Customer: Id like to sit outside, please can you put the gas heater on
waiter: theres no gas
... more customers arrive, the gas works!

waiter: could we have a coke with ice?
coke arrives, no ice
customer: sorry please could we have some ice?
waiter: its cold, no need
customer: please! can i have ice
waiter: ok
ice comes...
customer: please could we both have ice?
waiter: share it!

waiter: excuse me, if you've finished can you be quick, people waiting!
customer: sorry, are you throwing us out?
waiter: yes!

customer: ... leaving restaurant looks at foreign 'manager'
'thank yoy, bye'
manager: doesnt even look up as customer walks out!

shame, pizza is great... but you dont feel welcomed by anyone who runs or owns the place!

Hearing that a Cote is from the owners of Franck, I was persuaded by my half french girlfriend to try it out.

A Cote is tucked away in the arty, and to my mind stupidly wannabe pretentious, alleyway of Fergson Lane, just off Wukang Lu. Here in this lane you find 2 wine shops, an art gallery, a spa, a bland coffee shop and the overpriced & underwhelming Mary Ching shoe shop (another wannabe - think Chinese Jimmy Choo).

At first glance, a Cote appears to be a lovely bistro pizzeria with lots of nice outdoor seating, but since it is January i wasn't in the mood for freezing my extremities off, thus we went in to get settled into nice chairs for some good bistro food. well, NO, that didnt happen!

Once inside i was transformed back into pre-school. There is one small table with 2 red pre-school collapsible chairs (which was taken at the time), and then one gigantic long table for up to 12 people. This table has tossy pre-school red collapsible chairs on one side and then a ridiculously low 'school canteen' bench on the other. With painful memories of my teachers berating me and my classmates for slouching & not sitting straight on school canteen benches, I went for the silly red chair as my seat. These chairs are nowhere near comfy and just result in pure discomfort.

To start off this overpriced experience we ordered 2 apple juices. For 30 RMB a glass, i expected something fresh and nice, even something like wagas. But NO, we were served two thimble-like glasses with apple concentrate....bleh!

The menu is limited to say the least, with only 3 starters available , all for around 50-70 RMB. We shared the aubergine with Parmesan and tomato - nice, but small and at 60 RMB nowhere near worth the money.

For entrees, there are 4 different pizzas with a choice of 2 different bases, around 120RMB each. The pizzas are cooked in a genuine wood burning pizza oven. However, the waiter forgot the order of my pizza, and just noted my girlfriend's. She had the Motie Motie (half - half pizza) and then after twice asking where my other pizza was, finally I got the Royale. These pizzas are only ok and dont justify there 120MRB price tag. Too salty, too small, served with olives with stones inside, and half burnt crusts.
All this came to 350RMB for 2 people. I will let you be judge of whether thats good value or not.

The service here is haphazard at best, the waiter forgot my pizza order, and had to be reminded abut my order twice. The pizza cook at the open pizza oven kitchen was openly sleeping behind the counter with his head in a tea towel.
The Decor is of a south of France cafe but it just looks like somebody quickly copied a picture of a Marseille cafe from the internet. And who ever knew that French cafes were famous for pizzas? I was pretty sure that was the forte of the Italians.

Altogether this just reinforces my opinion of French restaurants in Shanghai - small portions, over priced dishes, arrogant & moody service, and in this case - a sore bottom from sitting on chairs for children. Only go to them if you are French, when you will be treated incredibly warmly like a long lost friend.

This was quite disappointing. A boring & bad tasting pizza with cheap ingredients and awful tasting dry Oregano for RMB 100. Ridiculous!! But for some reasons people seams to like this place. Can't get why. Overall mediocre service, a very limited beverage selection and expensive wannabe Pizza.