Côte Restaurant
17-21 Tavistock Street,
London WC2E 7PA
Tel: 020 7379 9991

Côte Restaurant is one of a small chain, and the Covent Garden outlet is on Tavistock Street. It is quite a nicely decorated restaurant, with a decent amount of space between tables and a pleasant surrounding. It has large windows that can be folded back to allow plenty of light and fresh air in.  Actually that’s not such a great idea in this location, as the noise of traffic is quite disturbing to any conversation over lunch.

There were four of us for lunch. We didn’t have all that much time, so we decided to follow the fixed price lunch menu (also available pre-theatre) which was 11.95 for two courses, or 13.75 for three. With a meeting immediately after lunch, we chose just to take tap water which was provided slightly cooled in earthenware bottles.  Nice touch, but I’d rather the water had been properly chilled.  We started the meal with some bread, which was very good.  Just as well, since I found at the end that it was not complementary but charged to our bill. It was only £1.50 so it is the principle I’m complaining about rather than the price – not only that simple things like bread are charged, but that the waiters don’t advise that there is a charge and how much it is before bringing the bread.  A tiny sum, but still the sort of thing that can ruin your experience.

Lentils with a poached egg

Close-up

For the starter, I took lentils with a poached egg. It was OK, though I found the egg a bit bland. My companions took a pea, mint & courgette soup, which looked fairly decent.

Salad with smoked salmon

Close-up

Steak frites

Poulet grillé

As a main course I chose a salad with smoked salmon. The salmon was pretty good, as was the dill sauce it came with but I wasn’t so impressed by the salad leaves. They were fresh enough, but all just a bit too “stalky” for my liking – that is, mainly stalk, not so much leaf. Two of my companions took steak frites – which was a “thinly beaten out rump steak with frites and garlic butter (served pink). These were reported to be “ok, but average” which I must say is how they looked. The last of us took a poulet grillé which was “chargrilled butterflied chicken breast with wild mushroom, crème fraiche and chive sauce, served with gratin potato”. It was a good sized bit of chicken but I don’t recall noticing a sauce…

Iced summer berries with warm white chocolate sauce

chocolate pot

For dessert, we chose two “chocolate pots” which were reported to be a bit weird by those who took them. There was some dark chocolate covered by a sort of crème fraiche. I took iced summer berries with warm white chocolate sauce – which turned out to be exactly as described, that is, frozen berries with a little pot of hot white chocolate.  I found the white chocolate to be very sweet – and the berries very sour. A bit too much contrast there, and I believe I’d have preferred the berries not frozen. My last companion chose a lemon sorbet, which was also reported to be fine.

We ended the meal with assorted coffees.  Mine was an espresso, which was very average and a bit weak.

Cost & conclusion: The bill came to £70.59 including service charge. For a three course meal plus coffee for four people in covent garden, its really hard to complain. The food was nothing to rave about, and you get what you pay for in terms of quality (it was far from top quality steak, for example) but there was nothing obnoxious or poorly cooked either. Overall, not bad for a cost effective lunch in a limited time frame and certainly better than many of the tourist traps in this area. Other restaurants reviewed in the Covent Garden area are the Italian Zizzi, the Japanese Hazuki, the Mexican Wahaca, Terroirs and the pub Marquess of Anglesey.