Le Grand Comptoir

The service was terrible and the food was bland. The decor is unappealing and the entire experience was terrible.

Les meilleurs ris de veau - spot méconnu

Non loin de la Place Ville-Marie, lieu très décontracté sans prétention pour les lunchs de semaines entre collègues - Bistro classiquement apprêtés - faut prévoir le 'jogging' en fin de journée mais attentes pour ce type de plat garanties. Cassoulet, Ris de veau en sauce.

Best bistro in Montreal

We visit Le Grand Comptoir often when we go to Montreal and I thought I'd finally give it a review. It's really a favourite of ours and here's what to know about it: - It's a medium-sized bistro downtown with some seating outside, and apparently extremely busy at lunch though I've never hit the high time. - Food is mostly a nice assortment of meat dishes with soup/salad/fries/etc., nothing extremely fancy but very nice, really excellently prepared, and generous portions. - Wait staff is very fluent and friendly in English (we're useless in French). You don't get treated coldly or sold short with poor food or wine like can happen in busy or touristy areas. (I've been to a lot of restaurants that seem to have great reviews on here yet had terrible service, food, or sometimes even both) - Price-wise it's very very reasonable, including wine. - Again, the food is genuinely great all around, as good as most places I've been to that charge twice the price. The fries are some of the best ever (my wife said the same thing too the first time she came with me, without any prompting) One of my favourite things to note about Le Grand Comptoir is that it's one of the few restaurants of its kind that, when you're travelling alone, you can go to and have as good a meal and service as you would if you were there with two or more. There's often at least one person at their table alone, with a paper or chatting with one of the staff. Hmm...by now I know it probably sounds like I own the place so I should say something bad about it...I guess the decor isn't that great, but whatever. Really, all in all if I were to recommend any bistro in Montreal I'd say to go to this one first. It's great quality and unpretentious, which are two things you don't often find together.