Côte

We visited here on our trip to London. This was one of our favorite places to dine during our visit. The wife even discovered a new favorite dish here! We are hoping for some state side locations*!* wirh the same menu*!* there is one in Cali but minus some important items, which we are dying for

I really enjoyed my experience here. I got the pre-​theatre menu as I was seeing a film in the neighbouring Barbican cinemas. The food was delicious but what was even better was the service. Staff were really welcoming and super friendly from second one till we left. My friend who had dinner with me couldn’t have any bread or any gluten really but staff were very quick to offer substitutes for the items my friend couldn’t have — free of charge.
We had a cider and I must say their selections of beer/​cider isn’t very rich. To compensate the wine list was extensive.
As another reviewer mentions it was a bit difficult to get tap water — we had to keep asking and the bottles they served the water in were very small, about two glasses or so.
Nevertheless I’d recommend that place for sure!

Cote is very good.
I expect this is unsurprising to hear but this place is decent and the lunch menu is extremely good value.
We had a couple of bottles of wine (cheapest on the list and still nice) and the lunch menu. It was awesome for £19 in total, particularly since I got a steak out of it.
The only niggle is that we had to ask repeatedly for more water.
Go here if you want decent food for a decent price. It’s not independent, it is a chain, but that’s fine if it’s good right?

Le restaurant offre le menu d’une brasserie Française lambda, et les plats sont juste ok. Rien de très bon. Rien qui sorte de l’ordinaire.
Une exception cependant: leur fougasse à l’ail et au persil vaut vraiment le détour.

Standard Cote really, but in the Barbican, just. The fare is fine as you would expect. I came in here after getting drenched and ending up having the boeuf bourginion which was warming, filling and just what the Doctor ordered.

New branch of Côte in what looks like a small modern building. The interior is very traditional and spacious and turning up on a Friday lunch time was no problem. There were loads of people eating but they found us a table.
The food was very nice and the service was very quick. It does seem that there is a great efficiency amongst the staff.
Sadly our waitress was a little rude and it seemed almost too much trouble for her to serve us.
We had a nice meal though and enjoyed our lunch here. I would recommend it. Just be mindful of some of the staff.

We were lured into this new branch of the quite good chain with the offer of free champagne cocktails. In the end, we didn’t get them as we didn’t order from the right menu (?), but we didn’t mind so much. It turned out that they didn’t use champagne in the cocktails, only sparkling wine. That’s the cheap. Now for the nasty.
We ordered from the pre-​theatre menu as we had a show to go to. That should have meant our meals came quickly, but we had to wait ages, re-​ordering once when they ran out of a dish how I wish I’d changed my order When the food finally came, my partner’s dish was ok but mine was awful. It was barely edible and I left most of it. It was supposed to be a chickpea and squash combo but it was flavourless and, unforgivably, not cooked properly. Note to chef: If you don’t know that squash should be cooked through, not crunchy and raw like a carrot, then possibly you shouldn’t be in charge of a kitchen.
Our waitress was pretty disinterested in us (I find that happens in restaurants where a service charge is automatically added such a bad idea) so, running out of time, we didn’t bother to complain. It wasn’t a particularly expensive meal, not worth ruining the evening for, plus they were very busy and very new so we thought we could give them the benefit of the doubt.
But it turns out the night was ruined anyway. I sat through the opera hungry and with uncomfortable cramps and spent today in bed with an upset stomach. Which makes this review rather cranky; no armchair marathon for me :-(
Hopefully this place will improve with time, as it is really convenient for the Barbican. But I wouldn’t recommend this place; why take a chance on a bad meal?
(They got the two stars for the dessert, but then, who can mess up a chocolate mousse?)