Côte Bury St Edmunds — Restaurant in West Suffolk

This was my first visit to Côte, my son wanted to treat me. It's one of his favourite chains and I wasn't disappointed! It has a very smart interior, classy, yet had a comfortable atmosphere. We were warmly welcomed as we entered and shown to a table. How lovely, there was a white linen tablecloth and white linen napkins. I already felt special! The menu displayed a very good selection of starters, mains and light bites and sides.The pricing I would say was upper average. But there was a very good value set lunch menu for 2 or 3 courses. Our waitress was attentive and very pleasant without being over the top. She was obviously still in training as another waitress unobtrusively assisted her with recording orders on the tablet. My son ordered a beer and I chose a large glass of Merlot from the very comprehensive wine list. We selected from the main menu. We had a side of bread, sour dough is my favourite. For starter I had had crab mayonnaise and my son had French onion soup.The crab was delicious and very prettily presented, fine dining style, the seasoning and accompaniments didn't overpower the delicate flavour of the crab. I followed with the beef bourguignon with pureed potato and an extra side of French beans and my son had ribeye steak. As I told my son, it was one of the most delicious meals I'd eaten in a restaurant. The pureed potatoes were silky smooth, the little crisp of bacon delightful. The beef was so tender, and I have problems with beef, but not a scrap remained. It was so rich and tasty. I don't know how they cooked the beans, one of my favourite and regularly eaten veg, but they were cooked to perfection. The service was also very good especially as the restaurant was quite full. Not the place for a quick lunch (too nice), or a boozy raucous one (too classy) and not the place to take the kids in the holidays, unless it's a special treat for a very well behaved child. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and felt like I'd been truly spoiled. I would highly recommend this restaurant chain, and can't wait to...

Food is lovely. Service is absolutely dire. I have never in my life clicked my fingers at a member of working staff (I am now 46) for the first time ever having been ignored for a solid five minutes as staff walked past me either staring into the middle distance or practicing their thousand yard stare. Out of desperation and frankly feeling like I'd had enough of leaning out of my aisle seat while waving my unpleasantly dirty wine glass. Yes I took the measure no English man should do in his right mind partly as I was dying of thirst. Going forward we had the server pushing his wrist through the chips of my neighbour while serving the furthest person in the booth. We were treated to dripping water from the aircon when asked if we might be moved the surly response of 'I'll turn off the aircon was given" no possibility of moving to the next empty booth, as if my click had doomed the entire end if the restaurant to the sauna effect. (It was one of the hottest nights of the year) But the true piece de resistance was when a lady on the table adjacent to us had her bag slip from the back of her chair into the walkway. I was given the opportunity to watch one of the serving staff stomp his size 11 shoe smack bang on the back of her Ipad mini, purse, bag, small belongings and all without mentioning it to her on the way out loaded, or indeed the way back when he could easily have pointed out that her prise tech was being stood on. It would have stayed there for a second go had I not pointed it out to the lady in question. As I said back staff great, food great, front of house...

Usually our favourite place to eat but not on this occasion! Came with some friends for dinner and we all opted for the new set 3 course menu which for £24.95pp we decided was great value. You could also add a caraffe of wine to this option for £18.50......bargain we thought!

After ordering with a very polite, helpful, smiley waitress Amelia, the manageress (older lady) arrived at our table. She abruptly interrupted our conversation and was very rude and unhelpful she advised us that two of our starter options were not available. Not a problem, we asked if we could swap for another starter off of the main menu (which was cheaper). No you can't was the response we got and she walked away! Amelia came back to the table and we told her what had happened and she went and spoke to a different manager who allowed us to swap one of the dishes and advised they were happy to do this as a goodwill gesture - we agreed to this and two of us shared a starter.

We were then advised that one of the items from the main meal also wasn't available so another meal.was chosen.

I wouldnt normally complain but we have been coming to Cote for years and the great customer service is one of the things that draws us back. I think this particular manager needs to go on a customer service course!

I didn't want to give 4 stars for the service but Amelia went above and beyond so felt it only...