Bordeaux Gay Restaurants

The gay-friendly restaurants of Bordeaux - where to eat

The restaurant I always take people to on a first night in Bordeaux is Makila Kafe on the Chartrons quays - it has built a strong reputation as the flagship restaurant of the waterfront, with professional service, a zen atmosphere and the kind of menu that makes you understand immediately why Bordeaux takes its food seriously. I have eaten there in summer with the Garonne at golden hour and it was one of those meals that stays with you. The place that has the most romance in my Bordeaux dining memories is Les Voutes - a low-lit cobblestone hideaway near the Place de la Bourse, exactly the kind of intimate restaurant where you want to sit with someone you care about over Foie Gras and a great Pauillac. And the restaurant that surprises people most consistently is Cafe Pompier - a self-managed community space run by the Bordeaux School of Fine Arts, explicitly gay-friendly, with an atmosphere that mixes students, artists and LGBTQ+ community members in a way that feels genuinely alive. Browse all three on the Bordeaux gay map.

Gay-friendly dining neighbourhoods in Bordeaux

The Saint-Pierre district is where I always start a Bordeaux dining evening: the density of excellent restaurants in the cobbled streets around Rue Parlement Saint-Pierre, Place du Parlement and the lanes leading toward the Place de la Bourse is exceptional. This is also where Les Voutes sits, in a setting that is quintessentially Bordeaux. The Chartrons neighbourhood along the Garonne waterfront has evolved into a genuinely exciting restaurant district over the past decade: wine merchants, creative bistros and waterfront addresses like Makila Kafe make it one of the best places in France to eat while watching boats on a river. Saint-Michel has the Marche des Capucins - the "belly of Bordeaux" - for the most authentic local food experience in the city. On Sunday mornings, I always end up there, watching Bordeaux eat and drink in the way it knows how.

What to eat and drink in Bordeaux - LGBTQ+ traveller's food guide

Bordeaux is the world capital of wine and the food culture has been built to match. The canele - a small caramelised pastry with a custard interior flavoured with rum and vanilla - is the most distinctively Bordelais thing you can eat and I eat several of them every time I visit, usually from one of the stands near the market or a boulangerie in Saint-Pierre. Foie Gras is deeply embedded in the culture of the Aquitaine, as is entrecote bordelaise - steak with a wine-and-shallot sauce that is one of the great dishes of French cuisine. Oysters from the Arcachon basin (a short drive or bus journey) are some of the best in France. And the wine - of course the wine. Several of the gay-friendly bars in the city serve excellent local wines by the glass: the Chartrons wine bars in particular are worth an evening of exploration in their own right. For accommodation during your dining stay, see our gay hotels guide.