[Shanghai Girl Eats] le comptoir de Pierre Gagnaire

le comptoir de Pierre Gagnaire | pierre-gagnaire.com | Dianping
Address: 480 Jianguo Xi Lu inside Capella Hotel / 建国西路480号(建业里)
Date visited: 2017.09
Price: RMB700-800 per person (excluding wine)
Will return: Yes
What to get:
– Foie gras terrine
– Poached egg with Oscietra caviar
– Sea salt-grilled sea bream
– Lamb crepinette
– Praline profiteroles

The wave of new hotel openings this year in Shanghai has brought along a few big names from the culinary world — one of the most anticipated being celebrity chef Pierre Gagnaire. While the famed Pierre Gagnaire Paris is a full-on fine dining situation with 3 Michelin stars, Le Comptoir de Pierre Gagnaire Shanghai has a more subtle, albeit still fancy, setting at the Capella Hotel. Shanghai is headed by Gagnaire’s protege Executive Chef Romain Chapel.

The tasting menu is priced at RMB888 with optional RMB298 wine pairing; a la carte dishes mostly range between RMB100-400 apart from some glaring outliers like poached egg and caviar at RMB488 and grilled rib-eye at RMB588.

My French friend and I came here for dinner. She spoke to the staff in French so I think that earned us some brownie points. We got great recommendations on the food and wine from the restaurant manager/F&B director (Ahmed) and the sommelier (Luke). My friend’s advice is that if there is a sommelier in the house, use him/her! The excellent service really made this a special dining experience and I am happy to see this more and more in Shanghai.

We sat down for a drink in the lounge area before being seated. A glass of rosé to start is always a good idea.

Complimentary bread — but I saved my carb intake for the toasted brioche with foie gras that followed.

Foie gras terrine with brioche, Sauternes cube, burned onion jus (RMB178)
Recommend: yes
The foie gras was smooth and creamy and on the lighter side of terrines. The jelly cube on the side is made from Sauternes, which is a sweet French wine.

Poached egg at 63C, Oscietra caviar, champagne sauce (RMB488)
Recommend: yes
This was so delicious but also came with a steep price tag. This dish can be split between two people at most and even then, we were battling to spoon up every last drop of sauce and caviar. If you can afford it, order one for each person. The addition of cabbage seemed strange in this uppity dish at first but it worked.

Again, this was really good but I don’t think I can justify ordering this every time. Here are some prices of caviar dishes at other restaurants as reference points (I know these are different caviars but just for approximate comparison): egg caviar at Jean-Georges (RMB388), Australian “Mayura” beef shoulder with Aristocrat Beluga Royal caviar (RMB418) and New Zealand scampi carpaccio with Aristocrat Beluga Royal caviar (RMB438) at 8 1/2 Otto e Mezzo Bombana.

Our white wine pairing:

Sea salt-grilled sea bream, red quinoa, onion petals, beurre nantais (RMB188) 
Recommend: yes
Very enjoyable fish course with a nice beurre nantais (white butter sauce) poured table side.

Fresh herbs lamb crepinette, grilled cabbage and Manchego tchatchouka (RMB268)
Recommend: yes
Unlike a traditional crepinette, which is usually sausage patties wrapped in caul, this consisted of whole pieces of lamb. Normally, I don’t like lamb but my friend is someone who has to order the lamb dish if it is on the menu. We tried and it was delicious. The meat was perfectly cooked without a hint of gaminess.

Our red wine pairing:

Praline profiteroles (RMB70) with caramelized hazelnuts, dulcey chocolate ganache, Calvados flavored fudge
Recommend: yes
Everything about this was delicious, especially the sauce. The pastry chef is very cute if you get a chance to see him. He came out to serve desserts to a few tables the night we were there.

Souffléed Crêpe Georges (RMB80) with Grand Marnier, caramelized orange syrup perfumed with star anise, Mulberry coulis, vanilla ice cream
Recommend: no
Souffles are a hit or miss for me in general; chocolate passionfruit souffle at Jean-Georges is my favorite followed by the chocolate souffle at Fifty 8 Grill at Mandarin Oriental Pudong. I didn’t like the airy souffléed texture in a crepe so I will stick to regular crepes.

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