Cote Reviews 830

Went to the Windsor/Eton brasserie with a voucher for three course meal for two. When the bill arrived they had deducted £50 for the voucher and then tried to charge me excess for the meals and service charge of £11.
When I pointed out their mistake it took 10 minutes to rectify not a good experience for my birthday!

I recently dined at Côte Canterbury (11 Oct) and was surprised and embarrassed to discover that the restaurant no longer accepts cash — something that was not clearly communicated in advance. When I raised this with Côte, their response focused on the convenience for the business rather than the customer.

I find this policy disappointing and exclusionary, particularly for older guests who prefer or rely on cash. Inclusivity should mean accommodating different payment preferences, not removing them for operational ease. I’m sharing this experience to encourage Côte to reconsider how it communicates and implements this policy.

The food was good, the service excellent - especially under very busy conditions. But they advertised a £10 offer on steak frites, the day I was eating there - I ordered that, but didn't get the special price! I am not aware of any conditions that I didn't meet for this discount, and have been ignored by customer service. In future, I will not believe their offer ads.

We ate the £10 dish of the day, steak frites on a Monday, food great and sized just right for lunch. The service was prompt and we had an extra portion of frites free. The restaurant nicely busy and spotlessly clean, lunch for 4 including drinks & tip £65

Ok meal, brilliant service (thank you Austin) completely undermined by nightclub thudding devoid of musical content as foreground to our exoerience. Apparently head office choose the playlist and are unmoved by the complaints. Hard to have aconversation it was so intrusive

Order #47517273 - Kensington, 09/04/26

Absolutely brilliant. The food is always good (sea bream, salmon, steak, linguine and the kids menu) but the service at the Kensington branch (and all the branches I've visited) is excellent. Mohammad was exceptional, he made us feel so welcome and genuinely went above and beyond. The whole team was fantastic, very attentive and making sure we were okay without being annoying 😆.
Thank you for a special evening. Highly recommend.

Bristol Clifton Village Cote - we went for a Birthday meal of 7 of us at 1930. Firstly we were told that we must be mistaken and we did not have a booking. We showed our confirmation and then led to our table. We had to request menus and tap water. We ordered sharing starters and they came incredibly quickly but then we had a 90 minute wait between starters and mains. We were offered drinks whilst we waited, but later found these were not complimentary. When our plates were cleared it was obvious the manager had more interest in making himself a coffee and chugging a red bull behind the bar than waiting on any tables himself. He told our waitress to completely clear outside so we were left with no drinks, no dessert menus and empty plates for 45 minutes. In the end when we asked the waitress to remove the tip she looked very uncomfortable and said she would need to talk to her manager. £400 bill and won't be returning.

My family and I had another wonderful meal at Côte Newbury. The staff were friendly and attentive and helped us with an unforeseen problem we had while there. The food was excellent. We always choose this restaurant for family events because of they are always so friendly and accommodating.

Exeter Cote- Good Friday breakfast with friends.
Hostile service, food average.
Server lady forgot her manners when dealing with our party 3 adults 2 well behaved dogs on their on beds. Admittedly we had questions on the menu but did not expect the attitude.
No signage for upstairs loo head room.
This was the second time we went for Easter and we will not be back!
Good luck!!

Covent Garden Cote provided excellent food, wine and service. Surprised that its reviews are so poor from others. The prices were very competitive for central London and their portions generous, especially the cheese board. Recommend it and will be returning on our next trip to London.

Review: Côte (Windsor)
​Went to Côte in Windsor today with my brother and his wife. The starters were actually good, which made the rest of the meal even more of a total joke.
​The mains were honestly rubbish. My brother’s lamb ragu was scorching in the middle and ice-cold on the edges—classic lazy microwave job. To top it off, my seafood linguine had prawns that were watery and still frozen in the center.
​You expect way more from a place like this, especially given the prime Windsor location. Serving up microwaved leftovers and frozen seafood is pathetic. Complete waste of money.

I generally liked cote as a dependable mid range restaurant. Since the take over on 2025 this has rapidly declined the steak frite has become half the size and the wine is now over priced own brand trade. No longer a good value proposition compared to spending a bit more to go to a proper steakhouse.

Hello everyone, real shame to write this revieve as ive been to this particaullar venue a number of times in the last year or so and had wonderful food and expriaces, However today was my worst expriance.

To start with, we entered the restanat and waited 5mins to be seen to even though we had a booking. We asked 4 times if we could get some ice in a glass, we had HAIR in one of our dishes and then when the manager came to clear the table (after waiting 15mins for this to happen, the manager said ' how was your meal assuming less hairy' and then our other member had mussels and asked if he could have some bread and they tried to charge over £3 for 4 slices! All the staff seemed to be disorganised and all over the place and the resustant wasnt even busy - Id say half full at 4pmish. And to top it all off they wondered why i wasnt paying the 10% service charge!!!!!

Cote Bluewater lunchtime 19.03.26.

I have to write out of despair following a dreadful meal at the above restaurant.

Together with friends we visit this branch 4-6 times a year over the last 12+ years. We have noticed a small decline in service over the years but always return. Our visit today was very bad on many levels.

