Cote

My new(ish) offices on Wardour Street are right opposite a branch of Cote, which has been ravely reviewed by my fellow GUers, particularly Intown, whose opinion I completely trust. Last night I finally found an excuse to go, and what a nice treat.

You would have reason to walk straight past this place thinking it was a tourist trap, especially given all the other fine eateries in the area. Cote is part of a small and expanding chain, we found out from our Irish waitress, currently with six dotted around the West End, but with quite grand plans for expansion. It is owned by the same group as Strada and Cafe Rouge, and I can only hope that the expansion won't compromise on quality.

The branch on Wardour St is extremely warm and cosy, although I was a bit disappointed to be seated downstairs, as the upstairs space looks particularly spacious yet intimate. Interesting mix of diners from obvious post-work groups to lots of couples. No carpets on the bare wood floor.

As for the menu, it is all simple, French brasserie classics are very reasonable prices. Starters are around £6-8, and feature moules marinere and steak tartare; mains £10-15, including chargrilled Landaise chicken, salmon fishcakes, lamb shanks. You get the idea.

There is also a daily specials menu, and I ended up ordering entirely from that. To start, grilled scallops with pea puree, lardons, and pea shoots:

Very good sized portion with 3 enormous scallops, but I did think there was just a little too much pea puree to balance. Loved the combination with the peas though, why don't more places do it with scallops rather than cauliflower puree all the time? We also tried the warm roqueforte salad with endive and walnut - as classic as you can get:

I had more trouble choosing my main actually. The menu is just a list of everyone's favourite comfort foods, and you have a sneaking suspicion that it would definitely be well executed. In the end, it was the daily special bouillabaisse:

I was a little deflated when I saw this, thinking it to be on the small side, and also featuring no shellfish, but it was so lovely and rich, the portion was plenty enough. I didn't even manage to eat all the croutons. However, I did have slight food envy at the landaise chicken that my friend went for. Posh chicken and chips indeed, but the small bit I did try was very flavourful:

Overall, I thought the food was tremendous at the price - just over £30 pp including a bottle of wine. The nicest touch though was we were the last occupied table downstars, and the waitress brought us 2 complimentary shots of apple liqueur with our bill. Completely out of the blue. The waitress herself was utterly charming. It's her first time in London, and she was meant to have stayed over the summer, but has now deferred a year at uni to carry on working at Cote. Not sure whether that's a testament to the restaurant management, or that she' simply met a bloke in London!