Café Rouge is a family-friendly French restaurant chain that has over 120 sites up and down the UK, with one of them in the picturesque, cobblestoned Chapel Street. Chapel Street has a whole host of fine restaurants, so why chose Café Rouge for a café au lait, or a steak baguette instead of the others?
Well Café Rouge can double up as a bustling French café during the day where you can read the papers, sit down for breakfast, get free wifi and enjoy the traditional rustic décor, comfortable seats and views out the big front windows. Or alternatively, it is a great little spot when they dim the lights for an intimate dinner and a bottle of wine (French, naturally) or a place where groups can go (not just Bridget Jones fans) to get some tasty continental food for a sensible price.
The French typically celebrate breakfast more so than we do over here in Britain and this is exemplified by the extensive breakfast menu on offer here. Here you have a selection of ‘Boissons Chaudes & Froides’ (hot and cold drinks), with the accompaniment of some breads, fruits, cereals and patisseries. Additionally there are plenty of French ‘eggs & bacon’ style options such as Oeufs Florentine, Oeufs Bénédicte and Bacon Petit Pain, or even Le Petit Déjeuner Anglais- a traditional English breakfast!
The main menu starts with ‘Pains & Petit Plats’ which offers delights such as Fougasse À L’ail (garlic and sea salt traditional sharing dough bread from Provence with warm dipping garlic butter) and Petit Saucisson (mini spicy cured chorizo), before moving on to ‘Hors D’Oeuvres’ where you have a selection of traditional French starters such as crevettes, camembert, pâté and onion soup. The main courses are widely recognisable as well with Boeuf Bourguignon and Moules Mariniéres on the list as well as some tasty extras such as Confit de Canard (confit duck leg with a steeped cherry jus, snow peas and dauphinoise potatoes) and Loupe de Mer en Papillote (sea bass fillets baked with lemon, leeks & herbs, with beurre blanc and new potatoes).
As all restaurants tend to have nowadays, there is also a separate steak and grill menu which consists of three different types and sizes of steak as well as a burger, minute steak option and halibut fillets. These dishes come with frites or house salad and Café Rouge proudly claims that with a salad, 35 day aged steaks will come to no more than 600 calories. There is also the traditional selection of sides and sauces to accompany your main.
If you are looking for something lighter and/or smaller, there are salad options such as Sauman Niçoise (baked salmon fillet with classic salad of egg, olives, new potatoes and French beans) and Tarte aux Champignons (wild mushroom and truffle tart, sage butter pastry with baby plum tomatoes, roast pepper, avocado and leaves) or ‘Plats Rapides’ which are served until 6.30pm where you can grab a steak baguette or croquet-monsieur for example. And to finish off you can treat yourself to something like a Tarte Au Citron, Crepe, or cheese board for dessert.
Café Rouge also offers a set menu where you can grab two courses for the very reasonable price of £11.95 or three for £14.95- of course there is less choice if you go down this route, but what is on offer is equally as delicious. There are options like butternut squash and flame pepper soup, or vol-au-vents for starter, with mains such as Panzarotti (wild mushroom filled pasta with spinach & garlic cream) and Porc Moutarde (pork loin medallions, grain mustard & white wine cream, mashed potatoes and spinach) and ice cream or baked cherry pudding to finish with something sweet.
Café Rouge is a simple restaurant that doesn’t try and over-complicate things; it provides a comforting and warm atmosphere at the same time as good food and service. It may not be Michelin Star quality, but it certainly isn’t Michelin Star prices either and you will rarely walk away feeling disappointed; whether you stop in for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
James Martin