"We have been to cotes many times 9 out of 10 times it has been excellent. This was a 19:30 Sunday evening birthday booking to be fair, a glass of kir royal was given to me on arrival. We ordered our food which on the whole was excellent.....The Ribeye steak was perfectly medium rare....The Breton Chicken was delicious and, once again being served as a spatchcocked half chicken, after a brief spell of getting two legs for half a chicken!! A couple of things spoilt the almost perfect evening; The opening page of the Cotes website is a crab...guess what? No crab maison! When asked if we needed any condiments for our meal........ No vinegar.!...How can you have a restaurant without vinegar?, You can't serve chips without vinegar...... Especially when there is a Co-op supermarket 100 yards away!! The other thing I would point out was that i didn't think that gratin dauphinois potatoes, which accompanied the chicken was french for slices of undercooked potatoes in milk! because that's how it came! For some reason the atmosphere, especially from the staff was fairly cold. As though something had happen earlier. On past occasions the staff have always been talkative friendly. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but it felt as if something was wrong. There was a very large party in there, so it might have been the pressure of that. We like going to Cotes, and despite these small doubts will continue to visit. My advice to the restaurant?......iron out these small faults quickly, because the big guns....ie Wagamama, Mama Loves Spaghetti, Giggling Squid etc. are moving in!! also.......get some vinegar!! Jimmyreview1"
