye were you're going, it's inside the Lowe's hotel I'm correct.
You leave your winter coats downstairs and ride to the roof. The entire floor rotates and you have the choice of buffet or menu accommodation. That part is up to you but there are themed menus depending on the time of year that might be more appealing than the buffet. The night is enhanced with a pianist that will play requests. Staff is polite , knowledgable and extremely attentive.
The views and ability to linger keep this spot on my must do list when in Quebec. Mid winter carnival you can see all activities and lights, even follow an occasional hours carriage. The rotation is slow and nearly unnoticeable, it's just happenstance that the buffet table gets farther and farther away.
Food is great and wine list is ok. I had a few waiters who didn't know a red from a white but the selection was great once corrected. Price is a little high but a splurge for the view, ability to sit for hours and not be disturbed and the sprawling views. -
Review from Jamie G.
Came here because I was so excited about going to a restaurant with a rotating roof. But unfortunately, I left never really wanting to come back because we had such HORRIBLE SERVICE!!! The place is gorgeous though-- just like top of the hub in Boston but with the rotating view.. so at your seat you can see all of Quebec without having to get up and walk around. It is a little disorienting and took a little while to get used to... it takes about an hour for the roof to rotate once all around, perfect time to eat your meal and see all of the city. So plus one star for a GREAT view. The food was also superb, so plus one star for that. We split a small dish of gorgonzola mushroom gnochhi which was to DIE for! I could have eaten several plates of the stuff. (but I wish it has come out as an appetizer, instead of with our meal). I had the Guinea Fowl for my main course, which wasnt as good as the gnocchi but still delightful. I'm not a big fan of fois gras (not just for ethical reasons-- I just dont think it tastes that good either!) and my mashed potatoes were made with it and the taste was too strong and turned me off. My friend got the short rib which looked AMAZING! For dessert, we split the chocolate flourless cake with olive chantilly cream and madagascar pepper ice cream. The cake was delicious, the ice cream was amazing- love the black pepper flavor in it and it went very well with the sweet cake, but the chantilly cream with the olives had a really weird flavor- not a fan. For drinks, I had a glass of Montepulciano, which was good. They had a decent wine and cocktail list. So another plus one for a good full meal. So three stars is really all I can muster. Everything was crazy expensive (of course we are also paying for the view), but I expect with those prices and the classiness of the restaurant to be served like a queen. But our waiter kept changing, and they were all rude- never checked on us, never asked us how our food was, took FOREVER to take our order, never came back to ask for for second drinks, assumed we would get dessert and just plopped down menus without asking, water boy was also rude and wouldnt not help us get our waiter, etc etc. The whole experience was awful, and really made me never want to come back, which is quite unfortunate.
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Review from Anatoli L.
7/31/2011
We had Sunday brunch there.
All food was very good. The buffet was not huge, but had very good selection, including different kinds of salmon, cold cuts, salads, variety of hot dishes, excellent selection of cheeses, an omelette station and roast beef station. Lots of fresh fruit, chocolate fountain and big selection of desserts.
At a price of $25/pp and kids 6 - 12 are half price, it was an excellent value also.
Service was good ( but this is buffet after all).
Definitely recommended for brunch. -
Review from Dustin T.
Toronto, ON
3/22/2011
The view - gorgeous
the food - very good
the service - competent, but a bit slow on this particular day (a late lunch on Saturday)
I don't like buffets and I am glad I did not have the buffet on this Saturday afternoon. The prix fix menu was very good. I had the beef cheeks. The four of us lunched for $120.Very Good value in my mind. And the portions were large enough to be dinner.
I would say that I felt a little under dressed in jeans and a sweater, you may want to kick it up a notch when you visit l'astral. -
Review from Bruce T.
9/6/2011
We collect restaurants with views, so we're biased towards a restaurant like this. I'm not sure what this place was like previously - as one reviewer lamented the change - but we thought it was great.
For the price, it wasn't a good deal without the view, but when factoring the unique location it was worth it. There was nothing to complain about in the food, and there were some imaginative touches. They were definitely trying for fairly top-end gourmet, and they got close. If we had to find a criticism it would be that the main courses were a bit bland and not as hot as the appetizers.
