over-seasoned evening

We haven’t had a lot of bad luck with our choice of restaurants in Canada. So we were particularly taken by surprise when we had an appalling meal at Le Cochon Dingue (the crazy pig), a restaurant specialising in porcine cuisine.

The restaurant chain was recommended to us by our Québec walking tour guide. She also recommended another restaurant for lunch in Vieux Québec that ended up great. There was no reason for us to be cautious, a local recommended it, google came up with top marks for it.

It wasn’t so much that it tasted bad. The predominant taste of that night was that of salt. When food is over-salted to such extent, it kills all other taste, even if we try to tease out some nuance to the meal, we’d fail.

We ordered three dishes, the escargot, steak frites and pork osso bucco. All three dishes, as far I am concerned, were slathered with the same oversalted sauce. It’s such a shame the beautiful job they did with the presentation was thus wasted.

Escargots in porto sauce - $6.95

Steak frites - $18.95

Pork osso bucco - $17.95

Imagining for a second that the sauce wasn’t oversalted, I would’ve loved the chewy snails against the crispy delicate filo pastry, I would’ve loved the tender vegetables against the unctuous pork shank and al dente pasta. But the steak was unredeemable, the meat was dry and overcooked for a medium.

Despite their flaws, we finished the meal anyway, we were tired, we couldn’t be bothered asking and waiting for replacement meals. We went back to the hotel, drank 2 litres of water and went to bed.

Le Cochon Dingue

1550 Boul Lebourgneuf

Québec QUÉBEC
Open 7 days 7am-9pm