Côte St Martin's Lane — Restaurant in London

My wife & myself have dined in Cote restaurants literally hundreds of times over the last 15 years or so, believe me this is not an exaggeration. Following our experience at the St.Martins Lane WC2 restaurant this week its the first time ever I've refused to pay the service charge. We hadn't booked but turned up to a quite empty Cote at 4.35 and was told by Karolina, the duty manager that she needed the table back at 6.30. No problem almost 2 hours. However we waited for our drinks order to be taken, waited for any menu's, waited for our order to be taken. Asked where our drinks were? They did turn up eventually at the same time as our starters. Ages later same pattern again through main course. There were almost as many miserable staff as there were diners. At 6.15, Yes 6.15 just as we received the menu to order deserts, Karolina turned up again to say we couldn't have deserts and we had to vacate the table now! We protested that the service had been abysmal but Karolina wasn't interested. Ironically it then took another 10 minutes for the bill to arrive. Every company will have a 'bad apple' and give appalling service. For the first time ever at Cote we found it at St.Martins Lane. PS The couple at the next table who witnessed our experience said they regularly use Covent Garden Cote nearby as its much friendlier and efficient, on this occasion they thought they would have a change but said they...

I've always enjoyed Côte's, eaten at many different locations and considered one of my favourite chain restaurants. I've always felt I would have fantastic food, great service and a pleasant time. Unfortunately, this experience at Côte St Martin's Lane wasn't as pleasant at the other Côte locations I've visited. We chose to eat here due to the location being near my birthday experience. I chose fish parmentier, and was given vegetables options to go with my meal. I chose broccoli, which turnt out wasn't an option as suggested, it was a side dish and I was charged for it. My plate arrived very hot, as if they had been microwaved and wasn't given a warning on how hot the plate was. All the different types of fish in my meal tasted the same, and were very fishy in taste and smell. The broccoli was delicious, but I struggled eating it due to the strong taste of fish from my meal. I was offered another meal but declined, as I already started feeling nauseous. My partners steak was edible, but not juicy as you would expect and he felt "ok" with meal. Overall the service was slower compared to other Côtes.Additionally, the toliets didn't smell fresh. The next day I was unwell. I feel disappointed, this is the first time we've experienced a unsatisfactory...

As a party of 11 we arrived at 19:30 hoping to be seated but understanding if it wasn't possible. Surprisingly the restaurant said that they were more than able to accommodate. We all sat down and put in our orders and the wait begins! After waiting 20 mins. We were told by our lovely server Sylvia that we would have a 25 mins wait for our food as the kitchen is a bit busy. No problem. Then the rude manager comes over 5 mins later to tell us that we will have an hour wait for our food and if we don't like it we should go and they will cancel the order. Her excuse was that she didn't realise we were in a rush! I mean really! Rush? One and a half hour wait for food??? At what point is it acceptable to wait and hour and a half for your starters not even mains!!! At that point we decided to leave the restaurant and seek nourishment elsewhere. As we were putting on our jackets, a huge tray of food arrived! Hey presto, our starters minus 3 of our parties dishes. We then wait another 15 mins for an onion soup and 2 calamaris. We are now sat here at 20:54 only just having finished our starters and I am beginning to wonder if I will ever be fed tonight! The manager clearly doesn't care as she's still laughing and we're wasting away! Do...