Lunch courtesy of Tesco Clubcard

At a loose end for lunch this Sunday, I decided to exchange some of our Tesco Clubcard vouchers for restaurant vouchers. I love a bargain and I was impressed at the level by which I could boost the value of my vouchers so I exchanged £10 in vouchers and got £40 of Cafe Rouge meal tokens in return - not a bad deal at all! 

After a lovely long stroll along the gorgeous quayside in Newcastle, we arrived at Cafe Rouge on Grey Street, our tummies rumbling. When I walked in the first thing that struck me is that the restaurant has a nice fresh and updated decor in subtle tones of grey and blue - not the usual red and gold theme of Cafe Rouge.

Fresh and updated interior

We were shown to our seats and ordered some drinks then, after browsing the menu, ordered our food. 

Our appetizers arrived in good time - we opted for Batons (£4.95), four sticks of bread served with garlic mayonnaise and melted garlic butter plus a Mediterranean 
olive selection (£3.25) which was quite a nice sharing appetizer for two to start our meal - the garlic butter was to die for!

Then our mains arrived - I had chosen that French classic, Boeuf Bourguignon (£14.95) and hubby had opted for the Burger de Bourgogne (£12.50 including 50p donation to Sport Relief). 

My dish was fairly substantial, the beef was really tender with a tasty red wine gravy and the mashed potato it was served with was delicious. There were a few baby onions in the gravy and I would have liked more but overall it was a nice satisfying main course.

Boeuf Bourguignon

My husband was pleased with his burger which was flavoured with blue cheese and bacon and was nicely served with a portion of fries and a tomatoey, peppery salsa.

Burger Bourgogne with fries and salsa

He's a real lightweight so couldn't fit in desert  and ordered an espresso (£2.15) to finish. I, being a complete trooper when it comes to deserts, ordered the Fondant Chocolate (£5.95). It had a rich dark chocolatey flavour and had a nice squidgy centre topped with vanilla ice cream. Although I expected the Fondant to be a little hotter than it was it was delicious. I only realised afterwards that it should have been served with a praline hazelnut tuile, which as you can see from my picture was missing!

At the end of the meal our bill came out at £54.60 in total but with our vouchers we only paid £14.60! What's not to like?

Overall verdict: This is not French home-cooked food but it was tasty and satisfying and to be honest I've eaten a lot worse (and paid a lot more) in Paris! However, taking into account the value for money offered via Tesco Clubcard I'd have to give it 5 stars!!

Fondant Chocolat sans praline hazelnut tuile