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| - I was excited to check this place out on a recent trip back home. We were unable to get resos for Garde Manger but were happy to try Les Coups. They were rated one of the top 10 new restos in Canada by enRoute, along with Toronto's Campagnolo, so I figured they knew what they were talking about. Not surprisingly, of these top 10 newbies, MTL held three spots.
I'm not sure what time the place closes but it was a Thursday night which was unnaturally dead in MTL. It may have been the horrible weather (rained like crazy), but when we arrived for our 10:30pm reso, all but two small tables were occupied in the dimly-lit space, located in Old Montreal. The decor was alright, a lot of dark colours, huge walls covered in images of a typical Paris neighbourhood, loved the ceilings...apart from that, nothing crazy. It may have been the time of day but I found service among some of the servers could have been a little less blah. But it's all good, it wasn't as though they were being offensive or rude. One younger woman with dark hair was especially nice.
There was a decent selection of dishes to choose from that evening. I started with the whipped goat cheese which was delicious and light-tasting, with clean flavours to whet the appetite. I didn't think it would be as substantial as it was but I was happy with the long curly slivers of cucumbers enveloping almond pieces, with a dab of honey jelly among the little balls of whipped cheese, and a couple of thinly-sliced grapes, which combined, would equal about 1/3 of a whole grape(what's up with that?). This dish, while not using the most expensive of ingredients, was clearly a laborious one to make and at $12, was well priced. My friend ordered the scallops which seemed more like a ceviche as it was almost raw. I don't remember how it was described on the menu (definitely not seared) but there was some warm creme fraiche-type deal on it (it was actually some kind of mild sauce of sorts) with black caviar strewn about the plate. I imagine the caviar was intended more for presentation or even texture, but it wasn't very flavourful and lacked any real texture as it bloated from cooking in the warmth of the sauce. The baguette they provided was terrible (surprising) and rock-hard--could be that it was the end of day but not a big deal as I wasn't there for the bread.
Next up, I had the wild bass--one of my fave fishes. Also a hit. Good sized slab of fish, perfectly crisped skin and edges, with maitake mushrooms and white asparagus. The vegs were SO TASTY, like they'd been seared with a really fatty rib steak. MMMMMM! My friend's beef short ribs were supposedly cooked for 72 hours, which I believe. I don't even know how they could have plated the thing without it crumbling into a million pieces as it was SO incredibly tender! So good it was, surrounded by what I think were hearts of palm and a lot of beets--some really pretty ones that were red, white, and spirally. I don't remember what type they were, only that they were of a Japanese variety. Both mains were excellent.
Les Coups' pastry/dessert? chef is one celebrated Patrice Demers so it didn't make sense not to have dessert! I had the panna cotta which featured a quenelle-shaped "piece" of ice cream, some hand-torn spice cake that was spiced just right, pumpkin seeds, and other little details which escape me right now. It was OK, but not the orgasm I was expecting. My friend's pot-de-creme was the typical caramel pudding concoction with salted toffee you see a lot these days. That too was alright, but again, nothing special. (I say Campagnolo's version is way better.) We were probably the only ones in the restaurant who didn't order any wine so I can't say much for their selection, but we did order a few cocktails and drinks which were generous on the alcohol. ;)
All in all, we were happy with our meal that night at Les 400 Coups--definitely worth checking out if you like contemporary French food, or merely curious. I noticed on their website they have a prix fixe lunch menu. I've no idea what portion sizes are like then but they sound like a pretty good deal if you've got more than an hour to spare over a lingering lunch.
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