Nemrod
49 Place du Général de Gaulle, 37500 Chinon
Tel: +33 (0) 9 56 20 35 26
Internet: nemrod-chinon.com
GPS: 47.167323, 0.240319
The Menu:
Blue lobster, Jojobi tomatoes, tarragon oil and iced bisque
Ris de veau, Jojobi courgettes, nectarines, almonds and jus
Strawberry, biscuit, Bourbon vanilla cream, basil and blackcurrant
The Wine:
Louis de Grenelle Crémant de Loire Platine NV
La Trochoire Chinon Blanc Elisabeth 2024
Laurent Herlin Bourgueil Terre d’Adoption 2022
The Place du Général de Gaulle is an essential destination for any visitor to Chinon experiencing unexpected pangs of hunger. A varied and democratic selection of restaurants face each other across the main street and, in the upper section, around a central square and its main feature, an imposing fountain. Here water tumbles from two superimposed basins, which rest upon a 19th-century interpretation of Germain Pilon’s Three Graces, reproduced in cast iron by the Ducel foundry near Amboise.
The Ducel foundry is no more, the furnaces having last been fired up in 1878. Foundries come and go, I guess, as do restaurants, and during the past couple of years several which look out onto the fountain and square have changed hands.
The most obvious of these is in the very top right-hand corner of the square. For as long as I can remember this was home to Au Chapeau Rouge, one of the more swanky establishments in this locale. A year or two ago, however, it was taken on by Nicolas Gaulandeau, and rechristened Nemrod.
Nicolas has a strong curriculum vitae. Having started out in the kitchens of the Palais de l’Élysée, he subsequently worked in several noteworthy Parisian restaurants, including Le Laurent and Apicius, where he worked under Jean-Pierre Vigato, and more recently he was in charge of the private restaurant at Château du Rivau, not far from Richelieu.
He opened Nemrod in March 2024, the name referencing a biblical figure who has come to represent, rather romantically, all things hunting. It’s a clue; Nicolas is not immune to a little hunting, fishing and foraging to build his seasonally inspired menus.
I crossed the Nemrod threshold on a quiet Tuesday in October 2026 and took a table by the window. Inside, the restaurant has a slightly soulless air, an empty cavern of magnolia, but the linen is crisp and feels well starched, and the welcome is casual and familiar. And at least I could enjoy the view across the square to the spluttering fountain, still running despite the region’s ongoing restrictions on water use after a long summer drought.
I started with a Crémant de Loire from Louis de Grenelle, a wine to remind me why I don’t usually bother with the wines of this Saumur house. Happily the accompanying amuse bouche was on a completely different level. A mousse of beetroot (pictured above) was topped with a citrus cream and dressed with raspberry vinegar and chive oil; the beetroot was delightfully fresh and bright, with nothing earthy or clumsily sweet, and it was lifted not only by the zingy citrus elements but also by a little mustard twist. If an amuse bouche can be taken as a portent of what is to come (and surely that is the point?), then this was a very good omen.
And it was an omen fulfilled.
The menu is orientated in traditional fashion – with entrée, plat and dessert, no tasting menus here – and for the former I opted for a lobster dish which was brilliantly executed. Flakes of lobster meat luxuriated in a fennel-tinged mayonnaise base (pictured above), contrasted by melt-in-the-mouth tomato wedges from Jojobi, an agriculteur based west of Richelieu. Atop it all, a quenelle of iced lobster bisque added flavour intensity and new texture, the whole dish a savoury and structural delight which was worth the supplement.
Having checked out the wine list, I noticed there were no wines offered by the glass, which is unusual these days, but the solitary waitress soon put me straight; “there is a list of wines by the glass – it’s in my head,” she explained. This accounts for how I ended up drinking the 2024 Chinon Blanc Elisabeth from La Trochoire, a domaine I have long wanted to investigate more closely. It worked well with the lobster, of course, the rather jangling acidity of the cool and damp (something of an understatement) 2024 vintage shrugging off the tang of the tomato and richness of the lobster with ease.
My main course again veered away from set menu pricing, as I could not resist the ris de veau (pictured above) Nicolas offered, which came beautifully sautéed, giving it a crisp golden-brown outer finish, while remaining pillowy-tender within. In other words, cooked to a precise state of perfection. Served with Jojobi courgettes cut into a fine julienne, as well as a concentrated jus, this was an umami-lover’s dream. And it worked pretty well with the next wine – the identity of which was pulled once again from our server’s prefrontal cortex – which was the not-entirely-fault-free 2022 Bourgueil Terre d’Adoption from the Loire Valley’s favourite SIM-card-engineer-turned-vigneron Laurent Herlin.
Feeling more than peckish, I finished up with one of four dessert and cheese options, a strawberry dish with biscuit (pictured below), a light Bourbon vanilla cream and a basil lift, both as fresh basil and a quenelle of basil sorbet. This is the second time in the past year I have encountered basil used à la menthe in a dessert, and it works well. And that includes this occasion, as this was a scrumptiously sweet conclusion to a great lunch.
I wasn’t sure what to expect at Nemrod. I came close to booking a table here last year, but other things and perhaps other restaurants seemed to get in the way. As it turns out it was a mistake not to persevere, as this was a superb lunch which, in terms of sheer finesse, outclassed every other meal I have eaten in Chinon in recent years.
As I said, foundries come and go, and so do restaurants, but I hope Nicolas and Nemrod thrive here. It will not be too long before I return to this square, its fountain and Three Graces, and its biblical hunter-gatherer restaurant, which has quickly leapfrogged to the top of my dining recommendations in Chinon. Chapeau, Nicolas!
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