7 Ingredients Make The Perfect Recipe For A Bordeaux Food Tour (2024)

Recently, I visited the city of Bordeaux in southern France. Besides copious amounts of wine, I knew I also wanted to dive into the cuisine and foods of Bordeaux. When I learned my favorite Food Tour company, Devour Tours, would have its very first Bordeaux Food Tour during my stay, I did not hesitate for a minute. After tasting many food tours, I recognize the best ingredients for the perfect recipe for this food tour in Bordeaux.

Walking around a new city and tasting different foods is always a good idea. An even better idea is to have a local, guide you through the maze of streets and find you the very very best and most delicious variants of their signature foods and sweets. No wonder, when possible, I always like to join a food tour in a new city, like Bordeaux. This is my review of the morning food tour Bordeaux and all the delicious Bordeaux foods we tasted.

I paid for everything in full myself. I was not paid or sponsored. All my opinions and experiences are my own.

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Bordeaux Food Tour

Every time I visit a new city or region, I learn new things about local foods, the way to eat them, and secret tips on where to find the best foods.

I don’t get all this information and tasting by just walking around and trying my luck. I like to get the help of local and professional people who know their stuff about the local food AND how to get around in finding them.

As I don’t have a network of Michelin chefs to tour me around a city (like Anthony Bourdain), I resort to food tours. My recent food tour of Bordeaux was an absolute hit and I loved it. No wonder I cannot wait to tell you all about it.

Do you trust my word and want to book your Bordeaux food tour immediately? You can book online, without any fuss, here.

If you need a little bit more information, why I liked it so much and I can highly recommend it, continue reading below:

7 Ingredients make the best recipe for a food tour of Bordeaux

In general, every food tour of a new city is more or less the same. You meet up with a guide, walk around the city and stuff your face with delicious local foods, try local wines, and learn about the city and its food culture.

But what elevates a great food tour, like the Bordeaux food tour, from an average food tour? Here are the must-have ingredients for the perfect recipe for this food tour of Bordeaux.

Have a local, knowledgeable guide for the food tour

Although your guide has not made the food tour themselves, they are a huge deciding factor in the tour. They have helped to pick the places to stop, they know the shop- and restaurant owners and they are your insider for the best foods in Bordeaux.

We met our guide for the Bordeaux food tour underneath the Grosse Closse, the giant clock tower, in historic Bordeaux. He was fun, bubbly, and approachable. He has been living in Bordeaux for quite some time but also knows about different places in the world, so he was very relatable.

And he knows his stuff about the local foods. I followed him like a puppy, soaking up all the interesting details and fun facts he has to share about the city of Bordeaux and the foods of Bordeaux.

Get a group of enthusiastic food lovers

I have never done a private food tour and honestly, I’m glad. It sounds dull and for me, as a solo traveler, it is a great way to meet new people and interact with different cultures and foodies.

And I don’t have to eat alone when I travel solo. In our group for this food tour, we all had one thing in common: an appetite for new foods and to discover Bordeaux by eating our way around the city.

Set the expectations about the Bordeaux foods

Whether it is your first food tour, or you’ve been on dozens, a key ingredient for a good food tour like the one in Bordeaux is to have your expectations met.

After the first introductions with the group, the tour guide asked us what we knew about Bordeaux foods and what we were most excited to try. He also explained what our itinerary would be for today, so we knew that we were in for a treat.

Looking back, each of us got exactly what we hoped for the most! And we also got to taste a lot of foods we didn’t even know we wanted.

Find the best local places to taste food in Bordeaux

You can open any guidebook of Bordeaux and see that the cannelés of Bordeaux are a must-try food in Bordeaux. But where to find them?

And where to find the very best chocolatines of the whole of Bordeaux?

I had no clue and was very happy that not only our food tour guided me to the best places in town, but we were also able to skip the long line and have a seat to devour our delicious pastries.

Honestly, I would have never been able to find these places all on my own or have the guts to sample all the different treats and ask the local shop owners to explain the heritage of these Bordeaux foods.

