L'Entrecôte — Restaurant in Bordeaux

A truly French experience - we arrived with mixed expectations but left very happy & satisfied. This restaurant is an institution & celebrates 60 years (1965 to 2025) & despite the simple menu (your only choice is how well you want your meat done) - it was a truly satisfying & filling meal. No reservations are taken & an hour from its 7 pm opening, there was already a queue out the front door. We arrived 45 minutes ahead of opening & there were about 20 people ahead of us. Fortunately, the weather was kind & everyone in the queue was in a jovial mood, all looking forward to their steak! Once opened, we were quickly ushered to our table, menu explained & orders taken. Food arrived within minutes : green salad with walnuts followed by the main : sirloin in their special sauce with a mountain of french fries. The beef at medium rare was perfection - practically melt-in-your-mouth & so tasty. Their special sauce was outstanding & so were the freshly fried chips (which you can ask for replenishment). Contrary to what others have commented - the service was very good. From the maitre d to our waitress to the floor manager - everyone was friendly & professional. There is a fast turnover. We were offered dessert & coffee but had to decline after the filling meal! At Euro 23 - it has to be one of the best bargains in town for a top notch beefsteak meal. Red wine (plus beer or soft drinks) @ Euro 19/bottle was also pretty good! A fun & delicious experience - a definite must visit to any of their outlets all over France. We left the restaurant at 8:15 & the queue was just as long filled with eager...

Entrecôte Bordeaux – Worth the Queue? Mixed Feelings!

Be prepared to queue for over half an hour—only to feel like livestock being herded to market. Once seated, however, the atmosphere is surprisingly relaxed and less chaotic than its London counterparts. The food is what you'd expect: delicious steak, perfect frites, and excellent value. But there was a disappointing twist. Unlike in the London branches (last I checked), where the second helping comes as a pleasant surprise midway through your meal, here it arrives straight away on a separate heated plate. Initially, this seemed like a bonus—but the sauce had sadly split, making the dish overly greasy and ruining what is usually the star of the show: that iconic secret sauce. Staff were generally polite, but one interaction stood out for all the wrong reasons. When I asked a waitress for an extra glass for my water, she threw up her hands and loudly declared, "I'm not your waitress," much to my astonishment—and that of the table next to me. After queuing 35 minutes, a simple glass didn’t feel like an outrageous ask. All in all, it's still a good steak frites experience—just not quite as good as the Marylebone branch, largely due to the sauce issue and that one unpleasant interaction. I can’t help but think that, here in the heart of Bordeaux, there must be somewhere offering equally good steak frites, without the queue and with staff who seem genuinely glad to have you there. The...

We went back the very next day to eat at L’Entrecôte again and I think that says it all 🥩

When we arrived in Bordeaux, a friend recommended L’Entrecôte near the InterContinental, and we couldn’t resist giving it a try.

We decided to line up around 8 p.m., which is prime dinner time, and yes, the line was long enough to make us worry we’d be starving by the time we got a seat. But our taxi driver just smiled and said, “Doesn’t matter” meaning the wait would be absolutely worth it🫢

Once inside, the concept is delightfully simple: there’s basically one main thing on the menu the entrecôte steak, served with their signature sauce, fries, and a light salad. The service was speedy, and the salad was a refreshing opener.

I’d been to their Paris location before, where they serve the second portion halfway through the meal like it was a surprise. In Bordeaux, they do it a little differently. First, they portion out everyone’s steak individually on your plate. Then, when it’s time for that second helping, they bring it out on a silver plate with all the sauce together. I actually loved this approach because it meant we could really enjoy that extra sauce with our fries and steak exactly as we liked.

The steak was tender, cooked perfectly to medium-rare, and absolutely delicious. We ended up loving it so much we came back the next day for lunch. It’s definitely a must-visit in Bordeaux and it’s great value for...