October 2025 Winchester.I never thought I'd leave a bad review for Côte as I've been using their restaurants for fourteen years, including their home-delivery service during lockdown. However it's all changed.They advertise Frites outside the front door of the restaurant in huge letter but they don't serve them. They no longer serve those lovely thin, crisp French fries they're so famous for. It's now false advertising. They're just serving boring chips, not French and not nice at all. We left most of them, a thing unknown when they served their real French fries.All the usual well-known signature dishes are gone. Why?? It's what Côte was known for and what people mainly ordered. What was wrong with Poulet Grillē, except that it was popular? Who's arrogance was it to change everything and think they know better? Obviously it's someone who's never experienced the successful and loved days of the original Côte.We've no idea why anyone would pay millions of pounds to buy a strong brand and then change it all, as obviously it's strong because people like it. They're shooting themselves in the proverbial foot. It makes no business sense.Staff are lovely but suffering under all the complaints and trying to make lame excuses for the changes. They seem to be disengaged and I'm not surprised. We waited ages for our main course. I eventually got up to ask where it was. To be honest it was so cold in there we'd got to the point where we wanted to go and get into the warmth of the car. When I pointed out we hadn't got our food they blamed the chef and said he didn't tell them he'd had to cook it again due to an error. It's a sign of decline when they blame each other. No, the serving staff were at fault, not the chef. They should have noticed we hadn't got our food and checked as to what was going on but no one even looked at us.Many branches are closing but I think the whole chain will go down if this continues and the menu doesn't return to what paying customers want. The change of ownership is slaughtering the brand and the years of work behind its original success. Many people were complaining about the menu, not just us. They won't be returning.We're not returning either, until 'Côte' becomes Côte again. It shouldn't be allowed to keep the name as it's misrepresentation.
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