Côte Newbury — Restaurant in England

The staff are doing as good as they can with what they have, but the chef is a let down. I find the close to London/Major-Cities the better the service and quality of food prep, taste and presentation is, as the further away I have tried Cotê the worse it seems to get.. I have been to Cotê restaurants ALL over the country and there are a few that are just shocking. Multiple times I have taken family, friends, dates and myself to the Newbury branch and it just shocks me how the food is nothing like the quality of the majority of other restaurants! To the point the chicken salad is the driest chicken to date, chicken is not hard to cook, it is even harder to overcook as a paid chef! But not here, the chicken is dry in the salads, the waiters are taking the cr*p for the chef's faults.. but most of all it is the fourth time I have ordered the Warm Roquefort Walnut Salad, and three times in a row I have had an issue, I went for Mother's Day and ordered it for a fifth and last time and ended up asking for a different meal, requesting a complete change to a Steak Frites as I knew they couldn't botch that even if the chef tried.

To top off my frustration, the end bill included the free Kir Royale drinks, the replaced 'permanently broken' Warm Roquefort Walnut Salad and twice the number of Steak Frites..

To the benefit of challenging the restaurant, much to the annoyance and 'please don't do that's from who was with me, I managed to explain myself to the waiter in charge of us, by having to locate him by walking round the whole restaurant! And he argued are case with the manager who seemed to disagree with him, only for him to hold his hands up at her and walk away and tell us that there was no bill for the meal.

So the two stars.. THIS IS NOT AIMED AT THE STAFF OR THE CLEANLINESS OF THE VENUE, IT IS SOLELY AIMED AT THE CHEF AND THE CULINARY TEAM!

Sort you sh** out and if I come back in soon and test you by ordering the meals that you have faulted me on in the past I am going to 'Gordon Ramsey' you all, by ordering everything problematic on the menu and not paying for anything which is not made to the standard of the majority of other Cotê Restaurants!

Kindest Regards MrNickPearson

Ps I hope this finds its way to someone who can take the same time it has taken me to take time out my busy day to write a decent and very justified review, also, I do not drink, so don't be offering me all sorts of wine bottles or one orange juice to make up for this, I eat so often at Cotê that if you did a 'Black Card' I would be half way to owning a branch!

NB this is the one time I kicked up a fuss, I may well be seen as a new problem in Newbury, I normally do not make a point as not to upset my company! NO MORE NEWBURY! I am going to be back in soon and hopefully like as in I'm begging that I get the same quality as other Cotê Restaurants!

Testing the theory out of distance from major cities with the Cirencester branch...

My family visited Cote Newbury on Sunday 19th June for a Father's Day celebratory meal, which we had booked in advance.

Firstly our allotted table was not ready by at least 30 mins, as it was still occupied by another party eating desert. Thankfully, there was a neighbouring table available for us, so this was not actually a problem, but could have been.

Secondly, we were very glad that we resisted the invitation to order drinks ahead of our food, as we were astonished to learn that eight of the main dishes were unavailable, due to company-wide shortages, leaving nothing suitable. The "Fathers' Day" deal for two was £100, comprising an expensive steak dish. This was hardly suitable as a viable option for a family meal.

We were unable to find anything to our satisfaction, and decided to leave. We felt annoyed that no one had considered contacting us in advance to advise us of the menu issues, which would have enabled us to make alternative plans. We did find an alternative restaurant nearby, providing a wide menu selection, and had a very satisfying meal, but the evening could have been a disaster on such a popular celebratory day.

We had made Cote Brasserie the restaurant of choice during and since the pandemic, because we felt that this restaurant chain had taken seriously the safeguarding of its customers, and provided an excellent menu at affordable prices. We had frequently endorsed this restaurant to our friends for these reasons. However Sunday's experience casts doubt on our recommendation going forward, and will also make us think twice about having a celebratory meal there again.

My review might have been less harsh, if the manager had bothered to respond to my private complaint,...

It was my wife's birthday and we hadn't been to Cote for a long time so decided to give it a shot. We ordered from the two course menu and my starter on mussels was absolutely delicious. They were not very busy yet the two steaks and fries took almost an hour to arrive. The steaks were passable but the whole ambience of the restaurant were spoilt by a man and his two children. The children were allowed to make as much noise as they liked regardless of the annoyance caused to several customers in the restaurant. It got so annoying that instead of having a nice lunchtime meal we decided we had had enough of being in a kindergarten and asked for the bill. I pointed out the reason we were leaving only to be told by the waiter that it wasn't his job to ask children to be quiet to which I replied that it was surely his job to ask the father to do the same. I was disgusted so I went to the desk and asked for the service charge to be removed. The person behind the till then proceeded to lecture me about it being a child friendly restaurant and it was up to him how he ran it. I know things have changed in the last few years but the old addage "the customer is always right, he may be pig headed and argumentative but he is always right" seems to have been surpassed but the monumentous ego of the man behind the till .. as I said the meal started well and the food was good it is just a shame that a man given the job of being in charge let's it go to his head and be an utterly obnoxious person. Things have changed but I will never again give the Cote a chance to take money from me especially as when I told him I would not be coming again his attitude was...