Café Rouge
Well, I was contemplating about doing this blog post or not as I was not pleased with the place we tried. But then I figured even negative reviews are good as it might save somebody else from making the same mistake.
Close to where I live is this cute looking French style café. I had always wanted to go there for some coffee, but as you know time flies by and you never do what you always wanted to do. So this Saturday we decided to go out for breakfast and we picked Café Rouge hoping for some good coffee in a beautiful ambiance. Sadly they let us down.
We ordered two Café au Lait, a Croque Madame and Oeufs Benedikte. I had my doubts about the place once the coffee was brought to our table. I had quietly hoped for a cup with steaming espresso and a small jug of hot milk on the side, this being the way I have had coffee in Paris numerous times. Instead two milkshake-like glasses were used. I’m not much of a fan of coffee in glasses in general and it is certainly not a very French way of drinking it. (Am I wrong? Please correct me if I am!)
But the coffee was just a side note, the dissapointing thing was the food. Although both dishes tasted ok (as did the coffee by the way - it was not the taste of things that put us off) the presentation was very poor. There was no garnish whatsoever and the plates looked simply dull. I intended to take a picture but then didn’t because it would have looked awful. My Oeufs Benedikte consisted of one slice of brioche, a rather dry slice of ham and two small poached eggs which were pressed in some kind of oval form and looked manufactured. The sauce hollandaise was ok, but I just wonder how they can place all this in the middle of a plate and not get the idea that some green leaves on the side might look nice. Or a slice of tomato, anything really. When I go out to eat I do expect some effort in presentation! Even if it tastes not bad (as this experience proves again) what sticks with me is how food is treated and presented, especially when you are trying to resemble a French café/ restaurant.
I took a flyer with me when we left, in order to do some research for this blog. I was completely surprised to learn that it actually is a chain! I hadn’t been aware of it at all but apparently there are over 80 of these Café Rouge’s in Britain. Well, this certainly can mean that we were just unlucky to experience one that wasn’t well managed. However I won’t find out as I don’t intend to go back and try again.
