Maison Nouvelle, Chef Philippe Etchebest’s new Michelin-starred restaurant, is more than just a fine dining experience; it’s a journey into the chef’s world, strongly influenced by his own personality.

I’ve been wanting to try Maison Nouvelle for a long time, but every time I’ve come to Bordeaux it’s just not been the right time. No table available, annual vacations…I’ve had every imaginable setback. This time, when I planned my trip I immediately sent an email to the restaurant telling them roughly “I’m here from such to such a date, I’ll take any available slot”. And I finally hit the Holy Grail: a confirmed reservation.

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

Restaurant concept

For Philippe Etchebest, Maison Nouvelle is much more than a restaurant. It’s a real personal project, or even a family project, as it seems that his wife was also involved, and in fact she co-signs the thank-you note given to the customer at the end of the meal. A bit like the fulfillment of a lifetime…

Maison Nouvelle is like the chef welcoming us into his home. The dining room is like an apartment, with dishes sometimes inspired by his childhood, and with names that sometimes reflect a certain sense of humor (his staff described the chef as very human, playful and joking…).

In a way, it’s reminiscent of 100 Maneiras in Lisbon, about which I’ll tell you more later….

The setting

You’re greeted downstairs, at the restaurant bar, then climb a staircase to reach the dining room.

The room looks more like an apartment than a restaurant.

A fake fireplace adds an extra touch of warmth.

It’s comfortable, sober but not sad, warm…you feel like home. Or like at the chef’s.

The menu

No choice: there’s a single tasting menu that you discover as you eat, but don’t worry, a printed summary is provided at the end.

It seems to change quite regularly.

It will cost you 220 euros excluding wine to taste it. Rates more in line with a 2* than a 1* to be honest.

On the other hand, while more and more restaurants are taking a credit card imprint at the time of booking – a totally legitimate practice to combat the scourge of no-shows – here the restaurant charges a deposit of 50% euros, refundable in the event of cancellation. Great for cash flow! And while we’re on the subject of the bill, the restaurant doesn’t accept American Express. Shame.

However, at this price for a 1* in the provinces, it would be good to keep the promise.

The dinner

I arrive at the restaurant, located in the Chartrons district, a historic part of the city.

On the first floor is the restaurant bar, Le Rode, and upstairs the restaurant.

When booking, it is specified that you must arrive early if you want to enjoy the bar before dinner. That’s what I’ll do.

I’m welcomed and seated at a table. The bar is quite small and has its own clientele, independent of that of the restaurant.

Cosy and warm. There’s a smell of smoke and hearth that goes perfectly with the decor.

They bring me the menu. Very sophisticated and interesting, a real coctkail bar.

I order a “Poivron” (Altos Blanco tequila infused with peppers and ginger, lime, homemade pepper-ginger syrup soda).

The staff are constantly coming and going to take customers upstairs, asking about potential allergies, they’re always in and out, it’s a far cry from the hushed atmosphere of a Michelin-starred restaurant, but that’s not to my displeasure.

I’m brought appetizers.

Carrot tartlet, pizza soufflé, goat’s cheese fritter. Very good.

Then comes my cocktail.

It’s fresh, smoky, a little spicy and perfectly balanced. Not too sweet either. I’m a fan, even though I’m not usually a fan of long drinks, and even less so when there’s syrup. Talent isn’t just to be found in the kitchen, it’s behind the bar too!

I think I’ve figured out how to differentiate between bar and restaurant customers: some have amuse bouche, others olives…

I’m then picked up and taken to the 2nd floor (there are two floors, each with its own dining room). As I go by, I’m ushered into the kitchen so I can see it and the team. Too bad Chef Etchebest wasn’t there (I’m told he’s there 2 or 3 evenings a week, but he’s very busy…something I would have suspected). A very nice initiative though.

The table is set in a very sober style.

