Cote Avis 

Cote Bournemouth - we booked a table for 12 to celebrate a family birthday. The food, service and ambience were all excellent!

What has happened to Côte since the Karali Group took over?

My recent visit to Côte St Martin's Lane was one of the most disappointing restaurant experiences I've had in a long time. The portion sizes were remarkably small, the food was overcooked, and the prices seemed higher than ever. It felt as though corners had been cut at every opportunity, except when it came to the bill.

What was once a reliable brasserie now feels more like an expensive fast-food operation masquerading as a restaurant. The quality simply doesn't justify the price being charged.

I left feeling thoroughly disappointed and wishing I'd spent my money elsewhere. I certainly won't be returning, and I would struggle to recommend Côte to anyone based on this experience.

A genuinely poor meal and a complete waste of money.

Very disappointing lunch experience in the Bluewater restaurant. Took a friend fir her birthday, her salmon portion was very tiny and my confit of duck was over cooked and came with nothing else on the plate, i had requested no mushroom creamed lentils, as I don’t eat creamed food. Despite reiterating my order to the waiter twice, when my meal arrived nothing else was on my plate, except the Duck, so no broccoli. I had plain tap water and my friend had a Pepsi, we had crème caramel for dessert which was lovely, but it used to come with cream, today there was none. The bill came to just over £70 which seemed very expensive for the food we received. Won’t be hurrying back. Two stars for food and service.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I had a fantastic experience at Cote Restaurant! The customer service was excellent, and Anna was absolutely lovely — friendly, attentive, and professional throughout. She made the whole experience even more enjoyable. Everything was perfect, and I couldn't have asked for better service. I’ll definitely be coming back again and would highly recommend Cote Restaurant! 😊

My husband found a long Brown hair inside his chocolate praline tart.
No offer to get a refund at the time, ruined the meal experience.

Visited Cote Wimbledon:- Brunch - eggs were cold steak really small for price would not recommend

I dined with a friend at his invitation at cote St Paul’s. I like cote and have had consistent good meals. On this occasion I ordered boeuf bourguignon. It arrived as a lump of beef in a sauce with a layer of grease surrounded by the onions and mushrooms. I pointed out that a traditional bourguignon is in fact a stew not a lump. I was told that I was wrong and that was the dish served since 2017. Since I linked in Paris for ten years I objected to being told what French dish was. Eventually I asked for it to be removed and reordered. The replacement dish was good though somewhat overcooked.
Point one. Don’t argue with the client
Point two don’t try to defend the indefensible- give in gracefully
Point three make sure that your meal designers understand what an authentic dish actually is.

Used to go to Basingstoke Cote as a the go to for any celebration between 22-25 Recently had not been to a cote due to moving away from the area . Went in today and whilst staff made mistakes ( this was clearly telegraphed as.) Members of staff in training and they did their best to recover was was a disappointing experience. What was apalling was the drop in quality of the food. What was always a dependable restaurant to go to…. Now is over priced and just not great quality evidently to try and cut costs. Would have rather gone to a greasy spoon. Had been intending to do Christmas meal there this year. Will not be doing so now. I feel sorry for the staff who are bearing the brunt of these changes. Me and my family will now be finding somewhere else to go to. Hopefully head office and c suite can course correct.

Cote Bath 30th September 2026 lunchtime 12.30 booking.
The food when it arrived was good. However it took over two hours to receive two courses and we had to ask for the pudding menu. I was told after I had chosen that the chocolate fondue was off so I ordered tarte au citron. Ten minutes later the waiter said that was off too. I had to ask four times for the bill and had no second course as there was not time to eat it as it was almost 2.40pm. I was then charged for the tarte au citron that had never arrived! The two people at the next table were ignored so they left without ordering. It's not the young staff's fault they are running all the time and have a lovely manner but there are simply too few of them. I will not be going back.

Another great experience had tonight at Cote Basingstoke. The ambience was lovely; great service and amazing food.

Being unable to drink alcohol, Erma went above and beyond to make me a non-alcoholic Espresso Martini - it was so good.

