{"id":5224,"date":"2021-12-09T18:33:46","date_gmt":"2021-12-09T10:33:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/?p=5224"},"modified":"2021-12-13T20:16:13","modified_gmt":"2021-12-13T12:16:13","slug":"restaurant-review-le-comptoir-de-piere-gagnaire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/p\/5224.html","title":{"rendered":"Restaurant Review: Le Comptoir de Pierre Gagnaire in Shanghai"},"content":{"rendered":"

Le Comptoir de Pierre Gagnaire<\/strong><\/p>\n

480 West Jianguo Road, Xuhui District,<\/p>\n

Shanghai, 200031 China<\/p>\n

Tel. +86 21 5466 9928<\/p>\n

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Much like in winery life, gastronomic realities are shaped by an international web of friendships, family relationships and mentorships. Though certainly not in each and every case, but more often than not, you go work a harvest, in a cellar, or in a kitchen where you know someone well, where you have friends, where you have a relative.<\/p>\n

Life has a way of coming full circle: the end of one story is more often than not the beginning of a new one. In 2017, Pierre Gagnaire, at the head of an international restaurant empire and one of the world\u2019s most famous and talented chefs whose eponymous three Michelin star Parisian eatery remains to this day one of the ten best restaurants I have ever eaten in (and I have eaten in more than you can even begin to imagine, in a lifetime devoted to wine and food), chose his long-time prot\u00e9g\u00e9, Romain Chapel, to man his first restaurant in China, Le Comptoir de Pierre Gagnaire.<\/p>\n

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Romain Chapel is the son of legendary French chef Alain Chapel, who was at one point mentor to a younger Pierre Gagnaire who trained with him; and so there\u2019s the circle of life alluded to earlier. Alain Chapel passed away from a stroke in 1990, at only fifty-three years of age while visiting friends and attending the annual summer theatre festival in Avignon. And though this is an article on a restaurant owned by another truly legendary and great chef as is Pierre Gagnaire, and where the Executive chef is the ultra-talented Romain Chapel, it behooves me to mention Alain Chapel, one of history\u2019s greatest chefs who turned his three Michelin star eatery in Mionnay just about ten kilometers or so from Lyon into a temple of high gastronomy like few others. Initially called La M\u00e8re and that he renamed after himself in 1970), serious foodies and sybarites pilgrimaged to the restaurant regularly in its heyday, because Chapel dishes such as the truffle-stuffed chicken wrapped in a pork bladder and cooked in a rich chicken broth, the gateau de foies blonds<\/em>, or the stuffed calves’ ears with fried parsley were, and are, indelible hallmarks of fine French cuisine. At Le Comptoir de Pierre Gagnaire in Shangahi, Romain Chapel\u2019s cooking (after shuttering his family\u2019s restaurant in 2012, he was at the two Michelin starred Lecture room and Library, one of a trio of dining venues in the 18th<\/sup> century townhouse of the Sketch Restaurants and Bars empire) is just as good as his father\u2019s, but while it traces its roots in the classics, it offers contemporary twists that lighten the fare and make it more in tune with modern life. Dishes at the restaurant, such as the poached egg and Oscietra caviar, the beef tartare<\/em>, the frogs legs Poulette and the poularde demi-deuil en vessie<\/em> (stuffed chicken in bladder, an homage to Romain\u2019s father), were or are memorable in their own way, and Le Comptoir de Pierre Gagnaire won a very deserved one Michelin star in 2019. As at all of Gagnaire\u2019s many fine restaurants all over the world, he gives his various cooking teams the guidelines and keys to his cooking and famous dishes, but they can then take these in any direction they might like; or in the words of Gagnaire himself, \u201c\u2026. It\u2019s like improvising a jazz melody with a band, eating such dishes is like seeing yourself on the plate, it\u2019s not you, but it is still you\u201d.<\/p>\n

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At Le Comptoir de Pierre Gagnaire, it\u2019s not just the gastronomic experience that is memorable. Located in the southeastern part of the city\u2019s pretty Xuhui District, the restaurant is situated within the\u00a0absolutely gorgeous Capella hotel complex in Shanghai\u2019s Jian Ye Li\u00a0estate, featuring some of Shanghai\u2019s last standing shikumen<\/em> townhouses. The truly gorgeous building complex encompasses a hotel, various residences, and other food and beverage concept spaces, including Gagnaire\u2019s own (excellent) La boulangerie<\/em> (bakery). And while the outside is elegant and stately, Le Comptoir\u2019s interiors are cleanly cut and contemporary, with an airy atmosphere replicating that of a beautiful and elegant Parisian salon but reworked, inspired and modified in light of the old-world glamour of 1930s Shanghai.<\/p>\n

