Cafe Rouge Bar and Restaurant

Lakeside is an enormous shopping centre so who can blame me for wanted to stop for a beer and a nibble in the “food court” which appeared to be tiny in comparison with the rest of the centre and with options few and far between we select Cafe Rouge. Essentially a chain french bar and restaurant which fancies itself for quite an up-market crowd but being in a shoppin centre, seriously deminishes its opportunity. Despite its failed market positioning the venue is comfortable but waiting staff are happy to ignore or turn noses up leaving the attitude hard to swallow. Food and drink is also more expensive than is necessary even for a shopping centre that wants to cash in on shoppers putting their feet up. In fact it is in a quieter part of the centre and that lets us take a few breaths and feel like we are a few hundred miles away from rugby tactic sales-orientated women and children screaming at folk in oversized cartoon character costumes.

Overall this place is particularly out of place, there are a few other restaurants that are really too nice to be popped in this mall but it does provide some relief from the world outside for an inflated cost - 4/10