Many reviews have been written at Le 7 (Le Sept--which refers to the 7th floor with stunning views) at Bordeaux's famed Cite du Vin, the museum and center dedicated to wine. (We joined Cite du Vin as members and will hopefully get there this week before we leave.) The reviews have gone from mediocre to fabulous and frankly, mediocre is where we ring in.
The setting is very nice with magnificent views over the Garonne, the nearby bridge and the shore down to the city center, where we live. The place was deserted at 715pm when we arrived and no more than 10 of the maybe 30-40 tables were taken when we left.
We looked at the tasting menu which was a tad boring and while we considered our options bread and amuses bouches arrived. The amuse was a unexciting shot glass of gazpacho with white asparagus and the pain de campagne was decent, but the grain bread Will chose was stale.
We ordered our food and then some wine: Will started with the Chateau Perron 2023 Graves(sauvignon blanc) which was very nice and I loved the Domaine Laurent Cognard 'les Bassets" 2022 Montagny Premier Cru which was all chardonnay in the best of French styles. Will's starter was the yummy Burratina by Pierre Rolet(cheesemonger) with peas, dried duck breast, chiffonade, red wine vinegar and truffles from Guillaume Ge. I ordered the Beetroot Ravioli and was shocked when it came to see a carpaccio of beets although they were delish and stuffed with Breuil ewe's milk cheese from Pierre Rolet with Timit Pepper and a fabulous preserved lemon dressing and some radishes. It just what not what I expected. We had ordered a bottle of red, Chateau Sociando-Mallet 2014 Medoc which needed decanting and then opened up wonderfully, but our server placed the decanter on a stand away from the table, as the little marble table was so small, very little would fit on it; bad planning!! She was never around when we needed more wine, even though the place was virtually empty; simply the service sucked.
Mains were nothing of note with Will's extremely bland Guinea fowl with artichokes, burnt spring onion, poulette sauce and smoked white pepper; he tasted no flavors. I fared better with my Pigeon in Armagnac sauce with peas, broad beans (about 4 beans) and Bordeaux butter with a leg stuffed with citrus, Porto and icy mint sauce(I'm glad I could not taste the mint).
We decided to split a cheese plate which was more Pierre Rolet cheese with Saint Nectaire, Tommes de Pyrenees, Brebis(sheep) and Camembert which were quite nice.
Some yummy chocolate with nuts and fruit in it arrived before we left totally unimpressed with most of the food and totally underwhelmed by the lack of service.
Le 7 gets a maximum 3 out of 10, largely due to the view!