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Much like the food, the building\u2019s external and interior design and the d\u00e9cor, the wine list at Le Comptoir de Pierre Gagnaire is outstanding, and even more importantly, exceptionally well-devised. Wine director Shawn Xiao, previously at Joel Robuchon l\u2019Atelier Shanghai and at Le Comptoir since July 2018, has done an amazing job in choosing truly noteworthy wines from some of the world\u2019s best estates: intelligently, the wine list, which is also not excessively priced for a dining establishment of this caliber, does not focus only on French wines, but offers a fine selection of excellent names from many other wine countries as well. Furthermore, the wine list changes regularly, with new bottles appearing from around the world all the time. Xiao likes boutique wineries, preferably bidynamically run, and loves grapes such as Aligot\u00e9, Cabernet Franc, and Chenin Blanc, while nurturing a love for Champagne especially but things as diverse as fine Chinese wines too. In short, Le Comptoir de Pierre Gagnaire offers one of the best dining experiences in Shanghai and I have never come away disappointed. It was no different on my latest foray in the world of Le Comptoir. The cocoette<\/em> of frogs legs remains an absolute classic that rivals that of Gagnaire himself in Paris, as does the lobster fricassee, and the poached egg shows everyone else in the city how this traditional French dish should be done properly. Desserts are also especially worthy of your time and sorry self-imposed dietary restrictions be done with. I\u2019ve had so many great dishes and drinking moments at Le Comptoir I don\u2019t even remember them all, and am sure to get them mixed up from the various times I\u2019ve been there. But this last time, I remember the four liquid beauties that graced my taste buds. The Perrier Jouet NV Champagne Grand Brut<\/strong> was a nice thought on the part of Shawn Xiao, who generously offerd us a glass while we sat down comfortably and perused the menu. Juicy and flavourful, it is always an excellent NV Cuv\u00e9e that puts many others to shame and provides diners with a fun, bright and bubbly start to any meal. As a nice contrast to the lively texture of the Champagne, the Samuel Billaud 2017 Chablis Premier cru Mont de Milieu<\/strong> showcases the riper, softer side of this premier cru and that some Chablis wines can be, with a buttery, broad-scaled, textured mouthful of pears, apples and hazelnuts. Absolutely outstanding, the Domaine des Baumard 2006 Savenni\u00e8res Clos du Papillon<\/strong> offers a brilliant take on drier-styled Chenin Banc, with a liquid minerality finely etched on your taste buds and lingering long and suave after the last sip. A touch more density and concentration and this would have pole vaulted into the upper echelons of my personal memory lane of 2021\u2019s stellar, unforgettable white wines, but hey, it really was quite good as it was. We finished off a memorable meal with the utterly beautiful A.F. Gros 2012 Savigny-les-Beaune Clos des Guettes,<\/strong> a real panoply of ripe red cherries, violets, minerals and aromatic herbs all woven into a seamless texture. This wine provided a clear-cut example, if any was even needed, of how some undervalued Appellations can deliver moments of sheer pleasure and make a very fine meal even better than it already was.<\/p>\n

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And at Le Comptoir de Pierre Gagnaire, it is always a very fine meal indeed: there may be better restaurants than this one in the city, but not many.<\/p>\n

The dishes<\/em><\/p>\n

Cocotte of frogs legs Poulette
\nOscietra caviar and poached egg
\nLamb crepinette
\nChocolate tart<\/p>\n

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The wines<\/em><\/p>\n

Perrier Jouet NV Champagne Grand Brut\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 90<\/p>\n

Samuel Billaud 2017 Chablis Premier cru Mont de Milieu\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 90<\/p>\n

Domaine des Baumard 2006 Savenni\u00e8res Clos du Papillon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 94<\/p>\n

A.F. Gros Savigny-les-Beaune Clos des Guettes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 94<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Ian D’Agata<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-restaurant-and-wine","pmpro-has-access"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5224"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5257,"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5224\/revisions\/5257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}