Le Noailles — Restaurant in Bordeaux

Recently, I celebrated my birthday at Le Noailles. What started as a wonderful night with my French in-laws quickly turned devastating when my vintage designer bag was stolen at the restaurant after our meal. This wasn't just any bag, and it's logo wasn't the reason it held so much value. It was a family heirloom passed down for generations. One I only ever brought out on special nights, like this one was supposed to be.

Admittedly, I made a terrible mistake of leaving it behind, but shortly after leaving Le Noailles, I realized it. While I felt a wave of shame, I wasn't worried because I thought surely this was a respectable and upscale restaurant and my bag would be there waiting for me.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

Upon realizing I had left my bag behind, my fiance, who is French, immediately went back and was told by a staff member that he hadn't seen the bag. Shocked, because it had been a matter of two hours, we decided there must have been a mistake, so we went back to the restaurant in the morning, searching for more information, and were appalled at how the situation was handled.

The unhelpful staff dismissed us in a matter of minutes, treating me as if I had lost a hair tie, not my bag, which held all my personal information (such as cards and ID's) Being a foreigner, far from home, and having all of this suddenly stolen, I felt completely vunerable. They gave us no information, didn't offer to look around for the bag, check their cameras to understand what had happened, or even take our number in case it turned up.

We've filed a police report and hope Le Noailles does their part in discovering what happened that night. This restaurant once held a special place in my heart...we even enjoyed champagne there with our family after getting engaged. But it's image, to me, has now been shattered.

Bad things happen everywhere, but Le Noaille's heartless responce has compelled me to leave this review. No restaurant, no matter how good the food is, is worth visiting if they lack care and compassion for their clients the minute after their meal...

In a party of 2, we had an early evening meal at Le Noailles (August 2023). It is very easy to locate, in the centre of Bordeaux and as such, a good place in which to end up after a day of visiting the city. Book in advance!

The place looks nice, like a typical brasserie similar to those one would find in Paris. All the waiters were well groomed although even the smallest smile on their face would have made us feel more welcome (our own waiter was pleasant enough). The restaurant got full very quickly but there was a sense that they wanted a quick turnover: plates arrived minutes after they were ordered and to be frank, I felt a rushed. It is obviously a well known place in bordeaux as we had a quick chat with people sitting next to us who told us that they were regulars: they shared our disappointment over the soggy chips.

We encountered a typically 'french' issue. Most of the glasses looked dirty. When we brought this to the attention of the waiter, he explained that regulations now prevent workers from drying the glasses as, in the process, they could injure themselves. Glasses are therefore cleaned in a machine which was experiencing technical issues since it's installation. The result is that the waiters end up having to wipe the glasses anyway to make them look cleaner (I thought I would share this anecdote about the absurdities of regulations!)

The starters were OK, the hot goat cheese salad was tasty and my artichoke came with unfortunately a very insipid sauce (not pungy enough). My duck was excellent but accompanied by very soggy chips.

It's an OK place for a quick meal if you don't expect something...

We arrived at the Brasserie and had no reservation previously made. We were brought to a table next to the door on the terrace. We asked if there might be another table but they said they were booked. Later on I went to the toilet and noticed that there were several empty tables inside. And we stayed for almost 2.30 hours. No problem, we decided to enjoy ourselves as it was our last night in Bordeaux after being there for 11 nights. I order the crab tartare. I must say that I was disappointed as it was more avocado than crab. The escargots were delicious. Our main course was both very good. We had the entrecôte and the seafood platter. We also had a creme brûlée which I expected the top glass to be warm but it was very cold. What bothered me at this brasserie were the waiters. They were extremely snobbish to say the least. We had to signal them twice for attention and other guests at a table further down had the same experience. Nevertheless we had a great time as we were not going to have this small nuisance spoil our night. We have travelled extensively and had dinners at the most exclusive brasserie and restaurant and when your menu is a bit pricey, you expect...