Tentazioni is an excellent Italian gourmet restaurant in Bordeaux, offering sophisticated but unpretentious cuisine in a warm, family atmosphere, where you’ll discover aspects of Italian cuisine you’d never have imagined.

When I planned this trip I had identified a number of restaurants, including Tentazioni. After all, a Michelin-starred Italian restaurant isn’t that common. Before validating my final choices, I asked my local specialist Anne from Papilles & Pupilles for advice, and this was among the first names she mentioned, which was enough to remove all doubt from my mind.

You’ll find all the articles about this Bordeaux getaway at the bottom of the page.

Restaurant concept

Tentazioni is a gourmet Italian cuisine restaurant.

It is one of the few Italian restaurants in France to be awarded a star (one star), and another ranking puts it 15th out of the 50 best Italian restaurants in the world.

The setting

The room is small, with 7 tables, beautifully decorated in light tones, and it’s very warm, almost like a family room, making you feel at home.

The menu

There’s a tasting menu that changes weekly and is the only one served in the evening. It is available in 6 or 8 courses.

At lunchtime there’s a 2, 3 or 4-course market menu.

The dinner

I arrive at the restaurant and am warmly welcomed.

They bring me the menu and I indicate that I’d like to choose the full menu, but without the wine pairing. I’ll trust the sommelier to recommend 3 or 4 glasses during the meal to avoid over-mixing.

I’ll start by ordering a Negroni as an aperitif and a bottle of water. The Negroni will be delicious, well-balanced and dry (and you know I’m ruthless when it comes to judging a Negroni). It will be accompanied by appetizers.

Everything is fresh and tasty.

I’m then brought bread with olive oil. The bread will be a real treat…

The first course arrives: Grilled “Voltaire” green asparagus from Luberon, lovage hollandaise sauce and osciètre caviar.

Start at the tip, with caviar. It is accompanied by a caviar salad, served on the side.

The cooking is perfect and the combination of asparagus and caviar a real killer. The salad is fresh and good, but the combination of caviar and lovage (a plant with a taste halfway between parsley and celery) is less impressive than expected.

The second course arrives.

Roasted langoustine in Bigorre ham fat, saffron peas, leg flan and tartar with shell oil

The cooking was very successful, and the raw material very good, but I had trouble identifying the taste of the ham, which was too subdued for my taste.

The flan is much tastier, creative and surprising.

Pietro Massi artisanal spaghetti, Galician sea urchins and crispy breadcrumbs

I’ve learned that in southern Italy they use breadcrumbs instead of parmesan.

The dish is served very hot! Sea urchin is usually an ingredient that not everyone appreciates, but here it goes very well with the rest. The bread is amazing and the texture of the spaghetti is perfect.

There’s a sort of spicy taste that I can’t quite identify.

Turbot, Agretti, cockles and lemon white butter

The fish is perfectly cooked, the sauce excellent, and the cockles and spinach add a touch of freshness.

Delicious.

Ravioli stuffed with pigeon, caramelized hazelnuts and aged parmesan cheese

A reference to Africa with poultry and dried fruit, Parmesan is used for salting.

The caramel and Parmesan stand out, it’s very good.

Roasted sweetbreads glazed with Santoregia honey, purple artichoke and “juice to eat”.

The sweetbreads are perfectly cooked, and the glaze adds a very pleasant flavour. I never thought artichokes could be so melt-in-the-mouth and creamy, a real treat.
The sweetbread emulsion is delicious.

Sorrel and pears. Pear confit, pear mousse, sorrel sorbet

Very surprising, but the flavors go very well together and it’s very fresh.

First Gariguettes (strawberries) From the So Bon selection

Served with mascarpone ice cream, strawberry-lemon coulis and almonds.

Very fresh and good, both simple and sophisticated.

I will conclude with a coffee and mignardises:

The atmosphere

Discreet, muted music, pleasant ambience that’s neither noisy nor stuffy.

The service

With a small team, it’s almost as if they work as a family. This, combined with the availability of the staff (I had long discussions with a passionate sommelier) and this small dining room, almost gives the impression of being invited to eat in the home of our hosts. You almost forget you’re in a restaurant.

Bottom line

An excellent experience for discovering aspects of Italian cuisine that were previously unknown to me. The dishes are sophisticated but not overdone, and have an appearance of simplicity once on your plate. The ingredients are fresh and of the highest quality.

All in an almost family atmosphere that makes you feel right at home.

The 175 euros (menus, aperitif, wine…) are not usurped for a Michelin-starred restaurant.

Articles on this Bordeaux getaway

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