Plaisirs Coupables

Walked by today and noticed the windows were covered with kraft paper. There were summons taped to the doors. By the looks of it the bank has forced them to cease operation and close the business.

I happened to stumble upon this place on my recent visit to Montréal with my wife and we had no idea what we were in for. The reviews on this place were not very good but after we left Alexanders up the street due to a less than appealing menu we saw this menu and my wife was again excited to see some of the dinner options.
First of all, we saw that the service was not the best so we were prepared for that. Truth be told, they weren’t on top of everything right away so I would rate the service as mediocre but they were pleasant and the food made up for it.
For an app we had the cheese plate because it had some fondue cheese and we both enjoyed this starter. The hard cheeses were all good and it was a nice variety.
For our main courses my wife had the duck confit shepperd’s pie and I had the wild game meatloaf. I don’t even like meatloaf, but the wild game part of it along with the froi gras they top it with influenced me to try it. We were both blown away by the meal and enjoyed every bite. The meatloaf was formed into a ball, drizzled with a delicious gravy and topped with a slice of pan fried froi gras. As we ate I forgot to take pictures because I was so amused with my meal. The duck confit shepperd’s pie was simply devine — it was most likely baked in a dish and then turned over and released for the plating because the duck was on top and the mashed pot’s were on the bottom. This dish oozed with guilty pleasures (aka Plaisirs Coupables).
Right now I wish I ordered the duck confit burger just so I can say I tried it. I didn’t even look at the burgers on the menu unfortunately.
Atmosphere and lighting were clubbish but that didn’t bother me. Made me feel younger than I am.

Plaisirs Couplables: Clever name, decent food, unqualified price-​to-​value ratio.
The name conjures ideas of greatness, but this place gets bashed like a bad haircut. I came here on two occasions with my friends and we come back each time to eat. With a group of 6+ we were seated downstairs. There are decent beers on tap but the duck confit burger was the highlight for me. So were the onion rings. They were delicious.
Mind you they were greasy. I felt guilty afterwards and promised myself to eat a salad later.
Priced at $ 18 without a side, that burger is expensive. Hence the price-​to-​value ratio doesn’t appeal to many people. Even with a star chef, is it that good to come back and eat every day? Probably not.
IFHTP 2

When this place first opened, I came with a group of co-​workers for lunch. We were all intrigued by the name of the restaurant. It was incredibly disappointing — the food came late, the burgers were dry, the service was horrible, the fries were cold. If you order a burger, you have to pay for fries separately — not cool. The most ridiculous part was that when we made the reservation, they made us order then, so they had our order, but still made us wait 45 minutes for the food.
Their twists on comfort food fall short, and the atmosphere is trying too hard. I am not running back here anytime soon.

I enjoyed my first meal at Plaisirs Coupables. I arrived here for a business lunch with some colleagues and we all enjoyed our meal. We all had a sandwich or salad and then we got the parmesan onion rings for the table. Holy cow were these onion rings good. They were not greasy and paired well with the aioli they were served with. For my entrée, I had the duck confit ceaser salad, which was massive. With tons of duck confit, small pieced of bacon mixed in with lettuce, small croutons this was a perfect light lunch. One colleague had the grilled cheese with bacon and seemed to really enjoy it. I mean that sandwich disappeared very quickly. Another colleague had the veggie burger that looked homemade. I can’t speak for how it tasted but that disappeared quickly as well.
I think Plaisirs Coupables with its hip décor, attractive and attentive waitstaff, and solid food is a great option downtown for lunch. Next time, I’m in town, I’d like to try a few drinks in the bar area.

