SO GORDO walks in for his lunch on the first day of Côte opening, a restaurant next to Gaucho on St Mary’s Street, opposite House of Fraser. He has since been a second time for lunch and once for breakfast.
Côte is tremendous value and is going to crucify Café Rouge around the corner.
The fit-out. It’s better than Soho, all brown leather, soft grays with some great light fittings; a contemporary French brasserie feel, although Schofield is having his usual whinge about a point of architectural detail. Gordo felt at home. The service is immaculate, no nerves here.
One of the managers, an old friend who had moved north, had joined the team; apparently the group took him down south for six months to train him, it shows. Most of the guys and gals are French with a sense of humour; totally pro. Gordo wasn’t asked once what he thought of his meal whilst his mouth was full, unlike at another recent opening where, at breakfast, he was asked three times in ten minutes what he thought.
Whilst chewing on his food.
Which wasn’t very good. The food, or the timing.
The old Prohibition bar gets a work out
The menu is robust and well written; there is something for every taste and occasion. It works at what it should be; a local restaurant for local people as well as an occasion restaurant for visitors to the city.
A warm Roquefort salad (£5.25) had as its base a fan of ultra fresh chicory leaves, scattered with crumbled cheese, walnuts and crispy stuff. A little pot of warm Roquefort cheese sauce, nicely runny and not too creamy was left for the diner to pour. This is enjoyable.
Tricky with chicory
Boudin noir with caramelised apples (£5.95) was crispy. For the boudin noir, that’s good; for the apples, bad. It would have scored an easy 8 otherwise. Patience, chef.
Boudin noir
Poulet ‘Breton’ (£9.95) was a half a corn fed chicken, grilled to a good crunch on the exterior, ever so slightly over cooked (but probably to everyone else’s taste to be fair); thoroughly enjoyable, with a salad of peppery lambs lettuce and included a side of brilliantly sharp fries, arguably the best in the city. Gordo took the wild mushroom sauce (£2.25) on the side.
Poulet 'Breton'
Naughtiness was an attempt at upselling the fat feller with a salad without reference to the mound of lamb’s lettuce on the plate already, nor thought to the fact that a salad had been ordered as a starter.
Steak frites (£9.95) ordered across the table were tip top; not exactly Fouquet’s on the Champs-Elysees, but they were a good twenty quid less.
Duck in a rowRoast duck breast (£13.95) with a griottine cherry sauce served with gratin dauphinoise scored another hit, with what was starting to be a caveat across a number of main courses and indeed a breakfast; that is the use of dried herbs, which were either a little heavy handed or a bit old and dusty. The main deal, as in the duck itself, was bang-on. The dauphinoise needed to be slightly cheesier.
The fougasse (£3.95), garlic bread with parsley and sea salt was a waste of table space.
Dull fougasse
From memory in the Soho outlet, you, dear reader, should give the calamari (£5.95) a miss. It’s more chilled van delivery than painful on-site-prep interesting.
Cheese (£5.95) was truly stonking value, absolutely at the correct temperature and at their best. Three types, absolute dollies. The bread served was fantastic, by the way.
Cheese love
Crème brulee (£5.25) another winner, woofed down by a guest before anyone could get near.
We were given a food discount that applied to everyone in the first week of opening, but check the prices out. Côte is tremendous value and is going to crucify Café Rouge around the corner.
Gordo, on the second visit, was introduced to one of the two Managing Directors of the group who was up from London, Alex Scrimgeour. At 42, Alex is a veteran of the business, graduating top of his class at Cordon Bleu in Paris. As did Gordo’s much missed Mother-in-law who taught fatty to cook.
Alex seemed a good sort who appeared to enjoy the company, albeit with a few sideway glances at Gordo when he was going on with himself a bit. But Gordo forgives that sort of stuff.
The final point is this; Côte is a good addition to the city. The front of house staff training is bettered only by Tim Bacon at Living Ventures. Alex and his joint director, Harald Samuelsson are at the top of their game with a concept few operators will get right and some locals are getting appallingly wrong.
This is good food at a great price point without being a YAFI.
And, it’s a Gordo Go.
You can follow Gordo on Twitter here @gordomanchester
ALL SCORED CONFIDENTIAL REVIEWS ARE IMPARTIAL AND PAID FOR BY THE MAGAZINE.
Côte Brasserie, 12 St Mary's St, City Centre, M3 2LB. 0161 834 0945
Rating: 14/20 (please read the scoring system in the box below, venues are rated against the best examples of their kind)
Food: 6.5/10 (Fougasse 5/10, Roquefort salad 7/10, boudin noir 6/10, Poulet Breton 6.5/10, steak frites 7/10, duck 6.5/10, cheese 7.5/10, crème brulee 6.5/10)
Service: 3.5/5
Ambience: 4/5
Creme brulee flew out
Simple tables
Cote Brasserie
