Cote Avis 

Onion soup 95% thick onion 5% liquid soup awful.
Crab pate with a little white bread un taosted awful.
Prawn starter swimming in 70% tastless water.

Bill for 4 approx £450 .

Extremely over priced and ridiculously poor quality and content of food ,avoid.

Normally Côte is fine -good for breakfast. However - went to Cote Bournemouth for Christmas Day dinner (which was almost £90). Whilst the service was good/friendly the food was atrocious / worst Christmas dinner it has ever been my misfortune to consume. Starter was some kind of goat’s cheese and beetroot - presentation looked like baby food or something a dog would regurgitate. Tasted just as bad, so only had a couple of mouthfulls. Main course was turkey ballotines - which arrived lukewarm, so cold by the time I finished. Potato rostis were burnt. Christmas pudding served cold (so incredibly dense/dry) accompanied by some type of shavings, which did nothing to add much needed moisture. Mincepie and cappuccino at the end were the only things I actually enjoyed - couldn’t wait to leave to be honest.

On Christmas day this year I visited Cote Chichester where the serving staff were attentive, polite and pleasant; within a few minutes of being shown to our table and making ourselves comfortable we were offered our complimentary glass of fizz. However, when I visit a restaurant I'm usually offered water and a viewing of the wine list but neither of these were proffered despite my noticing that other tables had bottles of water and glasses of wine. Yes, I could have asked but my two guests decided to settle for the complimentary fizz whereas they usually enjoy wine with their meal.
This leads me to my Christmas day order of Roast Turkey Ballotine, which is stuffing with turkey wrapped around, but as it transpired the serving was about six thin slices containing a ratio of approximately four stuffing to one turkey. This was accompanied by a few vegetables and a pig in blanket. Along with the starters, which my guests agreed were tasty albeit scrimpy, cost £106 per head and while this is about the rate for the Christmas day restaurant meal I feel the quality and quantity did not meet expectation. My suggestion is that the Cote Chichester management and chefs visit Brasserie Blanc Chichester on Christmas day to learn how to do the job properly

Good food choices but drinks very expensive

Had to wait over 1 hour 10 mins for food - restaurant was only half full - don’t think having a Xmas menu works as kitchen clearly couldn’t cope ?

But surprised they now allow dogs ( not just guide dogs) in. Son has dog allergy so made him feel uncomfortable as 2 dogs near us !!

Can't rate it any lower !! Absolutely shocking - checked in early for a special meal.with grandchildren. Main meal for one of the children not even made - had to request it x4 times before anything was served! Never recommend it to anyone. - Woking is definitely NOT king!

I have loved Cote loyally for over a decade. Always delicious food, top quality ingredients and so well cooked. So disappointed with the new menu. Really hope management realise what they’ve done and return back to the classic French delicious food.

We have been loyal customers of Cote in Sloane Square, Chiswick and Turnham Green for 10 years. However, or experience in Sloane Square on Friday 19th means the company has lost our loyalty and our business.

Normally full on a Friday at 21.00, restaurant was half empty.

We become painfully aware of new ownership.

The menu was a shock, removing all our familiar and reliable meals.

The waiting staff did not understand English and failed to record an order for burgers. 20 minutes later we were told the kitchen had no more burgers.

My main course has arrived and was finished. Nothing had arrived for my dinner guest. A starter was offered after 20 minutes.

We heard two other guests complaining to the manager.

Our bill was cancelled and we left the Sloane Square restaurant.

I understand the new owners run fast food operations like TacoBell. What a mistake to run Cote along similar ideology.

We will not be repeating the experience.

Have been attending Cote in Winchester for many years but yesterday the service was shocking.
Surly rude waitress, another who asked if we wanted cranberry sauce three times but never brought it and the waiter that missed one person paying for the bill (we split between 9 of us) and charged another for two. I get that it's a busy period, but it's not hard to be nice and serve professionally. I wont be back despite the food being delicious.

Two stars. One for being open and one for the staff.
Have never been to a Côte before. Visited the Blackheath branch.
Ordered Steak and frites. The steak was smaller than my hand and the frites were clearly frozen chips (Iceland possibly?) My friend had a Pork Belly which she says was acceptable. One bottle of wine, no dessert or starters, presented with a bill for £100.
The staff were friendly and helpful but the food was amerturish and massively over priced for what it was
Paid and left, not to return.

