Discover Hertford Online Forum

We visited here today for the first time since the refurb for lunch. Whilst the service was fine (once the initial problem with the new waiter had been sorted out) I was distinctly underwhelmed with my steak and frites.

I ordered a sirloin, cooked rare, which came with frites and I added a bearnaise sauce. When it came, it was cooked to order in the middle but in achieving their desired char grilled effect of black lines criss crossing the top of the steak, the top of it had been cooked too much. The piece of meat itself lacked flavour too. As for the frites, they had been pre "seasoned" which basically means covered in a shed load of salt. Now I understand why chefs feel the need to season their food but this was way over the top.

We used to go to CF as our restaurant of choice for steak but not after this. Mind you, that was a few years ago now. Lussmans does a great steak frites with an onglet cut which is full of flavour and has always been cooked to perfection when I've been there. Just as well this visit the CF was to use up Nectar points.

To finish on a positive, my wife said her fish cakes were good (but she also had frites!)

2929paul wrote:The piece of meat itself lacked flavour too.

Long gave up buying steak in a chain restaurant , is there any chain restaurant that does steak with flavour ?

It's always been rubbish food with rubbish service, it's an upgraded burger joint. IMHO!

They just lost their manager, assistant manager and supervisor plus a few waiting staff (all in the last 2 months) so I'm not surprised that they're not getting rave reviews.

Donostia wrote:

2929paul wrote:The piece of meat itself lacked flavour too.

Long gave up buying steak in a chain restaurant , is there any chain restaurant that does steak with flavour ?

Gaucho - but you need a mortgage (and there isn't one in Hertford)

I have only been with my Tesco clubcard vouchers and found the food really nice steak cooked the way like (well done) flavorsome... ok I agree with the chips but the garlic batons are amazing, bare in mind this was at the beginning of the year so im not sure what changes have been made.

Got to say that last time I visited in the summer the steak I had was excellent

Darcy Sarto wrote:

Donostia wrote:

2929paul wrote:The piece of meat itself lacked flavour too.

Long gave up buying steak in a chain restaurant , is there any chain restaurant that does steak with flavour ?

Gaucho - but you need a mortgage (and there isn't one in Hertford)

Yes , I don't think it's really fair on Cafe Rouge to go down the Gaucho or Hawksmoor comparison route .