Chouchou Limoilou: As Good As It Looks

Chouchou Limoilou is, in fact, as good as it looks. Québec City has plenty of strong tables. What it had less of was a sandwich shop in Limoilou where you could grab something properly made at lunch, in a room you actually want to stay in, without spending a fortune or hunting around for an hour. Chouchou, open since May 2026 on Third Avenue, fixes that with a lot of style.

Behind the counter is the crew from Le Cendrillon and La Planque, two well-known Québec City addresses. Frédéric Samson and Marie-Eve Massicotte, a couple for 12 years, met when La Planque opened, where they both worked. Fred runs the show, orchestrates, and gets his hands in the dough. Marie-Eve handles the illustrations, the visual identity and the social media for Chouchou. The recipes were developed by Thomas Barry, chef at La Planque, and William Martineau, a former sous-chef who became Chouchou’s chef. It is a family affair, in the warmest sense of the word.

Why Chouchou Limoilou? “They were the chouchous we used to make ourselves at La Planque at the end of service, a mash-up of the sandwiches we had collected,” explains Marie-Eve. (In Québécois, a chouchou is a favourite, the one you spoil.) The team was looking for a concept, a through-line, and realized it kept saying the same word. These were their chouchous, and the name stuck.

The sandwiches are serious without taking themselves seriously. The shokupan comes from Borderon bakery. The burger buns come from Pascal le Boulanger, a recipe developed with Frédéric around potato starch, which gives a bun that is tender, generous and just moist enough. The meat in the smash burgers comes from Boucherie Croc-Mignon, a few steps away: a Highland cross from Saint-Édouard-de-Lotbinière and Wagyu Angus. Every detail was worked out by people who spent 10 years eating their way across Québec and beyond, and who know exactly what makes the difference. “Fred wanted to have fun. Take everything we know, and put it into sandwiches,” says Marie-Eve. The offering at Chouchou is simple, but everything is very good.

On the drinks side, Maxime Maltais signs Chouchou’s house list: matcha, iced teas and other small finds. Marie-Claude Légaré, sommelier at La Planque, tracked down the good bottles, with ciders, beers, Québec wines and non-alcoholic options.

The Third Avenue space seats about ten inside and 25 on the terrace, on a sunny, busy street corner that Fred and Marie-Eve have known for years. They used to come here for little lunch dates when La Planque had just opened nearby. They designed the room themselves, with the firm Spatiale, pulling together everything they had seen travelling across Québec and the world and assembling it their own way. The result lands. And what you see today is only half the project: in the fall, a dining room will open in the building behind the sandwich shop. For a restaurant that opened a month ago in Limoilou, that is already a lot. For Fred and Marie-Eve, it is just the beginning.

Written by Jean-Philippe Tastet
Photography by Chouchou Limoilou

Updated on June 19, 2026

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