Wined, dined and rested.

We’ve had mixed eating experiences in Chinon in the past, so we were a little wary on this trip to the city. However “L’entrepotes” on the quai Jeanne d’Arc, right beside the Vienne river, was well recommended and it was close to our hotel so on a drizzly April evening we splashed through the puddles, paused to wonder at at the very high waters of the fast-flowing river (France’s large rivers never normally rush, they just move in a stately fashion) and entered through a gate into the world of L’entrepotes.

The courtyard garden must be a lovely place to eat when the weather is fine and even in the rain you appreciate the parenthesis between pavement and restaurant, so we were being mentally prepared for our dining experience. The name of the restaurant is a play on words – an “entrepôt” (no e at the end) is a warehouse, and a “pote” is  a buddy or a mate or (perhaps) a bro these days (see how cool I am, down wiv da kids). “Entre” means among, so eventually you have the meaning of “among friends”.

As we were welcomed in we noticed – you can’t fail to notice – that orange had been chosen as the accent colour.  Fortunately there are some reds and creams too, with lots of soft furnishings, so you aren’t overwhelmed. We did wonder why the designer had chosen to cover one wall with grey plastic wavy tiles; however we are not interior designers and it may be that wavy grey plastic is as well known to encourage people to order the most expensive dishes as the colour orange.

 The other thing you can’t fail to notice is the menu which is up on huge (orange-framed) blackboards around the restaurant and then the pleasure of choosing your meal pushes the décor into the background.

We tucked our orange napkins onto our laps, had a sip of water from our orange water glasses, savoured our beautifully light profiterolle with cream cheese and ham…..

… and then both chose as our starter the house-smoked salmon with long and slow cooked leeks and a beurre blanc sauce; smoked salmon has become widely available and it’s no longer really considered a luxury, but the attraction here was the “home smoked” description. The dish was prettily presented and absolutely delicious, and the salmon really did have a different taste and texture from supermarket versions.

Oh golly, I’ve just thought – what colour is salmon?  Well it’s a sort of orange isn’t it – was that auto-suggeston????

Moving on… We both went for prawns (often described as pink when cooked, although in fact it’s more like a kind of light orange, aha) pan-fried à la provençale with fettucine and vegetable tagliatelle. The menu claims that everything is made here and the lovely melting but gently firm texture of the fettucine made me think this was true. It’s also not easy to get the cooking of prawns right, sometimes even in good restaurants they are overcooked, but these were done perfectly. I also felt curiously drawn to the carrot tagliatelle.

We had had great fun choosing our wine earlier from the extensive wine list, which was exclusively Chinon wines, ranging from €25 to €58.

We’ve never found better within our price bracket than our delicious Beauséjour Chinon from Panzoult, but here was a chance to expand our knowledge. There being no orange wine on the list (surely some terrible faux pas by the sommelier), we went for the €32 2020 Picasses from Raffault , an organic wine with a taste that makes you think of dark red fruit, almost a lightly spicey background, and that lasts for a long time. There are some who raise an eyebrow when we order red wine with fish or seafood, but it really does work for us.  (Not only down wiv da kids but oenological rebels to boot….)

I finished with a moelleux au chocolat because it’s usually not too large but should be intense, and I wasn’t disappointed.  It was an excellent way to finish a delicious meal.

So overall we agreed we’d had a really very good meal for a reasonable price, it had been well worth paddling through the drizzle to get here. The service had been good – astonishingly there was just one man who calmly managed the whole restaurant, both food and wine – and it’s a place to return to, I think.

My one minor, tiny but irritating, problem with the place was the carafe of water. It wasn’t the fact that it was pink (having moved into orange-think, this was of course a bit of a shock), it was the fact that….. well, here’s a picture of the top of it, see you if can spot what grated on an otherwise smooth and enjoyable experience.

So à bientôt L’entrepotes, we will return – please try and find some Viakal in the meantime.