Caferouge Avis 

Had an unpleasant experience at Witney Oxfordshire restaurant with Tania we think is the manager (not wearing white shirt server uniform).

Arrived there for a late lunch at 5pm. Only 2 tables were occupied. Asked to be seated on the padded chairs. Was told 2 persons cannot sit there, these are for 4 persons and she needs these for 7pm. We said we were not stopping long. Quite bite to eat.

We thought she would seat us at a 2 person table because the booth tables are made up of two pushed together. What she did was put us on a table she was using as her office. Moved all her devices etc to show us we were inconveniencing her.

Bizarre behaviour she started prepping tables with menus at 5pm even the ones next to us while we were dining. This felt Intimidating and not normal for a manager. We only stayed 1 hour and was gone by 6pm. total opposite to customer service. Abrupt, uncomfortable Behaviour.

Beyond belief that despite training her management skills are appalling, hospitality was not there, such poor manners. Not sure where she studied. She did not have a British accent.

Spoilt our evening. Cafe rouge is a nice place. We always look forward to eating there. First time at Witney though.

Very poor value for money, food OK but nothing to get excited about. The biggest problem they don't honour the tokens they sell so we were £20.00 out of pocket. Not recommended.

Avoid the Edinburgh branch of Café Rouge.
The service was a little slow but friendly when we did get served. The food is very average. The fried egg on my Croque Madame was solid which made me wish I hadn't bothered. The French fries were ok. The red wine had a strange sweet aftertaste which is not the case at other branches of this chain. The main thing is to check your bill carefully as we were charged for upgrades we did not have. When you point this out to them, be prepared to be disbelieved! Nice little earner for the restaurant...

Ate in York branch and had an excellent meal from the set menu. Food and wine excellent. Service friendly. All round great experience.

I love Cafe Rouge especially this one. Havent been in a while and sad to say the vibe has died..no Angelo, no Pedro, no Chris..so quiet and no patter or energy. Yes the food was good Frank behind the bar so good and welcoming but something has died in this Rouge.

Cafe Rouge Exeter.
Had an afternoon tea. Never again.
Some of the cakes were dry and not fresh and some were claggy and flavourless.
The chocolate mouse was old and drying out and I'm sorry, but 3 pieces of sandwiches each is not acceptable, a full round each would be better. overall there wasn't much to it and Mr Kippling does better but the coffee was nice.
Vastly overpriced if you were to buy it in store, but we had it as a gift and it was still overpriced.

Good value for money, food not great but for the price and service, you really cont complain.

Cafe Rouge Maidstone

Poor service, had to get up and find a waitress to ask them for water, waited 20 mins before doing that.

Completely overcooked chicken, very small portion for cost & quality, would not recommend.

Cafe Rouge, Bluewater
My wife & I visited the Bluewater restaurant on Sunday 18 August. When we tried to pay using our 'the restaurant choice' voucher we were advised that these vouchers are no longer accepted. Apparently they stopped taking these vouchers that very Sunday, coincident that!
When checking on the website for 'the restaurant choice' their home screen/page still displays Cafe Rouge on the image of the voucher/card.
I have tried to contact Cafe Rouge for clarification, but surprise surprise, no reply.

The food was good, service not so.

Well I have to say massively disappointed about the rude, blarsay, unprofessional restaurant manager her attitude and unprofessionalism was embarrassing and uncomfortable.

I’d brought the breakfast for 2 via Groupon £14.95 2 inc 2 drinks and breakfast.
To use in the Cafe Rouge in the Bullring

Upon arrival and service throughout was fantastic the waiter who served me before was lovely and hospitable and went above and beyond whilst waiting on us.

