La Compagnie, Centre Street — Restaurant in New York

Disclaimer: This is probably a biased review, since I’m also critiquing my brother’s pop-up at this restaurant.

Review Regarding the pop-up by The Bronx Pit: Delicious sauce. Great smoked flavor! If La Compagnie hosts another Bronx Pit BBQ Night I would suggest they go heavy on the red wines. The flavors of this bbq are robust. My favorite? Definitely the ribs. They were delish. Also, the greens were good! Oh and the hot link was too.

Review Re: La Compagnie’s full experience: the food at this restaurant is heavy! Delicious, but heavy!! The shrimp in the red butter sauce and the duck confit are amazing. The confit was even good cold the next day as left overs! The tartar over the marrow was really good. Super rich. Couldn’t eat all of it. The fig and arugula salad was light and refreshing but the figs themselves were not very flavorful. Also, the dressing was a bit salty. I loved the burrata with the endive!!!! That was a great starter. They also had an amazing cheddar. The pasta with calamari was standard to me, the others in my party absolutely loved it.

This place hits you over the head with flavor in everything EXCEPT THE WINE. I am not a wine person, but when I have it I like a full bodied wine. The Pinot noir was pretty good.

All in all a great experience. With great food. Good energy. Seriously tho, I’d rather have a less expensive, more rounded out, and full bodied red than anything I tasted on either night I went.

The sparkling white I was had was nice, but I had it with ribs so it wasn’t strong enough to counter the rib flavor.

Tables...

La Compagnie des Vins S. has an excellent and extensive wine list with a combination of marquee brands as well as niche brands with a particular attention to grower champagnes and Burgundies. The space is wonderfully conducive to a pleasant few hours of enjoying several glasses of somm-worthy wine, some delightful food and cozy or romantic conversation. The food is also particular well executed and reasonably sized. Unfortunately, the benefits and positives of the wine list, space and food are overwhelmed by a lack of attention to service. For the precise attention paid to the wine list, it is surprising that there is a correspondent lack of attention to delivering service that is commensurate with the prices and quality of the wines and the food. As someone who ordered two bottles (one bottle of Alexandre Filaine and one bottle of Vire Vlesse Thevenet) among 3 people along with several appetisers (6 appetisers: 4 cauliflower, 1 burrata, 1 sun chokes), for a per customer price of over USD 100 for three customers, it is disappointing the level of sevice. As a comparison, it would be a better customer experience to go to Racines or the bar at Restaurant Daniel than La Compagnie. I hope the owners pay attention to delivering a better customer experience with excellent service than is now...

Hip wine bar with biodynamic options. I struggled with giving this more stars. It would hands down receive 5 stars for the wine, but the combination of food and service downgraded it. This is a outstanding place to go if you are shopping in SoHo and need a glass of wine (or a bathroom break with a glass of wine) between 5 and 7 pm. The wine and snacks are interesting and extremely affordable during happy hour - $5 for each snack with an asterisk or $20 for all 5 of them and $5 off any glass of wine (except the mystery glass). We thoroughly enjoyed a glass of Spanish orange wine, a Rhone white blend, and a Chablis, along with fennel-spiced olives, salt & vinegar pistachios, and asparagus with wood ear mushrooms and sabayon. The pecorino and black pepper popcorn (a bit chewy) and the meat and cheese were perfectly fine. The Calendar Island mussels were too large in size (huge!) and only so-so in flavor. We actually left half of them. The service was slow, traffic from the Holland Tunnel entrance was loud, and the quiet seat in the window loses its privacy when someone is seated outside inches from you (with a window separating). We will definitely go back at some point but will only order...