For the non-​Francophiles out there, «Les Plaisirs Coupables» literally translates to «Guilty Pleasures». If your menu is stacked with guilty pleasures, you better step up. Popular chef Jean-​Francois Plante’s new restaurant on Peel in Montréal promises just that but fails miserably. Sure the restaurant is pretty and so is the staff and the service is very friendly and competent however serving up guilty pleasures takes more effort than one can imagine. Sadly the food was bland, unexciting and devoid of soul; you can’t have a guilty pleasure without soul. Like music, if you ain’t got the beat, if you ain’t got the rhythm it’s all for loss.
I’ll attempt to offer solutions instead of just hammering the failure into the ground, because obviously the Chef de Cuisine is too bent on upscaling pub grub for presentation rather than injecting flavour into it. Form over function, where function is left behind.
Let’s start with the fries. No really, the fries. The simplest of guilty pleasures and yet the restaurant dared to serve me frozen fries. If those were fresh hand cut fries, they were the worst I ever had. If you can’t make decent fries, you don’t deserve a choice spot downtown. Staying in the guilty pleasure mindset, this is nothing short of blasphemy. You buy a slicer pop in a big russet pull the lever and BOOM you have a portion ready to go. But for optimal French fries you can blanche them in oil and let them rest over night. Then there’s oils you can use. You can use Canola but upgrade it with a lot of vanilla, or you can use peanut oil (YUM) and if you really want to go crazy and add an insane flavour profile, use duck fat as your frying oil; it’s more expensive but as guilty pleasures go, it’s awesome.
The chicken wing starter was foul. (See my pun there?) Apart from the spicy maple dip, the wings looked like they were taken out of an Olymel box from the frozen section and very, very small. You could use the fresh, huge, meaty capon wings. 3 wings with the dipping sauce will be sufficient and sublimely tasting. And you buy the whole capon chicken and make stock, use the rest of the meat for an awesome Club made with handmade bread and a homemade mayo. This was missing from your menu.
For the main I had the ribs. This was a monumental & epic failure. The only thing it had going for it was the tenderness of the meat but then it was too tender because I like to rip meat off the bone, it’s a caveman thing. For optimal ribs you need 2 things. A smoker and some rub. Plaisirs Coupables ribs have none. If you don’t have a smoker (and please there are indoor smokers available) you can at least brine your ribs to infuse them with flavour. What I got was boiled down ribs slathered with some unimpressive sauce (True Rib eaters, eat their ribs DRY, with sauce as an optional side) because the rub will have caramelised the pork, and if I’m not mistaken my ribs were reheated on a flat top and not a grill. This was served with those blasphemous fries mentioned above and cole slaw.
Let’s talk Cole slaw for a second. I was served marinated Cole slaw, more precisely it was probably prepared many days before being served, prepared so long ago that it was basically boiled by the vinegar… hell no motherfucker. A good slaw is crunchy and should be dressed shortly before serving and there are myriad possible dressings for slaw but if you really want to kick it in the balls, if you really want to nail it, you add… wait for it… celery seeds. Yeah I know, but trust me; it elevates any slaw to a new level of delicious goodness. I even use it when I make salad dressing, it’s that freaking good.
Just to harp on the smoker part a little more. If you had a smoker to produce edible ribs, you could also slap in a rubbed 10 or 15 pound pork butt and make delicious pulled pork sandwiches which would be a great addition to your menu and pulled pork makes any poutine awesome to the power of awesome. Also you could also smoke fish and smoked fish done right is one serious guilty pleasure
I didn’t bother with desert because I couldn’t handle further disappointment. I did pick at my friends Foie Gras Poutine because the gravy and cheese were pretty damn tasty, yet those fries, those horrible fries… FUCK! I’m angry, really angry. Montréal is losing its touch as a foodie town as to many pretentious hipster-​magnet restaurants are opening pretending to server up awesome food but it’s just pretty. It’s like dating a hot girl. Sure she’s HOT and possibly a good lay but if she’s brain dead what’s the point? Looks good but there’s no substance to it.
If you’re gonna eat empty calories, let it not be empty of flavour. If you expected anything more than a single star, keep hoping. If you want upscale pub grub, head over to Dominion Pub, its more expensive but the corn fritters alone will sell you.

First of all, this review is for the bar and dessert. We stopped in for a drink after a nice dinner and were pleasantly surprised. Great wine list and a nice selection of beer on tap. We got a banana split which had a deep fried banana with a few varieties of ice cream and an awesome cookie on top. The bar area was clean, cozy and hip. Also the bar staff was really fantastic.
My only suggestion would be to put together a list of house cocktails. If this restaurant is about guilty pleasures, some really decadent cocktails would help the bar menu.