Lunchtime Poke Bowls at HEIKO

One of my favorite new discoveries in the neighborhood is HEIKO on Rue Fondaudège, perfect for a quick solitary lunch on work-from-home Wednesdays. They specialize in poke bowls  and “sushi burritos” inspired by Hawaiian, Japanese and Mexican flavors. At 11.90€ a bowl and 10.90€ a burrito, this is a pretty great deal. (Considering the quantity…

Weekend Eats at Marché des Capucins

“Wholesome” is how I feel on Saturday or Sunday mornings at Marché des Capucins with my bae. There’s something so therapeutic, so comforting about picking out one’s ingredients for the rest of the week, pointing at the avocado, the tomato, the radish that will make it into my weekday lunch, choosing the corn-fed, yellow-skinned poulet…

A Colorful Tasting Menu at Cromagnon

A ride together around the sun, a year spent building a home and then being confined in it. Our noces de coton. To celebrate our first wedding anniversary we decided to try out a restaurant that we had walked by many times on the olde Rue du Palais Gallien, one whose name we had said…

Lichen on a Sunny Saturday, Freshly Deconfined

We didn’t stray far from home for our first restaurant meal after déconfinement. That 1km max running radius seemed to set in deep psychologically and for the first time we really opened our eyes to the many fantastic options on Palais Gallien. Yes, nearing Gambetta, it turns into kebab country and the suffocating odor of…

Ringing in the New Decade at Madame Pang

To be honest, I was barely there for this dinner at Madame Pang on New Year’s Eve, at the brink of the new decade. I arrived at the finish line for 2019 like an out-of-shape long-distance runner, dry-heaving but with a smile plastered across my face for show. “We made it!” 2019 was a busy…

A Bistronomique Dinner at Porte Quinze

Tucked away on a barely-there side street between the Quai de la Douane and Place Saint-Pierre is Porte Quinze, bistro gastronomique of Ivorian Chef Gilbert Okoin. With its modest capacity of just 20, the ambience is intimate, and the interior as discreet as the location. Light wooden surfaces, touches of taupe, grey and white here…

Capperi: Dinner Inside a Pizza Oven during a Heat Wave

On the hottest day ever recorded in the history of Bordeaux, two friends and I made a reservation at a pint-sized pizzeria where the dining area is about 1 meter from a 350° C wood fire burning oven. After some hesitation and a few longing glances in the direction of Aphrodite, a breezy Greek terrace…

Generally Unimpressed by La Copa Rota

Ahh the wonders of rue Notre-Dame… The precious little brocades (antique shops), a very special bridal boutique, and historical facades overgrown by florals gushing forth from every terrace, the heart and soul of the trendy Chartrons neighborhood of Bordeaux. Get a beer at Zhytho or sit out on the terrace of the Halle de Chartrons,…

Sporking our Way through the Menu at Cent33

Three former colleagues at a new restaurant each month or two, chatting about the world of Bordeaux fine wine over a bottle of non-Bordeaux. Such is the nature of what’s becoming a regular kind of dinner club, meetings of which I look forward to with enthusiasm every time. Our June pick was Cent33, a gastronomic…

A Wild Ride at Mampuku

A few nights ago, Ben and I got together with a couple of friends to try out Mampuku, near Porte Cailhau. After what was one of my favorite Bordeaux restaurant experiences at MILES a few months ago, I was eager to try its sister restaurant, an (even) less-formal, but just as cerebral, collaboration between Japanese…