Café Rouge — Restaurant in Newark and Sherwood

I am genuinely struggling to believe that so many people give this place four and five star reviews.

My grown up family and I went for a lunch to give our Center Parcs break a nice (or so we thought) kickstart.

The decor was nice enough and the staff (a singular waitress) was also amenable enough and she arrived to take our drink and food order nice and promptly. The table did not look like it had been thoroughly cleaned and after my forearm stuck to the table, I asked for the table to be cleaned before we were served. Bearing in mind there was only one another table in use by other customers it really shouldn't have been too difficult to clean our pre-booked table before we arrived.

I ordered the pate to start and the half a (I think it said roasted) chicken.

The arrival of a globule of warm pate (no attention to presentation here), served with a similar size globule of onion chutney and a hunk of untoasted, cold, not crispy baguette (no butter provided or offered) and no salad, tempered the expectation somewhat. It was not pleasant.

The chicken was then served in between the starter plates as nobody had bothered to remove them or replace the used cutlery, and looked like it had been deep-fried rather than roasted, again no salad. For the accompanying fries, think microwave chips.

I asked both the waitress and a guy I presumed was the manager for a fresh knife and fork in order to be able to eat my main course. After waiting for a good ten minutes I went to the open kitchen to ask the staff for cutlery and they at least were apologetic and had it provided quickly.

The chicken and chips were both extremely poor and very dry and I find it incredulous that a nationwide chain could provide such poor quality food and service, especially at the prices they charge.

I won't...

We came here on the last night of our Center Parcs break for dinner. The atmosphere was quiet and seemed very empty in there compared to all of the other restaurants we’d dined in (which were all fantastic). The menu is slightly limited and feel it is lacking actual authentic French dishes. We ordered a Beef Bourguignon, 3 steaks and a Harrissa and Emmental burger. The Beef Bourguignon was tasty and the beef was tender. The steaks were succulent and juicy and had a nice flavour however the burger was so dry and bland. The real issue was that the waitress that served us at the end of our meal was extremely rude! If not the rudest I’ve experienced in a restaurant. She came over to our table after we’d asked our original waiter for the bill. She didn’t say hello or smile or interact with us, she just asked if we had paid a deposit. We responded yes and then she asked for our name and lodge number. She then came back didn’t say a word and didn’t look at any of us and slapped the bill down on the table and walked away. We said thank you loudly to make a point at how rude she was - She then looked back at the table and scowled. When we walked out of the restaurant she just stared blatantly and gave us all dirty looks. She was extremely unprofessional and rude and she shouldn’t be working in hospitality! One of our party went in to ask for her name (which was Elise) and provided feedback to her to which she replied ‘All I did was give you your bill’ and was extremely rude and had an attitude. Avoid this restaurant - average food and horrendous service - stick to Bella Italia or Hucks where there is is warm friendly service and lovely food. This restaurant let our whole center parcs experience down by putting a dampener on our...

A visit of 2 extremes. The food was excellent. Service was terrible. We were given a voucher earlier in the day at Bella Italia that gave us 20% off at Cafe Rouge (the only reason we went in all honesty). After a great meal (although we did have to wait an extraordinary length of time for dessert to arrive, I'm talking 45 mins) we presented the voucher to pay and were told we couldn't use it without the Bella Italia receipt. This was not mentioned at all when we were given the voucher and Cafe Rouge took no ownership, simply blaming Bella Italia. In the end after the waitress had spoken to her manager, who made no attempt to come over and just sent her back to say no, I actually had to leave the restaurant, ride my bike back to the chalet and get the Bella Italia receipt. When I got back the rest of the party had left as they had said "oh he hasn't gone all the way home has he, we'll just do it!". That's more annoying than saying no in the first place. To put the cherry on the cake they made us promise to go back the next morning (the morning we were vacating the chalet) to give them the receipt! What an utter shambles of a situation it was and the manager who handled the situation just got it totally wrong. I feel bad in a way only awarding 2 stars as the kitchen staff did a great job with the food. The waitress was friendly and polite. They just handled the voucher...