Le Lapin Sauté

Le Lapin Sauté
52 Rue du Petit Champlain  
Quebec City, QC G1K 4H4
(418) 692-5325
http://www.lapinsaute.com/english/home/

With the recommendations of coworkers growing up in Quebec, we have picked Le Lapin to celebrate this year's Valentine's day and our 'first' romantic dinner during our trip to Quebec City.  Le Lapin is located in Quebec's Petit-Champlain district, a picture-perfect neighbourhood resembling a quaint riverside village with a romantic European atmosphere.  One of the most visited neighbourhood of Quebec! 

Walking in Le Lapin, we were immediately greeted.  The restaurant has a country-in-the-city feel... a warm, quaint and cozy inns from the early 20th century.  Perfect for romantic getaway!  We were seated by the fireplace on a cold winter night.  And ordered a glass of cider (alcoholic version) to warm ourselves up.  I enjoyed the glass of cider very much, it is sweet and sour like apple juice and you can barely taste the alcohol in it. 

A glass of cider in pretty pink

As the restaurant name suggests, Le Lapin's specialty is rabbit.  Then after looking at the menu, we decide to go with the Rabbit and Duck for Two (Tout lapin tout canard) to taste the menu. To my knowledge, this is probably the first time I have real French cuisine!

After ordering, the waiter gave us some in-house appetizer to start.  It is French bread baked daily served with some spread.   The spread is crumbly, dark, and tasty!  I have no idea what it is made of, but it is absolutely delicious.  I wish I remember what the name of the spread to tell you more about it.

Appetizer French bread with spread

The rabbit and duck for two menu includes rabbit leg confit, homemade rabbit "rillettes", rabbit sausage, duck leg confit, duck foie gras, and smoked duck breast served with carrots and onions confit, "La Sauvagine" cheese, nuts bread with nuts, rustic bread, beets and apples salad, mustards and pickles ($62.95).

Rabbit and Duck for Two

This is my first time eating rabbit and smoked duck breast. Let me describe each item...

Rabbit leg confit (top right) - confit describes the traditional way of preserving meat usually with goose or duck leg.  The meat is salted and seasoned with herbs, slow cooked, cooled, and stored in its fat.  Rabbit meat taste like chicken but with a hint of game meat taste (like lamb).  The leg is a bit on the dry side for my liking, but I think it is because rabbit meat itself is very lean.

Homemade rabbit "rillettes" (sphere shaped on the bottom left) - rillettes is a preparation of meat similar to pâté, where the meat is cut, salted, cooked slowly, shredded, cooled to form a paste for spread.  I really like the taste of the rillettes, it is tender and moist, and flavourful. 

Rabbit sausage (top right underneath the rabbit leg) - very delicious.  I don't have much to describe it, besides it taste like a sausage and it tasted good. 

Duck leg confit (bottom right) - similar to the preparation to the rabbit leg, but I like the duck leg confit much better.  It is juicy, tender, and flavourful.  The duck fat really helps! I have lots of BBQ duck as a Chinese, but this is my first time eating duck the French way.  Very good!

Duck foie gras (disk shaped on the left) - or duck liver. By French law, foie gras is the liver of a duck fattened by force feeding of corn and gavage.  I do enjoy the texture of liver pâté so I liked it.  It is rich, buttery, and delicate.  Although I find it pretty filling after a few bites.  The whole disk is a bit too much to eat, if you don't like liver.

Smoked duck breast (pink meat in the middle) - duck breast that has been slow smoked and thinly sliced.  Taste a lot like smoked salmon but a bit chewier.  I was so surprised by this.  Never heard of smoked duck breast before.  It is very tasty if you like smoked salmon.

Carrots and onion confit (bottom left) - cold salad of carrots and onion and it is sweet.

"La Sauvagine" cheese (top left) - honestly, I still don't appreciate cheese that much.  This cheese is rich and too flavourful for me.  So I can't comment too much on it.

Nuts bread with nuts (bottom right) - love, love, love this bread!! SO MUCH! I wish I can bake my own bread to make it.  Full of walnuts, almond, and other nuts... soft and warm... yummy!

Rustic bread - also baked freshly daily. Not as special, but it is yummy.  Bread is unlimited, you can ask for more to go with your meal if you would like.

Beets and apple salad (middle) - Amazing salad! Sweet and tangy and refreshing with the rest of the meal.

Mustard and pickles - I actually didn't eat the mustard at all. So no comment.  I did eat a lot of the pickles.  I am no expert in pickles though.  I found the pickles really help with the fattiness of the meal though. Palette cleansing.

Maple syrup crème brûlée

And to finish off with a delicious meal, we ordered their INFAMOUS, world renowned, Oh-you-will-die-from-eating-this... Maple syrup crème brûlée ($7.25) with some coffee. 

I have crème brûlée from a few places before, but I was never impressed with it.  I found most places have the hard caramel too thick.  If I eat it, I would finish eating the custard part so fast, but the caramel takes a long time to melt in my mouth.  This maple syrup crème brûlée... oh-it-is-different-and-special!  The caramel layer is PAPER thin!  When you first put in your mouth, you can taste the sweet maple flavour custard... within seconds the ultra thin caramel begins to melt and adds a hint of sugary-ness.  It is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! Definitely the BEST BEST BEST crème brûlée I have E-V-E-R tried.  I don't know how to emphasize this anymore!  The portion is big too.  Argh so good!

Overall impression of Le Lapin is very good. Great atmosphere, romantic, and reasonable prices.  This made me fall in love with French cuisine.  Wish I discovered it earlier =)