Cote Reviews 

Kingston upon Thames 31/08/26
45 minutes after ordering, and still no food. Watching people around us arrive, order and get food which is frustrating. Chased up, no apology, no explanation. Food arrived: raw egg whites and raw cold tuna on the salad nicoise, cold overdone steak in the steak sandwich. Seafood spaghetti served on a small flat plate (like a kid’s portion!) we left without eating or paying. Awful experience. 2nd terrible experience with this chain within 6months. What has happened Cote??
We won’t ever be back.

Hi. I came here for a meal on my own. Already they tried to force me into the bar not the restaurant. When I placed my order they tried to expediate this and rush me to place my selection for a pudding. The Côte in the Barbican is not a nice place to come for a meal as a single person. You are simply made to feel like an awkward spare part and rushed out

Don’t have an allergy! From walking in the restaurant, the greeting wasn’t “good afternoon, welcome to ….” Instead it was “are there any allergies” stating that mussels was an allergy, I was thrown a tablet and told to read it. From there it went downhill. My mum has adverse reactions to mussels, but we always state that it’s an allergy, just in case. Because of this, she wasn’t allowed to order any item on the menu that contained fish, then no one apart from management was allowed to serve her. I get that restaurants have to be careful with allergies, but they made her feel like a lepper. Starters were great, but we waited forever for our mains, and when it came out, the steak burger was cold. You could tell it had been hanging around, cause the cheese had gone sweaty! Server took it away, no apologies at all. Rude, just rude. Bill arrived, and they tried to charge us for a starter we didn’t have, and we insisted that they took off the service charge. At this point management disappeared and left a young server to deal with our discontentment. Will we go back….. not on your Nelly!

I have been going to my local Ealing Côte for years. Recently, the portions have shrunk, the salad Nicoise is full of coarse cabbage. Pork belly needed a magnifying glass to see it on the plate. Altogether an appalling change, and so bad I shall not go there again. The staff have always been wonderful, they will take the brunt of this

Used to be far ahead of most chains in quality. Now average to lousy.

Re Côte's reply below ... I didn't say average. I said average to lousy.

This is a follow-up to my previous review of Cote in Bluewater and Cote in general. As a long term customer, i recently felt compelled to write a review about overall decline in the quantity and quality of their food, their poor service levels, the very poor value for money and the now awful ambience of their Bluewater restaurant in particular. The response I received (shown below), very sadly typifies the low levels this once good company have now descended to.
The response is not addressed to me although my name is clearly visible on the original review. The response is not signed by the writer. Although the word “sorry” does appear and the main points of my review are repeated, no attempt has been made to address those specific points or to describe how the company intends to improve on them. The whole thing looks like either a standard complaint response with the usual hollow promises to do better or something quickly bashed out by the office junior when told to reply.
If Cote do not quickly improve their very poor recent performance and take customer complaints much more seriously I believe it wont be long before we see the entire chain closing down.

Cotes reply to my review: Hi, thank you for your feedback and for choosing us over the years. We're very sorry to hear that your recent visits have left you feeling disappointed with the food, service, value and atmosphere, and we truly appreciate you taking the time to share these concerns. We’ll use your comments to help us improve, and we hope you might consider giving us another chance in the future. Thank you again, and please be assured we’ll use your feedback to do better next time.

Lovely lunch at Bury St Edmunds branch with my nephew. Staff friendly and attentive. I’d had an email offering a free glass of ‘fizz’ for me and guest which we accepted. However when I got home I realised I’d been charged for these drinks! (Over £16) Phoned up and spoke to manager who apologised and advised to come back when convenient and get a refund. Went in today, the manager wasn’t there but spoke to deputy. She was spectacularly unfriendly verging on rude. Very disappointed.

Feel badly let down. Have been to Cote several times in recent years so consider myself quite a loyal customer. Utterly convinced I’d cancelled my most recent booking and told that to Cote after they asked why I hadn’t attended. They acknowledged I’d cancelled but still charged me money. I’m disappointed that this is the way they treat loyal customers.

Went to Kingston Cote for a coffee. Waited 15 minutes for service from the only waitress and then became the third couple to walk out. Can’t comment on food or drink as they didn’t seem to be serving as clearly not shut because there was one table that had used coffee cups in front of three people. Must have been there awhile! Went to Bills next door - heaving with Cote ‘refugees’ with excellent service.

The worst Cote meal ever.
Ate at Cote Farnham with the family. There were six of us. I must say the front of house staff were excellent and the manager was doing a sterling job fielding the host of complaints coming from numerous tables. The chef (who was a cover for the usual chef) had a shocker. Minute steak that ate more like hour steak. Forgotten sauces. First burnt, then cold dauphinoise potato. Overcooked duck confit. There was more wrong than right. He should not be working in a kitchen. Avoid the place.

Rubbish
Don’t go expensive for what it is . Both had awful stomachs after the meal . Didn’t get the Free fizz voucher after asking if would be ok so an extra £16.70 then second choice of meal first wasn’t available, watch out they then charge 10% service charge for two people . I could go on …….

