Mathis Devaux gave this small house languishing near the town bullring new life. The result? A beautiful, sleek bistro with whitewashed rafters and walls and an open kitchen, where the 25-year-old Grenoble-native chef (who used to work at Antoine Westermann’s Coq Rico in Paris) prepares high flying compositions. The day we went for lunch, they included: an incredible line-caught Capbreton hake ceviche with piment d’Espelette, bathed in an orange-ginger-olive oil-honey marinade, paired with fennel salad, pickled red onions and a sesame seed squid ink tuile; irreproachable bluefin tuna (caught by the same fisherman) surfing on a wasabi pea purée drizzled in teriyaki sauce, plus a dollop of beetroot cream with pea shoots; before a really good speculoos and white chocolate cookie, hidden underneath Philadelphia cream cheese ice cream, candied cherries, local Le Tursan raspberries as a coulis and a white chocolate tuile. // Gérard Roubeix 

FEELING THIRSTY? : Low-intervention wines popped open by Benjamin Sémon (ex-Chai d’Hossegor): Corine, a Côtes-de-Duras white (€5 a glass), L’Écart de la Folie Lucé, a Saumur blanc (€50 a bottle), a Listrac red from the Château Bois de la Gravette (€32).  
PRICE: : Set menu €28, menu €38 (lunch and dinner) and €55 (dinner), food and wine pairings €70.