4th January 2008
French & Fun
Food
French, for example French onion soup. Lots of choice. Specials on boards.
Drink
You can get a kir. A kir royale. Or a bottle of champagne.
Service
Variable. Small enough for you to wave if you want somebody.
Atmosphere
Noisy and jolly. Trendy but traditional. Suits young and old.
Comfort
A mixture of small tables and sit on a sixpence seats and larger oblong tables which you can push together and banquette seats.
Decor
Rather turn of the century. I like the hooks for your coats around the walls so your coat is always visible and near your table. Our friends from elsewhere in Britain thought their Cafe Rouge was smarter than ours.
Update - return visit August. Now I've tried the branch in Ruislip I can see the menu is pretty similar - but enough choice for you to eat here a dozen times and not eat the same meal twice. French onion soup terrific. Watch the boards for specials - they had three boards with different specials on each one.
Main courses - salad with the sea bass was lovely and fresh, crispy greens, succulent, tasty chopped tomato and chickpeas.
I had one of the specials, the chicken. Fine. The potato daughinoise (sliced in layers with melted cheese) was a little underdone. When they asked how the meal was I told them and asked if they could stick it back in the microwave. They told me it's all cooked in an oven - that's good news. They offered me mashed potato instead and I was very pleased with the service. The waitress was all smiles and 'no problem'. (Not French of course, but Polish.)
Desserts, superb. The hot melting chocolate pudding was great. Dark chocolate, looking good against the moat of white cream. Contrasting texture, a mixture of solidly sticky and suck your teeth yummy, plus runny stuff which is good to sip and suck.
The apple tart (tarte tatin) good too. Fresh to have some fruit to alleviate the sugar.
The triple dessert was yum. Exciting for the eyes, three desserts on one oblong white plate.
Of the three, the creme brulee, was the weak point. The crisp sugar topping was, like a toffee apple coating which you beat open like a toddler bashing the shells of a hard boiled egg. Crunchy too. But the cream part was rather bland, with an uninspiring texture.
The plum crumble was just right, sweet and sour plum and crunchy crumble melting into the plum sauce.
My single espresso in tiny cups was fine, with brown sugar in long paper casing with the word Cafe Rouge on it.
On a Saturday night the place was fairly humming with three tables having champagne. Even when most people had gone the atmosphere was still warm and sounded busy and for the first time I noticed background music.
Only thing missing, somebody to smile and say goodbye at the door.
Parking. If you can't find parking outside you can probably drop the rest of the group off outside the door and park nearby.
Prices: Our bill for three was just over £70 - plus tip. If we'd paid for champagne at about £30 a bottle that would have been £100 plus tip. It was a birthday and we were all very happy.
After I got home I remembered they'd forgotten to put the birthday candle on the dessert - which I'd surreptitiously asked them to do before the meal. Fortunately the birthday was midweek, so we have another chance to get a candle next weekend.
I'm thinking about revising the rating from four stars to five. I suppose I should save five for places which get nothing wrong and have some really unusual touches. Would I go there again? I just did.
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