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GuideUpdated July 3, 2026

3 Best French Restaurants in Ottawa

The 3 best french restaurants in Ottawa, sorted by rating and curated by TastyPals editors.

The best french restaurants in Ottawa are L'Orée du Bois, Chez Lucien, Metropolitain Brasserie Restaurant. Start with L'Orée du Bois if you want the strongest overall first pick.

By Marcus Chen•3 ranked picks•Published July 3, 2026•Updated July 3, 2026
Methodology•Editorial team
L'Orée du BoisChez LucienMetropolitain Brasserie Restaurant
3 Best French Restaurants in Ottawa
Google

Top picks at a glance

#1L'Orée du BoisFrench • Ottawa • $$$#2Chez LucienFrench • ByWard Market • $$#3Metropolitain Brasserie RestaurantFrench • New Edinburgh • moderate

Who this guide is for

This guide covers the highest-rated french restaurants in Ottawa. The picks are sorted by Google rating and review volume to give you a reliable shortlist. Picks span Ottawa, ByWard Market and New Edinburgh.

Quick picks

L'Orée du Bois
French • Ottawa
Twenty minutes north of Ottawa, across the river and into the Gatineau Hills, L'Orée du Bois occupies a building that reads as half Normandy farmhouse, half turn-of-the-century Quebec country home…
Chez Lucien
French • ByWard Market
Chez Lucien occupies a particular kind of space in the ByWard Market that Ottawa locals seem to guard with proprietary affection — a dim, lived-in pub room with a jukebox, a fireplace, and an atmos…
Metropolitain Brasserie Restaurant
French • New Edinburgh
Metropolitain Brasserie, a French brasserie in Ottawa's New Edinburgh neighbourhood, is the kind of room that has apparently made its peace with what it is and stopped renegotiating.
Browse all Ottawa restaurantsBack to Ottawa hub
Editorial details
Author: Marcus Chen
Published: July 3, 2026
Last updated: July 3, 2026

On this page

  1. 1. L'Orée du BoisView →
  2. 2. Chez LucienView →
  3. 3. Metropolitain Brasserie RestaurantView →

How the restaurants compare

Editorial restaurant image stand-in for L'Orée du Bois
Google
L'Orée du Bois
Ottawa • French
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
$$$
Best for
date night
Mood
Upscale
Editorial restaurant image stand-in for Chez Lucien
Google
Chez Lucien
ByWard Market • French
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
$$
Best for
date night
Mood
ByWard Market
Editorial restaurant image stand-in for Metropolitain Brasserie Restaurant
Google
Metropolitain Brasserie Restaurant
New Edinburgh • French
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
moderate
Best for
French bistro
Mood
New Edinburgh

How we chose

We looked for restaurants that feel like a strong fit for the guide topic, not just the most obvious names in the city. The shortlist favors rooms with clear mood, dependable pacing, and enough distinction to help someone decide faster. Read our full methodology →

Room tone

Lighting, pace, and general energy all need to support the reason someone clicked this guide.

Food fit

We favored restaurants that feel best suited for the moment, not just restaurants with broad reputation.

Useful range

The final list tries to give readers enough variation in neighborhood, price, and style to compare real options.

