Happy Friday everyone. It’s hard to imagine that just a mere week or so ago; I was wearing sandals and a dress; eagerly anticipating my review meal at the fab Cote Brasserie.
Yet, today, as I type, the rain is pouring down, the sunshine has gone and I’m daydreaming of the feast we tucked into!
Cote’s Coeliac UK Approved Menu
Let’s start with why I was there. Cote has launched a fantastic Coeliac UK endorsed menu, which I was lucky enough to get to try out during Coeliac UK awareness week. There are lots of places that offer gluten-free menus these days, but knowing a place is Coeliac UK approved always gives me that little bit more reassurance!
The menu was vast, with plenty of meat, fish and veggie options available. All food comes with a special gluten-free flag so you don’t have to awkwardly ask ‘err is this definitely the gluten-free version?’ each time your food is brought out.
The Food: Starters
To begin with, I couldn’t resist the chicken liver pate on toast. I was craving something substantial and this delivered perfectly. The bread was crunchy and not dry in the slightest (although as you can see from the picture below, it had fallen victim to a slight hole!) whilst the pate was rich and delicious; a perfect match for the chutney. My husband went for the Charcuterie board which is on both the regular and gluten-free menu (the difference being the bread) and gave it 10/10. You can see he got a real variety of different meats and the smoked duck breast (which I also nabbed a taste of) was a nice change.
The Food:Main Meals
I was tempted by the steaks but I feel that’s on every gluten-free menu going. I wanted to try something a bit different! So I opted for the Breton Fish Stew. This was mix of sea bass, muscles, clams and prawns; with a tomato, white wine and chill sauce.
It really was delicious! It was quite light and meant the focus was just on playing to the fish’s natural flavours. I feel like a lot of gluten-free and dairy-free dishes are just tomato based, so it was lovely that this had white wine and chilli too. I am a big fish lover and this was incredibly fresh and morish! I was worried it might be spicy with the chill mentioned, but it was just full of flavour.
I think this was one of my favourite dishes I’ve ever had being gluten and dairy-free: it was so nice to try something a bit different that wasn’t just plain chicken or fish!
However, it was little low on the carb-front; so I rectified that immediately but ordering a portion of fries.
Excuse my blatant need for a manicure here! I always consider it my duty to try fries on a gluten-free menu; so ordered a side portion to go with my stew. I loved these-they were super crispy and crunchy; and the restaurant takes all the necessary precautions to make sure these are cooked separately from the regular chips.
The only small let down was the desert. There wasn’t anything gluten-free and dairy-free other than sorbet (but if you’re just gluten-free there was a cheese board, creme caramel, chocolate mousse and creme brulee amongst other dishes!) Hopefully they’ll be more variety in that department in the near future, as I was very impressed with the starter and main.
Overall, we really enjoyed our trip to Cote. French food isn’t often gluten-free friendly so it is fantastic to see them taking great strides in the gluten-free market; and I loved both of the dishes I had! I’ll definitely return for a fish stew and glass of wine in the future!
That all looks scrumptious – but no desert? What the?? Lowen @ livingpositivelywithdisability.com