International menus are found at all the larger hotels, but the best food is found by wandering around the small backstreets of the cities and sampling the small but excellent restaurants scattered throughout both cities. The le d'Orleans is an island northeast of Qu bec City that provides abundant fruit and vegetables for the city. Qu bec follows French tradition in having excellent standards of wine and spirits to complement the high standards of cuisine. Some spirits and the rarer wines are imported from Europe. Wines and spirits based on maple sap are a speciality of the region, among them maple cider and maple whiskey.
Local mead is said to be good.
Cocktail lounges and cabarets stay open until 0200 and 0300 respectively in Montr al. The minimum drinking age is 18. Qu bec City and Montr al offer some of the best nightclubs and cabarets to be found anywhere in Canada. In Montr al the action seldom begins before 2200 and usually continues until 0300 the next morning. Nightlife is concentrated in the western part of the downtown area along Crescent and Bishop Streets and around Ste-Catherine Street, where there are many bars, restaurants and clubs of all kinds.