January 30, 2015: Le Comptoir

Ever since I started taking pictures of the food I eat my friends and family have said that I should blog about all the restaurants I visit. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older and I feel like I can’t remember my favorite meals as well as I used to or maybe it’s because I’m finally finished with school and don’t really have an excuse to not write more, but I figured I would finally give in to those suggestions and start doing some writing. Hopefully I'll get better at it sooner rather than later.

Le Comptoir is an extremely small 10-seat “restaurant” that is the brainchild of chef Gary Menes. The space is little more than a diner counter with a sink, refrigerators and counter space behind it. There are no open flames in the restaurant at all, only a countertop convection oven and about three induction burners.

Chef Menes started Le Comptoir as a pop-up restaurant concept that was vegetable centric and featured many veggies from his own garden and he has not changed a thing now that his restaurant has a permanent residence. On this night there was one other couple dining as well as Christal and me for a grand total of four diners, which matched the number of kitchen staff including chef Menes. The four chefs took care of everything from the cooking (obviously) to bussing to dishwashing. Throughout the meal it was fun to observe the interactions between chef Menes and the rest of the staff. Pretty much each course chef Menes was softly chirping at the commis, Josh, to hurry up with his plating and garnish placement and then once the dishes were served he would give him a wry smile. The sous chef and chef de partie were the main “busboys,” dishwashers and cashier.

Chef Menes & His Sous Chef Plating 

We started the meal with an amuse bouche of crispy Carolina gold rice with blistered shishito pepper, sherry vinaigrette & carrot top garnish. The only problem with the dish was that not all the rice was crispy, but with that being said the dish was still excellent. There was the perfect amount of rice to match with the small shishito pepper and the sherry vinaigrette provided just enough acid to keep everything light and brighten up my palate. After eating it my mouth was definitely amused and ready for more.

Amuse Bouche

The second course was a Japanese sweet potato velouté with Greek yogurt and fried bread. The bread that was used for the fried bread was a sourdough made from chef Menes 20 year-old sourdough starter and I wished that we could have had more of it. The velouté itself was velvety, rich and absolutely packed with sweet potato flavor. It had great balance between savory and sweetness, the Greek yogurt provided the acidity to brighten the whole dish, and the fried bread added a needed textural contrast to tie it all together.

Sweet Potato Velouté w Greek Yogurt & Fried Bread 

The next course served was the vegetable and fruit plate and pretty much everything on the plate was grown by chef Menes in his garden. It had a large slice of sautéed apple, roasted broccoli and cauliflower, roasted beet, simmered celery & celtuce, candied calamansi, pickled onion, sautéed carrot, tangerine segments, corn, seared grapes, almond, celeriac puree and finished with a baby radish. Obviously this dish was very light and refreshing, but it also had a lot of complexity without being confused. One of the things I enjoyed most about the dish was how literally every bite was different. I also have not really been exposed to celtuce very much, but the way it was prepared made it tender yet crisp it’s flavor was kind of a mix of romaine lettuce, celery, green bean and artichoke and it was very enjoyable.

Vegetable & Fruit Plate 

For the fourth course I chose to get the supplemental item, which was Santa Barbara spiny lobster with tomato fonduta and sautéed cauliflower leaves.  This dish was outstanding and it showed how incredible simplicity could be. The lobster was pan roasted with some thyme and butter until it was perfectly medium rare. The tomato fonduta was meltingly soft under the lobster and the cauliflower leaves provided some much needed bitterness to round out the sweetness of the lobster. This was another dish I wished I could have had half a piece of bread to sop up all of the juices left in the bowl.

Santa Barbara Spiny Lobster

Christal’s fourth course was an oeuf en cocotte with beurre noisette, baby lettuce, Parmigiano-Reggiano and sourdough bread from the 20 year-old starter. The egg was cooked in the brown butter until it was perfectly over easy and topped with the Parmesan cheese. The baby lettuce provided added crunch and acidity to the rich egg and after it was all spread on the sourdough bread it felt like we were eating a really good breakfast.

Oeuf en Cocotte 

The fifth course was a tranche of roasted blue Hubbard squash with wheat berries, preserved cherries, pumpkin seeds, beet greens and an orange reduction. This dish may have been one of the most surprising dishes I had all night.  As the chefs plated up the dish I have to admit that I really wasn’t excited about the dish, but once I tasted it I did a complete 180. The squash was roasted perfectly. It was tender and caramelized, but not mushy. The wheat berries provided a chewiness to the dish that helped make it seem more substantial than it was (even though it was a pretty big piece of squash). The pumpkin seeds added some crunch and the cherries added some sweetness. Last, but certainly not least, the orange reduction…oh the orange reduction. It was so simple, but it seemed to make everything come together in perfect harmony. The only minute criticism I had was that the middle three to four bites of the squash were under-seasoned due to the thickness of the squash, but once you rolled those bites around in the orange reduction a little extra all was forgiven.

Tranche of Roasted Blue Hubbard Squash

For the sixth course I again ordered the supplemental item, which was dry aged prime beef with rouge d’hiver (heirloom red romaine), roasted pear and parsley vinaigrette. Unfortunately, this was probably my least favorite dish and maybe it was because I had such high expectations for it. The beef was cooked to perfection and rested more than sufficiently and the parsley vinaigrette on top was excellent. The roasted pear was delicious, especially with the pear juices spooned over the top, and the rouge d’hiver was lightly sautéed so that it didn’t lose its crispness, but was more tender and temperature appropriate for the dish. Even though each component was good on its own they didn’t all mesh together the way the roasted squash dish had. The beef was tougher than I was expecting and I think there were almost too many sauces on the plate. The pan juices that the pears were seared in were generously spooned over the pears and the same with the rouge d’hiver and when it was all mixed with the parsley vinaigrette it almost seemed to cancel each other out. In the end I certainly wouldn’t say this is a bad dish, just that my expectations were not met and may have been too high for this dish.

Dry Aged Prime Beef

Christal’s sixth course was a “fricassée” of peas, broccoli and scallions over stone ground grits with jus d’onion. After tasting her dish I wished I had stuck with the regular menu item. The “fricassée” of vegetables was really tasty and fresh and the grits were super rich and creamy and unctuous, but the onion jus elevated the dish to another level. It provided a depth of flavor that made you forget about having any animal proteins on your plate.

"Fricassée"

Our seventh, and last course was a sourdough donut hole (from the 20 year-old starter) with sour cream, Meyer lemon curd and brulee banana. This dessert was good, but it just wasn’t at the same caliber that the rest of the meal was at. It kind of reminded me that most savory chefs are not that comfortable with desserts. The sour cream was just a small quenelle of plain sour cream. I felt like they could have spruced it up some with some cinnamon sugar mixed in or something along those lines so that it would kind of lean more towards dessert. The lemon curd was good, but there was less lemon curd on the plate than sour cream. When you spread both the sour cream and the curd on the donut hole it was just slightly sweet and by the end of the bite it almost tasted like savory dish.

Sourdough Donut Hole

Once the meal ended chef Menes seemed to relax. He started talking with us more and I really got a greater sense of his passion for food and his profession. Overall I would definitely recommend Le Comptoir to anyone, and especially to people leaning towards vegetarianism. It was a truly unique experience to dine in a restaurant that had just as many chefs as it did patrons.

Food 4/5
Service 5/5
Christal's Rating 4/5
http://www.lecomptoirla.com/