Le Comptoir Visited 12/19/10 4 Forks

Le Comptoir 251 Grand St, (between Driggs Ave & Roebling St), Brooklyn, NY 11211

 I haven't been to France in quite a while but being in Le Comptoir made me feel like I was in a cute cafe somewhere in Paris.  The entire waitstaff there is French and their accents were so freaking cute, to the point where I wanted to try to converse with them in my horrendously poor french (I wouldn't recommend trying to do this).  You enter the restaurant and there is a large relaxing seating/eating with large couches to the right where you can just sit and hang out with a drink or they will also serve you food there as well.  
The brunch menu had about 7-8 items and were all reasonably priced under $14.  I got the croque madam ($12) and Dan got the special benedict of the day which was lobster and crab ($14).   As we were waiting for our meal, you can see the chef making everything to order so you know it's fresh.  The croque madam came out and it was huge and came with a great side salad of mixed greens in a light white dressing.  The actual sandwich was perfectly toasted on super soft but crispy on the outside bread and covered with gruyere cheese and ham.  The egg on top was perfectly fried with a runny yoke.  As I start eating at more and more restaurants for brunch, it makes me realize how right Tom Colicchio is about making a perfect egg.  I am a Top Chef addict and they always have a challenge where they make the contestants make an egg dish.  Although it sounds easy enough, he always says how hard to make a perfect egg dish and he is totally right.  I can't even count the number of brunch places that I have been to that serve terrible eggs (especially of the poached style). I know judge every brunch place on how they poach their egg and based on that forms my decision if I would come back.  I had a bite of Dan's benedict and it was amazing as well.  The hollandise sauce was perfect...it wasn't too strong but had enough flavor to make you want to lick the entire plate.  The lobster/crab mixture underneath was cold, but it didn't really matter since the rest of the dish was perfectly warm.  The only downside was that the potatoes that came with that dish were slightly undercooked and too crunchy.
The service there was great and super friendly.  Even the chef came out to make sure that our food was good.  My own gripe about the place was that it was cash only.  But given that our total bill came out to $31, it wasn't too hard to pay with cash.