I won’t be taking the wine pairing so as not to spend my meal running after glasses to finish them before the next one arrives, and will trust the sommelier to recommend three or four glasses during dinner. With that I’ll order a mineral water (Abatilles, to be local).

They bring me bread (delicious) with a butter smoked with olive wood and sea salt. A real treat.

A few appetizers follow: goat-pear / carrot / buckwheat-cabbage flower. Again, very good.

Now it’s time to get serious.

To start: Russian-style caviar

It’s a Dordogne caviar, so not very iodized, accompanied by an onion and sherry vinegar compote and lemon cream.

It tastes like hazelnuts, very original and unlike any caviar I’ve ever tasted: less refined than traditional caviar, it lacks the pronounced iodine taste.

I really like it.

Le végétal (the vegetable): braised celery, kiwi sauce with lime

In fact, before each dish, I’m served a bite-sized portion which is a concentrate of the dish’s taste in reduction, to prepare the palate. Very interesting!

And here’s the dish.

The celery gives a strong taste that the kiwi softens and balances.

It’s fresh, it’s very “detox”, I like it.

Then comes the chef’s signature dish…

Reinterpretation: my brown mushroom ravioli with foie gras.

A reinterpretation, because it’s a dish that the chef has been offering since he started his first restaurant, and has never ceased to improve and revisit over the years.

In this dish, mushrooms are used in a variety of forms. The cappuccino with parsley is as surprising as…a parsley salad! Very surprising.

The result is a very light, fine dish, very different from what you might expect.

Bitter sea (la mère amère): snacked scallops, burnt cabbage, grapefruit

The dish is served with a scallop broth.

A lot of bitterness in this dish, as its name suggests, but a subtle balance that means that once again it’s the delicacy of the dish that stands out.

Giblets and chard: sweetbreads, chard, buckwheat

It started out as a 100% vegetable dish, in which sweetbreads were invited to join in. In fact, it’s the sweetbread that accompanies the chard and not the other way around, as would seem logical.

Again, a very fine dish. The smoked butter sauce adds something really special, and the highly original combination of chard and sweetbreads produces a result that’s as surprising as it is pleasing.

I wonder if there are capers or something similar…

Anyway, it’s a real treat and my favorite dish so far tonight.

Let’s take a short break to talk about the service. At first, I was served by a young waitress who was very pleasant and professional, but perhaps a little school-like, but now it’s the head waiter who takes care of me. Really passionate, never stingy with explanations about a dish and very curious about how customers feel about it. He wants to understand how I feel, how I compare it with past experiences…. the type of person I would have gladly told to sit down at my table and continue our discussions if he wasn’t working!

Another comment on the butter I mentioned earlier….I could eat kilos of it, it’s so good…

Meanwhile, the sommelier did his job perfectly, recommending relevant and coherent wines while remaining reasonable on prices.

For the next dish, there’s a riddle: it’s up to me to guess the dish by tasting it, with the only clue being its name: Migration in fresh water.

I’m trying to guess but can’t find …the name suggests fish, the migration suggests a mixture of land and sea, and the taste suggests meat, especially since it’s served with a meat knife. They didn’t go so far as to serve a fish with an inappropriate knife to mislead me, did they? Well, yes.

Eventually I’ll find it (with the help of the head waiter, who’ll tell me to think about the local specialities). It’s Lamprey. Lamprey disguised as meat and cooked just the same!

The actual composition is: barbecued lamprey, leek, vegetable Bordelaise sauce.

Apart from the very surprising nature of the dish that is ideal for this kind of game, there’s another reason. The Lamprey is not only a vampire fish (it feeds on blood) but also a fish whose appearance can be truly frightening. Having the customer guess it once they’ve eaten avoids any apprehension when they see it listed on the menu.

Another original feature is that it is served with a Bordeaux sauce, just like meat, but a vegetable Bordeaux sauce with honey and soy!

A truly surprising dish, with a fish cooked like a meat to the point where you think it is one, and once again a perfect blend of flavors.