3 ranked picks

L'Orée du Bois — Twenty minutes north of Ottawa, across the river and into the Gatineau Hills, L'Orée du Bois occupies a building that reads as half Normandy farmhouse, half turn-of-the-century Quebec country home — and the distinction matters. Chef Jean-Claude Chartrand, who took over from founder Guy Blain in 2012, runs a kitchen without a cellphone, without social media, and with a chef's table where daily meals are prepared for every staff member. The room has white tablecloths, Paris maps on the walls, and an herb-and-edible-flower garden out back alongside a fumoir where salmon and scallops are cold-smoked over maple and oak chips sourced from local furniture makers. This is not a restaurant chasing the moment. It has been holding the same shape since 1978, and the night here — unhurried, deliberately removed from the city — is the point. It suits people for whom dinner is an occasion, not an event. The kitchen's identity is rooted in classic French technique pulled through a distinctly Québécois lens. The caramelized onion soup arrives with a hint of maple syrup from Ripon; the fondant of foie gras is paired with maple and cranberry jelly. Both speak to the house's real project: not French cuisine transplanted to Quebec, but French cuisine absorbed by it. The Beggar's Chicken — marinated in maple port from Domaine Acer in the Gaspésie, then sealed in clay and cooked at very low temperatures for five hours — is the dish that regulars most consistently cite, a preparation that requires the kitchen's full day and reads, on the plate, as the reason to make the drive. Duck confit and a green peppercorn steak round out a table d'hôte that resists novelty in favor of depth. Book a weekend table well in advance, particularly through autumn when the Gatineau Hills draw their own crowd. If the option exists, ask about placement near the garden side — the room is warm in the rustic sense rather than the designed sense, but position within it still matters. The move regulars know: commit to the full table d'hôte rather than ordering à la carte, and let the Beggar's Chicken anchor the evening — it requires advance notice, so flag it when you call to reserve. View restaurant →
Chez Lucien — Chez Lucien occupies a particular kind of space in the ByWard Market that Ottawa locals seem to guard with proprietary affection — a dim, lived-in pub room with a jukebox, a fireplace, and an atmosphere that regulars insist cannot be manufactured from scratch. The Market has a well-documented tendency toward tourist-facing bars that traffic in novelty; Chez Lucien's reputation sits in deliberate contrast to that, built over years into something that reads, by most accounts, as genuinely worn-in rather than art-directed. For a room of its size, the beer selection is reportedly serious, and the wine and cocktail list runs deeper than the scuffed, unpretentious interior would suggest — which appears to be a significant part of why it draws a crowd looking for an actual bar rather than a simulation of one. The kitchen is known for pub fare that operates a register above the format's usual ceiling. The burger is the dish that diners consistently return for and the one that comes up most reliably in the restaurant's broader reputation — hand-formed, properly griddled, served with frites, and described across sources as the kind of pub burger that quietly outperforms fancier rooms in the surrounding neighbourhood. The rest of the menu reportedly keeps to honest tavern cooking, food calibrated for a long evening rather than a destination meal, which is exactly what the room calls for. Chez Lucien is the kind of place better suited to couples who prefer character over candlelight than to those chasing a polished dining experience — a practical price point makes it genuinely accessible, and its reputation spans both the beer crowd and those who arrive for wine. The room is small and walk-in only; weekend evenings fill early, so arrive before the rush or plan to wait. View restaurant →
Metropolitain Brasserie Restaurant — Metropolitain Brasserie, a French brasserie in Ottawa's New Edinburgh neighbourhood, is the kind of room that has apparently made its peace with what it is and stopped renegotiating. By all accounts, the space reads as classically considered — banquette seating, warm light that diners describe as flattening the hour, tables spaced far enough apart that conversation doesn't require effort. It has a reputation as a date restaurant in the truest functional sense: not because of ambient softness, but because the room's pacing and noise level are consistently reported as creating conditions for actual attention. The front tables reportedly lose some of that quality on cold evenings, so if you can request a banquette, the consensus suggests you should. The kitchen's reputation is built on discipline over novelty, and the menu reflects that. The Classic Beef Tartare is known as a hand-chopped preparation — the kind of knife work that signals a kitchen taking the cut seriously rather than cutting corners. The Duck Confit is what regulars are said to return for, reportedly rich and patient in the way that defines the dish at its best. The Bouillabaisse carries the room's most serious intentions — described consistently as an aromatic, time-committed broth that functions as the kitchen's clearest statement of purpose. For those opening lighter, the Warm Chèvre has a reputation for threading acidity against creaminess without overshadowing what follows. Thursday and Friday evenings are reportedly the room at its best tension — full without tipping into frantic, staff present rather than stretched. The standing advice from those who know it: anchor the meal around the Duck Confit and the Bouillabaisse, resist over-ordering starters, and let the kitchen's pacing do the structural work. At price level two, Metropolitain is quietly one of the more complete evenings Ottawa offers for the money. View restaurant →

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Save these spots to your Ottawa list

Save these spots to your Ottawa list in the TastyPals app, then explore similar restaurants when you want a tighter shortlist for the night.

Personalized city picksCleaner shortlistsBuilt for iPhone and Android
TastyPalsTonight
Your taste. Our picks.
Smarter follow-through after the guide: better restaurant context, quicker narrowing, less second-guessing.
For tonight
Date night spots with warm rooms and polished service
Next step
Keep exploring in the app when you want a tighter shortlist