06 Jan Chez Jean, Bordeaux

Despite the small shop front, Chez Jean is quite big inside. Although it didn’t look like there were many patrons, most were seated upstairs out of view from people on the street, which I thought a bit strange.

Our orders:
Confit shoulder of black pig, roasted peppers and Espelette pepper (€18)
Salmon en papillot with shrimp and coconut milk, stir-fried vegetables (€17)
Whole duck Magret (PGI Southwest), honey-based sauce and Amarena cherries (€18.50)

This was the first restaurant we’ve been to so far which offered olive oil with our bread.

My duck was cooked really well and it was also good quality meat; it was finer and firmer than the other Magret we’ve had in the past week. It also wasn’t that fatty. The sauce wasn’t as sweet as I was expecting, which was good. The Amarena cherries may have been stewed – they were firm, with a great flavour that went very nicely with the duck. I wish there were more of them considering how much meat I had. Mum’s salmon en papillot (€17) with prawns and vegetables and herbed, coconut rice was alright. The salmon wasn’t too overcooked. Dad’s dish was the best of the night. It was relatively dry (in terms of sauce), very flavoursome, tender and not overly fatty either.