Café Rouge

The Epsom Café Rouge was redecorated recently - thoroughly enough for it to be closed for some days - so we thought to give it a go one lunch time last week.

Starter of bread and olives rather dear with the bread and olives being charged separately, a total of £8. Not my favourite sort of olives, being the hard round ones, in various colours, rather than soft black ones. Mixed breads extravagantly served on a small plank, but very ordinary. All in all, not a patch on the much cheaper bread and olives served at the Estrela Bar in South Lambeth Road.

BH liked her main course, Rouge Caesar, while I did not like my main course, Rouge Burger. The burger probably started OK, but was overcooked and came with far too much mayo and a large slice of raw onion which I did not need. Bun very ordinary, but one gets used to that. Forget to ask for dressing to be omitted from the otherwise good salad. French fries good.

We decided to pass on the desserts which did not attract, partly because I remember the portions as being rather small for the money.

Staff attentive and friendly, with our lead waitress being a very jolly, very small (perhaps petite is the proper word) Polish girl - a Polish girl who was trying out her restaurant French on us. They even turned the music down - something which many places find far too difficult.

Restaurant quite busy, quite a lot of families with children, mostly cuddly, all well behaved.

But I was a little put out by the wine, illustrated. We liked the wine, as good a restaurant Chablis as we have had for a while. Perhaps costing double what one could buy it for in a shop, which I think is fair. But it is not what was on the menu - which was 'Domaine des Marronniers Chablis 1er Cru Montmains' - and the waitress did not think to say. To be fair to her, I did not notice until after it had been opened up.

When I hovered at the bar after our meal, the manageress bustled along fast enough to see what was up. But played the innocent, claimed she did not know. The warehouse must have substituted for some reason or another. Which was fair enough, but she should have known and the waitress should have said.

But all in all, not bad value, which is about what we thought near four years ago when, according to blog, we paid our last visit. See reference 1. With a bit more care with the order, we could have a good meal there. Perhaps we will be back before the next four years are up.

Reference 1: http://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=Caf%C3%A9+Rouge.