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Bringing a casual setting and price point to the Montreal French bistro dining experience, Le Comptoir Charcuteries et Vins offers up astonishingly inventive meals and lively atmosphere late into the evening in its open kitchen space on the corner of St-Laurent and Villeneuve. Drawing inspiration from the Italian enoteca, the restaurant caters to any diner's needs with an always-evolving variety of small to medium plates ranging from home-cured charcuterie to delicately poached fish, to a hearty beef short rib. Whether you walk in for an early dinner or a late bite, sit down at the long wooden counter with a friend or a loved one, order some wine, and sip it slowly while watching the staff labour over beautifully plated gourmet food. Once you see something that looks good, order it. Then order more wine to go with your meal.
Eat, drink, repeat. You won't be disappointed.
What's Really Good?
Scan the tempting chalkboard menu, narrow your order down to a few choices, and then add a platter of Le Comptoir's home-cured charcuterie to begin your meal. Served on a wooden board with pickled vegetables and an out of control cumin spiced mustard that's also prepared in-house, the very generous assortment of sliced dry sausage, foie gras mousse, and cold cuts will start you off right. Depending on the night, you may be lucky enough to find some porchetta di testa on your board; this heavily marbled slice of rolled pork head is drizzled with olive oil and is so impossibly tender that it dissolves into salty, subtly smoky heaven the second it hits your tongue.
Almost all the prepared dishes will satisfy, but notable choices include a plate of roasted cauliflower served with anchovy puree and arugula salad, the very popular lobster tart piled high with chunks of choice lobster meat, sweet bread and green pea salad, poached mackerel with hazelnut butter... quite frankly it's almost impossible not to recommend a menu item here. It may be easier to choose a favourite, in which case I suggest the crispy pork flank with apples, coriander, radish, lemon foam, and barbecue sauce; the fatty pork and smoky sweet sauce play against the acidity and bitterness of the other ingredients, jolting all your taste buds at once with intense flavours that satisfy more and more with each bite until you're left with an empty plate in front of you and an almost inappropriate look of satisfaction spread on your face.
The restaurant's ambitious flavour combinations and sexy plating continue with dessert. Chocolate terrine with wine poached pears and masala caramel, Pineapple cooked sous-vide with white chocolate-filled coconut fondants and passion fruit gelatin, and goat cheese cheesecake with honey foam are typical choices. The chocolate terrine bursts with deep cocoa flavour, and the pineapple dish combines textures in a way that few restaurants in the city even attempt. An always-available cheese platter served with bread from Guillaume bakery offers a alternative to sugar and provides a great excuse to sample Le Comptoir's dessert wine selection.
You'll Wanna Know:
Unless you plan on stopping in for a late meal (After 10pm), make sure to call ahead. The laid back vibe and low prices (no dish costs over $20) make for an attractive combination and the restaurant fills up for dinner almost every night of the week. While the restaurant does offer group seating, the real show is at the counter; working up an appetite while observing the staff prepare your drool-worthy dinner is an unbeatable experience (it's also a great distraction, especially when the conversation with your date isn't flowing so well), and so Le Comptoir is best enjoyed as a one-on-one night out.
While dishes rarely disappoint, the slightly experimental nature of the cuisine makes for occasional missteps in the preparation of some ingredients; a crab salad that's since been removed from the menu came doused in an overpoweringly creamy dressing, and the wine-poached pears in the chocolate terrine dessert are too firm and undercooked to be served in that format. Also, while the wine list is very reasonably priced, the low-cost options aren't fantastic, so if you've come for good wine, be prepared to order something further down the list.
In addition to dinner every night, Le Comptoir offers a lunch menu from Tuesday to
Friday and serves brunch on Sundays.
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