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| - I threw my bike in the car and drove the 5.5 hours up to Montreal from the NYC area to spend a couple of days eating, drinking and looking at art (the Peter Doig show at the Fine Arts Museum is, in my opinion, worth the trip..).
This past Wednesday night I had drinks at the amazing Plan B on Mont-Royal. The bartender recommended Le Comptoir and claimed it was the best thing going in Montreal at present.
I can't really speak to that, however I *can* say that it was the best thing *I* have experienced in a LONG TIME. Why was it the best? After all, I live just outside NYC and NYC is nothing if not a foodie town.
Well, the extraordinary combination of location, ambiance, menu, ingredients, quality preparation and plating/presentation..
The restaurant is located in a seemingly hip part of Montreal with lots going on day and night.
The ambiance- I stopped in around 9pm. The place was very full of lively people in their 30s and up animatedly talking and eating and oohing and ahhing over the dishes being presented to them by the waiters/cooks - yes - that's the other cool thing about this place - as far as I can tell, the person who takes your order and discusses the menu with you may be the same person who goes back to the open kitchen behind the counter and prepares your meal.
The lunch menu is up on chalkboards facing the counter and the seating area. the dinner menu is on a card that you're given, with the wine list, when you sit down. The night I was there there were about a dozen dishes on the dinner card and it was difficult to decide - sweetbreads or octopus or squid or beet salad or pan roasted cauliflower... ??
I ordered the cauliflower which was served with anchovy mayo, arugula, slow cooked onion and fried bread (croutons, basically). I also ordered the white wine braised octopus, potato and creme fraiche tartlet with chorizo and toasted onion. But were really quite delicious. Gillian T. gave a 2-star review complaining about the portion sizes given the prices of the dishes and, you know, I can't say she's wrong. My bill turned out to be $50 CAN for the 2 dishes, 1 very small glass of very delicious white wine, tax and tip which did kind of seem a lot -- even though everything was SO DELICIOUS.
All in all it was a great dining experience which I would (and probably will) repeat - however, Gillian T is correct that this place should be in closer to the $$$ category given the portions which are beautifully prepared and plated yet kinda modest in volume.
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