Lassies Who Lunch: July 2015

The lassies were in dire need of a catch up and we decided on Glasgow's newest brasserie, Cote.

The 68th in the country, the restaurant is also looking to expand to Edinburgh, Aberdeen and St Andrews over the next year, but Glasgow is Côte's first Scottish location. While we all love to gorge ourselves on French food on holiday we don't often have French food in the city so we were excited to have a bit of our holiday favourites at home.

The menu is full of so many options to choose from and it's fair to say we are all notoriously indecisive when it comes to food so we took a while to order. So much so we were kindly given a pissaladière with caramelised onions and reblochon cheese as well as some olives to munch on while we contemplated our choices.

After making light work of the flatbread and with some help from the staff, we finally decided on the calamari, chicken liver parfait and charcuterie board to start.

They were wise choices.

Even though I am not the biggest fan of seafood, I couldn't stop digging into (and reluctantly shared) the crispy squid with garlic, lemon and tartare sauce.

The parfait with toasted brioche and apple chutney was equally delicious and was quickly polished off by us all. The chutney was warmly spiced and made the perfect counter point to the pâté.

For the main I chose (again, with help from the waiter) chargrilled chicken with a mushroom, creme fraiche and thyme soon and potato gratin.

I hate to say I left a a little on my plate. However this is because I work in an office where there is an allocated shelf for biscuits and cake only and I have no willpower. It could also be because I didn't stick to my own plate, sorry girls!

It's safe to say I had major food envy when Blondie's fillet steak was served. Vegetarians look away now:

In her words, it was perfectly cooked and melt in the mouth. I'll vouch for that as I had a 'couple' of bites. The bearnaise sauce was perfectly creamy, but if we are honest the fillet was so good on its own so we didn't use much!

Wee Lorz opted for a healthy option of haddock wrapped in bacon with pea purée which she said tasted very fresh and firm. Again, I'll agree with that after having a forkful...

The choice of healthy eating was quickly ruined with some wine as Wee Lorz explains:

"We were given a choice of wine. Poor Blondie was driving so Steph handed the privilege to me, and I was more than happy to oblige. As we were both having chicken and fish, I headed straight to the whites. Now, some of my favourite white wine is French, a Chablis or a Sancerre. With a little persuasion from the excellent staff I opted for the Chablis - crisp with citrus notes and a mineral finish. This wine did not disappoint and went perfectly with our dishes."

The dessert menu was presented with immediate reactions of rubbing our stomachs and shaking our heads declaring we were too full, knowing full well we would cave and at least share one.

The lemon tart was amazing - extremely citrusy with a slight crispy topping. Tarte au Citron is clearly a French classic and Côte paired it with Normandy Cream and fresh raspberries to make it absolutely perfect.

We wiped the plate clean.

I'll definitely be making another trip here. Working on George Sqaure means I can take full advantage of the lunch and pre-theatre menu which seems like a steal at £9.95 for two course and £11.90 for three. Côte also have a breakfast club that comes with a super cute croissant keychain that gets you a free hot drink with any breakfast on a weekday. Croque Madame anyone?

Staff at Côte could not have looked after us more. The lassies left extremely happy, not just because of the overdue reunion but also because of the fantastic service and delicious food. If you are looking for French food in Glasgow, Côte is the place to go!

Côte