Le Quatrième Mur — Restaurant in Bordeaux

I told our waiter I would not leave a review, but I must warn others to stay away from tourist trap “La Table d’Hôtes”. I anticipate they will reply to this as they do to other negative reviews by placing the blame on one’s expectations with no accountability or offer to make anything better. There's no room to complain in the experience because you are sitting with ten strangers; we didn't want to ruin anyone's evening by being upset in front of them or abruptly leaving; I waited to complain until we were paying. The waiter did not apologize.

My husband and I live in the San Francisco area and have eaten at many Michelin and fine dining establishments, both in the US and abroad. I speak and understand some French, my husband does not, but I do not think that being fluent would have changed our poor experience.

First of all, I wish to be quite clear that this review is about the high-end La Table d’Hôtes, and not the brasserie upstairs. These restaurants being combined here is misleading.

When we arrived, the host confused our reservation and sat us at the brasserie, where we sat for awhile, unattended, before someone else came to our table, informed us a mistake had been made, and that we were supposed to be downstairs.

Our waiter had an unkempt appearance, with a wrinkled uniform and a gaudy name tag that seemed all very casual for a meal that would ultimately top 500€ for us.

The sommelier, in an equally unkempt polo and name tag (similar to McDonalds uniforms) who could not pour a pairing-size pour consistently all night with very little understanding of basic wine service etiquette, glasses on people’s lefts, rights, and not even all pre-set at the table when we sat down. There was a miscommunication and she thought my husband and I were sharing the pairing, which was corrected when she came back and gave my husband and I comically large pours. She proceeded to give us both extra booze all night because I think she wanted to get us drunk and thought we were uncultured Americans.

The pairing (75€ pp) featured the cheapest wines from top producers. It featured entirely white wines, with the exception of one red, which was a disappointment.

After the unimaginative appetizer of bread and butter, we were put on a video conference with Etchebest after watching a short, trailer for the restaurant. It was a strange, reality TV show experience.

The first course was where my path began to diverge due to my allergies, which - to the restaurant’s credit - were handled well. My husband was presented with a fried oyster, and a mollusk paste that resembled imitation crab. I got a burnt piece of root vegetable with a horrible combination of flavors in a foam. We ate, hoping it could get better.

Then, a tepid and salty mushroom soup.

Next, a small slice of tasteless foie gras enveloped in a brioche covering with a passion fruit sauce. It looked nothing like a recent picture of this dish that the restaurant posted on social media.

The fourth course was another diversion for me; I received two large pieces of a veal chop that were out of proportion with the fish that was presented to the other guests. My veal was cold, tough and dry. My husband’s fish was unseasoned and accompanied by inedible mussels that most people pushed around their plates.

The final main course was duck à l’orange, which may have been the only dish I may describe from our experience as tasty.

The two dessert courses were simply bad. A salted crumble with olives and chocolate mousse, accompanied by what I can only describe as a martini slushie. Then the final straw was a rancid burrata served with rocket and underripe strawberries.

Dining near the kitchen was noisy and underwhelming. I pity these young chefs who think they are achieving something by working under this self-important little man Etchebest.

The scratched Christofle silverware was a gimmick.

It certainly was a night at the opera, where one watched the performance of a dining establishment crash the lowest expectations. I'm embarrassed of our waste of...

I would never go back. We had a reservation for 9pm. It took a while to be attended to. The menu was a QR code on the table, but it doesn’t have wine by the bottle on the menu. So, we were ordering food before we had even seen the wine list, which was actually very comprehensive. The sommelier was excellent and very knowledgeable and engaging. We were celebrating as we had just bought a house. We had some aperitifs and ordered a 150€ bottle of red wine.

