Le Quatrième Mur in Bordeaux: a UFO that leaves you with a strange feeling

The second restaurant of this Bordeaux trip was Le Quatrième Mur, Philippe Etchebest’s restaurant in Bordeaux. Having dined the night before at the Pressoir d’Argent (Gordon Ramsay), I didn’t have to go far, since the Quatrième Mur is just across the street, inside the Grand Théâtre.

Here is a reminder of the program:

#	Type	Review

1	Hotel	Sheraton Roissy CDG
2	Flight	Paris-Bordeaux – Air France – Economy
3	Hotel	Renaissance Bordeaux
4	Restaurant	Le Pressoir d’Argent Gordon Ramsay
5	Restaurant	Le Quatrième Mur (here)
6	Flight	Bordeaux-Paris – Air France – Economy

The Concept

Philippe Etchebest has opened a property in the Grand Théâtre that combines two concepts. Le Quatrième Mur is a brasserie with a simple menu that varies with the seasons and the chef’s creativity. The Table d’Hôte, meanwhile, offers a 7-course gastronomic experience virtually right in the kitchen. The Table d’Hôte, meanwhile, offers a 7-course gastronomic experience virtually right in the kitchen.

Today we’re going to talk about the brasserie.

Intrigued by the restaurant’s name? In theater, the fourth wall refers to an imaginary “wall” at the front of the stage, separating the stage from the audience, through which the audience can see the actors perform. As the restaurant is located in the Grand Théâtre….

The setting

The Brasserie is located in a long hall cut in the middle by the columns of what is the Grand Théâtre lobby.

You may find that it divides the room into several human-sized sections or, on the contrary, that it reinforces the corridor effect.

Personally, it felt a bit weird. On the one hand, we have a beautiful brasserie room, but it’s clear that It’s been set up it in a place that wasn’t designed for it in the first place, by amputating part of the hall’s surface area and erecting a large wall to separate it from the restaurant.

I’m not a fan of dining-room-style table alignments in a long hall, but I’ll make do…

You can also eat outside.

In both cases, I’d make the same remark: there’s plenty of space but the lack of width makes it feel like you’re eating in a corridor.

In the end, the location is superb but the restaurant itself is impersonal, lacking in charm and noisy. And a canteen, even in a superb setting, is still a canteen.

The Quatrième Mur’s menu

If the menu varies with the seasons, it also varies with the days of the week: very simple during the week, more elaborate at weekends.

So here’s what I was offered on this Saturday in August. No paper card, just a QR Code to flash… because of the COVID (the restaurant had also closed for a few days following the appearance of cases among the staff).

Par contre il y avait quand même un document papier pour nous expliquer que pour raisons sanitaires il n’y avait pas de menu papier. I won’t try to understand.

What to say?

I always say that a short menu means fresh ingredients, but this might be a bit too much. Two starters, two main courses, two desserts and that’s it. I understand the brasserie’s penchant for simplicity, but this is perhaps a little too much.

I should add that this is the weekend menu, which is much more elaborate (and a little more expensive) than the weekday menu, which was so simple (with the same number of dishes to choose from) that it bordered on banality and didn’t appeal to me at all.

The meal and the dishes

Once I arrive, I’m seated at my table without further fuss. And? And then I wait. No suggestion of an aperitif to wait for the order, which means that I’m going to find the time long. Fortunately, toast and tapenade are placed on the table, which will keep me busy for a while. After 15 minutes, I’ll be asked what I want.

The contact is very pleasant. I will choose the ravioli and the pork with the red fruit Pavlova for dessert. I’m asked (finally) if I want an aperitif and, more surprisingly, if I want my dishes to arrive one after the other or…all together!

10 minutes later my americano arrives. Of course, in the meantime I’ve finished the toast and tapenade (I’ve been here for 25 minutes), but they’ll bring me more with a smile.

Waiting for my starter, I look around. The hall is beautiful by nature (the Grand Théâtre), with marble and columns, but not for its intrinsic decoration. And the marble makes the sounds resonate, so it’s noisy.

My starter and the wine arrive after I’ve already been seated for 45 minutes. Let’s see what these ravioli look like.

First comment: the presentation is very well done.

The dish is fine and very tasty. The sauce is very good and the pan-fried foie gras has kept a nice consistency, proof of perfectly mastered cooking, which is not so common.

Undeniably, it’s way above the “brasserie” standard, both in terms of substance (taste) and form (presentation).

The main course (Pork Pluma) will arrive very quickly once the starter has been served.

Once again, the visual is very beautiful. Who said it was a brasserie? There’s a real effort here that you’ll only find in properties of a higher standard (and at a higher price).

Once again, the cooking was perfect and the eggplants were very tasty. Invisible (or almost invisible) in the photo, a film of tomato-scented gelatin covers the whole, adding a pleasant freshness.

As for the dessert, the Pavlova with red fruits, it was just like the rest of the meal: perfectly presented and pleasant to the palate, even if it was perhaps the dish that left the least impression on me of the three.

I will finish with a coffee.

Question from the (young) waitress at checkout: “Are you American?”. Me: “No, why?”. She: “Because you have an American Express”. Uh-huh.

My overall impression of the dishes: a real pleasant surprise. I didn’t expect so much research and finesse from a property that calls itself a brasserie!

The service

Overall, the service is good. It can be a little slow, especially at the beginning (there were a lot of people, but in this case it is necessary to size the teams).

From what I’ve seen, the staff are young (in their thirties at most), which may explain things like the question at checkout or the fact that the carafe of water requested at the start of service never arrived at the table. But he is impeccably trained and has excellent customer relations. They are at the right place to grow.

The atmosphere

It’s a brasserie, so it’s crowded and noisy. So be it. If you don’t like it, I’d say the same thing as for Mollard in Paris: go elsewhere, but it goes with the very concept of a brasserie.

After that, as I’ve already said, I find that the restaurant (in terms of setting, not dishes) doesn’t live up to the standards of the place it’s housed in: it’s like a a space cobbled together in a place not meant for it and maybe it’s the inconsistency between the two that leaves me with a strange impression. Not negative, just weird.

Bottom line

In the end, I had a very good meal, in the restaurant of a great chef, in a prestigious setting (even if…) for 73 euros (3 courses, aperitif, a glass of wine and coffee). Some may think that’s a lot of money, but I think it’s worth it in this context.

But I left the restaurant with mixed feelings, as if something wasn’t quite right. I felt like I’d discovered a UFO, and in the end it left me with an uncomfortable impression.

I was expecting a brasserie, and I’ve got the setting, atmosphere and prices of a brasserie. But not the dishes of a brasserie: there’s a much higher level of quality and sophistication. So, on the face of it, I have nothing but reasons to be satisfied, as the plate was in some ways far superior to the promise.

But if I look at it the other way round, focusing on the dishes, they deserve a different setting.

In the end I don’t know which option is the right one, but there’s a real dissonance between the dishes and the rest that means I still don’t know what kind of restaurant I’ve eaten in.

What if I were to recommend Le Quatrième Mur? Objectively, I think I’ll do it, but there’s an inconsistency in this restaurant that I’d be curious to hear the customer’s feedback regarding what they expected to find.

Surprising customers is all very well, but surprising them too much can be a problem.