Bourgee Restaurant + Food Review w/ OpenTable

AD – This is a paid and gifted collaboration with OpenTable. All thoughts are my own.

My partner and I love going out to eat. We’re both big foodies, love trying new food and seeing what different cuisines have to offer. This week, we went to Bourgee in Chelmsford for dinner, thanks to OpenTable and here’s a full review of the whole visit and all the yummy food we tried on our visit!

Booking with OpenTable

We booked this visit with OpenTable, the sponsor of this post, who now having used them, would highly recommend the next time you’re looking for somewhere to eat.

OpenTable is a free website or app to use where you can input the area, date, time and the amount of people in your party into the site which will then give you a list of restaurants that meet the criteria of your booking.

From there, you can adjust accordingly to show any specific cuisine you might want (e.g Chinese restaurants) any accessibility options, price points, seating options and more. Leaving you with a list of restaurants that cater perfectly for your needs.

As with most booking platforms, you can also check out reviews of all the restaurants to give you an idea of what other people think. You’ll receive a confirmation email straight to your inbox to confirm your booking and also a reminder the day before, to ensure the restaurant knows you’re still coming which I think is a great idea.

Our visit to Bourgee, Chelmsford

Although we don’t live in Chelmsford, we’re a fan of the area and have dined out there plenty of times before, so we decided to try somewhere new in Chelmsford for our meal and settled on Bourgee, Chelmsford. This sounded right up our street and looked lovely, so we’re keenly hit book.

We arrived on time at 7:30 and was greeted by the friendly waitress who showed us to our table. We had to move table almost instantly because our table was so wobbly that our food would have been flying about all over the place. But the restaurant was really empty, so that wasn’t a problem but perhaps something for them to look into.

I really liked the decor; the water fountain wall as you walked in, the brickwork and the tabletops. It was a very chic looking place and the music over the speakers complimented it perfectly as well. My only nit-pick would be that the floor wasn’t very clean (only crumbs etc – nothing nasty) and obviously the wobbly table.

The service

The service was all round really good for our visit. The two waitresses that served us throughout the night were both very friendly, always with a smile on their faces, checking everything was okay and clearing away our plates in good time.

Our food was a *little* slow to come out, considering there was only us and one other table being occupied at the time but I didn’t mind too much as we weren’t in a rush and the atmosphere was really nice and relaxing. Bourgee isn’t the sort of place you’d go if you were in a rush anyway!

Starters

We ordered our drinks to begin with and both just opted for a Diet Coke because we wanted to save most of the budget to sample the gorgeous sounding food. We also got some olives for the table to nibble on whilst we waited for our starters and I was quite surprised by the amount of olives – always a good thing, we both LOVE olives!

From the A La Carte Menu, Carl ordered the Crispy Duck Salad with Hoisin Dressing, Pickled Cucumber and Wasabi Crunch which he really liked. His only downside was that there wasn’t enough meat in the salad but the taste itself was beautiful and the crunchy salad was extremely flavourful.

I ordered the Beef Carpaccio with Chimichurri and Parmesan Savings and this dish was beautiful. Thinly sliced pieces of raw beef with this stunning chimichurri spice; I could have eaten this twice over. I did have to remove the chillis because they were a *bit* hot for me and the dish itself was already quite spicy but I enjoyed every bite.

Main course + sides

Onto the mains. Carl opted for the Wagyu Beef Burger which included gooey cheese, lobster mayo, crispy bacon, lettuce with a side of truffle salted chips. The burger was nice, he said. It wasn’t out of this world but it had a lovely taste and as burgers go, was pretty good. The truffle salted chips however literally deserve a medal, they were BEAUTIFUL. It’s almost an insult to call them chips.

I ordered the Creamy Lobster Linguine which came with half a lobster plus a claw. The linguine was in a lobster cheese sauce, with garlic, peas and arugula. The pasta itself was beautiful – VERY CHEESEY – but beautiful. And the lobster meat was so soft and tender and SO flavourful.

This was actually my very first time trying lobster and I was really impressed with the taste. I wasn’t aware of quite how much faff it took to actually eat though and I did have a bit of trouble trying to get the meal out of the shell, which was pretty hilarious.

We also had Honey Buttered Baby Carrots and Garlic Butter Mushrooms for sides to share between us and both of these were absolutely lovely, if I could have vegetables like this every day, I absolutely would.

Desserts

We ordered two desserts which we sort of shared between us. The first was the Mars Bar Cheesecake and the second was the Bag of Warm Donuts with Whipped Cream. The cheesecake was small but the perfect size for one person after a meal. There were pieces of Mars Bar on top, along with a raspberry sauce and a dollop of whipped cream. It was REALLY good.

The donuts came in a bag of 3, really decent sized round sugar donuts with a jam middle. I thought these tasted lovely although I couldn’t have eaten 3 to myself – they were quite big! But dipping them in the whipped cream made them moist and added to the flavour of the sugar.

The only downside to the desserts is that ice cream was off the menu because they had had a problem with their freezer. We were told about this when she brought the dessert menu over, so it was fine and we knew not to order it but it’s a shame because ice cream is always a nice, lighter option for a dessert.

Overall

We really enjoyed our visit to Bourgee and I liked the chance to try some new food; my starter and the lobster were both something I’ve not tried before and I was really impressed with both. The staff were friendly and the atmosphere was nice and chill in the restaurant. The food was fresh, hot (when appropriate) and very flavourful.

Positives of Bourgee:

• The truffle salted chips – honestly, heaven on a plate
• The decor, particularly the water feature wall
• The beef carpaccio; a meat-lovers dream

Negatives of Bourgee:

• Overall cleanliness of the floor could be improved
• My boyfriend did find a hair in his starter. We didn’t complain because we’re British but obviously that’s not on
• Could have had more meat in the duck salad

I’d definitely recommend checking out Bourgee if you’re a foodie like me and I’d also highly recommend using OpenTable the next time you come to book yourself somewhere to eat! They make the process so easy and the website is incredibly user-friendly as well. I love that they have so many specific options, like accessibility and seating options, too.

Have you ever been to Bourgee or used OpenTable for your booking? Let me know!