Côte St Albans

I would like to say a very big thank you to all of the staff at Cotes, St Albans for a lovely lunch yesterday afternoon. It was the perfect way to celebrate my father's 90th birthday, with something to suit everyone. The booking process for 18 people (!) was very straightforward and the service was excellent and pitched just at the right level. Everyone commented on how much they had enjoyed their food, so thank you very much :)

The food was good but the service was quite poor given the amount we paid in service charge. The staff very rarely took our drinks order and when they did we had to ask around 3 times for the soft drinks to arrive. Generally, the staff didnt seem very invested in our table.

Very nice food at this restaurant, would definitely return again

Lovely evening with friends. Food was lovely. Good choose on the menus. Staff were friendly and attentive. The sea bass was beautiful. Highly recommend.

Great lunch with business clients. Very attentive and efficient. Would definitely recommend the crème brulee….

Food and service ok but won't be rushing back. Little choice on fixed menu if you don't want chicken!

Five of us gather about once a month for a lunchtime meal - 3 from St Albans, 2 from Harpenden. On this occasion every aspect of our visit was exemplary - so much so that we started at 1pm and didn't leave until 4.45! We were served in a quiet and efficient manner with food that was delicious and well presented. All present commented on what a great afternoon we had had - conversation flowed in a welcoming atmosphere and suddenly we'd been there for well over 3 hours. The trip from Harpenden was well work it and we most certainly be visiting again. Be a cynic, I would have assumed that this review was a put-up job. Not so - we were genuinely pleased and impressed.

We had Good service, and the staff were friendly, as always.

The food and the service last Saturday evening was great. Our waiter was attentive and the ambience was lovely. A couple of things to improve upon - plates for our starter which we shared (fougasse) and two of us had the Breton fish stew - it would have been good to have a finger bowl each with that.

Beautiful atmosphere delicious food and very friendly stuff. Always pleasure to come back!

Lovely delicious food Staff were very friendly and helpful Good Quick service Would definitely go again

Very enjoyable, lovely food and great service. Had a great birthday meal out and would recommend it to everyone

Lovely food and good service always my first choice of restaurant

The food was very good, the service was very good. Overall it was a very good visit

Friendly welcoming staff and very good food Always greeted like old friends

Overall lovely. Lovely food, great service. Good prices. Really enjoy meeting friends at cote. The only thing i would suggest is bigger tables for two! It's a struggle to fit on the tea pots, drinks, main plates and any side dishes.

On arrival the reception was welcoming and curtious, a good start to a lovely evening,

What a lovely evening with some great friends. Service was very good too.

Great menu good service and lovely food. I will be back

Service not great. Had to ask for someone to take our order. Had to ask for water twice. Ordered a cappuccino and we got a hot chocolate. Fortunately, the food was nice.

Lovely staff, 3 of us had the steak frites. 2 of which were lovely, unfortunately the other was grisly & chewy. However, this was taken off the bill. Staff were attentive until the area we were sitting in was curtained off, then we were a little ignored. Busy at times with crying children, not much can be done just not enjoyable! Overall, an ok visit.

Good food and good service last Saturday Atmosphere lively and happy

Brilliant evening for my sisters birthday really made it a special evening with great service and food

Nice friendly staff, consistently good food. Always a first choice to eat here!

Always great food. A slight mistake with our main was made but rectified immediately. So impressed with the service.

Great service and food spot on as usual. Lovely for a special birthday party

Excellent special Valentines' menu - served by a friendly and efficient team.

Always love eating here. Had a great lunch and no pressure to leave. Can’t wait for my next visit.

Had another lovely evening at Cote with friends. There were 11 of us and we had the Valentine’s menu, some of us with the drinks pairing. The food was excellent, service outstanding and we had a wonderful time. Thank you Cote team St Albans!

We chose the wine pairing option as it seemed to offer good value for money but we and other diners were surprised at the inflexibility of the service i.e. if we don’t like Sauvignon why can’t we swap it for the Chardonnay that went with another starter? Also the service was too quick as though they were rushing us through - starters and paired wine arriving after a few sips of the kir royale aperitif!

