Le Vieux Comptoir

Situated at the end of a side-street of Marylebone High Street, Le Vieux Comptoir has been serving as a wine shop and restaurant for more than a decade. We first went many years ago, and have returned several times, with friends and family, as well as just having dinner a deux. However, we've not been recently, and so hadn't written a review. We also fancied seeing if it was still as good as we remembered. .

In the run-up to Christmas, we decided to do a re-visit to Le Vieux Comptoir. Upstairs is the wine shop, where you can get a bottle to take down into the restaurant if you wish. But you can also select your wine for dinner downstairs in the cosy restaurant. I felt like a little celebration was in order, so we started with a lovely glass of Cremant, served with some bread and homemade butter, while waiting for our starters.

For the starters, my wife went with the cheeseboard; two slices of four different cheeses, served at the perfect temperature, allowing the flavour of the cheese to come through. I selected the snails in parsley and garlic butter. I have always found snails interesting enough, but would only ever have it at a French place.

For our mains I ordered the confit duck. Sometimes that is exactly was looking forwards to, and in this case the whole week leading up to our visit. I remembered it being excellent on previous visits, and this time was no exception. It was served with roast potatoes, and cabbage leaves with a dressing. The same side dishes accompanied my wife's onglet steak. This was served medium rare, and was splendid. With our mains, we also enjoyed a glass each of a full-bodied red wine.

We still had some space for pudding, and we enjoyed a sharing platter of enormous profiteroles while sipping on a Sauternes dessert wine. It was a great meal, and quite indulgent. Something to do once in a while!

Snails

Cheese Board

Confit de Canard with Sides

Onglet Steak

Mountain of Profiterols