Then comes the cheese trolley with a special feature: it’s mainly made up of unlikely, unknown cheeses.

In the course of my discussions with the sommelier, I learn some bad news. He’s back from Australia and Elska, which I really liked last autumn, has closed. Too bad, and I hope this isn’t the end of the culinary adventures of this friendly Australian-Danish couple.

Time for dessert.

Smoking kills, eat it: chocolate, cognac, tobacco and mucilage

The cognac is a little too discreet for my taste and comes in 2nd mouthful. I’ll have the explanation later: it’s gelled!

Even I, who am not a fan of desserts, fall under the spell of this three-chocolate sauce!

A second dessert is coming:

The cereal killer: granola, citrus fruits, saffron

A very original dessert that resembles breakfast.

Yogurt is in fact a very light emulsion. It’s so fresh that I’ve come to wonder if there isn’t any ice cream in it.

A real treat.

And a third dessert to finish.

The Proust madeleine: Basque cake from my childhood

Very light, much lighter than the appearance suggests! A lovely way to end the meal with a wink from the chef.

I’ll then be brought a blend of three chocolates, which I’ll accompany with an Oaxaca tea (Assam black tea, pomegranate, orange peel, cinnamon stick, pink and black pepper, cornflowers, cloves).

These hourglasses come in very handy for mastering tea brewing.

That’s it, it’s (sadly) over.

The service

Simply perfect: very professional but not at all obsequious. And, I might add, very human. I loved the many discussions I had with the head waiter and sommelier and the way they communicated their passion.

The chef wants people to feel at home in his restaurant, and I think he also wanted people to behave “as if they were at home” in terms of conviviality, and that’s perhaps even part of the brief.

The atmosphere

Fairly relaxed, warm, with no fuss or show-offs. You can see that guests feel good.

Bottom line

With a menu priced like a 2* (at Gordon Ramsay’s Pressoir d’Argent in Bordeaux, the two tasting menus are 195 and 235€), I was expecting a lot from Philippe Etchebest. And it didn’t disappoint.

Firstly, for a whole host of reasons that have nothing to do with the dishes themselves, but rather with perception. The names of the dishes, sometimes with puns, the messages sent by certain dishes about his life, his background, the setting and the general atmosphere.

Then for the staff, who were simply perfect and extremely pleasant.

Finally, for the menu. First its composition. There are two ways of putting together a menu: tell a coherent story or make a “PSG menu” (put the best dishes on the menu without worrying about coherence, even if it means going too far – a reference to Paris St Germain, the Paris soccer team that buys many expensive players and fails to make them play as a team), and Etchebest avoided the PSG menu! What’s more, it’s creative, often amusing and perfectly executed.

My only regret? Not having met the chef! As much as I find certain hyper-mediatized chefs unattractive in human terms (and one of them even deserving slaps), Philippe Etchebest is one of those people I’d be happy to chat to and share a drink with! And his staff, who have nothing but praise for this “passionate hyperactive joker person”, have confirmed my point of view.

Articles on this Bordeaux getaway

Review #	Type	Post
#1	Diary	Preparing a getaway in Bordeaux
#2	Hotel	Moxy Roissy
#3	Flight	Paris-Bordeaux – Air France – Economy
#4	Hotel	Sheraton Bordeaux Airport
#5	Hotel	Moxy Bordeaux
#6	Restaurant	Tentazioni Bordeaux
#7	Restaurant	L’entrecôte Bordeaux
#8	Restaurant	La Tupina Bordeaux
#9	Restaurant	L’Embarcadère Bordeaux
#10	Restaurant	Cromagnon Bordeaux
#11	Restaurant	Un Soir à Shibuya Bordeaux
#12	Restaurant	Maison Nouvelle Bordeaux
#13	Diary	Bordeaux travel guide
#14	Flight	Bordeaux-Paris – Air France – Economy
#15	Diary	Debriefing this stay in Bordeaux