The best restaurants serving French food in St Albans East of England

My 19 yo son and his girlfriend booked Cote for their first year anniversary last night. Their meal was ok, although the macaron dessert was poor. It was so hard that they were unable to break into it and had to resort to picking it up by hand to try to bite into it. The inside was like hardened honeycomb. They did say the other dessert was fine, and hearing that it was their anniversary, the waiter gave them a glass of something fizzy on the house. Our big gripe is that, when they tried to pay the bill with cash, they were told cash was not accepted. My son was told to find a way of paying by card and had to leave the restaurant to ring me to ask for help. While he was out ringing me, the waiter asked my son's girlfriend how much they wanted to pay by cash. She said all of it and he walked away. When I arrived and spoke to the waiter, he said that he had been thinking that, if they had wanted to pay most by card and a small amount in cash, he would have accepted the cash from them and paid the cash element on his personal card. This was kind of him but probably against some rule or something, and he had not expressed this to them, nor had he offered them the option to split the bill between two cards if they could pay that way (which they could have). I queried the "no cash" policy and the waiter said it was company policy. I pointed out that it is not stated anywhere on their menu or inside or outside the restaurant that they do not accept cash. He agreed, and said that he thought it may be mentioned in the small print somewhere on their website. I have looked and can't find it, so if it is there, it's certainly not clear. While I was looking at the website, I also noticed that there are no prices listed on Cote's own website, although interestingly, prices appear on the menu link that can be accessed through Trip Advisor. Having recently eaten at Prime - just down the road - as a family, I would say the prices were comparable but the experience was far superior at Prime. Overall, the embarrassment that was caused spoiled what should have been a special evening for this young couple.

Such a disappointment. I ordered an afternoon tea as it was our wedding anniversary. When I paid for it over the phone I told the lady that thus was the case. When we came, no one mentioned it - just a shame. We were put in their empty restaurant - were not offered a different location, despite the crappy view of the car park. The restaurant Manager was polite enough but we felt, as no one else was there that they were embarrassed to come over. The sandwiches were nice although one was a bit dry. The scones felt like they had been warmed in an air fryer but were still quite fresh. The cakes were appalling- all seemed long-life and the red velvet was inedible. When we left we were not asked how it had been. I emailed a complaint when I got home. Got a holding response on the Monday morning then on Wednesday afternoon got an email from their Operations Manager that not only was not addressed to me by name but did not cover any of the issues I raised. His whole response was that we should have raised the issues when the Restaurant Manager asked us how it was. Other than him offering to top up our teapots we had no conversations with him so not sure what he was talking about. Such a real shame - this was meant to be a treat and turned into a bit of a disaster. I really hope that they learn to treat their paying customers better for the future

Fantastic from start to find, the chef/owner does everything from take your order to wash the dishes. Food is fresh and delightful, a must visit.

Coeliac friendly spot, I was delighted to find a gf crepe option here with a selection of savoury & sweet toppings. They’ve a separate pan for the gf ones and the staff were very helpful.