Bear in mind, Montreal is close to no ocean so though we are on an island fresh seafood can be hard to find. When fish and chips is fresh and perfect it's probably in my top 5 favourite foods, and when it's anything less than perfect it kinda breaks my heart because it just doesn't bring those same memories back. Le Comptoir 21 today was perfect - the fish was so light and fresh and buttery and not at all fishy I couldn't believe it; according to the owner it comes up from Boston (which explains it's bold Maritime-y American attitude =). The batter was perfect, especially squirted with the bottles of malt and regular vinegar provided, and dipped in the homemade tartar. I had a pint of local blonde beer from the tap, but saw they also had bottles of that lovely and inexpensive C'est La Vie wine from the Pays D'Oc. The fries were perfect and my date said his steak sandwich was above average: the panini was warm and light and full of peppers, mushrooms and onions and gooood with the hot sauce.
We also really dug the communal seating at the counter wrapped around the smiling franglais waitress who seemed happy working in 360, dealing out the little baskets lined with blue and white check wax paper full up with breaded shrimp, calamari, burgers and darkly golden fries. You could almost almost hear the ocean and on this fall day in Canada we were just loving it.