Sadly I can’t leave a no star review. Was given a cote voucher as a gift
First experience was awful, fish was raw and bloody. Manager ended up giving us the meal for free it was so bad. Second attempt to spend vouchers, quality of food was very poor and again given a free meal as it was so bad. Both times the manager offered this without me asking, In a final attempt to spend vouchers went today n had the tuna salad. Tuna was hardly warm and cooked to what I can only describe as leather. How hard is it to make a tuna Nisoise salad?? Leathery tuna, cold boiled egg, one chopped up potatoe, 3 fine beans, one olive and a lettuce that had been quartered with the end still on it
The only consolation was the passion fruit mocktail which was lovely.
In general though the ingredients a far below standard( flowery tomatoes) and the I don’t believe any chef would put that kind of food out n think it was acceptable, seemingly cote do.

Cote - Chester
We held our Wedding reception upstairs in the Chester restaurant on 3rd July 2026.
We dealt with Carolina from booking several months before right through to the actual reception itself.

What can I say other than superb!!

We chose the venue because of her professionalism and helpfulness and she was amazing!
Fantastic communications throughout, helped us plan the actual event, put decorations up for us exactly as we requested as we didn’t have time in the end, organised the guests, the staff team serving the food and drinks on the day, who were fantastic as well.
She dealt with the cake delivery and presentation, timed the toasts and fizz, everything.
All of the staff team were brilliant, whenever we contacted them or visited, nothing was too much trouble and the food on the day was great.
Cannot recommend the team and the venue enough.
Carolina especially was a complete Godsend. She told us she would sort everything and we could just sit back and enjoy the day and that’s exactly what she did.
We wish we could do it all again.

We’ll definitely be back for meals in the future.
Thanks again to the whole staff team.
Lesley & Monika

It was pretty awful, it was a first date, so we asked for a cosy table & told them it was a date night.
The Romanian !!!! Who greeted us at the door was so miserable, no smile at all.
The waitress was very lovely. & very helpful!! but he was appalling. Our bill came to £160

What a fall from grace… this ranks as my worst meal anywhere in 2026 and I eat out 10 times a month. Begin with the welcome, the Maitre D, was on a private so just pointed at a table. We should have left, staying was our mistake. We ordered some drinks, a minute steak and fries and two vegan burgers. The steak was tolerable. The vegan burgers were grey and entirely without flavour served in a brioche bun with a smear of something oily and a wedge of cabbage that had been dipped in mayo (rather than little gem lettuce… they had apparently run out and made an uninvited substitution. Initially they told us it was lettuce (it so wasn’t) and the sop was that we only paid for one when I challenged the quality of the food. Next time don’t grab your Cote, just run!

I used to like going to Cote St Pauls and have been there many times over the years. This time i had to leave my table to chase up on my wine order half way through my meal as wasnt delivered and again to get the final bill. The service charge is automatically added to the final bill. I requested that the charge was removed, the Maitre'd was quite huffy and didnt seem interested. What a shame this flag ship well located restaurant has fallen so far and i was amazed to see the Trust Pilot reviews regarding the chain. After many years wont be returning to Cote again.

Avoid the Windsor/Eton branch near the bridge, got severe food poisoning from having a Sunday lunch.

A disappointing experience at Côte Brasserie Wimbledon
Jul 2026 • Friends
An astonishingly disappointing experience at Côte Brasserie, Wimbledon

I have never before been served what was described as a panko-crusted plaice fillet, only to discover that there was no fish inside the breadcrumb crust at all.

The waiter/manager serving us was dressed in what appeared to be his normal everyday street clothes: a dark printed shirt over a rather worn-looking pair of trousers. This did not suggest the professional impression one would expect from a restaurant of this type. Far from it.

I ordered the Plaice Frites, described as panko-crusted fish fillets with crushed petit pois, house-made tartare sauce and free-flow frites. When the dish arrived, I tried to peel off the breadcrumb crust to check the fish. To my complete surprise, the breadcrumb coating was empty — there was no fish underneath it. I called the waiter/manager and showed him what had been served, and asked him to take it back to the “chef??!"

I then ordered the Breton Fish Stew, described as containing mussels, prawns, sea bream and new potatoes in a tomato, white wine and chilli sauce. Unfortunately, there was no noticeable chilli, only a small sliver of white fish and three small prawns. No side plate was provided for the empty mussel shells. The two pieces of toasted baguette served with it, were burnt on the side and served without butter, nor garlic.

My friend ordered a burger, without the Comté cheese. It arrived with over-cooked browned onions, mayonnaise and pickled cucumbers. That was so below par, that he only managed to down a part of it.

The overall experience was extremely disappointing, to say the least. The food did not live up to its descriptions nor to our expectations; the portions were underwhelming, and the service and presentation fell well below what one would expect from a restaurant such as Côte.

Sadly, this was a very poor experience and not one we would wish to repeat.

Went to Cote tonight in Chester very disappointed
food was good but extremely small potions and it is very expensive we only had 1 starter and 2 mains
Starter was the soufflé it was so small
No vegetables accompanying
Mains they are extra
Had 1 soft drink each bill came to over 74 pound left feeling hungry but wasn’t going to pay nearly 9 pound for a minute pud
Service was Ok staff were friendly
Not good value at all

I am a supporter of Cote. It normally delivers exactly what it says on the label. Not today though. Lunch @ 1320 x 2. My simple Caesar was not even simple. The lettuce was not baby gem, no cheese, no anchovy & half a boiled egg. Just not good enough & returned to the kitchen. The chef should never have allowed it to go out & the servers should have known better. Is this a sign of where Cote is going in a competitive Guildford world. If it is there is a serious problem.
This is a genuine criticism..,not a competitor!