Quilliams Restaurant, Quebec
Quebec’s Eastern Townships: Just Ducky
Quilliams bar is a light-filled modern affair that invites a stop.
Located right across the street from Lake Brome (or Lac Brome as the area’s Francophile residents call it) and surrounded by the Quilliam Reserve wetland, Quilliams Restaurant is located in the quaint Quilliam Hotel just outside the village of Knowlton in Quebec’s Eastern Townships.
The restaurant is famous for Lake Brome Duck, a fall-off-the-bone delicious Peking-style fowl raised nearby.
Quilliams Restaurant occupies a large, graceful space with plenty of windows that bring in plenty of natural light and the surrounding scenery. You can enjoy a pre-dinner cocktail while watching birds and waterfowl frolic in the tangle of wetland greenery (hotel guests can use the canoes to explore waterways that lead to the lake).
The restaurants uses local goat cheese that's creamy and mild tasting.
We started our meal with a goat cheese terrine consisting of three large slabs of creamy local goat cheese served with crisp bread, and a bit of lettuce and radish sprouts for a little bite.
My spinach salad was a generous helping of spinach leaves, red onion, tomatoes, micro-sprouts, feta, and big slices of crispy bacon.
Since the restaurant is known for Lac Brome duck confit, I opted to try it. The duck is cooked whole at low temperatures for several hours, allowing the duck fat to marinate the meat, crisp the skin, and drain off, leaving rich, succulent meat that’s not the least bit greasy. The crispy skin contrasts nicely with the oh-so-tender duck meat. It’s beautifully served with blueberries and accompanied by roasted asparagus, carrot, sweet pepper, and tomato and buttery polenta.
Beef tenderloin and rack of lamb are also both popular.
The rack of lamb marinated with Provence herbs and rosemary juice and Angus beef tenderloin in cognac and parsley butter both came beautifully presented. My dining companions who ordered them were nearly as happy as I was with the duck.
Dessert isn’t to be missed at Quilliams either. We ordered several to share: chocolate mousse with candied walnuts, crème brulee, and lemon bars with raspberry sorbet – all of them made a delicious end to our meal.
For wine lovers, Quilliams has their own sommelier who can assist with their wine list that boasts 250 labels.
Desserts like this ultra-creamy mousse with candied walnuts ends the meal well.
Real bottom line: Quilliams Restaurant, which we found occupied mainly by the hotel’s guests, is an undiscovered gem that more visitors should take time to discover. The food is beautiful, the service professional, and their succulent duck is well worth the hour’s drive from Montreal to the verdant Eastern Townships.
