Cote Reviews 

On 5 January 2026, our party of three registered members visited St Christopher’s Place for the Happiest Menu promo. The waiter arbitrarily restricted us to one set menu per table—despite no such rule in the T&Cs, later confirmed wrong by Côte HQ—forcing us to pay more than entitled.

I posted a factual comment on their Instagram highlighting this service failure. Their “Social Team” unprofessionally deleted it without reply, only engaging after repeated pressure with a generic reply, avoiding real accountability.

Key Failures
• Discriminatory restriction unfairly targeted our group, unlike others.
• Instagram manager’s censorship and evasive replies escalated a fixable issue into brand-wide distrust.

Will never return—untrained staff and poor social media practices make this chain unreliable.

Poor service. Côte Dorchester. Delivered side after meal finished despite asking twice where it was. Little concern when replied to manager about our experience. Finally charged for it! Another search for a staff member to adjust bill. Found staff generally unfriendly and unhelpful. Won’t be repeating experience. Expensive mistake in choosing to go, despite offers.

We had a lovely staff member. Good food. When we arrived I checked we could have the happy menu at £15 for 2 courses with staff.
Yes she said and checked my app. All good so far
and the Happy menu was what we chose. Four of us.
However when they bill came we had to pay with a card on our phone!! Not a credit card.
We don’t have a card on our phone. Age 70s and 80 s
Result we had to pay full price. TOTALLY CHEATED.
Cote did get in touch and told us you can pay by credit card as long as you have the app so it appears staff at Chiswick did not know this and charged us full price. We are being refunded the overcharge which is welcome.

Excellent service - varied menu - value for money at the Oxford restaurant. The staff were especially attentive and ensured we were served in time for a theatre engagement post meal. It has been a while since we have eaten there and will definitely be going back. Very good offers on at the moment too for January. Sincere thanks to the Oxford team.

New menu is sadly disappointing with several old favourites no longer available. Food is still good but now limited. Cote is more interested in the profit than the food and service.

I was treated to a meal and was looking forward to it. I have been a loyal Cote client for over a decade. I was shocked that the level of service was nonexistent. The server served the plate hanging half on the table and half on the edge. A big no-no, as I almost tipped the plate over. The hamburger was verging on undercooked. Never offered any condiments, took ages to clear the table, and we juggled with the space. I asked for a green side salad, and they said no green salad. For dessert, I ordered "tarte au citron", but it came caramelised on the top, and I thought it was crème brûlée with a caramelised topping. I asked for a spoon, and I was handed it without a serviette - slack. After talking to the server, it was explained that he also did not like what they do with it! It was all amateurish - something I saw many decades ago in Eastern Europe, but today London is below the level, and Eastern Europe is way better !! I would not recommend this chain anymore. High prices and poor service level.

Lovely food and exceptional service. Thank you!

My friend and I went to Cote in Windsor yesterday 10th Jan 2026
They had an offer on for £15 for 2 courses
They said on arrival that this offer was not available at weekends, and if we had looked (3 stage process) at the T's&C's we would have known this.
This company is a complete rip off and I advise anyone thinking of going there NOT to!

WE DIDN'T HAVE YOUR APP THEREFORE COULD NOT SEE THE T'S &C'S that you say were 'tucked' away so as to be misleading.

Experienced the Cote Happiest Menu tonight for a bargain £15. It was fabulous! The tried and tested French Onion soup did not disappoint, but the sea bream with Mediterranean vegetables was sublime. Well done Adam, tonight’s chef at the West Bridgford branch on a delicious crispy skin and moist succulent flesh.

Great venue in Chiswick, good food and excellent service. Fully recommend.

Having been a regular user of Cote for many years I was shocked when I went last for a special occasion to find so many changes. The food choice is poor and the quality was dreadful. We would have chosen the one safe vegetarian dish that was off the menu because it hasn’t been delivered! Delivered from where! A central kitchen? Reluctantly opted for Bream that came so quickly it must have been pre cooked. It was lukewarm, hard and dry and no Salsa Vierge just raw tomatoes! When we complained we were given the option to change it. I had salmon that clearly was not pan fried! The skin was limp, the sauce had a skin on it ( kept under a lamp? ) opted for chips rather than the poor potato experience with the bream which wee even worse! Deep fried in horrid oil. I ate very little. My daughter opted for the onion soup which was always a reliable, hearty dish. This was a bowl of liquid with little onion and dry bread which was not eaten! Complimentary bread was clearly frozen and awful. I could go on! Having researched this when I got home I find that Cote has been taken over which is now evident! The Cote brand should not be used! It’s deceiving ! We had the most disappointing experience and will , very sadly, not be using Cote again. The saving grace was that we were not charged by the lady in lead who was clearly embarrassed. I feel sorry for the staff who will also have been part of this transfer.

