Who would eat two beef
steaks in one day? Apparently I would.
Having already decided to use
the tram system to inexpensively glide about Bordeaux and see more of
the suburbs of the city plus, save my ailing feet, I found myself
around the Les Hangers area of the city. This is in the
Chartrons district once historically connected with the
Bordeaux docks and all the import and export of the wines and spices
that made Bordeaux the wealthy city it is today. More recently in
time the area has reinvented itself with businesses opening up
selling antiques and in the last ten years a long strip of top
quality shops and restaurants called Les Hangers- Cap Sciences
has re-engaged the area as a place to be. The opening up of the
quayside has also given the fit joggers, roller bladers, skate
boarders and cyclists a longer run for their euro too. Plus, I
noticed that there were some new little take away style eateries
being set up on the Quai de Baclan between the tram stops
Cours du Medoc and Bassin à
Flot.
On my late Monday morning in Bordeaux I resisted my deep feelings of jogger envy and slowly walked with a weary gait from one tram stop to another. The sun was already quite hot and I needed somewhere to rest up and eat. In doing so I spied a restaurant that looked a typically French place to have some lunch and dropped into the Au Bouchon des Chartrons – Chez Olivier situated at 52 Quai de Baclan. Olivier the owner explained that the 'resto' wasn't open until midday so I had half an hour to wait. I went down to the next tram stop and sat for thirty minutes in the sun watching the world go by. As in any language things get abbreviated and I had noticed that a few places the word restaurant had been fore-shortened to 'resto' and I even saw a bike shop called Bordo Velos!
Once
returning to Au Bouchon des Chartrons the
waiter, Pierre,
took me under his wing and guided me inside to a little table by the
door. There were already two French women at the table next to me who
looked like they had met up for lunch. The cosy interior was small
with a nice little bar and various artefacts hanging on the wall
including an old bike, some sepia portraits, two or three old caps of
the gendarme style and a faded blue postman's jacket on a hanger. It
looked like years ago the postman had left it there and forgot to
return. There was an unopened bottle of red wine on each table
costing 36Ɛ.
I declined any offer of wine, bottle or glass. You could say that I
bottled out!
I
settled instead for a local beer brewed in Bordeaux – bierre Alienor.
It was a blonde beer very like a Belgian or Dutch beer.
The
menus were on two chalk boards – one for the prix-fixe
lunch menu and one other very in depth and out of my money league
price wise. I did begin to wonder if I had made a steak mistake. The
charismatic Pierre
sat on the step next to the door and lovingly went through all of the
delicious sounding dishes (I'm sure roast saddle of rabbit was
mentioned) all chalked up with love from the kitchen. It was all in
French and I believe he was explaining that some of the dishes
weren't on offer and others had certain items as replacements. He
left me to ponder. Whilst pondering I began to realise that the
smaller board was 'the menu' not an advertisement for something
unseen. I chose the menu
complet
choice. This included a starter, a steak cooked à
point
(my choice) and a dessert.
I
wished I had written them down and then I could have been more
informative in describing my meal. Unfortunately the board had
already been whisked away to show other diners outside. It was
getting very busy and the friendly Pierre
seemed to revel in his job whizzing back and forth between tables.
The starter was a yummy plate of spiced potato cakes and some salad
and the steak was to die for! That is if you like it quite bloody as
I do. It was a decent thickness of sirloin with a mouth watering char
grilled surface. I was relishing every mouthful and the brown chips
(cooked in duck fat) were piping hot. Il
ètait
vachement bien!
I was taking my time so much I had to order another beer just to
extend this love affair with my steak. So much in love was I with
this bouchon
Chez Olivier
that I almost forgot about my blisters. The discerning carnivore in
me was a very happy bunny.
Of course that time comes when you have to pay and the whole lot came to just under 30Ɛ. That was probably the most I have ever spent on a lunch, holiday or not, but it was definitely worth it.
 |
| Cow Street!!! |
Onwards
and upwards I happily, but hungrily, stumbled until I came to the top
of the cours
d'intendance
and the scent of grilling meat lured me into the steak house chain
Hippopotamus.
I
was happy just to sit again for a while and was quickly served by the
very active and pleasant hostess from whom I ordered the steak
bavette
with some fresh salad and of course, a pint of cold lager Heineken
beer. In English we know bavette
as beef skirt, a fibrous cut more often used at home as a very tender
stewing steak that is also very good for making a curry with. The
French also use this cut sliced on the diagonal as a good frying
steak. It was very tender and had a delicious charcoal grill bite to
it like the steak in the afternoon.
Before
I wrote this blog post today I had a look on the internet on the Trip
Advisor site for some idea of what other customers had though of the
service. Some of the reviews were good but those from back in
December and November 2014 were quite critical of the slow service
and the allegedly uninspiring quality of the food. They were
predominantly from French people and their groups. This wasn't my
experience and the hostess even took time to listen to my questions
about the entrecôte
steaks. I would go there again to be sure.
I
had left my camera at the hotel so I wasn't able to take any pictures
of my meal but these images from their website give a good impression
of what was on offer steak-wise.
