Reviews

Côte Brasserie - Bristol Quakers Friars

Posted on: 2017-02-13

Côte Brasserie, a welcome addition to the Quaker's Friars complex, serves up quality food with a classic French feel.

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Quaker’s Friars is quickly becoming a go-to location when you want to find the various tastes of the Mediterranean in close proximity to one another. One very recent addition is Côte Brasserie. My husband and I visited recently to have a taste of the current menu.

I started with the crab mayonnaise, which is mixed with avocado, cucumber, capers, and tarragon, and served with toasted sourdough bread. It’s a wonderfully fresh and flavoursome dish. I particularly enjoyed the addition of tarragon which adds a twist to this classic combination. I was really pleased with the presentation too; no pointless bits of parsley here! Just clean, simple flavours and unfussy presentation. A really great light starter.

I ate a little of the bread with my crab mayonnaise, but the majority of my bread got dunked into Simon’s starter of moules marinières. Côte’s version is a very creamy and rich take on the classic, and it’s absolutely delicious. I am lucky that he doesn’t mind sharing his food because I couldn’t resist stealing a couple of mussels.

I enjoyed both starters, but when I visit again, I will order the mussels as they really were excellent, along with a basket of bread for dunking.

Simon’s main was the roast duck breast with gratin potato and a griottine cherry sauce. The menu says the duck is served pink, and there was a slight rose tint to it, but I’d have preferred it pinker still. The flavours were delicious, and this was a good execution of another classic pairing. Simon said the potato gratin was tasty, and that it was a really good potion.

 

For my main course, I had the 7oz fillet steak and I added garlic butter. The steak was tasty and lean, and beautifully cooked as per my request of medium rare. As a fillet steak is quite chunky, this means that it cools quite quickly when cooked like this. Unfortunately, the garlic butter was quite cold, and therefore didn’t melt at all when placed on top. I did try spreading a little on my steak, but it’s not really the same as that wonderful marriage of seared steak and liquid butter. Steaks are served with fries.

Our waitress advised us that we might like to order some veg to accompany our mains, so we ordered some glazed carrots and braised peas. Both sides were very tasty, and I particularly enjoyed the carrots, which had a sweet glaze as well as parsley.

 

For pudding, I had the chocolate fondant which comes with vanilla ice-cream. The fondant had the perfect runny centre, and was rich and moreish. The ice cream was pleasant enough but not remarkable. I’d have preferred the fondant a little less sweet, but my husband said it was perfect so it’s just a matter of taste! It was certainly satisfying, and if every fondant turns out as perfectly cooked as that one, that’s quite an achievement. I was slightly perplexed by the squirt of chocolate sauce in the bowl though. It’s not really necessary with a fondant, I don’t think.

Simon’s crème caramel was absolutely textbook. It had the perfect tremulous wobble and bitter-sweet caramel. Cote describe it as their speciality and it is definitely a great example of the dish (and I say that as someone who orders it after almost every meal when I’m in Paris…).

 

Côte Brasserie have certainly mastered the art of creating that cosy French Brasserie feel, even on a gloomy February evening. The styling and menu is perfectly pitched, the service is efficient and friendly, and the food consistently delivers classic flavours done well. 

 

For more information or to book a table at Côte Brasserie, go to their website.

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