Côte Clifton Village — Restaurant in Bristol

Our favourite spot in Bristol...Not any more...❌ Dirty plates and non existent service... Very sad having to do this.

My wife and I reserved a table for Friday night at our Favourite Cote restaurant. For the past six years, we have enthusiastically recommended this place to our friends and colleagues and have dined here dozens of times ourselves. We return frequently for our favorite dishes and the lively, cozy atmosphere.

However, our experience today was disappointing. We arrived early and were informed that our table was not ready. Instead of being invited to sit at the bar for a drink, we were offered a table either at the very front near the toilet (which we had previously requested not to be seated at) or at the very back, which we reluctantly accepted. Unfortunately, we quickly realized that the service in this area was neglectful. A runner took our order, and another person inquired about our drink preferences. We were never brought water and had to request it, which the waitress then forgot. My wife ordered mussels for her main course and was given a fork and knife; we had to ask and wait for a spoon after the meal was served. We also had to request salt and pepper because both the mussels and the crab mayonnaise were bland and lacked basic seasoning. We found ourselves waiting repeatedly: for the waitress, the spoon, and then the salt. It was frankly frustrating.

What we find incomprehensible is the inclusion of a service fee when the service provided was clearly subpar. We did not receive the usual level of hospitality, and more concerningly, my wife's starter was served on a dirty plate.

Her starter arrived on a plate that was visibly stained and had an unpleasant "dish cloth" odor. After a brief discussion, we attributed this to a possible dishwasher issue and the plate being improperly cleaned. However, the dish itself also had a foul taste, which was completely off-putting.

The server attempted to rectify the situation by removing my wife's drink from the bill. However, I want to emphasise that the issue is not the cost but rather the poor service and disappointing food hygiene.

The question to ask is the staff overloaded with work? why allow bookings if there is not enough staff to cover the whole area of the restaurant? Our evening was spoiled and if we knew that we will not be accommodated appropriately we would have chosen another place. As simple, as that.

JUSTIFICATION for the ratings:

FOOD: calamari was too salty, mussels and crab Maison bland(no salt and pepper). Steak and peppercorn source perfect as per usual. SERVICE: the waitress that served us tried to rectify the issue and apologised for the issues that, clearly aren't her fault. ATMOSPHERE: we have previously informed the staff that we do not wish to be offered a seat at the very front or back of the restaurant, this especially being next to the toilets. We were seated at the very back today and there was no atmosphere there at all...

Being a regular at the Cote Brasserie at Quakers Friars, I expect the same or even higher standard of food and service from the Clifton village Cote. The whole experience of dining there was very unpleasant, we were made to feel very uncomfortable and I wish we have left earlier!

Noise - We were seated by the bar next to a few steps. Staff were joking around and chatting very loudly at the bar during service. Stomping up and down the stairs what seemed like a million times throughout the 90mins we were there.

Food - My friend has ordered chicken it was dry like a jerky. Being a chef himself with plenty of experience, he said it was embarrassing to send the food out like that to the customer!! He had a mouthful of it and left the rest of the plate.

The lamb chops I have ordered came with roquefort butter (which I thought was quite a strange combination....) I like steak with roquefort butter and thought it may be a good idea to try it with lamb and how wrong was I ?!?!?! The peas that were under the lamb chops looked like they had been sat in the pan of water for 5 days... so that was very appetising to start with. The lamb chops were OK but the roquefort butter was very odd and murdered the whole dish!

When one of the waitresses came over and asked if everything was OK, of course the look on our faces said it all. She tried to rectify the problem by asking if we wanted to order something different but she was rather pushy and rude, rushing us to decide after giving us the menu to look at a min ago. She also said to me in a patronising way that I should of asked the sauce to be served separately next time if I didn't know the sauce I was ordering! I didn't argue with her in a restaurant full of customers. Terrible attitude!

The manager had taken the chicken and lamb chops off the bill in the end but let me tell you something, for people who choose to dine at Cote brasseries, they are looking for a professional dining experience. Maybe not quite fine dining but definately for a pleasant, quality service. What we experienced there at Clifton village Cote was appalling and we would rather go further to dine at Quakers Friars Cote...

Having visited Côte Brasseries many times, with this one, Clifton Village, and Bath in the top league, and, several years ago, Salisbury in the bottom patch, statistically I might perhaps reach the moment when I encounter a truly bad experience. 9 April 2022 was the moment: Late afternoon, finding myself unexpectedly craving for a small meal, I was given the so-say new ‘Spring Menu’. This is merely a slimmed down version of the old menu, rearranged in a new wider print layout, with just a few bits added. One of them, the ‘Mushroom & Camembert Tart’, £13.25. The whole plate looked a bit flat, literally, sprinkled with a few bits and pieces of melted camembert, a small poached egg (unfortunately too large to be mistaken for a quail’s egg) trying to stand out in the middle. The ‘puffy’ pastry was in desperate need of a bit of inflation, and too salty. When I tried the mushroom ‘mixture’ in the middle, to my surprise, initially lukewarm, but gradually, as I approached the middle circle of the tart, becoming purely cold, i.e., not properly defrosted. Alerting the staff, they were indeed apologetic, and offered me the option to have a freshly cooked same dish instead, or another choice. To keep it simple, I asked for the Starter, the previously ‘Fresh Crab Mayonnaise’, now promoted to ‘Crab Maison’, £10.25 – hence much cheaper than my rather expensive original choice! By the time it came to presenting the bill however, no staff apologies were in the air anymore, and no hint of any compensation was offered, rather 10% service charge automatically added. Irrespective of the Covid-factor, I might be wrong, but I heard that the Côte Brasserie chain has recently been taken over by financial investors. Is the whole of my experience the beginning of the typical slippery downhill slope, as can be experienced so often when investment companies take over tasty, successful restaurants; only to strip them of their assets and customer service, rather craving for...