When I am in Québec City, Canada, again, I will strongly consider returning to the Bar Artefact in the Auberge Saint-Antoine for Afternoon Tea. Thé à l’anglaise, as they call it, is served on weekends between 1 and 3 PM. In 2024, the price per person was CA$49 (~US$36.40) if 13 or older, CA$29 (~US$21.54) if between the ages of 6 and 12 inclusive, and free if 5 or under.
Reserving afternoon tea was very simple. We visited the front desk to ask for 1, they let us know they were full and could take me at 1:30, and I visited the Artefact Bar the next day.
The sitting area is small and cozy, but the music is modern and loud. If you can be seated in the side areas, it probably feels most pleasant. The afternoon tea placemats are round and gold and the regular placemats are black trimmed with gold thread.
What is the catch for such inexpensive “fancy” afternoon tea in North America? Well, they are not well-prepared for afternoon tea. They did not give appropriately-sized spoons for the small panna cotta cup, they forgot to give us small plates to put our tidbits on until requested, and they were not very good at refilling the tea, the quality of which was above average for North America but not exceptional. However, the food was excellent quality! At CA$49 per person before tax (~CA$56 / US$41.50 per person after tax and a CA$2 administration fee but before tip), I feel this was worth going to despite the downsides.
After the man behind the bar hurried over and seated us— without giving us the afternoon tea menu— I began to wonder if we were at the correct location. He gave us the afternoon tea part after. We did tell him our room number.
A female server came over later and asked if we wanted to switch to a bigger table, because we were two adults and one toddler. I took the offer, and we moved one table over. They took off the place settings on the new table, moved ours over, and sanitized the old table, which I very much approve of! Then, the server offered the toddler a coloring page and some colored pencils. This reflects well on the hotel: They want the patronage of the childless and child-having alike and try to help the children of the child-having not disrupt everyone else.
We ordered Nan Mei, a white tea with sage and clementine, and Thé du Labrador, an herbal tea originating in Québec that is meant to remind one of lichen and cedar. I decided that I do not like when the light flavor of white tea is darkened with sage. The Thé du Labrador smells and tastes “green”. Both teas had a sort of staleness to them, too. Frankly, they had the worst tea I have had in the last three months.
However, the Auberge Saint-Antoine served the best food I have had in the last 3 months! I do think their strength is more in savory and the scone than in sweet. The sweets were all made well but were not in any way unusual or exceptional. The savory pieces all had some component that popped with flavor in your mouth— as long as you managed to get a bit of everything in your mouth at once! (My first bite of the duck rillettes bit was a rather plain.) Those who are pickier about proper size may find that the savory bits are a bit large.
I was quite excited to see what looked like the same complimentary gingerbread cakes we had received in the hotel room. Those were very delicious, with a nice soft texture inside and a comfortable only slightly harder outside, and that was what made me want to have afternoon tea here. Unfortunately, these were wonderfully soft, which is great but not my personal favorite.
As I ate, some thoughts I had were: The tomatoes were treated in a way that made them so flavorful. The fir macaron was rather mild, which may be for the better. The jam was very runny, so I did more dipping than spreading.
I would visit again, if I were not in a mood that demanded better tea. Having to flag them down refills on my pot every time was definitely annoying and I consider it poor service, but I can deal with that for the dollar to food quality value.
Also, at the end, the server chased us into the lobby and said we hadn’t paid. I answered that I thought it was being charged to the room. She said she did not know our room number— which was one of the first things I said when we arrived— so there was some lack of communication or noting down of information.
