Côte Chester — Restaurant in England

The restaurant is nice, very fine setting and extremely friendly staff.

Pros: The food was tasty and very well presented. The drinks were extremely satisfactory (I get my Espresso Martini in every restaurant we go to and so far this one has done it the best out of all of them). The atmosphere was comfortable and well set. And as mentioned above, the staff were friendly and helpful.

Cons: It's a rather small space, tables were less than a few feet apart, they were so close that we could hear what the other 3 tables around us were ordering and then talking about whilst having our conversation. Not something that would bother us extremely, but it sure felt crowded even though it wasn't. The food. Whilst it looks fabulous, the experience was a little different. I mean, my baguette with the chicken liver was stone cold, I do like crunch but biting into that just felt like biting into dry bread. Yet the liver itself was delicious. Still not £10 worthy in my opinion. The burger also arrived at slightly above room temperature. Once I was halfway through I was eating a cold burger with warm fries... (their fries are delicious though). Once again, however, the meal is not £15 worthy. I'm 6"8 and it filled me up but the experience of the burger meal itself was £12 at best.

I wouldn't say I was disappointed, it was nice, and my girlfriend and I both enjoyed it. She loved her French onion soup and the fish stew she's got too. I would say that I was expecting it to be a bit better based on the prices... I was going to go for 5, but after consideration, I decided to give it 4 because it didn't go above and beyond my expectations

The whole night cost me approx. £75 including 2 starters, 2 mains, 2 drinks and 1 750ml bottle of sparkling water between the two of us (which btw that alone was £5). I came with £150 expecting to pay about £80-90, the final bill isn't the problem, it's the fact that it wasn't the best value for money.

And the way they have their tips set is a little cheeky if you ask me. When you ask for the bill they hand it to you with a subtotal of the actual price of it, and then the final total is with another "optional gratitude" that's 12.50% (in our case that made about £8.50). Which is perfectly fine, I was going.to tip anyway, but I was slightly shocked when the waiter came with the card reader and just put the full bill including the tip in and smiled expecting me to swipe my card. Didn't feel very optional to me... of course, I suppose I could've said "I don't want to tip" but who's going to be the a$$hole and say that knowing the 3 tables around you can hear every word... I didn't mind tipping £8, again, money doesn't make it the issue, the part that made me a little uneasy is the fact that it didn't feel optional at all when they come expecting you to just take it. I would personally appreciate it a lot more if he would say "would you like to tip?" Or at least have some sort of menu on the card reader to select the tip as most places do.

Overall, 4* is what I'm going to go with. I do recommend it but I won't be visiting again.

EDIT

Just about 3 hours after I wrote that review, my girlfriend threw up her previous night's Fish Stew in the hotel lobby, and I ended up on the toilet for an hour with... well you can fill out the blanks. I know for a fact that it's from Côte as we had nothing in between that dinner and the accident apart from a morning cup of tea. I'm not entirely sure if this is just an unlucky visit, so I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and rate it at 3*. The experience wasn't the worse, but the aftermath...

FOOD POISONING ALERT! I have changed my review of this restaurant from 5 star to one star. I note that the another one star review was left by Dan around the same period as my last visit 27/01/22. Dan mentioned hygiene in their review. I believe this is an issue for the restaurant. I had food poisoning after visiting this restaurant. I called them after a sleepless night, which I was going to do anyway to let them know they weren’t on form. Instead I was reprimanded for not complaining about my food during my meal. I was told I was speaking to the manager, but found during the call that this was in fact not the truth. The manager could not even be bothered to call and see how I was doing. Instead I was interrogated so that they could “investigate” my claim. This is done in-house. So basically marking their own homework. The results have come through today and I have been told that all correct procedures were followed. They just have someone’s word that the chicken was not left out too long prior to cooking, was probed and that all procedures were followed. I don’t see how toast earlier in the day along with a baked potato with baked beans the previous evening could be the offending article. My sickness started around 4 hours after eating, with the effects kicking in another 30-40 minutes later. The meal was in fact very poor, which is why I had planned to call the restaurant. I usually would have complained at the time, however I was with an old friend who gets uncomfortable with this, to the point of walking out; they begged me not to say anything. The garlic bread was burnt. The grilled chicken with mushroom sauce was a tough as old boots (I believe this was the offending dish) and seriously lacking in flavour; the creamed spinach did not taste the same as normal. It had a distinct sour taste to it when it is usually very fresh on the palate. The crepes were the only good part of my meal. I did mention when they were clearing the partially left garlic bread that we couldn’t eat that part as it was far too burnt, but we made do with the rest. This was not even acknowledged. So it did leave me thinking when chewing on my tough chicken what would be the point anyway. I am really disappointed as I am a regular customer here and have never had an issue, now I know how they deal with issues I shall never visit again, nor recommend. Again, I am very shocked that the general manager has not been in touch to apologise for a full sleepless night spent in my bathroom. Leading to a full wasted following day due to exhaustion and pain. The restaurant has not only not offered a refund in my meal, but not even considered a goodwill gesture. That is the type of company you are dealing with. Use a different restaurant. There’s plenty of choice, Moules A Go Go round the corner has never once...

Being able to walk in off the street at prime time on a Saturday night when the rest of Chester is fully booked should have told us everything we needed to know.

The food was honestly awful. The biggest 'surprise' was that the Mushroom Bourginion was actually reconstituted mushrooms that were made to look like bits of beef and arrived dry without any sauce. Presumably, as a french restaurant, they know that using actual mushrooms in a bourginion is a legitimate french dish and would still work for vegans and that it is a type of stew? The roast chicken (sorry- Poulet) was tough, and dry (but not as dry as the Bourginion!), and looked like it had been boiled and left to stand for a day or so and, if I were blindfolded, I would have been convinced that the Parminter was a microwave Tesco meal.

The service wasn't amazing. We all felt like the person serving us came across as quite condescending and I do think that an empty restaurant in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse would have more atmosphere than when we visited. There was no background music, which was really needed in an empty dining room. On balance, I actually think the staff are doing their best (a job is a job at the end of the day, and i don't think any of them told their careers advisor that they dreamed about working at Cote, even if they wanted to go into food and hospitality!) so props to them for working with what they've got - front and back of house.

We will never ever return to Cote- at any location- and I give it a year, tops, before they announce they are out of business. They will, of course, cite increasing energy and food costs or the death of the high street but if our experience was typical of other locations, they will have done it to themselves with their overpriced, poorly prepared food and lack of understanding of what dining and food is...