Our concierge made the reservation on Friday for a Labor Day Sunday evening. We would have wanted 7pm, but our choices were 6pm or 8:45pm. I'm glad we took the 6pm time because it allowed us to start our evening with drinks in daylight and watch the scenes change to night.
We had a perfect romantic table for 2 right next to the windows and we started with the feature view of the old town (not sure whether our concierge helped with that) and the table for 2 next to us was vacant the whole evening, so it was very private and quiet. We walked over to look at the buffet, but decided to have someone else make our plates and serve us. I had the Bay Scallops and Salmon and my wife had the Gazpacho and Sea Bass. All were excellent and we passed our plates back and forth to share the meals. We shared a very small "nouvelle style" chocolate dessert that was also great.
Our waiter was just right: there when we needed him, but not there when we didn't. He was top level too - polite, fast, relaxed, formal, everything you would want. And he allowed us to linger and take as much time for our evening as we wanted. The restaurant takes about 90 minutes to revolve, and we saw at least one and a half revolutions, so we really did enjoy ourselves. -
Review from Tony B.
Updated - 7/28/2010
After the first bad experience at diner we were given a free breakfast here by the hotel manager. Although the hotel manager has no authority over the restaurant she handled the situation very well.
Anyway - service for breakfast was very good, but it is a buffet so not too hard.
They had the standard scrambled eggs, sausage and bacon.
Crapes with butter and maple syrup were good, but a little too thick.
The croissants were very disappointing, they are obviously prepackaged and not fresh.
They had a nice selction of fruit and fresh whipped cream.
The have an omelet chef, but he was not that experienced.
He was having trouble flipping omelets and mine was really scrambled eggs by the time it was done.
Also, although we were not informed, you can get eggs benidict by request.
I would not recommed it unless it comes with the room for free.1 Previous Review: Show all »
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7/24/2010 First to Review
This is the revolting (sorry revolving) restaurant at the top of the Loews Le Concord Hotel in… Read more »
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Review from j t.
8/21/2011
We had lunch in the rotating restaurant. The food was very good. The price was reasonable. And the view - well, spectacular does not begin to cover it!
I had the lunch buffet, which had a reasonable number of delicious options. The desserts were great! -
Review from Deanna J.
3/6/2011 4 photos
We ate a buffet dinner at the L'Astral and it was wonderful. Dessert was even better.
A vast selection of meats, fruit, salad concoctions, pasta, and seafood to chose from.
I had a few glasses of a local white wine called Inukshiuk (2008) and it was one of the best wine's I've ever had.
The views of this rotating restaurant are just incredible. Visit at sunset and you've never seen anything so beautiful! -
Review from John C.
11/14/2010
What happened to this restaurant is absolutely tragic.
L'Astral used to be one of the best restaurants in the world. I stayed at the Concorde ten years ago when it was a frumpy old has-been that had decor right out of "Father Knows Best". The rotating restaurant at the top, L'Astral, was AMAZING. Old world service, hearty Canadian food like caribou medallions, gentle live piano music, a desert table like you have never seen in your life, piled high with everything from wedding cakes to eclairs to anything. It was like ascending to heaven on earth going up that elevator.
Then the hotel got bought out and it has been destroyed. I stayed there last year. The whole thing has been redone in French modern and is unbelievably tacky unless you are a low-class Québécois. The worst part of it, though, is the gutting of the astral. They hired some loser chef probably from New York and the menu is a nightmare. It is tiny portions of effete fluffery. The chef seems to think where you put the mint garnish on the rhombozoidal plate is the most important part of the meal. The beloved desert table is gone, replaced by a dismal buffet server in which a few pathetic items sit at the bottom of the darkened server. Predictably the place is empty now where you needed reservations before.
I was practically in tears. I brought my mistress here, not knowing the changes that had happened, and she was like "Why did you want to show me this place so much?" Seriously, I literally have tears running down my cheek thinking about it and I'm a 45-year-old man, it's so sad.