Now it was not until the end when I asked for the bill that ( I believe she was the restaurant manager/supervisor) proceeded to scan the code then walked to the waiter and said she was charging us for drinks, within hearing distant. So I looked at the voucher and read what it inc as she kept saying it’s not fruit juice it’s not fruit juice’ and the waiter was trying to explain what we had, to which I then said on the voucher it says you could have lemonade, coke etc and my friend had order a coke and sparkling water and I had a mocha and lemon gomme press then she turned to me and very rudely raised her voice ‘ it’s fine it’s fine I’ve sorted it’ she shoved a receipt into the waiters hand and stormed off. The waiter a bit frazzled came over and gave us the receipt, I looked at it and we’d been charged for sparkling water as my friend opted for that and a coke. So I queried the charge initially with the waiter as we’d brought the groupon which included 2 drinks but she was hovering around and then piped up, chiming in about that sparking water isn’t inc in the Groupon offer, really it’s water, there was a choice of lemonade, coke, lemon presse, tea, coffee etc but she couldn’t have included a bottle of sparking water instead of the others?! Was it really that deep ??? Getting all attitude and blarsay and unprofessional in her responses which is what narked me off, if she had any skills or professionalism about her she would of said before we ordered ‘ Ohhh just to let you know x, y & z are not inc with the offer’ that would of been fine not a problem we’d of chosen something else. But no instead she mouthed off at me saying
‘Yeh but is sparkling water It’sparkling water anyone would of thought this water was from the frigging fountain of youth for goodness sake!! She kept saying ‘I have to account for it and it’s not included etc etc’ so I said well ok that’s fine, the situation didn’t warrant her attitude and the way she chose to conduct herself in the restaurant, as the waiter was trying to explain and she cut him off she then went around the restaurant floor to repeat loud enough for me to hear to the other waiter and to 2 bar staff about the ‘sparkling water’ she carried on the situation instead of being professional and delivering good customer service. She then came over and said ‘ I can take it off the bill’ but again her attitude when she said that to me was rude and abrupt, I was happy to pay but her response was rude! what she needed to of done is said ‘look I’m really sorry sparkling water isn’t included in the offer, I apologise that this wasn’t reiterated when you placed your order, however on this occasion with the misunderstanding I’ll take it off for you’ that’s customer service if that conversation had happened I would not have had an issue... she was rude, abrupt, completely unprofessional and didn’t resolve the situation in a mature way.

Disappointing visit to Maidstone restaurant on Friday lunchtime. The restaurant wasn't overly busy but we had to wait over thirty five minutes for our main course, which was a very ordinary cooked steak. The two waitresses were rushing around like crazy and were apparently short staffed by one. The real problem seemed to be in the kitchen where the lone chef just couldn't cope. The food quality was rather mediocre as well. Despite the very attentive and hard working waitresses we will not be going back anytime soon. The head waitress deserves five out of five stars for her hard working performance though!

Food pretty crap quality to be honest!

Very disappointing meal with a group at Gunwharf Quays.
First of all they couldn’t find our booking - even though the person making it had confirmed in person the day before - so we had to wait for them to push tables together. I had the risotto and ate about half - didn’t like it at all, it had a very strange taste and consistency. Rhubarb crumble had a huge piece of almost raw rhubarb and other bits of smaller uncooked rhubarb. Having seen about the germs often found in ice, I always stress no ice in my drinks - but it arrived with ice and when I asked for it to be changed they merely scooped out some of the ice and gave my drink back to me!
One of the group had beans with her dish - and they were so hard she could not eat them.
I have since spoken to the 'head' of the group, who feels she should have complained.
I remember when you felt you could always get a good meal at a Cafe Rouge. This was several years ago and I don't know what has happened since then - it was more like eating in a fast food outlet, at restaurant prices.

Bad customer service, food took over 45 minutes ended up leaving because we couldn’t wait any longer, the tea mug was super dirty, generally not a good experience

We received the Travelzoo deal of 3 courses for 2 meal as a gift , so my Fiance and I decided to go to the West Dulwich branch yesterday.

We received an excellent service from Georgia, the Supervisor, who was warm, friendly and attentive. The food was freshly cooked, steaming hot and delicious. The Beetroot Tatin is our new favourite!

Based on the fantastic service from Georgia and the delicious food we'll definitely be back to this branch in the future.

Highly recommended.

The worst customer service I’ve ever seen, and I’ve watched Fawlty Towers.

Picture the scene, my girlfriend and I enter the Café, well-presented and suitably hungry. We’d ventured forth in the search for a bit of breakfast to satiate the hunger we’d developed over a hectic morning.

We were greeted by what I can only assume was a lady who hated her job more than anything, who found it particularly annoying to have to lead us to a table. We sat down, unperturbed by the strange, almost eerie start to our visit. After 25 minutes of patiently waiting, the same member of staff returned to our table and asked for our order, in a manner that was akin to, “You want something to eat or what?”

We decided to stay the course, regardless of the fact the members of staff clearly hated the place they worked and all of the people in it. We made our order, lips wet with anticipation. The table next to us received their food about 10 minutes after we made our order, with both of the guests having to send the food back as the orders were wrong. Not a great start, I’m sure you’d agree. Still, we wanted to believe in the best of people.

Now, the restaurant was not even that busy. There were numerous free tables and more than enough staff members to run the place. We waited, while none of the staff did. They stood around cleaning tables that were already clean, watching as we sat there food-less and wasting away. We waited for a full hour without any sign of our food or drinks making it to our table. I can only assume the chef was in the back cooking with a Bunsen burner.