We have been dining out in the Cote restaurant chain for around 20 years and have thoroughly enjoyed the ambiance, quality of French-themed cuisine, menu selection and professional management, kitchen and waiting staff.
Unfortunately, a recent dinner at a Cote restaurant revealed just how far this restaurant group has deteriorated, following the acquisition by the Karali Group in October 2025, a family-owned business led by Salim and Karim Janmohamed.
A much-reduced menu offered simplistic, small and over-priced, low-quality food, presented in an insultingly amateurish fashion. While staff were friendly, they indulged in loud, unprofessional banter across the room. This is certainly not the “French-inspired dining” promoted by the company,
This restaurant group sadly now displays all the typical early warning signs of a chain most certainly doomed to failure by cost-cutting, over-pricing, inferior food and a total lack of understanding of the the palate and preferences of their typical, long-standing and loyal customer base, who enjoyed the excellent cuisine.
The end of an era ………..

What has happened to Cote??

Loved visiting both Cardiff central and Cardiff bay, but not anymore!

Appreciate it is Christmas time, but Cote is used to being super busy all year round!!

Firstly service - it used to be so attentive, but the staff seem so unhappy and some have been down right rude with awful attitude, how are these people employed when they have no manners or customer service skills??

Cutlery had food on it and the waiter looked at me as if I was stupid when I asked for clean cutlery!

Food - took ages to come and had to ask for every course (even the drinks) - food choice so limited and not the same quality/standard as Cote used to serve which is so disappointing! Never worth the money we paid!

Will not be returning!!!!

Visited the Cote restaurant in Edinburgh for breakfast. It was appalling. Nothing that was served to us was correct as they had run out of bread and other ingredients. We also waited over 25 minutes and food only arrived when I asked the waiter what was happening. When it arrived it was poor quality and cold.

The Christmas special was served with the meat still frozen inside. It tasted like defrosted meat, which is unacceptable for a meal at this price point. A real letdown. Whole dish felt cold .
There was always a hint of a truly bad, sewage-like smell constantly wafting from the back area, making the property feel unhealthy and deeply unpleasant.

What has happened to this place. Was always reliable for a good, not overpriced lunch. Was there yesterday with family. The menu is different and prices. The food was pretty bad. The mussels were awful. Cracked shells and tiny. The staff were really great. I felt sorry for them having to serve this food.

My husband and I booked a table for a special wedding anniversary and noted this in the booking request. When we arrived there was no mention of this by the staff and the restaurant was not busy.
Our meal started out OK and we both liked our starters. But then it all started to go downhill.
My supposedly vegetarian main was served and tasted of meat; clearly the vegetables had been cooked either next to frying meat or in a less than clean pan. The server asked if I wanted a replacement but I didn't want to make a fuss because it was a special evening for us, so asked if I could just have some chips instead so I would be eating my main alongside my husband. My husband wasn't terribly impressed with his chicken which wasn't served nicely as it looked as if it had been thrown onto the plate.
While we were eating our main courses, we saw a party of 4 at the table next to us asking where their chips were but, when their chips finally arrived, everyone had finished their meal and their chips were cold. I hope that my chips weren't intended for their table!
Anyway after we'd finished our mains, we wanted to order our pudding but waited at least 20 minutes for someone to notice that we wanted to order. A different server finally came up and, as I didn't know what to choose, I asked for a recommendation from the server. I explained that I liked dark chocolate and asked for the most chocolatey pudding. She recommended I pick the chocolate praline tart. My husband chose the chocolate fondant. Sadly, my pudding was definitely not very chocolatey but I ate some of it.
However, my husband's pudding was served cold. Now, we have been to Côte many times over the past couple of years and, on the 4 occasions when we have ordered chocolate fondant, it has been served cold. So this is clearly an ongoing issue. On 2 occasions we asked for a replacement which arrived at the perfect temperature. So you would have thought that the restaurant would be aware that they're sending out cold chocolate fondants and work to avoid this.
After we'd finished the original server came to clear our table and asked if we'd like coffee or anything else and we said no thank you. We expected him to return to ask if we wanted the bill but after 30 minutes waiting for this to happen, I gave up and got up and asked to pay. This process also took a while.
Now I didn't jump straight here to write a review as I thought I'd go in and speak with the management and give them our feedback and explain we were disappointed and why. We like Côte and wanted to give them a chance to improve. The manager seemed very concerned, almost dramatically so, and acknowledged they had an issue with late serving of chips and also that they were already aware that chocolate fondants were being served cold (so why had they not taken corrective action on this???). He finished by saying that he would send me an email to follow up and thanked me for coming in rather than giving them a bad review.
However, he sent no email. I have waited 2 months in case it was on his to-do list and he was just busy but he clearly was all words and no action.
So I now don't believe that Côte actually care about improving food or service and, as a result, we haven't been back and have no intentions of going back. I guess the good that comes out of this is that the other restaurants in Winchester are going to benefit from our custom :)

