An Evening With Cafe Rouge
We were treated to a lovely evening at the French chain restaurant Cafe Rouge, where full you can indulge in a Moulin Rouge-esque dining experience. On the edge of Chavasse Parks glorious greens is the romantic franchise Cafe Rouge, where their latest festive food menu is now on offer to warm your hearts through good food, good setting with your favourite company. Served a glass of prosecco and fruit beer to ease into our meal, we noticed the vast choices available to both meat eaters and vegetarians. From my experience of Cafe Rouge I’d urge anyone to try the fish options if that’s their calling, as the festive menu is bursting with wonderful new dishes to try.
Appetisers and Starters
We were there to try out the new festive menu, exploring everything new and fresh to Cafe Rouge, so our food journey started our with the Taste Flambée – savoury flatbread with cream cheese, sliced onion and bacon. It’s an ideal appetising treat for sharing whilst you’re ordering in your starters and mains. Our starters were the Salmon Rillettes; A rustic pâté of smoked and poached salmon, lightly flavoured with shallot and chives, served with watercress, caper berries and a rye & caraway wedge. I’m an avid fish lover and this chilled starter embodied the festive spirit in a new innovative way of exploring the capabilities of salmon. Whilst the other starter was Soupe à L’oignon a French onion soup made with Cafe Rouges own secret recipe with cheese and croutons. This hearty broth will soothe your cold bones and get you winter ready. A must for the UK’s chilliest days, which seem to be coming in thick and fast lately.
Mains
Our mains included the new Boeuf Bourguignon, a slow-cooked beef in red wine, smoked bacon and mushrooms with roasted carrots, herb mash and crispy onions. It’s got me very excited to try cooking with red wine again and come up with something similar. Although Cafe Rouge nailed this dish down to perfection with the contrast of herby mash and beef that falls apart in the mouth. The other main we went for was Saumon – skin of eh salmon fillet with buttered spinach, croutons, lemon and beurre noisette. Served with bread to scooping up left overs – because you totally will when you try it!
Dessert
Finally to finish off the evening in our romantic setting we tried Tarte Aux Pommes, a warm apple tart with taste tatin ice cream. It reminds me so much of my famous home made apple cake, with extra creamy ice cream. A dessert destined to put a smile on anyones face. As well as Rum Baba; a light sponge cake soaked in a rum sauce with crème fraîche. The sponge is so light and delicate, so easy a refreshing lighter option for something creamy and interesting. Our meals have to be accompanied with some kind of sweet beverage so I tried a glass of Sauternes, a rich but sweet wine served with cake or ice cream is the perfection combination. Whilst for coffee lovers, a mocha will be your calling to revive you from a food coma.
Give your local Cafe Rouge a whirl, check out their new festive menu for some of the delights that we tried. It’s a perfect pitstop on a date night, pre-movie or post-shopping.
