Laurent's

[HelperGuy]

Overall I'd recommend Laurent's, especially when you have visitors. The decor is superior for this area, the service top-notch. We don't drink booze, and our bill came to $500 before tip.

Normally more than I like to pay, but I did order two appetizers: French onion soup at $65 and escargots at $85. The escargot were the best since I left Canada: steaming hot, tender, very tasty, and an excellent garlic butter/onion base. They came with loads of soft and hard croutons for soaking up the juices. The onion soup tasted fine, and was almost done correctly. It would have been much better if they'd caramlized the onions, as generally called for in this dish. Instead, the onions were white and even still a bit crunchy. Caramelized onions provide half the flavour.

My main course of mussels was perfectly steamed and I got a great pile of them in a big pot, at $135. The flavour, however, was lacking, and that was a disappointment. My companion's coq au vin was very tasty: a leg and a thigh mounted on a bed of mashed potatoes, although not as up-there as I was expecting based on other reviews of read of this place.