Café Rouge

Drawn here by discount vouchers which make the price very reasonable but yet to have a decent meal. False economy.

I recently visited for a late breakfast. I opened the door and then stood there waiting for some acknowledgement. After a few minutes of being ignored, despite there being 4 staff about 10 feet away at the till, I approached them and asked if I should just sit anywhere. "Um - yeah" was the answer. Fine.

Ordered breakfast and a latte then waited. Five minutes after I arrived, a woman sat down next to me and ordered a latte which was delivered almost instantly. Strange, because mine hadn't arrived yet. 15 minutes later, the woman had finished her latte, paid and left. On enquiring, I was told that there had been a mix up, the woman had received my latte and they'd make me another. No big deal, but frustrating due to the sheer number of staff around - is only one person allowed to make coffee?

Anyway, breakfast arrived - omelette was ok, lyonnaise potateoes were diabolical as they were undercooked and greasy. The latte was disgusting - scalding hot milk and weak, burnt tasting coffee. I paid up and left.

In general, an underwhelming experience. The interesting thing was that despite the service being slow and shambolic, there were at least 6 waiting staff hanging about the till. There was much air kissing each time one arrived (starting their shift I presume), conversation and laughter amongst them but not too much in terms of attention to the customers. I think you know what you're gettig into when you walk through the doors to a place and are ignored for a few minutes whilst standing like a pillock. I should have read the signs.

Anway, not the end of the world as it's not a fine dining establishment, but it's off the list for a quick lunch or breakfast for me.

I have always been told that Saturday night isnt a good night for eating out, the quality of the food can drop in the quest to keep up with demand. Cafe Rouge proved the theory correct.

Sat 28th August, restaurant temperature - at least 30 degrees C, apparently the air con was on although when i walked under the vents i didnt notice anything.

2 orders of the duck placed which arrived in about 3 minutes (alarm bells start a ringing). The duck was overcooked and almost dried out and had clearly been waiting in the kitchen. If i pay £14 for a main course i expect it to be fresh. The potatoes and veg were ok.

Bottle of house white wine, served warm (remember the room temperature). Waitress didnt even have the decency to point this out and after complaining offered no apology only to say that they had no ice (?!?!) to cool it down. We were then given 6 ice cubes and told to put them in our wine glasses!

Not going well this, but carried on and had meal, meanwhile the 6 ice cubes were having a slow but cooling effect on the bottle of wine making it actually quite nice. However we were now at 7:55pm and the waitress came over, checked the wine bottle (still a glass worth left to cool down), put it back in the bucket then tried to take it away!!! Then said we only had the table till 8pm!

Turns out she had the tables confused, but to actually try and take away a bottle of paid for wine (no discount for being warm) and which we were waiting on chillling as our 'time was up' is astonishing bad service.

So a consistently poor service from start to finish. The table next to ours had to return the lemon sole (i think) as the underside was missing! The excuse was it was cooked at the wrong temperature and had stuck to the grill - awful for so many reasons.