After visiting the Travel Photographer of the Year exhibition in Greenwich I decided to treat myself to lunch for one and as I knew “Cafe Rouge”:http://www.caferouge.com/ was across the road, I’d downloaded a voucher for 30% off main courses before leaving home.
The Greenwich branch is a large with lots of seating both inside and outside and I chose to sit on a shady terrace just out of the sun. Whilst as Poshgirl60 told us in her review of the “Solihull Branch”:http://www.silvertraveladvisor.com/review/restaurant/165180-review-cafe-rouge, there is a Prix Fixe lunch menu of two courses for £12.95 which is good value as most of the a la carte mains are that price in themselves. However, today it wasn’t automatically presented (naughty, naughty), and I actually only wanted a single course.
I liked the sound of boeuf bourguignon described as ‘slow-cooked beef in red wine, smoke bacon and mushrooms with green beans, carrots and served with herb mash’ but didn’t think it was very summery and having cast aside, a relatively healthy option of nicoise salad with hot smoked salmon, I did what I always do when in doubt: order fish and chips although Café Rouge fancy it up with a French title and call it Poisson Frites.
The friendly, jolly staff were on a mission to upsell:
I ordered a glass of wine, ‘would that be a large one madam?’, ‘oh go on then’,
‘Would madam like bread or olives to nibble on whilst she waits?’, ‘no thank you’, ‘actually I think I’ll have some bread’.
Both wine and bread with five diagonally cut slices of fresh French baguette and butter were good (but it should have been for £2.50).
The food arrived pretty quickly as it wasn’t busy and was actually very good. The hake had a mustard batter which you could taste and the chips were typical French fries: long and thin. There was a small dish of tartare sauce, a griddled half lemon and the obligatory green garnish (no mushy peas here).
I resisted pudding and coffee and my bill (with my discount) came to £17.97.