Having been a fan of cote for many years it had been a while since my last visit so took the opportunity to take lunch with my daughter for her birthday at Cote, Lewes. Apparently, this is now a 'petit' cote so I wondered what the differences would be.
Firstly service was as expected very efficient, and after a look through the menu not a lot appeared to have changed?
Apparently It was supposed to be an easier way to order but on many dishes you are offered to upgrade the your chosen dish to something else for a few quid more and on the price fix menu there were still items that you have to pay a supplement for? This isn't making it simpler Its making it even more confusing! I chose my favourite calamari as a starter and a sirloin steak baguette with fries as a main course.
We also ordered a bottle of wine which was half price! So on the face of it a great start.
Unfortunately, whilst the Calamari was okay, the bread crumb coating is different and was much lighter than usual and not seasoned at all so very bland. The main course followed in good time but what a disappointment.
The sirloin steak was cooked correctly to my order, The steak was sliced and layered in the baguette but unfortunately the steak had a bright white line of gristle running through every piece of the steak immediately next to the fat layer, clearly visible. The chef must have seen this whilst carving the steak but chose to send it out anyway. I had to trim every piece of the steak before being able to eat the baguette with half of the steak that was left.
Obviously I complained and initially was given a bill with no reduction despite my complaint. However, another waitress arrived with a new bill with the deduction of the bottle of sparkling water.
I was confused, why deduct the Sparkling water cost when half the steak was inedible? This is when I realised the bottle of sparkling water we ordered when we arrived, before viewing the menu, was charged at £6.00 per bottle!! So I was given a 30% reduction off the main course even though 50% of it was inedible. Frankly I was shocked.
In the old days if you had the misfortune to receive a bad steak which unfortunately did happen to me a couple of years ago I was offered the full cost of my main course deducted from the bill. Which is as it should be.
If the new policy for inedible food complaints is a third off, then shame on you Cote.

So I've had a reply from Cote....🙄

Why oh why should I ask to see the manager when presumably the manager authorised the meager reduction in the first place? Also I do not live locally so would Cote be able to cover the costs of my fuel to visit the manager?....I live 126 miles away and have to cross the dartford bridge and back again so a round trip of 252 miles. So at the recommended fuel rate of 55p/mile you'll need to reimburse me £145.60 including the Dartford Toll. Is that okay?

Cote Canterbury was busy but really good food and good service. It was Friday night and both inside and outside covers so plenty of customers. Also had two or three course options which made the cost very reasonable.

Newbury Cote....nothing wrong with the food. What was verging on fraudulent was charging us £3.70 for the 'suprise ice cream' birthday dessert for my daughter. We didn't ask for it, my daughter didn't really want, yet when challenged about being asked to pay for it it was apparently the managers policy. ABSOLUTELY NO WAY! Disgusting that we should have to challenge this openly when we were celebrating an important family occasion. I like to trust people and rarely check a bill. Fortunately others there were more sensible than me!

I and a friend went to Cote Tunbridge wells.
We ordered Beef Bourguignon,it took 45 minutes to arrive,which if it was nice we would not have minded…,,,what arrived was a large lump of fatty beef with a slither of undercooked carrot an one slimy mushroom!!!! The mash was edible and the green beans that cost an extra £10,had not been ruined.
Will never darken there door stop again.

The quality of the food was truly awful. Cold, undercooked, poor quality. We sent back most dishes. Used to be good now has declined into ghastly. Avoid

After a bad experience at Tower. Ridge Côte I am blown away by the customer service response and the lengths they have gone to to rectify the bad experience. Thank you Ian you have restored my faith!

Cote brasserie York.
Great service lovely staff.
But a caesar salad it ain't.
Mounds of lettuce a few croutons a piece of wafer thin air dried ham.
Not good value at all.

We went to Cote Blackheath yesterday for the first time after a trip to Paris left us keen for French food. However, we were met by a rude male waiter, shaven head and blue shirt, who had a sour expression on his face and said we could not sit where we had asked. Luckily a more polite female greeting member of the team in a white shirt checked the books and said we could have the table for two hours.

The rude waiter then served a table seated after us first. He gave them their drinks, after which I had to ask to be served.

When the rude waiter came, he said something like, “Tell me.”. No politeness, no smile, disgusting service, I had to hide my anger.

The duck confit was dry and the steak was chewy, the portions tiny but prices high.

The female waiting staff member was the only saving grace, the two stars are for her. But don’t bother unless you want otherwise crap service, bad food and left feeling like you’re an inconvenience whilst handing over your cash.

I have previously purchased the Breton fish stew which I must admit was probably over a year ago it was lovely and there was a lot in it and I was often felt full up after eating it so I fancied ordering another one. First of all. I had an issue with delivery because the app told me halfway through that they couldn’t deliver the order so I contacted Cote who confirmed that they had picked it up 10 minutes before. When it arrived it was cold. There was quite a few muscles in it, four small potatoes and half a side of a place. Once I remove the muscle shell, there was not much in it at all. There was very little sauce. I also ordered a tomato salad which was just tomatoes in an onion sauce. This cost £30 in all. It did taste nice but wasn’t worth the money and compared with what they used to give me which was a real stew with lots of different types of fish with lots of gravy, After having it again, which was under a quarter of the size they used to serve I’m not going to bother purchasing it again. air just wasn’t worth the cost.

thought about giving cote another chance as used to like it but it has gone down hill and become a bit fast food chippy ? have as many chips as you like [classy ?]
When we got to cote you could not miss the fact they have four bay trees in pots outside which nobody had watered so three were dead and the fourth looking rough ? can nobody see this ? puts you off straight away as shows a lack of care and a manager with no grip.