Extra bonus for this food tour is, that we didn’t just try foods at any shop or restaurant. We stopped only at small, locally owned businesses, mostly run by the owner themselves with a truckload of knowledge about the history and origin of the foods.

Have a good built-up of food, sweets, and wines in Bordeaux

After our first greetings, we really started the tour off. Immediately, we dug into the little bundt-cake-shaped treat that is a cannelé of Bordeaux. I expected them to be sweet and have a cinnamon taste, but these deep golden brown treasures were hard and crunchy on the inside, and the interior was a fluffy mixture of custard-tasting milk, flour, eggs, butter, sugar, and vanilla.

After this, we went for a real breakfast treat, a chocolatine. You might be more familiar with the term “pain au chocolate” but in Bordeaux and the southwest of France, they are called chocolatines. A fluffy crunchy pastry, filled with pieces of chocolate. A crisp, crumbling bite of buttery heaven. I have never tasted anything as delicious in my life.

But we didn’t just have sweets. We sampled some high cuisine croc-monsieurs with truffles tapas-style. And we tasted our weight in creamy, savory cheeses and even had a cheese-nougat bite.

After all this goodness, we went back to heavenly chocolates and a surprisingly fluffy pastry, filled with a cream called Dunes Blanche, a local delicacy from Archachon Bay.

And no food tour of Bordeaux is complete without tasting some of the delicious wines the region is so famous for. We went into a local wineshop where we were served a platter of charcuterie and we tasted three different amazing wines. Each of a different region of Bordeaux, so you’ll be able to taste the differences.

Add in local shop owners with personal stories about the food of Bordeaux

Visiting a local shop and talking to the owner, who selected the cheeses or chocolates and explain why they favor them above others, is something that is really hard to do on your own.

But not on this Bordeaux food tour! We had an elaborate explanation of the different cheeses at a local cheese shop, where to owner handpicked the farmers because of their milk and she even makes her own recipe of cheese nougat! A must-try.

And even though it was Easter weekend and the chocolate shop was absolutely packed with customers, the owner took some time to explain the origin of the chocolates used in the little bonbons. And which ones were her personal favorites.

Another great example of a personal story was in the wine shop. Lovely local Qing explained that she had a little crush on one of the wines that she was serving today. Well.. all the more reason to try it of course!

Make the Bordeaux food tour personal for everyone on the tour

Being on a food tour of Bordeaux with a bunch of other people, you all sample the same food. But yet, it doesn’t taste the same for everyone. Your taste is also influenced by what you’re familiar with, your home food, and your own personal preferences.

I really liked that the guide asked us about these things, so we were able to talk about our food preferences and discuss them with each other. The result of this is, that at the end of the food tour, it is hard to say goodbye as you just made some new friends!

With all this information, the foodie guide was able to recommend some good restaurants for eating out in Bordeaux, based on your own preferences.

How to book your own Bordeaux Food Tour

When you visit Bordeaux, you can also join one of these food tours. If you’re looking for exactly the same food tour as described above, you can book the Bordeaux Ultimate Food Tour online via this link.

This food tour runs 2-3 times a week, depending on the season. Obviously, the itinerary and the shops that you visit can change from my experiences as the food tour evolves, but rest assured, you’ll sample plenty of food and taste some Bordeaux wines.

Are you looking for a more wine-orientated tour? How about a full day of wine tasting at different chateaux in the Bordeaux region, with a locally produced lunch included? Check the full-day Bordeaux Wine Experience here.

Find the best Food Tours in Bordeaux

Although I had 4 days in Bordeaux, I only did 1 Food Tour of Bordeaux. I spent the rest of my time drinking and tasting wines, actually.

But of course, Bordeaux has more food tours than just the one I did. If you’re looking for other food tours to fit your schedule, you can find and compare them here.

Are you hungry to discover Bordeaux?

Have you ever joined a food tour on your travels? What are your experiences? Would you book a food tour if you visit Bordeaux? Let me know in the comment section below, I’d love to hear from you.