Le Comptoir has been on my Montreal restaurant list since my Feb
visit. I managed to scope it out in the snow and have been meaning to
return since I made the move in March. We sat at the bar arriving just
before 8 and stayed pretty much til close.
I instantly liked the vibe of the place, there's a main
bar area with stool and a few smaller tables, the place was full on
both Monday and Tuesday nights, it's quite difficult to find restaurants
that open Sunday and Monday, which is very annoying. Will Travel for Food blog has a list of places opening, though it's a couple of years
old....
We had a look at the wines by the glasses, the list is
pretty impressive, we opted for fizz and had the Cremant d'Alsace, Andre
Durrmann which was so smooth and almost creamy in taste that we stuck
to it all night.
We began with the charcuterie board, all made in house. I'm not going to pretend I listened and took in what each was, there was a smoked duck 'ham' a pate type one and 3 similar ish sausages. All very good. Came with little crisp breads, I was expecting the baguette I could see on the bread board on the bar. This was the small platter $10, also available in large, $15.
First actual main dish to arrive was the shrimp ceviche
with lardon and shallot confit ravioli with pine nuts, these were
served on squash ricotta puree $16. Liked the textures here, the pine
nuts were really crunchy, Really nice ceviche, they like their purees.
We were eating annoyingly slowly.
Next we had the calamari with tomato, olive and coriander $13. The calamari was nicely cooked and the sauce was full of flavor.
My
fave dish of the night came next, the pan fried cod with fennel and
potato mouselline (basically mash) with clams, pepperone, pickled
shallot and paprika oil. The cod was brilliant, a nice mellow combination of flavours and a nice looking dish. Some might be perturbed by the oil, but I like a bit of paprika oil.
Last main dish to arrive, about 3 hours after our arrival (good thing, we wanted to graze and gossip) was not actually one we ordered but we were happy enough with it. The eggplant (oh god, what have I become) and ground pork mezza luna ($14), so named because their half moon shape resembles the chopping implement of the same name.
Looking at this pic - it actually looks nothing like a half moon, it was good though and probably the prettiest plating of the night. A nice crispy onion ring, pine nuts, miso buffalo yoghurt and basil all combining, sounds a little all over the place, but it worked.
Then we had the cheese plate. Obviously very nice! This came with more of the crunchy slices of bread which I thought was odd, given that they serve the baguette with some of the mains.
Still liked this place a lot though, the main reason being the atmosphere, the music was brilliant, the service was relaxed and unstuffy and we never felt at all rushed. Will definitely be back.
Last main dish to arrive, about 3 hours after our arrival (good thing, we wanted to graze and gossip) was not actually one we ordered but we were happy enough with it. The eggplant (oh god, what have I become) and ground pork mezza luna ($14), so named because their half moon shape resembles the chopping implement of the same name.
Looking at this pic - it actually looks nothing like a half moon, it was good though and probably the prettiest plating of the night. A nice crispy onion ring, pine nuts, miso buffalo yoghurt and basil all combining, sounds a little all over the place, but it worked.
Then we had the cheese plate. Obviously very nice! This came with more of the crunchy slices of bread which I thought was odd, given that they serve the baguette with some of the mains.
Still liked this place a lot though, the main reason being the atmosphere, the music was brilliant, the service was relaxed and unstuffy and we never felt at all rushed. Will definitely be back.
No comments:
Post a Comment