Wanting a somewhat change from the usual staples offered for brunch, my girlfriends and I were off to Le Comptoir which is opened by the people behind O Batignolles for French crepes.

We arrived on a Saturday at 12noon to an almost empty eatery. But I will still recommend to make reservation if one is coming in big group or if one wants to sit at the table with the swing bench. Although I wouldn’t recommend the latter. I personally prefer a stable seat when I’m eating. =)

But what we were not prepared for was that Le Comptoir is not air-conditioned. So after walking under the scorching sun for a good 5 to 8 minutes from Raffles Place MRT station, coming to an equally humid eatery was not a good piece of news for the group of us who were sweating.

And from the menu (pages 1, 2, 3, 4), we ordered:-

1) Hot buttery sensation, $19 (above) – Chicken, butter, onion, garlic, turmeric, curry & coriander leaves. From their monthly specials, this was like an Indian-inspired flavoured dish. Some of us thought it was not too bad, while the rest did not enjoy it because they were expecting something else. The dish could do with a more appropriate naming.

2) Menage a 5, $16 (above) – Emmental cheese, ham, egg, mushroom, tomato. My favorite of the 3 flavours we chose for savory. I really liked how all the ingredients came together, especially with the cheese. Yum!

3) Nordic inspiration, $16 (above) – Marinated salmon, baby spinach, dill chantilly, lemon juice. The most impressive looking crepe but the most disappointing in terms of taste. The crepe was too thin. And with sauce only put in the centre, the crepe was thin and dry.

4) Mushroom stuffed chicken, $24 (above) – From 6 options of sides to choose from, we went with our 2 choices of crispy potato wedges and bacon and leek fondue. The dish name was very misleading as we were not given an entire chicken. The mushrooms were also not stuffed within the chicken, but placed at one side. We were also surprised to find black fungus used. A chinese ingredient in a french dish.

5) Coco chanel, $11 (above) – Pear, chocolate, chantilly, almonds. Wheat flour is used for the sweet crepes and we unanimously agreed we preferred this batter. Nicely cooked with a chewy texture. Wished there was more chocolate sauce though. And we cleaned out this dish although we had earlier claimed we were too full from mains. Keke.

6) Cidre brut tradition, domaine fournier, $25 (above) – Dry apple cider.

Crepe wise, Le Comptoir probably served average tasting crepes. We had better elsewhere. And we noted how inconsistent the buckwheat flour crepes were for our savory flavours, in terms of its thickness. Do also read the ingredients used for each dish carefully since the dishes names are not indicative.

Service was somewhat lacking. In the sense of, they did provide the minimum of what’s required. Like the waiting staff being there for us when we needed to place our orders, request for additional cutlery or get the bill. But I guess it’s the standard of service which could be improved. The male staff who took our order had a really laid back attitude. A total mismatch to our energy level cause we were eager to order.

I also felt it was weird that although we ordered the $25 cider upon his recommendation, the male staff went “Is this the bottle you want” upon presenting the bottle to us. It would have been more appropriate if he went “This is the cidre brut tradition. The $25 cider.”

So yup, service could be improved in terms of professionalism. But could that be asking too much of an eatery that’s doubled up as creperie and bar?

UPDATE: Restaurant is now known as Ô Comptoir.

Related posts:

Lunch @ The Kitchen at Bacchanalia Lunch @ Les Amis Lunch @ JAAN Lunch @ Le Sputnik ル スプートニク (Tokyo, Japan) Dinner @ Absinthe