Côte Newcastle — Restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne

Visited here on Christmas eve 2021 and it was absolutely amazing, I couldn't fault anything about it (except the service charge which I'll get to later in the review) the service was equally as good as the food, despite it being Christmas eve and the staff probably wanting an early finish, they all went above and beyond to make sure we had a good time. The food was absolutely superb and again, faultless.

However fast forward to February and it was quite a different story. It would appear that this place is inconsistent and a bit hit and miss. We visited last night for my friend's birthday meal and although the starter of Fougasse was just as good as I remembered it being on Christmas eve, the main course of chicken with potato gratin and mushroom sauce was completely different to last time. First of all there was definitely less of it, the piece of chicken was flat and very chargrilled, there was a lot less of the potato gratin and hardly any of the mushroom sauce at all. I remember having it on Christmas eve and saying how delicious it was because it was a decent portion size and the chicken was cooked to perfection but this time around it left a lot to be desired and at £37 per person I don't think that's fair.

The dessert of chocolate mousse was delicious and I'd definitely have it again, the lattes afterwards were also of very good quality but it would seem that maybe they have one amazing chef and one that just gets the job done and last night we must have had the chef that just gets on and does it without any of the finesse of the other chef. I also completely disagree with the 12% service charge added on to everyone's bill, if people wish to leave a tip then that should be their decision based on the experience they've had and not forced upon them. Infact in future I'll be avoiding or even boycotting any restaurant that does this. They know people won't ask for it to be removed because it's awkward and people don't like to ask. I find this to put a negative on the whole experience and unfortunately knowing that I will spend the best part of £40 and I could get an amazing meal one time and a just okay meal the next means that I'm reluctant to visit in future. The standards should be the same all the time no matter who the chef is. The service also wasn't as good as Christmas eve this time around as they weren't very attentive and people kept having to ask for...

Firstly, apologies for the lack of photos!

Visited before seeing Joseph at the Theatre Royal, which also happened to be one of the Sam Fender gigs so Newcastle was super busy.

We took advantage of their offer of a free glass of fizz with a Theatre Royal ticket deal which was a lovely treat!

I ordered from the Prix Fixe menu which is excellent value at £20.95 for 2 courses, £24.95 for 3. The children's menu is also really well priced- £8.50/£10.50 for 2/3 courses. Husband went A La Carte.

The food itself was beautiful- I had the Confit Duck Rarebit (pictured) to start and it was melt in the mouth delicious. One of those dishes you could happily eat another 3 times at least. The steak frites main was well cooked- tender steak and fries well seasoned. The kids loved their pasta bake and burger respectively- the burger came with an adult portion of fries so really great value.

Husband went for a starter of Seared Scallops (£13.50) which he is still raving about weeks later; followed by Confit Duck a l'Orange (£20.75) which was wonderfully prepared and felt like a real treat.

Their only negative was that it got so busy that service went from efficient for the drinks and starters to incredibly slow from starters to mains. It got to the point where I genuinely started to panic that we wouldn't make the theatre on time as the mains hadn't arrived after so long. It also meant we had no time for dessert- theatre chocolate buttons were a poor substitute! The large number of patrons also meant it got very loud which my youngest struggled with.

Having said that, I'd go again for pre theatre food- just maybe not on the same night as one of the biggest gigs...

I have now downgraded Côte to 3 stars as my original 5 star review - written 3 years ago - is sadly no longer a true reflection of the current quality of Côte Newcastle.

I have been multiple times since that Review and have witnessed a drop in quality and indeed, quantity; the size of the meals have reduced by a third. The starters in particular are shockingly small.

At Christmas, my brûlée with marinated mandarin segments saw half a mandarin plonked on top of my brûlée, which had not been marinated and remained in their thick skin with accompanying pith. My sisters salmon was just about cooked - just. I personally wouldn't have eaten it at all and she left the raw middle on her plate. No one enquired why. I began to see why the restaurant had only 5 evening diners - and we were 2 of them. As we left the restaurant, we noticed that other venues in the City were packed out.

Similarly, it is not true for Côte to advertise that cocktails are 'made by our staff' - my last visit in January saw me served a premixed, lacklustre Old Fashioned with no garnish. When I buy a drink for £9.50 which has only one measure of alcohol, I pay for the time and skill of the person making it. I received neither of those things; that is an insult to the customer and, quite frankly, a rip off.

Given all of the above facts, it is easy to see why Côte is rarely more than half full. There are many other restaurants in Newcastle offering better quality at similar prices and Côte is failing its...