On my previous visit to Pressoir d’Argent I was both delighted with my dinner and frustrated that I didn’t get to try all the dishes I wanted.

The fact that Olivier is joining me for this weekend and the fact that he is a fan of Gordon Ramsay, whose London restaurants he frequents (and in particular his flagship restaurant: the Gordon Ramsay Restaurant) was an excellent excuse to dine there again.

As a reminder: the articles related to this trip :

	Type	Article
#1	Flight	Paris-Bordeaux, Air France, Economy
#2	Hotel	Renaissance Bordeaux – Gallery Room
#3	Restaurant	Le Pressoir d’Argent. – Gordon Ramsay
#4	Flight	Bordeaux-Paris, Air France, Economy

For this review I’ll get to the point, knowing that the establishment has already been presented in my previous article.

The menu

It has evolved slightly since my previous visit, so it is useful to share it again. Interestingly, the staff spontaneously pointed out the changes to me, proof that they remembered me.

There is, of course, the tasting menu.

Starters and main courses

And the desserts

The meal and the service

Our table gives us a clear view of the room.

The staff spontaneously offered to take our picture to immortalize the dinner. We will start the aperitif with a Laurent Perrier cuvée Grand Siècle.

We will also ask for sparkling water. The slices of citons will be placed in our glasses with tongs.

The first appetizers arrive.

First of all, a Charentaise-style mussel, cooked on the barbecue with a beurre blanc sauce.

A leek, pine cone and Bigorre black ham tartlet

And a foccacia with a Bordeaux-style mousse (with wine) and a small escalope of foie gras.

All this is of course very subtle and whets the appetite before we choose our dishes.

It is at this moment that our orders are taken. For the wine we will let the sommelier advise us a glass for each dish.

We are brought a homemade country bread, fresh from the oven, with a half-salt butter from the Basque Country. A delight.

Time for a new appetizer to arrive. Here I find something familiar: an oyster from the Arcachon basin, pork crépinette, white wine sauce and glasswort.

As for me, I chose the duck foie gras as a starter. It is grilled on the barbecue with duck breast frittons and is accompanied by a duck neck filled with frittons, a duck heart and a crab juice.

Several interesting things about this dish. First of all the use of the barbecue and it’s not the first time in this restaurant (cf the langoustine heads during my previous dinner).

Then the fact that the foie comes with the heart and the stuffed neck. Not only nothing is wasted but the whole thing goes together perfectly.

Finally the crab juice. There are not very obvious land-sea combinations and this one had to be dared but the result was perfect.

The cooking of the foie was, it must be said, perfect: it was melting without disintegrating.

A very hearty starter that follows a series of appetizers. This is a far cry from the minimalist cuisine practiced in some other places.

Before the main course a new amuse bouche appears: eel meunière style, Sturia caviar, crispy leek white and leek soup.

Here again one must be bold with eel, caviar and leek but the result is perfect.

During this time the famous silver press makes its appearance in the room for a nearby table.

For my part, I chose lamb as a dish. I say the lamb because there are alsoseveral parts of the animal which are worked: one finds thus a lamb liver, a lamb cassoulet, a lamb merguez… The whole thing fits on several plates.

Again, and this is a comment we made to ourselves many times during the meal: it’s very hearty. The result is light, the meats are tender, the mixture of tastes is very successful, but we are at the antipodes of a starred cuisine that would like sophistication to go hand in hand with frugality.

It’s interesting to see how the chef takes local dishes with a reputation for being hearty, or even popular dishes, and gives them a new dimension without requiring a magnifying glass to identify what you have on your plate.

At this moment we take a small cigar break on the small terrace which gives on the interior courtyard of the hotel.

Without us asking anything the staff brings us our glasses and bottles of water. The same goes for the way back to the table.

We continue with the cheese, with a choice always so important of surprising.

Before moving on to dessert, a new entremet that I really enjoyed last time: pickled cucumber, balsamic vinegar, mint and pelargonium ice cream.

It is surprising, light, fresh, the taste of cucumber perfectly balanced by the mint …

Then comes (finally?) the dessert: French toast with rum XO 20ans, vanilla tile, vanilla ice cream.

At this stage of the meal I was convinced that I didn’t have enough appetite to swallow anything and well… no. Another remarkably light dessert designed on a “popular” basis, French toast, which the chef manages to transform into something gastronomic, remarkably balanced and delicate.

And that’s not all… here are two new “surprises” to end the meal well.

A tartlet, orange brick leaf, yogurt with goat cheese.

And two small fresh lollipops to end the dinner.

We will finish with ahome-made mint tea…. as it should be.

It’s time to go back to the hotel.

Several things about the meal itself (we’ll talk about the service later).

No need to say how fine and well presented the dishes were, the pictures speak for themselves.

As said before it is a hearty meal, very hearty. The dishes themselves are more than enough to satisfy (which is not always the case in a Michelin-starred restaurant) and, moreover, the appetizers and entremets are numerous and sometimes as substantial as a small starter. As well Olivier as me have rather good appetites and we are not especially small sizes, but there we reached our limits so much that we preferred a small hour of walk to return to the hotel that to take the streetcar.

And then there is this characteristic of the restaurant which is to start from local products and traditional and popular dishes to sublimate them by making them gastronomic dishes. The staff with whom we spoke a lot during this meal confirmed this: the menu is developed through constant exchanges between the restaurant’s chef (Romain Lorenzon) and Gordon Ramsay himself, but within a certain framework that he defines, the latter leaves a lot of freedom to his chefs to innovate. And as one waiter told us “that’s why it is successful”.

The staff

Needless to say, the service is at the level expected of this type of restaurant, but that’s not all. The contact with the customers is excellent, the interactions very warm.

We talked a lot with the different people who took care of us, whether it was to talk about the dishes, the wines, the restaurant itself, the cooking techniques…their availability, their listening and their enthusiasm are to be underlined.

And then, maybe because we had the “right” profile, that we looked friendly or that they liked our conversation, they really took care of us,certainly going beyond their obligations.

In such a property everything counts and when you find the same warmth in the human touch as in the food, everything is perfect.

Conclusion

What to add to what has already been said? Refined, authentic, friendly, creative…we would be ready to bet on a third star quite quickly.

And the price you will ask me? For two with the aperitif, many glasses of wine, bottles of sparkling water… 694 euros. So yes it is expensive but when one goes in such a restaurant one knows what to expect and for the result it is more than justified. We have already eaten much less well for more money…or very badly for less money.