Cote Restaurants

One of my favourite restaurants in Soho for a business lunch - not the most exciting food in London, but just very comfortable, excellent choice of dishes - fish, meat, poultry, good service, no fuss.  Can be a bit noisy.  Best to book in advance, but was able to get a table on the same day. Wanted a French restaurant where my business associate could find his favourite (steak tartare) and I could pick something that wouldn't interfere with the restrictive diet I'm on at the moment.  Waiting staff allowed me to order the meat without the sauce and to choose the accompanying vegetables from a different main course.  Portions are quite large - I couldn't finish mine.  Ordered only non alcoholic drinks without receiving any black looks.  Only small problem was that it took a bit too long to find someone to bring the bill. 

Chicken livers, benedict, boeuf bourguignon and steak frites! Really good food and value for the money. The boeuf bourguignon came out steaming hot and the meat was so tender and flavorful. They also had a 3 course pre-fixe option that was very reasonable.

good food & drinks worth every penny

I visited the Soho branch of Cote last Thursday, on a lovely balmy summers evening, with a largish crowd of around 10. We arrived pretty much on time for once and we were swiftly shown to our table in the basement area. Even though it was only 7pm the restaurant was pretty full and there was a nice buzzy atmosphere.

Bottles of the house white and red were quickly provided while we were giving the classic French bistro style menu, which has plenty of choices to suit most tastes, the once over. I think it's always a bit of challenge for staff when dealing with a large group but we were handled beautifully all night, and without too much stress we had soon been cagouled into making our choices - no mean feat with this crowd.

I was sitting with my old pal Broggy and we decided to split our starters, so we shared a goat’s cheese tartine with sourdough bread and a crab mayonnaise. Both were nicely presented, well-seasoned, very tasty and a very decent size portion.

I then moved onto a main of the 10oz rib eye steak which came with a dainty portion of frites on the side; I teamed this up with some béarnaise sauce which was an extra and added a couple of pounds to the bill. My steak came medium rare as I had requested, this was well-seasoned and had a good char. It was a very tasty piece of the meat and a pleasure to eat, which is more than I can say for some steaks I have had the misfortune to order in other chain restaurants in central London. Our group ordered a pretty wide variety of dishes from the menu and everyone seemed pretty pleased with their meal. By this point I was a bit too stuffed for dessert but I did try a spoonful of Broggy's crème brulee which was perfectly ok but nothing out of the ordinary.

Throughout the evening all our dishes were served at the same time, came to the table hot, were cooked as ordered and came without too much of a wait; in my experience this kind of service is something of a rarity when you are dining with a large party in central London. The wine list is good if you are keeping an eye on your wallet with house wine under £15 and plenty to choice from under £20.

As far as chain restaurants go this is my favourite in London by a country mile and it does what it says on the tin: "simple, freshly prepared French food at value for money prices".

We left sometime around 10.30 with the restaurant packed and folk queuing up for a table as we stumbled out into the crowded Soho streets in fine spirits.

Nice dinner and food choice for an affordable price in the middle of London.

Well, had my day out in London yesterday and went to Cote in Soho having looked at Qype reviews on it, have it say it was really nice. I had the Mussels for starters, the steak frites for main and the most gorgeous Creme Brulee for dessert which was exceptional. It was just under £25 for the three courses. The only moan I can really have is that they brought us the Lunch menu, (we arrived at about 1.15), we chose from it then was told the menu was only available from 3pm to 7pm! Bit ridiculous since lunch is usually 12pm to maybe 2.30 however, to make up for it we got our first drinks free as an apology. I think if the company changed this policy for the timing of the lunchtime menu it would be quite perfect - they could of course just change the name of the menu!!!

good low key place that we stopped in for a snack. hit the spot.

Had Sunday breakfast here, not so good. Eggs Benedict had a tasteless, almost solid hollandaise that clearly wasn't fresh. The ham wasn't great either. The eggs were quite nicely cooked, though. My companion's croque monsieur was drowned in an artificial-tasting bechamel. Sort out your sauces, please! Given the quality, value for money on the food was non-existent.

The worst thing, though, was that our waitress tried to keep the change - presumably as a tip - even though this establishment already applies a service charge. It was embarrassing to have to ask for it back (after a 20 minute wait).

I am not a big fan of beef, but steak frites from cóte melts in your mouth, can't be missed.
Great value too and nice simple selection of wines

Excellent breakfast menu - all the eggy things with salmon and so forth, lovely strong coffee and welcoming service - with big picture window looking out onto the hustle and bustle of Wardour Street in the morning.

You can probably get away with sub-£10 with a bit of care, too.

Excellent - so much better than getting caught with an overpriced greasy hotel breakfast.

I had dinner there with a couple of friends not long ago. They loved it. I was less impressed. Don't get me wrong the staff are very nice and helpful and I had a sole meunière which was delicious but the whole atmosphere is a bit much. Too French to be French if you know what I mean...

