A friend was visiting from Ottawa for the weekend and we decided to try out Plaisirs Coupables, a restaurant located on Peel Street here in Montreal. The menu sounded intriguing, with twists on the comfort foods we all know and love.

We had reservations for Saturday night and were greeted by the Chef/Owner, Jean-François Plante. This tricked me into thinking everything would be more top-notch than usual, the boss was in the house. If I had taken the time to read the reviews for this place on Yelp, I would have made reservations elsewhere!

We were seated on the second floor, next to the DJ booth, where a trap door was constantly being opened and closed with the DJ climbing in and out of his little stall. The music was pretty loud and in order for my friends and I to have a conversation we had to constantly repeat ourselves and raise our voices. This was our RESERVED table!

This would have been manageable if someone had at least come to ask us about drinks or at minimum fill our water glasses. Instead, we sat waiting about 20 minutes before our waitress finally came over to serve us. When she did, we were still excited to be there and were eager to figure out what to order!

I ordered a bottle of wine and the cheese plate for us to share while we thought about what to eat.

Ten minutes later, our cheese plate was plopped on our table, with no explanation or anything. These are supposed to be Quebec cheeses and generally, I would expect to be told which cheeses they were. When I finally managed to wave down the waitress to ask, she pointed to each and said "cheddar, goat and double-cream brie - and that is a strong cheddar fondue." Duh! I know, what TYPES of cheese they are, I want to know what artisanal cheese maker, from Quebec, produced these!

But the cheese plate was alright, they could work on the presentation, and on identifying the different cheeses, and so on. I liked the fondue, it was a nice addition to a cheese plate and it is something I would consider unique and possibly incorporate that into one of my own cheese plates.

I ended up ordering the ch-ch-cheesy grilled cheese from the Table D'Hote menu, which was served with a very strange and unpleasant creamy beer, cheese and vegetable soup. The grilled cheese WAS very cheesy, but it ws also VERY GREASY, there is a point where it is simply too much. A better idea might be to offer a 3 cheese grill cheese, but have one of cheeses be presented as a tuile or something like that.

My girlfriend settled on the lamb burger after the waitress recommended it and ordered a side of french fries. We could tell from the get go that the fries were funky. I don't know if they were frozen or what, but they oozed grease, had no crunch, and were undercooked. The lamb was over-cooked and hard, they did offer to change it, but by that point we just wanted out.

Finally, my boyfriend had the rib appetizer with a main of mac & cheese. I actually thought the ribs were okay, they reminded me of spare ribs without the stickiness. The mac & cheese left much to be desired. I am still wondering how a soupy mac & cheese could still manage to have uncoated areas of macaroni?

To sum it all up, this was a very disappointing evening and I know I will not be going back to this restaurant. The menu had such promise, but the delivery of even the most basic of preparations (the gist of what comfort food is!) fell way too short.

Les Plaisirs Coupable
1410 rue Peel
Montreal, QC
(514) 507-5689