dmjwineworks, Hi, I have been able to secure a booking at Hotel Majestic on your recommendation. It%26#39;s a small world. Friends who live less than 150 meters from me have stayed there and recommend it heartily. I have confidence in your opinion and I would now like a few words of advice re eateries within walking distance of Hotel Majestic, if you could please oblige? I will now be in town for 7 nights with various appointments, so, hopefully, I should be able to try a variety of local restaurants.
Thanks for your advice.
Gary
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Hi garybMelbourne, I%26#39;m glad that the hotel advice has helped. As for restaurants within walking distance, try some of these; they%26#39;re all in the moderate price range:
Le Noailles, 12 allées de Tourny, 05 56 81 94 45
This is a favorite with the local wine trade (the Bordeaux Wine Bureau is right across the street). Good food, simply prepared and elegantly served.
Café Gourmand, 3 rue Buffon, 05 56 52 10 98
My personal favorite, I always bring visiting friends here. Centrally located, great French atmosphere.
La Belle Epoque, quai Louis XVIII, 05 56 79 14 58
I%26#39;d bring classes here when teaching food and wine matching at the Bordeaux Wine School. The decor matches the restaurant%26#39;s name and if the weather is nice you can watch the trams glide quietly by while sitting on the wide sidewalk along the waterfront.
La Boite aux Huitres, 36, cours du Chapeau Rouge, 05 56 81 64 97
A great place to enjoy oysters and some crisp white wine. Be sure to order a side dish of sausages, which is the local way to make a feast of a meal of shellfish.
Le Bar à Vin at the CIVB, 3 cours du XXX juillet, 05 56 00 43 47
No reservation is necessary here; it%26#39;s just a pleasant, casual way to pass an hour (or two) with a glass (or two) of good wine. They offer a couple of menus based on savory and sweet items which can go wonderfully with the wines on offer.
These are all within five minutes on foot from the Majestic. I%26#39;m sure that you%26#39;ll enjoy all of them.
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Thankyou dmjwineworks, your service to the Bordeaux visitors is invaluable. The local tourist office should pay you a retainer :)
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Hi dmjwineworks, I%26#39;ve just arrived home from Bordeaux and I thought I%26#39;d drop you a line to say thanks for your recommendations. I enjoyed my stay at the Hotel Majestic. It%26#39;s location cannot be surpassed. I liked the Belle Epoque so much I dined there twice and I liked the little oyster place you recommended as well. You%26#39;ve probably dined there, but the best meal I had in the area was at a restaurant in the village of St Julien called Le Saint Julien. I also dined comfortably one night at a place called something like %26quot;Bistro du Sommelier%26quot;. A bistro at the top end of Quinconces called Les Negotiants (or similar) was nice, too. The food market along the riverside on a Sunday morning is worth an outing as well. Oh, and I had a lunch in Sauternes where I ate lamprey in a rich sauternes sauce...oh, wow!
On the negative side though, (nothing to do with you or your recommendations) I was disappointed on two occasions in Bordeaux (actually one was in St Emillion) to be served oxidised wine by the glass. One restaurant replaced the wine without hesitation whilst the other disgraced itself by arguing that I was wrong. I taste wine professionally and the wine was oxidised. It was the only dampener on a very good trip to Bordeaux.
I enjoyed private visits to Mouton (I adored the museum - I want some of those exhibits), d%26#39;Yquem, Cheval Blanc and my favourite - Chateau Margaux!
Thanks again. If ever you come to Australia, perhaps, I can return the favour.
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Hello garyb, I%26#39;m glad to hear that you had a great time in Bordeaux. The restaurants you%26#39;ve mentioned are all great (some of which definitely fall outside of what I%26#39;d call walking distance from the Hotel Majestic, so I%26#39;m glad that you decided to extend your dining choices--especially the Bistro du Sommelier).
As for the problems with the wine service, I%26#39;ve run into the same thing myself here, at a restaurant called Chez Dupont on rue Notre Dame. I had been looking forward to dining there for some time (just never got around to it), and overall the experience was good--ambience, food, etc. The wine was corked.
When I teach wine classes and the subject comes up I always tell my students that presenting a corked bottle is nothing to be ashamed of. It%26#39;s not your fault when serving a wine to your friends at home, and the restaurant doesn%26#39;t do it on purpose--it simply happens and no one is to blame. (Except the winemaker, if an unusually high percentage of his bottles turn out corked--then he had better stop skimping on his corks and get a better supplier.)
I pointed the problem out to our waiter, he sniffed the glass, told me that it was supposed to be that way, and then walked away. Perhaps he heard my American accent (as may have been the case with your Australian accent) and figured that I didn%26#39;t know what I was talking about.
In any event, when I worked in restaurant kitchens we had a saying which kept us on our toes and made sure that everything we sent out was perfect: the customer doesn%26#39;t send it back, he just doesn%26#39;t come back.
Although I had looked forward to dining there and otherwise enjoyed my meal, I%26#39;ve never even thought of returning.
I guess the moral of the story is that even here in Bordeaux, in Saint-Emilion, in the heart of one of the world%26#39;s great wine regions itself, one should not be surprised that wine service can be as lousy as anywhere else. Disappointed and upset, yes, but surprised, no. Alas.
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