Now I had my reservations about this place. I don’t like boards outside of restaurants (I am a portly chap and they get in my way) and I tend to grimace at lunch time 'meal deals’ being so heavily promoted.

However, I decided to venture in and give the place a go. And what a good decision that was!

My dining buddy and myself were seated in good time and at a lovely table. Water and bread came so quickly that I felt it was summoned by god, however at no time did it come across that we were being rushed, despite the restaurant being to capacity.

I ordered scallops to start with and we shared the most mouth wateringly sumptuous rib of beef. I get my fair share enjoyment out of life but I have to say this beef excited me to levels I only thought were possible with Tahitian swimsuit models.

The scallops were not bad either and came with fantastically crispy bacon.

All this was washed down with a gorgeous bottle of Pinot Noir and rounded off with a cheese board.

A wonderful meal was had by my friend and I however, I did manage to walk straight into the ladies toilets…I either put this down to poor signage or excellent wine.

Decent food and value, but absolutely disgraceful service that they should be thoroughly ashamed of. We will not be going there again due to the service, which was so bad that it ruined an otherwise tasty meal.

I went to the one at Hayes Galleria near London Bridge. The waiter who seated us was extremely friendly and courteous, but the waitress who took our orders and served us was extremely rude and grumpy and thoroughly let her colleagues and restaurant down.

We had to wait 45 minutes in a nearly empty restaurant for our starters (soup), then a further 30 minutes for our mains. What was worse, once we gave in and asked where our mains had got to, the waiter went straight into the kitchen and brought them out instantaneously, so they had obviously been sitting around and no-one had bothered to bring them to us.

The waitress was rude and grumpy, took one person’s plates away when the other 3 of us had not finished eating, poured more wine to our designated driver without asking. When I asked for a certain main course, the waitress said bluntly “none left”, no apology, no friendliness, just a grumpy reply. As a slap in the face for me, I later saw that main being delivered to another table who had arrived and ordered after us.

To add insult to injury, when we got our bill, they had added a huge service charge to it (£7.50 for a meal that came to less than £50). After such appalling service, this added insult to injury and we didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at this cheek and we did not pay this.

No complaints about the food, it was good, but the service is the worst I have ever experienced.

I dined here on Friday 12 December for our staff Christmas party - my fourth visit to this restaurant.

It’s become one of my favourites - not as inexpensive as you’d expect for what’s become a chain (Covent Garden, Soho Wimbledon), and in a very slightly higher class perhaps than Strada, though with a different and fairly rare offering; French food based on the southern style; pissaladière, described on the menu as a flatbread, is a Niçoise adaptation of pizza, (usually) without a cheese base and with caramelised onions, herbs, tomato or anchovies. You’ll find a good tuna niçoise, provençale sauce with the (deliciously tender) chicken, mouth-watering pots au chocolat - just what you’d find if you were on the Côte.

Steaks are magnificent and I’ve found to the continental taste. Order medium and it’ll be arrive cooked at the well-done end; medium-rare is what an American might call bleu. So be careful what you wish for!

Service is very good, and the atmosphere pleasant. Sit upstairs for a more relaxed vibe (the basement can be a bit airless) and in the right-hand room for more intimacy.

Expect to pay around £50 for three courses with wine, if you’re going to town on dinner. Which of course, you will be.

This small London chain offers classic French Bistro food at prices that would not knock your socks off.

I went there with a friend for a birthday lunch, she had Risotto with broad and green beans, spinach and herbs (and what a lot of herbs!) whilst I had linguine with seafood, chilli and garlic.

Both dishes were robust, filling and perfectly cooked. The pasta was al dente whilst the risotto wasn’t 'gluey’. The seafood was fresh and perfectly cooked (soft rather than rubbery) whilst the risotto was packed with herbs and vegetables.

My dining companion, not known for subtlety in the face of poor food or service was generous with her compliments, commenting with a hearty smack of the lips 'THAT was nice’. It was, and some.

Cote have branches in Wimbledon and Richmond with plans to open in Covent Garden soon. On a sunny late September lunchtime, being here was not dis-similar to suddenly being in the Marais district of Paris on a late Summer’s day. Ah, magical memories.

I had lunch at Cote and really enjoyed it. This is a new French brasserie with a menu with lots of choice and very reasonable prices. The service was surprisingly good for such a restaurant. It has a bit the feel of a chain but it may be because it is so new. I had a “poulet-frite” and a tarte tatin, all good (maybe the chicken was a bit dry but overall ok for a £9 main course). Note that they offer complementary filtered water and come regularly to refill it and to check that all is going well. The deco is very well done, sort of modern French retro brasserie style, very elegant and clean. A great address in Soho and a good French restaurant full stop.

Delicious food, great atmosphere and very reasonably priced for a good Soho restaurant. What more could you ask for?

Went to Cote, Wardour street, on a Friday night with 2 friends. The service was efficient, friendly, with a sense of humour - even got a free liquor ;-) and the food was good. Had steak frites - really nice thin crispy chips and the rump steak wasn’t tough at all. And it’s worth saving space for the desserts!