We booked back
In November for the £55 New Year’s Eve menu quoting 4 courses and a glass of
Fizz and Eve paid the £20
Pp holding deposit . Imagine you arrive ny eve and you have barely sat down and told “ no soup left, no half chicken , no crème caramel !”
The manager was super helpful but I’m
Terms of
Service recovery - nothing was
Offered or done
No discount / no extra champagne
Full bill of sale£380
Presented at the end -
Really really disappointed . It was only the lovely staff that stopped us walking out !
But In terms of product / quality / price - very poor indeed

Visited Chiswick branch of Cote Brasserie for breakfast on New Year's Day Jan '26 as a family treat. Slow service. Understaffed. Cold restaurant. Luke warm cooked breakfast. Solid poached eggs. Very disappointing. Grim.

Really disappointed with our dining experience at Cote Blackheath yesterday (New Year's Day 1st January 2026). We have been regular customers at this venue several times a year, for many years, but noticed a serious dip in food and service standards yesterday. No meet and greet on arrival, had to wait 10 minutes before we were noticed & shown to our table. Toilet floor was wet & unclean; long delays between our orders for various courses (so food served was cold & unappetising); popular items on menus (food & wine) had been changed to substandard equivalent items. What on earth has happened since we last visited? Guests at nearby tables commented and made the same criticisms. Please rectify - Cote Blackheath has previously held such a high reputation for excellence; so sad that this deterioration in quality of food & service will inevitably affect your restaurant reviews and attendance. SENT IN ALL GOOD FAITH AND WITHOUT PREJUDICE.

Prior to this visit we last visited with elderly parents 2 years ago and ended up walking out as half the menu wasn't available and the staff looked disinterested and nobody even asked why we were leaving. Against my better judgement we booked again for new years day 2026 to celebrate my Mums 90th birthday. We waited some time to be seated and the few staff looked tired and fed up. Having sat down, the waitress came to the table and her first words were to tell us what wasn't available. It may have been quicker to tell us what they had! While my family looked at the menu I popped to the loo. Filthy toilets from new years eve presumably and not a single piece of toilet paper anywhere. I returned to the table and as expected there was nothing anyone wanted. So I walked 3 doors along the road, booked a table at Damson and Wilde, returned to collect my family and my elderly Mum and Dad and we left Cote yet again. As with last time, nobody even acknowledged we were leaving let alone asking us why! The upshot is we had a terrific meal at D&W, full menu, spotlessly clean loo's and I will never return to Cote again. It staggers me that with hospitality in the doldrums and with so much competition that restaurants are content with customers just walking away. Not good...

I’ve spent New Years Eve at Cote in Chiswick for the last 10 years. Last night we were met with long delays seemingly resulting from a lack of adequate staffing. Around us people were leaving the restaurant mid meal whilst others were complaining about long waits. One party had their desert wrapped up in cling film to take with them. All had to pay a high set price for standard Cote fair. We waited 25 minutes just for a glass of water before our orders were taken. Main courses eventually appeared but had patently sat in some kind of warming tray for sometime before being served making them dried out. The pre meal nibbles of olives and madeleines , all part of Cotes special menu, came up on the same tray as our starters and we didn’t get a wine list until starters had been served and eaten.
I should say that our waitress was exceptionally good and professional in the way she dealt with all the problems that faced her. She was unflappable but faced several customers refusing to pay Service Charge for problems that were not hers. As people were leaving the restaurant there were insufficient staff to clear tables leaving us surrounded by tables full of dirty plates and cutlery which certainly detracted from the festive atmosphere and didn’t allow the restaurant to accommodate new customers.
So disappointed after previous years and as a regular user of this chain I must consider my ongoing loyalty to them

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 !!