Café Bohème — Restaurant in Aberdeen City

Very mixed feelings about our dinner here, and the bill didn't help: this restaurant is unashamedly overpricing and seems to get away with that. The gin-cured trout (starter) was soooooo tiny a dish that it should be filed under "appetizers", not "starters". My plate had a minuscule (truely !) serving of said trout, and the quantity of shallot confit (one spoonful) accompanying it made sure that it was impossible to taste the trout at all, unless if you ate it on itself. This was the most expensive starter on the menu, and imho definitely overpriced. My partners' starter (risotto bon bon) was worth the name "starter", but the herbs on which the risotto was to rely were very, very timid in aroma. On the other hand, the crunchy outer layer of the bon bon was very well executed. On to the mains: My warm salad with heritage tomatoes, caramelized peach and goats cheese mousse was good... but had the size of a starter. The peach was not caramelized, which is a pity. My partners' sea bass main was overall close to ok, the fish very dry though, which is a shame for such a beautiful product. And, again, the serving's size was not what you'd expect for a decent main in this price range. I am / we are not expecting big portions, that's really not the case, but at Café Bohème, they were truely not up to standards, moreover given the price. Service: weird. We were seated, given a menu, 2 minutes later our waitress brought us two bread plates and assorted knives. A little bit later, she came back for the drinks order. When I asked for a glass of Carignan, she started laughing and asked me to point out said wine on the winelist. Being french-speaking, maybe I pronounced it in a way she is not used to, but why that should result in an outright laugh is a mystery to me. When the glasses of wine were served, she took away the bread plates and knives. Why? No idea. When we ordered our food, and also some bread (which you have to pay for), she brought the plates back. If you only bring plates for bread to people who order bread, please bring them after the bread order is placed (how complicated can it be?). After we finished our starters, half of the bread we had on our table was left. She asked if she could take it away. We said we wanted to keep it, she gave us a surprised look and laughed (again). What is the point here? You order bread which you have to pay for, but you're supposed to finish it at the same time as your starter? I don't get it. Halfway through our main course, another waitress came to ask if we wanted another glass of wine. A little too late, sadly. After finishing our mains, our waitress came to clear the table: she piled my partner's plate and cutlery on top of mine which was still sitting right in front of me, then took the pile away. That's not how it's done... One minute later, she put a menu under our noses, saying "Dessert". Nothing more, nothing less. Strange feeling: why don't you just ask "Would you like to have a look at the dessert menu?". We didn't order dessert, just one espresso each. A total bill of over £ 110 for the both of us, with 2 starters, 2 mains, bread, 2 glasses of white wine and 2 espressos. We have paid similar amounts and got a lot more in return: truely savoury and innovative dishes, complimentary bread, relaxed professionnal and welcoming service, all without having to leave feeling still quite hungry. I'm really sad that our dinner turned out this way. Maybe it was just tough luck for us? Unfortunately, this leaves us with a "would not recommend". There are far better options in Aberdeen in this price range, with an excellent value-and-service-for-money (at least, based on our...

I’ve dined out approximately 3x a week for the past 25 years or so, and been almost everywhere worth going. It’s like my hobby. If we’re rating on a 10 point scale then Cafe Boheme is one of only two local places that can consistently better a 7 (yup that’s how terribly fussy I am). Typically this atmospheric little restaurant delivers an 8… and quite often a 9. Out of more than 100 visits, there’s only been 3 occasions where it dipped to a 7… which is why I eat here so often - even on its worst day, when the kitchen is really under the gun, it still beats almost anywhere else. You can’t go wrong :)

Tonight though… this was the first perfect 10 meal I’ve had, anywhere. End of. Everything was sublime: the cocktail, the bread, the starter (halibut) was cooled to perfection, the steak was melt in the mouth good, the chocolate desert was to die for, the wine was the best Côtes du Rhône I’ve ever tasted, the armagnac was incredible, and even the coffee excelled. I’ll remember it forever. It’s all the little touches, the kale on the halibut, (or if you’re vegan then the little mushrooms on the risotto), just bursting with flavour!

But most of all the service, the folk who work there. Café Bohème is proper old school, where the people serving you are the same people, week in, week out. And this is one of the best things about it, because you can tell that they genuinely delight in their work. They’re all lovely people, who really do care that you have the best time. FFS tip please them well!

Here’s a good tip though for you though, for when you visit, and you really must visit: let them choose your wines! They do such a good job of matching the wine to the food, that it’ll be a revelation to most diners. They’ll also change the wine to match every course, and I really cannot overstate just how much this enhances the whole experience! Whisper it though; this way also usually works out less expensive!

Book now - you won’t regret it. It’s the best food in town by a mile, and...

I'll start with the good. The interior design is great. It really is. The COVID policy is responsibly enforced. We got the table we asked for in our booking. That's about it.

Now for the bad. The service is cold. We came in for a birthday (we mentioned it in the reservation) and no one even bothered mentioning it. Any gesture would have been nice. Just to set expectations, no one is French.

The food is massively overpriced. This is even more surprising when you find how sub-par everything is. The chicken was dry. The sauce was watery and tasteless. Throughout our visit we were offered drinks excessively, often while we still had drinks on the table.

The dessert platter for two omits the ice cream and surbet, oddly. We asked for one of each. We got two. We thought those were complimentary. They weren't. We were charged £6 for them. In their defence, when we complained they were removed from the final bill.

None of the desserts on the platter was good. In fact, most were terrible and we suspect our stomach aches were the result of those.

Lastly, for a place that charged £35 for steak we were shocked to find they don't accept American Express. You'd also expect cloth napkins, not paper ones.

Overall a massive disappointment. We would not come again, and are not sure how the rating is so high. There probably was a reason the place was almost empty...