The hour passed, with my lovely, patient girlfriend and I debating whether to just leave. She had ordered a coffee, myself a coke or something. After about half an hour we saw our drinks appear on the bar, but unfortunately we were the only ones who did. We watched, helpless, as all the warmth escaped the coffee’s cup. As the fizz left the coke for pastures new. For half an hour the drinks stayed there, and after a while we just wanted to see how long they’d be left there out of morbid curiosity. The drinks remained untouched and unserved the whole time we were there. None of the staff asked us if we’d been served, or if we wanted to pay, or anything.

There was a total absence of care, all staff members were absolutely miserable and outright rude to everybody in the place. When we left, I politely said to the woman behind the bar, “You might want to pour those away, as they were for us.” She replied, super aggressively, “well I don’t know, I’m just a bartender”. Firstly, there is absolutely nothing wrong with tending bar and secondly if I was tending a bar - I think I’d tend to notice two drinks waiting on top of it for the best part of an hour.

Alas, we left. Still hungry but now also a little bit disillusioned. We went to Patisserie Valerie and it was perfect.

Went for afternoon tea for cheese lovers in Bournemouth. Cafe rouge was clean and staff were friendly.
The disappointment was the food. The lack of it.
The cheese portions were very small.
I would have said comparing to other afternoon teas I have been to this was more like for one person.
And you would have thought there would have been a cheese scone each.
Will not do this again

Cheshire Oaks.......I was a tad apprehensive about coming here after reading mixed reviews about the place, but we had a free Travelzoo voucher for a 3 course meal for two, so nothing to lose ! No problems with the voucher, or with waiting for a table, nor any delays with the food, starters were good, beetroot tart and camembert in breadcrumbs, my beef bourginon was excellent, her ladyships chicken also, and both puds great too ! Heather, our waitress, was wonderfull, patient and pleasent, and like us, down to earth. The only negative was the price of alcohol, we wernt drinking tonight, so not a problem. We'd be happy to come back here and pay menu prices 😊

Cafe Rouge was a firm favourite with my 4 girl friends and I given its city centre location, almost equidistant from our homes. We visit regularly usually paying full price, and for the first time took advantage of a Groupon deal of £38 for four starters and four mains, it being a quiet Monday in January, so intending to pay for the one extra meal for the fifth person, plus of course drinks, coffees & puds.

As usual, the food was pretty good and ticked all the right boxes for a mid-week girls night. The service was also good, attentive, but never overbearing. But that’s where the good news ends, sadly :(

As is the way with a group of pals, one person has bought the vouchers, and paid in advance, two or three pay in cash, so the one with the debit card, looks after the balance, so we should have been more on the ball at the time, but the complexity of splitting fairly, and giving the extra money back to the voucher buyer, distracted us from the bill content. So it wasn’t until the next day that we realised we massively over-charged!

Instead of the voucher covering FOUR lots of starter & main, (so we should ONLY have paid for drinks, I starter, one main & two puds, and two coffees) the waitress charged us for EVERYTHING we ordered at full price, then even added a supplement for each, before deducting the £38 like it was a simple PREPAYMENT when It wasn’t. Basically, we not only paid full price for everything, but we paid in advance for the privilege! The bill should have been approx £60 less than we were charged.

So you would think that after 6 calls, leaving messages for the manager, over three days, an email conversation, which he responded to saying he needed our itemised receipt, despite having supplied the groupon vouchers, our online booking ref, our table number AND our payment amounts (and we were the only table of 5 in a dead restaurant, who were also last to leave!) you'd think we’d have received a sincere apology and a refund? And maybe even a wee voucher to encourage us to come back?

Nope! Despite no understanding (and I mean comprehension!) from the manager than you can't charge for meals AND add a £3 supplement, and the same response to my now 2nd request by email to their head office, they still don't begin to get it.

They claim that the surcharges are correct (accepting that the £3 supplement) on the full price meal WAS an error! And offered us a £3 refund!) Talk about insult to injury?

So what that means is despite being regular customers, who WERE advocates of the business, this has left a very sour taste in our mouths. One not usually associated with French food!

So be warned. Check your bill carefully and don’t rely on the Cafe Rouge Edinburgh to honour these voucher deals they way they should, which is four FREE starters and mains (because the voucher you've prepaid covers them!) with bills for any additional food & drink.

So guess, Cafe Rouge? You’ve just lost 5 advocates for your business, who won’t be shy in sharing our experience! It will, you’ll note, cost you a LOT more than the actual cost of putting this right.

If they DO choose to refund, this review will be updated to that effect. But don't hold your breath, as there is simply no cure for deliberate overcharging.

Finally, as an update, we've since heard of two other friends who have been overcharged in exactly the same manner. One raised it in the restaurant and had the bill amended, the other, like us, left to stew over it later. We'll just leave that with you!