Le Bouchon Bordelais — Restaurant in Bordeaux

We recently dined at what promised to be a fine dining experience in Bordeaux, France. And credit where it’s due, the food was excellent, creative, and very well presented. Each course was a testament to the chef, and under different circumstances, it would have been a memorable evening. Unfortunately this is where the positive part ends, the service cast a shadow over what should have been a highlight of our trip. From the moment we were seated, there was a distinct coldness from the waitress that quickly turned into something more uncomfortable. Despite us being English, she repeatedly brought up grievances with Donald Trump and Elon Musk — two figures we neither represent nor support, and who are, of course, not even from our country. Her comments were bizarre and increasingly aggressive, creating an atmosphere that felt more like an interrogation than a dinner. She then confronted us as a table, coming up with various excuses for her behaviour, one of which was that we should see how the head chef speaks with her. Things were made worse by the treatment of one of our group who is vegetarian. She was met with disdain and treated as a nuisance for requesting meat-free options — which, I might add, should not be considered unusual in any decent restaurant in 2025. It’s disappointing when such clear culinary talent is let down by front-of-house behavior that borders on hostile. We left feeling more stressed than satisfied, despite the superb food. In hospitality, service is half the experience — and sadly, this was a case where it actively undermined everything else. We had come over for a couple of days to join our friends on their holiday, and to celebrate one of our group's 40th birthdays. Unfortunately, their birthday fell on the night we attended here. Every other meal out, for ourselves and the rest of our party, across Bordeaux was fantastic and the service at even the most basic of establishments far exceeded what you can expect here. If you like good food but terrible treatment, then this is the...

Excellent, interesting and delicious modern bistro cookery and fantastic service.

I visited here with my partner on the second night (a Friday) of our 3 night break in Bordeaux. We had done some research and this looked like a great place, so booked a table at 2030 a number of weeks in advance. I'm glad we did, because it was full when we visited, albeit this is a relatively compact and bijou bistro. We were served by a couple of waiting staff and Marin, the gourmet manager; all 3 were very friendly, helpful and oozed hospitality (despite them appearing immensely busy).

We started with a couple of St Germain cocktails (containing, if I can recall correctly, St Germain, lemon juice, vodka and cremant de Bordeaux) - a perfect way to decide what to eat! We went for 3 courses each and with Marin's guidance plumped for a bottle of Graves to compliment everything.

The food was simply sublime! The nettle soup amouse bouche was fresh and savoury. We both had squash and carrot soup, which was rich and tasty, served with an embellished cream cheese on bread. My partner had pork chop au gratin with potatoes; this had notes of tartiflette, but was a more porcine affair - it may have been gratinated with reblochon. At any rate it was delicious. I had a north African inspired dish consisting of a spiced lamb stew, garnished with tomato, cream cheese, a mild pepper and topped with an egg - baked in the oven. This was many things, all of them excellent! Puddings of Chocalatherapie (a crisp, thin pastry case filled with many great chocolatey things) and cherry clafoutis rounded things off perfectly, especially as we accompanied them with a glass each of Sauternes.

I could not recommend this place highly enough, the whole evening was faltless and the bill seemed exceptional value (£150) for the quality of the experience that we had. I wish this place was on my doorstep, alas it is hidden slightly off the beaten track in Bordeaux - do...

The night started off well with a warm greeting and overall friendly staff. It’s a small, intimate restaurant with a nice vibe with a small menu that’s not too over the top - given the ambitious offerings and great reviews our expectations were high.

Overall the food was excellent except for an incident where my “medium-rare” veal was grossly over cooked and rock hard - a fatal mistake for dish that’s centred on this protein. They kindly acknowledged the issue and offered to address it which I assumed meant they would replace my dish, instead I waited for a whole 30 min while my wife was forced to finish her main course to avoid it from getting too cold. During this time they did not check in on us or really acknowledge the fact they did not prioritize the dish over others which I would assume is common practice.g

When I received my replacement veal they obviously gave me scrap pieces of meat (in place of the nice steak which I originally received) and they did not re-dress the plate meaning it was a mess (looked like they scraped the old overcooked meat off my plate and slapped the new one on). During the discarding of my old meat they also seemed to have thrown out other core flavour components (e.g. onion relish) which they did not bother to replace.

A seemingly simple dish to execute was not only poorly cooked but the incident was poorly handled, essentially spoiling what could have been a fantastic dinner overall....