Note their reply: We have received so many apologies from Côte over substandard food or service over the past 2 years but their apologies are clearly meaningless since they don't do anything to put right their mistakes (which have been the same ones, over and over again). You have lost our business now for good based on this apology which is clearly only lip service.

My friend and I were extremely disappointed with our recent visit to Côte Cheltenham. Despite arriving for our 6:00pm reservation to a very quiet restaurant, the service was disorganised from the outset. Staff seemed more focused on preparing for a large party due later in the evening than on serving the handful of guests already dining.
Due to the large party we consciously ordered our desserts at the start of the meal to make it easy for them. Yet after our mains were cleared, a waiter still came over to ask if we “wanted to order dessert.” No one appeared to know what had been ordered, and communication among the team was clearly lacking, with waiters wondering aimlessly round the restaurant. We chased numerous times for where our desserts were with the same waiter, to be given a variety of excuses.
It took 25 minutes and 2 desserts eventually arrived, we were given two pain perdu instead of one pain perdu and one chocolate mousse. Shockingly, the waiter implied that we must have been mistaken, even though we had clearly stated our order from the start and had a receipt for it on the table. After further delays, a manager finally informed us — for the first time — that the chocolate mousse was unavailable.
Having already paid, due to needing to leave for an event and assuming that our food was on the way, we then had to request a refund for the dessert we never received, only to be told it couldn’t be processed in the restaurant. We were instead advised to pursue it via head office, which was far from convenient given we were already late for another engagement.
What should have been a relaxed pre-Christmas catch-up was overshadowed by poor communication, slow service, and a lack of accountability. Sadly, this experience fell far below the standard we expected from Côte, we are yet to hear anything despite submitting a complaint on their website.

I have always enjoyed Cote over quite a few years but my experience yesterday was a bit disappointing. Booked for 2:30 and when we arrived we were told that it would be 15 mins to get into main restaurant or we could have table by the door which I accepted due to time constraints,
The ladies who attended to us were very good and courteous but we were also attended by a fellow in a puffer jacket who looked like he had just walked in off the street which was rather odd and another fellow walking round with headphones on!
Food was good but menu not as varied and no set lunch that we could find. Unlikely to return!

Our first visit to Côte Bath, and the promised voucher for 2 free glasses of fizz was a waste of time. Reservation for 1.15, so not late in the day and they had run out of fizz, we were offered 2 glasses of rose which was poor quality and a very small quantity. The waiting staff were good and friendly but the supervisor on our floor looked like she really didn’t want to be there, no service with a smile, very off putting won’t eat there again

Went for lunch today and chose the Christmas menu at £47 with 1 glass of fizz included. I'm really disappointed, the portions were disappointingly small. I didn't like the starter, chevre with beetroot, it looked a mess and was struck at the small portion and then had a steak which was average, I hadn't realised that there was an extra £8 charge for steak. My dessert was also disappointing - a chocolate sponge thing served with a tiny tiny portion of cream and berry compote. So my friend and I paid over £60 each (no drinks, just "tap" water) which is a lot for me, unless I'm just out of touch, so I won't be visiting again. It's such a shame, I had a lovely meal there a year or so ago and was happy with the price and quality.

Beware the app stating you get a 'stamp' for every £20 spent, it should read only one stamp per visit if you spend more than £20.! Extremely misleading, the menu is now awful and more expensive and not value for money