Gastronomy Blog

 It seems the remaining unit in the Highcross restauarant quarter is to be Cafe Rouge. Well whoop de do.

I should say first I’ve never eaten at one of these restaurants, maybe given the right manager and staff they can be ok, but the description I’ve seen attributed to Jonathan Meades of  ”the Middle Class McDonalds” seems appropriate. I’ve read enough reviews of incompetent food and miserable service from untrained, underpaid, misersable staff to find the artless attempt at tuning into francophilia really grating.

Cafe Rouge is a brand  owned by Tragus Holdings, whom we can also thank for Bella Italia.  Tragus itself is owned by Blackstone, a £67 billion  private equity fund. You don’t want to further enrich these people do you?  Try instead the small East Midlands chain Bistrot Pierre. It  might riff on the French cafe in a similar way but it’s relatively locally owned, the food by most standards is perfectly adequate at least and I know they invest in the skills of their staff, especially in the kitchen. The prices are also much friendlier than Cafe Rouge.  

I can’t see that we need another clone operation in Leicester.  Highcross developers Hammerson have brought a lot of investment into the city but what a shame they haven’t done more to encourage a mix of independents as well as chains.  

Restaurants need to believe in what they are doing from the top to bottom. They need to love it, or else we’ll soon find them out. To end, here’s  Giles Coren writing in the Independent over a decade ago: “Love is all you need. Look at Cafe Rouge. What makes eating there so miserable? Hard to say. The menus appear well- balanced. Occasionally there is a waiter who speaks English and knows what a potato is. But order a breakfast of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs – the simplest dish in the world – and you get big lumps of dry, unseasoned egg, slashes of fish-rind and cold toast. No love.”

Snobbery? Or simply a stand in defence of quality? Interested to hear from anyone of their experiences of Cafe Rouge.