Au Comptior in Kitsilano seems to be all the craze lately. Brunch avec Paree style is a must. Choose to start with a cafe au lait and a pain au chocolate to slowly start your day like there’s nothing on the agenda.
Whether Au Comptior is the ‘real deal’ of an authentic Parisian cafe is debatable. Depending the time of day you may find the garcon de cafe to be either warm, friendly and attentive or borderline rude. You ask for hot sauce and you may hear ‘this is a French restaurant, we don’t have hot sauce’!
The interior is Instagram worthy with the deepest blue leather seats, long bar seats, distressed tiles and a rotating glass display nudging you with exquisite desserts. But little round tables are crowded and slightly uncomfortable especially when you have a party of four trying to share plates.
But let’s talk food. Le Brunch in particular. Food here is well portioned and rich. “How do French women stay skinny?” comes to mind. I remember reading, if you are thinking of order dessert after a full meal with wine. Your dessert should just be your glass of wine.
Anyways, we ordered and shared the following.
MANCHONS DE CANARD FRITS 10: half-dozen crispy fried duck wings. Lightly breaded duck confit wings are tender and fall off the bones.
ASSIETTE DE CHARCUTERIE 18: house and artisan cured meats and pate served with bread and gerkhins
ASSIETTE DE FROMAGES 7: three cheeses with a variety of creamy blue, brie and a sharp cheddar aged from France.
CONFIT DE CANARD EN SALADE ET SON OEUF POCHÉ 16: Shredded duck confit, potato, asparagus, frisée, poached eggs, hazelnut vinaigrette.
BURGER MAISON FRITES 16: house ground beef, onion jam, raclette. We were asked with we wanted to add foie gras for $6. We weren’t sure where the foie was added. Perhaps mixed in the patty or spread a top. Nonetheless, the burger had a juicy patty and pretty tasty.
ASSIETTE AU COMPTOIR 16: eggs cocotte, house-made sausage, bacon, country bread, potato rösti. This was perhaps our least favorite dish of the afternoon. There was nothing special to the eggs or the salty sausage.
I’m excited that Au Comptoir now opened in the Kitsilano neighborhood. West 4th isn’t saturated with French bistros and after a heavy brunch you can go shopping and walk it off.
Au Comptoir is opened by Maxime Bettili and Julien Aubin. The two had previoused cafes and brasseries in France. In Vancouver they had worked at some Vancouver favorite restaurants like Les Faux Bourgeois, Bistro Pastis, Jules Bistro, and The Acorn.
Au Comptoir
URL: http://aucomptoir.ca
Cuisine: French, Bistro, Cafe, Parisian
Hours:
Mon 8:00 am – 10:00 pm
Tue Closed
Wed 8:00 am – 10:00 pm
Thu 8:00 am – 10:00 pm
Fri 8:00 am – 10:00 pm
Sat 8:00 am – 10:00 pm
Sun 8:00 am – 10:00 pm
2278 W 4th Ave, Vancouver, BC V6K 1N8
(604) 569-2278