Use Cote a lot and the food is always excellent. However the service was not up to its usual standards. We ordered Calamari to share but had to ask for plates to eat off. We ordered a bottle of white wine with our meal and it was not stored in a cooler just left on the table after we had tried it. We had to ask 3 times for water. Small things I know but thought you would like to know

This restaurant is underrated in my opinion. Cotes have a very wide and appealing Menu. The Food is very good, well presented and reasonably priced. Old recommend

Absolutely the best food was perfect a bit of noise tho but it’s Valentine’s Day so it’s normal

Food was lovely ..good service ..always very pleasant ..

We went for an early evening meal. When we arrived we were the only couple in the restaurant. We started with the complimentary blood orange martini cocktail. This was delicious. We followed with Seared Scallops. These were nice enough but the vinaigrette dressing was overpoweringly vinegary. We followed this with the Chateaubriand. The steak was extremely tender and had good flavour. However, The bernaise sauce was dreadful. In fact I think it was mayonaisse as it had no piquancy about it at all and lacked butteriness. We drank a glass of Cote du Rhone with this which was good. All in all we thought the meal quite disappointing after such a good start with the complimentary coctail. Not a great experience.

A very enjoyable breakfast. We had attentive service and the food was good

14 of us came for a lovely long lunch last Saturday and Cote were so accommodating. They are the only restaurant who don't ask for a deposit or pre order for a group booking which is so helpful. Service and food and ambience excellent. We all had a great time! Thank you

The steak was not up to the usual standard, a bit tough and sinuous. Has the meat supplier changed? My wife's duck was a little dry. I commented to the waiter but I don't think he understood as he just smiled and said "of course it is"

Very busy restaurant. Had to wait 10 minutes to be seated. Friendly polite staff, tasty food, mains a little overcooked good atmosphere

A staple "go-to" in St Albans for us, the food is well cooked and presented. Service always good as well.

The meal was excellent, thank you 😊. Pity we did not have room for pudding!

An excellent meal in great surroundings with great service thanks.

The service and food was all absolutely fabulous. Thank you 🙏

Nice food with original well balanced sauce/sides. Just as expected from Cote.

An enjoyable dining experience as usual in Côte. Good service and relaxed atmosphere. Food was excellent.

Fantastic food good service after several visits just gets better french Onion soup perfect start to any meal

Normally Cote is reliably good but this time not. Service was very poor and even when we complained about it there was no improvement. The restaurant was not overly busy but staff twice walked away when we were trying to order to speak to other diners, food and wine was mixed up and had to be sent back or reminded (two desserts arrived rather than three, for example and the wrong wine delivered). The manager did not engage even when he was trying to rectify the problem, for example he brought the bill and mumbled something about 'taking something off' for the inconvenience but then just left it on the table and walked away. It took several attempts to catch anyone's attention to talk about the bill and when he came back eventually and I expressed my dissatisfaction again he took the bill away and deducted more money but no discussion of what might be wrong or how it might be addressed. Getting a reduced rate meal was some compensation financially but it was my daughter's birthday and it took quite a bit of the pleasure away not having anything like good service and having to constantly chase up for food and service. On the food, the chicken was very good but the two steaks were poor. Advertised as rib-eye mine certainly was not. It was a thin piece of steak, but definitely not a rib-eye cut. Not the value or quality that it used to be.

Came here for breakfast for my brothers birthday. Our waiter was very helpful & friendly. Food & service was fabulous Thank you we know we will be back we come often. We do recommend highly

My friends and I always look forward to dining at Cote, the food is always delicious and beautifully presented. Staff are warm, smiling and very attentive never intrusive. Meal excellent value. Me, my family and friends are frequent visitors and looking forward to our next visit

Service good; staff good; food seemed processed and disappointing. Have had good meals at Cote before, usually reliable, but this was not good at all.