There was only a three course menu on offer. We ordered the mushroom ravioli for entree and the shared beef for our main meal. There was an 18€ per person additional charge for the beef. The mushroom ravioli was lovely. We ordered our beef medium. When it came out, it was Blue. We asked the waitress if we could get it cooked a bit longer as we wanted in cooked medium. She didn’t even acknowledge us and in a real huff took it away. When it came out again, it was rare. The photo shows the beef after it came out the second time. The waitress just dumped in on the table and walked away. By this time, our two side dishes were cold. We then asked the waitress if we could get the beef cooked a bit longer as it was still rare. By this time we’ve been picking at our sides, but one is stone cold, so I ask the waitress if she could please heat up the side of potatoes so that we can eat them hot with our beef when it comes out. So the steak and potatoes come out again. The potato dish is now missing the mash that it originally came out with and the beef’s been reheated 3 times and it’s just not good and now we are just over it. Not once did anyone check in with us. My partner speaks French so it wasn’t a language issue and we’ve both been waiters, so the total lack of care was staggering and the service recovery was non existent. Now my partner never complains and he is so kind, you can win him over so easily, but even he was peeved. So we speak to another waitress and we advise that we don’t want dessert because it’s now 11.30pm and we’re over the whole thing. She was great and said she’d speak to the manager. We then spoke to another waiter who was sent to us (he was lovely and helpful) and the restaurant manager offered to not charge for the dessert that we didn’t have, waive a side dish and not charge one of us for the beef surcharge (but still charge for the main meal, just not the beef surcharge). My partner explained that this was not good enough because we hardly ate any of the beef main meal. Again they had to speak to the manager who agreed to remove the other beef surcharge. So we’re still paying for two entrees and two mains. Turns out the waitress wrote on the order we wanted our beef rare, so it was their fault and after both times we sent it back, it would be expected for the waitress to check if we were ok. Also, if someone sends the food back after it’s their mistake, then take the sides away and bring them back hot with the meal. Our sides were out for 30 minutes before we got the final third time cooked crappy beef. Having to fight for service recovery is terrible. Our bill at the end was 261€. I would never eat here again. Don’t go!!! We left feeling really bitter and peeved that they had to speak to the manager three times, like restaurant manager, if your staff are speaking to you three times about your guests, go speak to the guests and make it right!!!! I have not felt this disappointed or ripped off ever.

Photos show the beef (that we ordered medium) after the second time...

Middle Class Michelin star! Pretty good food. I would not call it Michelin star though. Worst service. Where do I start. The menu is pretty fixed with only 2 options per section (appetizer, main, and dessert). Fine, I made my selections and waited for the courses. My wife liked the mushroom ravioli and my egg was pretty good and creative. Those 2 courses were good, but you are in the middle of Bordeaux and pretty much running a cruise ship scalable dinner.

Ordered a gin and tonic and I think and airline could have made a better one. I tried to add lemon but it was just awful. when I told them it was bad and asked if I could just exchange for wine, I was told no because I already took a drink from it. Ummmm....thats how I figured out it tastes amateur hour in the first place. I set it on the table next to us to make it clear it was disgusting. Maybe G&T is not a French thing,

We also ordered 1 red and 1 white wine for the main course. They poured the white, but never bothered with the red. I finished my main course without it.

Meanwhile we are watching staff serve dessert to everyone but us. It becomes pretty clear something is wrong with the table because we are the last ones literally sitting in the restaurant...still no red wine. So I ask for it.

Roughly 30 minutes passed, still no dessert. The waitress apologized and informed us of a technical glitch in the kitchen (not my problem). What I don't understand is how you can screw this up with only 2 menu options. So we gave up on waiting for dessert and just decided to pay the bill without it.

In the end they took a few items off of the bill and apologized but I never had a manager come out to apologize which I would have expected from a restaurant that pretends to be of higher caliber.

I regret my decision to reserve a table here as my time is valuable. The reservation process is a bit pretentious as well. And the lack of dessert is just the cherry on top. We just went back to our hotel room and ordered a dessert there. It was very "strange" my hotel managed to deliver the food to my room in under 5 minutes.

Truly, the manager and half of the staff are not trained to work in a place that represents itself like this. I truly wish I would have picked something else for my last day in the city and I hope you don't waste your time...