Rate my Bistro

What I like about Cafe Rouge is that you can come here just for drinks or for a proper meal. The atmosphere is very relaxed and the staff don’t rush you in any manner. The red and white furniture complements the dark wooden surroundings. It does feel like a bistro that you would get in France!

The tea is always served by the pot and the coffee is also of a good quality. The butter biscuits are a nice accompaniment if you just want something small to go with the hot drinks.

Cafe Rouge do a soup of the day and the one that was on offer when we went was red pepper and aubergine soup. It was a  flavoursome soup with big chunks of aubergine. The soup came with half a baguette which was very fresh. A filling starter that could easily satisfy as a main meal.

Another good starter is the warm ciabatta style breadsticks which comes with three dips: hummus, tomato and aioli. You also get a  small amount of salad. The amount of dips is fairly small, but it suffices.

To finish the meal, a good choice is the assortment of desserts. These are smaller portions of the creme brulee, red fruit crumble and chocolate ganache. None of them disappointed and it was nice to get a taster of them all!

Cafe Rouge, 6-7 South Grove, Highgate, London, N6 6BP

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We’ve been to Le Pain Quotidien many a time and it is good at any time of the day! It’s great to go early in the morning when the pastries are all fresh.

They do good quality croissants and pain au chocolat. The granola with yogurt could have done with more yogurt to balance out the amount of granola. I’ve tried their muffins and thought that they were tasty and not overly sweet. The individual fresh fruit tarts always look tempting too!

The organic mezze platter is great to share. It comprises of hummus, babaganoush (aubergine salad) and aubergine and tomato. The bread that comes with it is usually rye bread but you can ask for any bread from their selection. It is all very moreish!

The coffees, teas and hot chocolates are all good. They do serve soy milk. Their freshly squeezed orange juice is OK. I did like the Luscombe bottled juices that they do.

I really like the wooden decor in Le Pain Quotidien and the rustic feel that this bistro has. It has a big communal table as well as individual seating. The staff are always friendly and accommodating to any special dietary requests.

Le Pain Quotidien, 18 Great Marlborough Street, London, W1F 7HS

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A great pizzeria tucked away from the busy streets of Covent Garden. This restaurant is quite small although it does have some tables downstairs. We were lucky to be seated upstairs!

The decor is pretty cool; nice artwork on the wall and strings of lights near the back of the restaurant. The staff were really friendly and the service was good.

Freshly baked pizzas with generous toppings is what we experienced. The food was tasty and it was nice that the atmosphere was fairly relaxed.

Sapori, 43 Drury Lane, London, WC2B 5RT

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We had good cafe cremes (latte) at this bistro. The croissants that we had were fresh and they were big too.

The seating area if you are having just drinks is at the front of the cafe and the back is for if you are ordering food.

The waiter was friendly and we enjoyed relaxing in this cafe. The view was nice over the place de la Republique.

Cafe Republique, 11 place de la Republique, 75003, Paris

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On this site used to be one of my regular restaurants, Caffe Uno. This has now been changed (just like many others) to the French restaurant Brasserie Chez Gerard.

The food here was average and I wouldn’t call it outstanding. I had the seasonal vegetables tagine which I would give full marks for presentation but not for flavour. The taste of the spices didn’t really come through. I was expecting it be more of a tomato based tagine. This Moroccan dish was cooked with chickpeas, spinach and baby carrots. It came with a good portion of couscous.

The actual restaurant decor is nice with a range of seating, from window seats to wicker chairs and normal dining tables and chairs.

The staff were friendly although the service was slow at times. We were waiting for quite a while to get the attention of the waiter, so that we could order desserts. By the time we managed to get his attention, we weren’t even sure that we wanted to order anything else.

The warm almond and cherry tart was a huge disappointment. It tasted like it had been microwaved and the pastry had become too soft. The only upside to this was that the coffee ice cream (that came with the tart) had a good flavour.

Maybe I should have opted for my friend’s choice of the warm Belgian waffle with chocolate sauce and ice cream. That looked of a better quality!

Brasserie Chez Gerard, 9 Kensington High Street, London, W8 5NP

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