Chez Odette
6 Rue du Pressoir, 37140 St Nicolas de Bourgueil
Tel: +33 (0) 6 50 89 75 68
Internet: fredericmabileau.com/fr/restaurant
GPS: 47.284827, 0.126031
The Menu:
Aubergine with crème de Fourme d’Ambert
Confit of line-caught white tuna
Baba with Cabernet Franc and Reine Claude brandy
The Wine:
Frédéric Mabileau Anima (Vin de France) 2023
Frédéric Mabileau Anjou Blanc Chenin des Mille Rocs 2023
Frédéric Mabileau St Nicolas de Bourgueil Eclipse No. 14 2018
When I first set foot in St Nicolas de Bourgueil (many years ago!) it was like any other time-worn, rural French village. At its heart stood the village church, surrounded by a sea of dusty gravel which sprawled out in all directions, unable to make up its mind where the village square ended, and the passing road began. Just in front of the church was the village’s most quirky feature, a fountain, the water spewing from a two-metre-tall wine bottle (a bottle of St Nicolas de Bourgueil, of course) set at a jaunty angle.
It was a scene which, I suspect, had not changed much since the 1950s.
This is certainly is not the case today. Some years ago the village centre was landscaped, and the pavements remade around a parking area equipped with electric vehicle charging points. All very 21st century! I am sure hidebound Francophiles look down upon these developments as unwanted and homogenising gentrification, but I imagine the residents of the village and its environs are very happy with it. Especially those hoping for somewhere to charge their electric vehicles.
Or, indeed, anybody hoping for a parking space conveniently close to Chez Odette, which is less than a minute’s walk from here.
Chez Odette is an uncommon concept in France; although I doubt an Antipodean or Californian estate manager would bat an eye at the combination of vineyard, winery and restaurant as one, in France – and certainly in the Loire Valley – it is still a rarity. This is the restaurant of the Mabileau family, and before you ask which one (because there are a lot of Mabileaus around here) I will be clear; this is the domaine of the late Frédéric Mabileau, a domaine run since Fréd’s untimely and tragic passing by Nathalie Mabileau and family.
Odette, in case you are wondering, was Frédéric’s mother, and the restaurant is set up in her home, where she once fed her harvesters, right next to the Mabileau cellars.
Leading on the winemaking side of the business these days is Frederic and Nathalie’s son Rémy Mabileau, while another son, Charly Mabileau, has followed his passion into the kitchen. Having encountered the results of his cooking before – Charly was one of a trio of chefs to craft dishes for this year’s Paulée d’Anjou at Fontevraud-l’Abbaye – I decided it was about time I paid a visit to Chez Odette.
On a baking summer day in 2025 I took a table on the patio at the back of the restaurant, grateful for the shade of the canopy overhead. This is a venue for casual dining, with no airs and graces, other tables occupied by holidaying couples and a family from the Netherlands, but also a couple clearly enjoying a working lunch. The menu here is succinct with just three options each for your starter and main course, with a more varied selection of sweet treats or cheeses to finish. Indeed, this is one of the few restaurants I have eaten at recently where the by-the-glass wine list was longer than the menu.
After a little amuse bouche of an aubergine cream on a home-baked cracker with a glass on the domain’s pétillant naturel Anima, I plumped for aubergine again (I’m guessing aubergines were in season) with a cream of Fourme d’Ambert. The aubergine was presented as a breadcrumbed burger; hidden inside was a aubergine sandwich packed out with more aubergine. In truth while it might not be the most visually enticing dish I have ever encountered, on the palate it worked well; the aubergine was very nicely cooked, warm, meaty and tender, with the blue cheese adding richness and a gentle piquancy combined.
My main course was a salad of confit line-caught white tuna, served chilled in a generously-proportioned salad of green beans, Kalamata olives, candied cherry tomatoes, fresh herbs and croutons. I liked this, the fish dense and fresh, the confit treatment clearly a very delicate one, and in combination with the crunchy dressed salad it was a cool, uplifting and surprisingly filling dish. Perfect for the warm weather.
Many years ago when dining at the Auberge du Val de Vienne I chose a baba au rhum for my dessert; it came with a full bottle of Martinique rum placed on the table, and you added as much of the spirit as you desired. My pudding, which ended up as a small confection adrift in a sea of rum – rather like St Nicolas de Bourgueil’s church in its sea of gravel – has been a family talking point ever since, and I cannot let any opportunity to recreate the scene pass by. So when I spotted a baba on the menu here, there was only dessert for me. Served with a distinctive brandy of Cabernet Franc and Reine Claude, this was quite delicious. Even if I was unable to pour an entire flagon of rum over it.
We finished with coffee. These days it is so unusual to find a restaurant that isn’t churning out espressos from their bean-to-cup machine, I felt the cafetière was worthy of a photograph. The glass of ice cubes, if you are wondering, was an attempt at making iced coffee. Yes, it was that hot. No, it didn’t really work.
I enjoyed my lunch at Chez Odette. Expect simple but well-executed dishes, and a bountiful array of Mabileau wines by the glass, alongside a longer list of wines from the Loire Valley, from the Nantais all the way up to the Auvergne. Perhaps there were wines from other regions as well, although I failed to take note of them if so.
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