Comptoir Gascon – a great bistro near Smithfield Market

Comptoir Gascon is everything it says it is, especially the "Official Embassy of Cassoulet in the United Kingdom"!

Yes, it's tempting! Come on in to Comptoir Gascon.

I've been there twice now, once for good strong coffee and a pastry in the morning, and for our delayed Valentine's Dinner on Saturday night. You see, I looked at the dinner menu when I had coffee and saw that they had Traditional Toulousian Cassoulet on offer. That's what I wanted, but on Valentine's Day itself, they had a special menu from which everyone chose pheasant and they ran out early (as Dominika, the Manager tells me). So I had to wait for their standard menu to come back on.

Toulousian cassoulet

And it was worth waiting for...a carnivorous feast of streaky bacon, two Toulousian sausages, and a duck drumstick all nestled in a sea of tasty beans. It was so rich we could hardly get through ours, and despite some delicious-looking desserts, we couldn't even consider coffee after. The heavy cassoulet was offset by a really innovative salad: chicory-leaf boats sprinkled with salt and carrying crumbled blue cheese and croutons that I think were made of crushed Mcvities Hobnobs – sweet, savoury and salty in a crunchy boat you ate (at least we ate) with our fingers.

The bistro is tiny and intimate, mostly tables for two, some for four but no more. Walls are stacked with wine bottles or shelves holding more southwestern French products in jars and tins – a nice one with a garganey duck painted on it. A glass-topped table showcase houses pastries in the morning and desserts at night. Not only do they do coffee but lunch, dinner, brunch and take-away; or you can sit at the bar and have a drink. Note their booking hours:

BISTRO

Open Tuesday to Saturday 9am to 10/11pm

Bookings available for:

Lunch 12pm to 2.30pm & Dinner 7pm to 10pm

Dinner Thursday & Friday 7pm to 11pm

Brunch Saturday 9 am to 3pm

Take-away 9am to 6.30pm

Tel: 020 7608 08 51
www.comptoirgascon.com

info@comptoirgascon.com

63 Charterhouse Street, London EC1M 6HJ