La Petite Primerose: an exceptional table in Gatineau

Opened on 15 March 2025 on rue Bégin, in Gatineau’s Val-Tétreau neighbourhood, La Petite Primerose holds 28 seats. It’s small, it fills up fast, and when the room is full, “it buzzes,” says Tristan Bragaglia-Murdock. The energy he describes is one he and chef Lewis Robinson borrowed from the crowded Montreal bistros they love — those rooms designed for twelve where you end up fitting in twenty-five.

From Eleven Madison Park to a 28-seat room in Val-Tétreau

Lewis Robinson has been cooking for nineteen years. Before Gatineau, he passed through none other than Eleven Madison Park, the three-Michelin-star New York institution, then Daniel Boulud’s Restaurant Daniel, and Canoe in Toronto. Tristan runs the dining room, the cellar and the bar: a WSET graduate, he learned the trade across vineyards, breweries and cideries scattered all over, and he stands firmly behind natural wine. The two met five years ago, sharing the same itch — to rethink what a restaurant could be in the region.

Cooking dictated by farms, not suppliers

The concept is straightforward and demanding at once: a kitchen driven by farms rather than big distributors. “We work with whatever we can convince someone to grow or raise,” the chef sums up. He preserves and ferments straight through summer and fall to keep the region’s flavours within reach all year long. A full fermentation program — misos, garums, kombuchas, vinegars — underpins a menu of small plates that changes every week, landing somewhere between Nordic, Japanese, Spanish, Italian and French techniques.

“Let us feed you”: nine courses that change by the week

Prices shift depending on whether you order a small or large plate, but they stay fairly approachable. For anyone who wants to taste it all without committing to full portions — and feels like being spoiled — there’s the “let us feed you” option: a roughly nine-course tasting menu at about $100 per person that follows whatever the team feels like putting forward that day. “Because we change the menu every week, people come back and rediscover the place each time,” Tristan notes.

A room where a 50th anniversary sits beside a first date

The service mirrors the house philosophy. The team is small but efficient: the kitchen sends out the plates, everyone lends a hand at the dish pit, and the deliberately spare menu leaves all the room for conversation when a dish lands on the table. Tristan describes the dining room as “bright, airy, welcoming and comfortable, with a great energy.” On any given night, Lewis says, you’ll find “a 50th wedding anniversary next to a young couple on their first date, next to a group out just for the fun of it.” Put simply, any occasion is a good one to sit down at La Petite Primerose.

Good to Know

Seventeen more seats open up on the terrace in the warm season, reservations are suggested but not required, and the restaurant also hosts private events.

The Verdict

If you’re in Ontario, ten minutes from the bridge, La Petite Primerose is the kind of place that justifies crossing to the other side of the river; if you’re in Quebec, this is where it’s at: a true neighbourhood restaurant, ambitious on the plate and laid-back in tone.

Written by Jean-Philippe Tastet
Photography by Marianne Rothbauer

Updated on August 10, 2026

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