Cote Brasserie

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Cote Brasserie

• I react to chain restaurants like those snobbish holidaymakers who seek out ‘a marvellous place – not a single tourist/English person to be seen’. I’m seduced by a questionable notion of ‘authenticity’, presuming that the uniform consistency of a chain makes for a less satisfying eating experience than a one-off independent. In my defence I can only say that, while heroic independents have sometimes badly let me down, the blandness of chain restaurants has almost always been underwhelming. Cote arrives in Bristol as the 22nd in a franchise launched by the former owners of the Strada chain just three years ago, and, stepping in from the drizzly cold, we part a mysterious curtain to enter a lively bustle. The place is big – 120 covers – and tonight it’s full, but the long room has been broken into sections to overcome the vastness effectively. The friendly greetings that see us to our table are the first sign of what proves to be a service culture of amiable effectiveness and consideration in the best French style. The menu, too, is classic French cuisine – nothing you won’t have heard of, plenty you might want to taste – and, accompanied by an almost-obligatory kir royale, first mouthfuls of our starters give us reasons to be cheerful: moules marinieres with creamy rich sauce that begs for mopping bread, warm goats’ cheese tartine that gently breathes of the cheese and benefits from chunky olive tapenade and chunks of roast artichoke. As we move on to a bottle of darkly supple Corbieres, the main courses are no less satisfying. My companion’s beef bourguignon scores points for balance – past experiences having made something overpowering of the dish – while my half of a chargrilled poulet breton is properly delicious meat, neatly filleted and perfectly cooked. It comes with a McDonald-ish pot of frites (but hey, the French invented them, non?) and is nearly upstaged by a superbly creamy spinach side-dish with a noticeable hint of Pernod. The only disappointment is a pot of slightly cloying wild mushroom sauce that cost an additional £2.25. All is forgiven, however, for a remarkable dessert of iced summer berries with warm white chocolate sauce and a cracking cup of espresso, while she coos over chocolate mousse like they do in the ads. Full marks, then, for the food and the service. The bill’s £80 (including wine) and, given we’re in Clifton, that seems about right. Small wonder that the place is heaving and, I suspect, will continue to do so. (Tony Benjamin)

COTE BRASSERIE 27 THE MALL, CLIFTON, BRISTOL, BS8 4JF, TEL: 0117 970 6779, WEB: WWW.COTE-RESTAURANTS.CO.UK

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