Our friends booked the table for 4 Pax. They booked on line and were rewarded 'fizz' with the booking. Even though they booked for 4 people only they had fizz and we had to pay. It has never been like that before but we let it go. I am complaining now as that was the least of our dissatisfaction.

The service was surly at best, but we all have bad days, so we let this go too.

However when we received the bill, we didn't complain, but on examination we noted we were charged for All the fizz. We politley asked for the bill to be revised showing the correct amount.

What happened next was simply insulting and embarrassing. I asked why the fizz was not FOC for the two that qualified. the woman that porported to be a manager stated we needed to have mentioned this at point of order, we did but it wasn't noted.

The manner in which she spoke to us was dictatorial, dismissive and rude. All 4 of us felt embarrassed and the lovely feeling you get after a nice meal was ruined.

We kept our complaint at low volume to avoid embarassment, but the lady manager raised the tone and volume then dismissed us in the most abrupt way.

I politely asked for her name - she told me to get lost. The male manager standing adjacent to her didn't offer any help.

We have dined at many Cotes over the years, this was our worst experience, on reflection our worst dining experience in memory.

Following our lunchtime visit to Cote Festival Hall on Wednesday 4th February we left a favourable review that afternoon. However, in the early hours of the following morning (15 hours later) my husband was violently sick – clearly food poisoning. We notified Cote principally to ensure that steps would be taken to protect others. A form was filled in. In the early hours of Saturday morning I too was sick (60 hours later). Another form filled in. We had both partaken of the Pistachio Crème Brulee - and it is known that this can cause such problems. We were told on 6th February it would take 10 days - plus a bit may be (!) - before we heard back. On 26th Feb we chased this up and were told ‘as a matter of urgency’ it would be followed up. On 11th March we chased again saying we would have to leave negative feedback and lo and behold the following Monday 16th March we had a long winded reply saying they were not in any way responsible. You may draw your own conclusions!
We would advise all to avoid anything with egg in it just to be on the safe side….

Firstly, the food for all at our table was very very good. The building in Edinburgh was well presented and has an appropriate ambiance for fine cooking although we were there at lunchtime. The servers were very welcoming and, importantly for me, knowledgeable about the food. Apologies, I think our server was called Anna and we were well cared for. The menu was properly sized with classic and more modern choices for most, I would think. Everyone at our table thoroughly enjoyed their own particular dish but I chose the classic bourguignon and it was superb. The menu states 5 hrs cooking time and the dish suggests this is accurate! A fantastic experience and the coffee was high quality, too. A place I shall return to. I seldom get opportunity to thank chefs/kitchen staff but at Cote Edinburgh they certainly deserve credit. A very organised and slick restaurant experience.

This is a shame mu husband book a table saturday for sunday then he canceled the same day but have been charged 40£ then when i contacted them, they told me that I need to give them 72 hours notice to cancel - is that a joke how am i supposed to cancel 72 hours in advance if i book the day before. YOU ARE ROBBER

We have been frequent visitors to Côte in Salisbury over the years and had fairly positive experiences, until our last two visits.
1) where we were overcharged and promised a credit that never arrived
2) overcharged and served tepid food

The first time we didn’t notice the overcharging until we got home as there were 8 of us dining and we didn’t scrutinise the bill closely.
We were charged for coffees and drinks from another table, when we realised their error we phoned the following day and the manageress said she would put a voucher in the post to us to cover the £35 that we had been overcharged, but it never arrived.
On our visit this week we booked a table for 4, there was a promotion offering a free ‘glass of fizz’.
We arrived before our friends and were served our 2 glasses of ‘free fizz’ and when I ordered the 2 for our friends the waitress said that the offer was only for 2 people and not 4………what a cheapskate promotion, and then to add insult to injury they charged us £16 for the 2 glasses that were supposed to be free.
The food was average at best, two of our main courses were tepid at best rather than hot (the Lamb Ragu with mafalde pasta) one of which was taken back to the kitchen to be zapped in the microwave whereupon the whipped chèvre cheese was annihilated into a small mound of foam.
Our lunch came to £165 for four people which I thought was poor value for sub standard food, a dessert was credited off the bill as a gesture for the cold ragu, but the damage had already been done AND they had the cheek to add on 12.5% service charge !!
The staff were pleasant and friendly enough but we won’t be going back and neither will our friends.
Côte used to be great, it has new owners, as of October 2025, Côte is owned by the Karali Group, a family-owned business led by Salim and Karim Janmohamed, they previously owned 74 Burger King outlets so appear to be a fast food outfit rather than proper restauranteurs.
Unless they start running this business better Côte will soon be gone.

Very disappointing. Had burger & bubbles deal in Cote Reading. Burger bun was dry & stale . Hardly any meat in the thing . Supposed to come with free flowing fries, asked for these & never received them.

Lewes Cote has become a Cote Petite. Limited menu....same stuff that was available on special offer all through February. So disappointing only to find out when you've arrived for a Saturday night out. One specials meal also available. Lovely staff as usual. Not likely to be back soon. Tried to contact Cote directly but website failed