Our teams share their favourite places to eat. From beachside guinguettes to Bordeaux bistronomy, from the banks of the Garonne to the Corbières massif by way of Chablis, their recommendations will leave you hungry and itching to travel.
We asked our teams for their favourite places to eat. The result? A food guide so varied, we guarantee you won’t find it in your AI.
Left Bank, Right Bank, plus a couple of detours to other shores close to our hearts.
‘I’m quite fond of Zéphirine and Vivants,’ writes Eric Kohler, Technical Director of Châteaux Lafite Rothschild and Duhart-Milon.
At Zéphirine, chef Romain Corbière changes the menu every two days. On one wall, a mural made from real dried vegetables by an artisan from Floirac. On the plate, equally real vegetables, only these ones are very much alive and in season. A pressed leek with sauce gribiche and a tangy cauliflower curry on the ever-changing blackboard menu are enough to tempt us through the door.
Vivants
13 rue des Bahutiers, Bordeaux
Next on Eric Kohler’s list is Tanguy Laviale’s second restaurant, following his former venture, Garopapilles. Pink-centred tuna from Saint-Jean-de-Luz, tomato jelly with elderflower vinegar and a serious wine list of more than 800 references. Our mouths are watering already.
‘Not bad,’ adds Eric Kohler. From someone else, that verdict might not exactly inspire enthusiasm. Coming from Eric, we suspect a little understatement.
The grilled rack of pork with gratin dauphinois certainly makes us want to take a closer look at this charming restaurant near Mériadeck.
Bui Bui
20 rue du Palais Gallien, Bordeaux
Saskia de Rothschild, Chairwoman of Domaines Barons de Rothschild Lafite, goes here particularly for ‘a great wine list.’ The Taiwanese restaurant has made it something of a speciality. Regulars rave about pairings that sound every bit as good as they taste: Taiwanese fried chicken with spicy Syrah, grilled pork with a powerful Cabernet. Two different cultures in conversation, without either giving up what makes it distinctive.
Le Saint Julien
11 rue de Saint-Julien, Saint-Julien-Beychevelle
Claude Broussard, a Pauillac native, has been in the kitchen here for twenty-five years. Saskia de Rothschild and Eric Kohler are equally enthusiastic about his cooking.
Lobster grilled over vine shoots, rib of beef with Bordeaux-style potatoes, pigeon supreme with foie gras. This is generous, traditional cooking, best enjoyed when there’s nothing in the diary for the rest of the afternoon.
Dismissed by some as a culinary desert, a ‘Wild West’ with little to tempt the hungry traveller, the Médoc has plenty going for it.
And Saskia has a few more recommendations up her sleeve:
Le Caffe Cuisine
9 place du Marché, 33420 Branne
On the border between Entre-deux-Mers and Saint-Émilion, this recommendation comes from Juliette Couderc, Estate Director at Château L’Évangile.
A former seventeenth-century coaching inn, Caffe Cuisine has been transformed by Stéphane Casset and Pierre Larroze into a grand bistro. An eclectic collection of vintage finds, from a deep sofa and a billiard table repurposed as a dining table to an old industrial workbench, sits alongside a vast fireplace, wooden floors and antique tiles, giving the place an immediate sense of warmth.
That feeling carries through to the plate, with generous seasonal cooking based on fresh produce sourced from local markets. Tender slow-cooked veal, sea bass carpaccio with ginger, cod wrapped in smoked bacon. The list is long, ever-changing and always tempting. The savviest locals know it too: winemakers and négociants from Saint-Émilion and Entre-deux-Mers have naturally made it their canteen.
Saskia de Rothschild and Olivier Trégoat, Technical Director for Domaines Barons de Rothschild Lafite, recommend this one in unison.
New Caledonian-born chef Kendji Wongsodikromo puts his own spin on the classics of south-western France. Duck, suckling pig, guinea fowl, meagre, Basque ham: you might fear a certain foie-gras-induced stupor. But that would be to underestimate the chef’s precise, restrained touch and his deft use of condiments, from soy and lemon to pickles, salsa verde and pomegranate jus, all there to keep the palate wide awake.
Another recommendation from Olivier Trégoat. Chef Stéphane Casset creates a menu that changes daily, supplied by his own kitchen garden, alongside a wine list of more than 500 bottles. It sounds good enough that we suspect he might even persuade us to try banana, an aroma dreaded by winemakers. As ice cream, though, accompanied by shortbread and dark chocolate? We’re willing to be convinced.
L’Écluse 52
709 route du Moulin, Castets-en-Dorthe
‘At the beginning of the Canal du Midi,’ says Louis Wicke, Vineyard Manager at Château Paradis Casseuil, ‘where it meets the Garonne.’
‘A very good place that my whole team loves.’
Sliced cuttlefish, Landes salad, sweetbreads, duck breast, octopus: we arrive hungry and happy. We leave full and even happier.
Au Fil du Zinc
18 rue des Moulins, Chablis
Didier Séguier, Technical Director of Domaine William Fèvre, recommends it as much for the food as for the wine.
Confit trout with sudachi, a Japanese citrus fruit even more delicate than yuzu; albacore tuna with basil and satay…we sense an umami-filled sort of happiness coming on.
And where there’s umami, there’s Chablis. (Link to article.)
All that remains is to choose a bottle. Easier said than done: the wine list features nearly a hundred representatives of this noble appellation.
From one shore to another, this guide is designed to grow with the flow, as more recommendations come in from our teams. The ambition remains the same: to make you hungry, thirsty…and ready to pull up a chair.
And if you’re hungry for even more gastronomic wandering, you’re in luck: this issue of The Journal has plenty more on the menu.
You can barbecue prawns in a carrelet, one of the traditional fishing huts of the Médoc estuary; go scallop fishing in Devon; take a walk through London pairing umami with Rieussec; or stop off in Pichilemu, Chile, to meet a surfing chef and friend of our Viña Los Vascos.
A fishing trip off the coast of South Devon, a haul of scallops, and two bottles of William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru to wash them down.
Chef Gustavo Moreno accepted our challenge: bring the day’s catch together on one plate with three wines from Viña Los Vascos, our Chilean vineyard. The result? Three unexpected pairings that cast our Cromas Syrah, Le Dix de Los Vascos and Chagual Sauvignon Blanc in a new light.
Three Parisian artisans (Jean-Paul Hévin, Poilâne et My Fermentation) in conversation with Château Rieussec
Three Parisian artisans (Jean‑Paul Hévin, Apollonia Poilâne et Hugo Chaise) bring their fermented crafts into conversation with Château Rieussec.