Not every example of the cultural revival is in this part of town. Down by the Old Port, just 50 feet or so outside the fortifications, is Légende, par la Tanière. Légende, which opened last year, is the outgrowth of La Tanière, a restaurant outside of town that has been a beacon for fans of locavore cuisine since 1977 (the name means “animal’s den”). As at La Planque, the décor at Légende is more wacky than welcoming: gaudy prints on blond wood, in this case.

We started with a platter of charcuterie (mostly house-made) and some oysters, all excellent. The food that followed was the most ambitious (and expensive) we had in town, but also satisfying, even homey: pork belly with radish and fennel; a brouillade of morels and ram’s head mushrooms and foie gras in consommé. We paired it all with two bottles of wonderfully crisp, fruity white wines from the Niagara region.

Mr. Tremblay, the chef de cuisine, is another alum of Le Cercle, where he was the chef. He is also a purist; our server told us everything on our plates was from the province, which turned out to be a bit of hyperbole, but not by much.

“We want to take part in defining the cuisine of Quebec,” Mr. Tremblay told me later, and that means embracing its ingredients. A dish of pan-seared mackerel included “capers” that were actually buds culled from a local plant; another was perfumed with the green tips of the balsam tree.

“It takes some commitment,” he said. “One night, we finished cooking at 1 in the morning, and I went out with a chef here to go pick those flowers along the side of the river till 4.”

But most importantly, he said, was putting the emphasis on who comes through the door, something classically Québécois.

“It’s written in our DNA that we love to take care of the customer,” he said.

If You Go

Food and Drink

La Planque 1027, 3e Avenue; 418-914-8780; laplanquerestaurant.com.