Cote Brasserie

I was lucky enough to have Friday last week off work due to switching jobs and was able to spend the day with my Grandpa. He took me and my aunty to the relatively new Cote in his home town of Chislehurst, South East London.

We arrived at just before 1pm and didn't leave until gone 3pm but for the entire time we were there the restaurant was packed. I would recommend booking as it seemed as though most people had a reservation and whilst this is a large restaurant it's popularity seems huge so a walk in table will not be guaranteed.

I was very impressed with the extent of the menu that can be found online. For my starter I went for the crab, which was absolutely delicious and a very generous portion. The crab came with avocado, cucumber and capers and was served with sourdough bread and butter. My Grandpa chose the smoked salmon, which again was a generous portion of salmon served with sourdough. My aunty went for some garlic bread, which was huge! They definitely feed you well here!

For the main course my Grandpa picked the roast duck breast. This was served pink and the duck came in plentiful thinly sliced strips. The dish was accompanied by some potato gratin. My aunty chose the veal escalope, that again was generously sized and she had a portion of fries to go with it. I decided on the pork belly. I can vouch for this dish and say it was absolutely delicious. It came with braised cabbage and a tasty jus as well as some potato gratin in a separate side dish.

I wish I had thought to take photos, I really hadn't planned on blogging about the lunch but the presentation of all the dishes was really lovely as well as the taste and portion size so it's a massive shame I didn't have my camera.

For dessert my Grandpa chose three scoops of strawberry ice cream, which is a standard portion. My aunty chose frozen berries with a jug of warm white chocolate sauce and I went for the tried and tested chocolate fondant. The fondant was rich and oozed molten lava! It came with some vanilla ice cream to break up the dark chocolate a little.

After three courses I was absolutely stuffed, maybe next time I will only go for two or try and share the starter and dessert. The restaurant has a great buzzing atmosphere and the staff are really sweet and helpful. Everything is brand new, smoothly run and spotlessly clean. Filtered water comes as standard for every table. The total bill was £110 including service and two glasses of wine (which only come in one 175ml size). I think £35 a head was actually pretty reasonable for three large, tasty and well presented courses, smiley service and a couple of alcoholic drinks.

There are cheaper options in comparison to Cote but I was thoroughly impressed with everything and would really recommend trying this as an alternative to other high street chains.