I like eating in French brasseries. I often go to Paris and both love the food and the atmosphere in brasseries. So I was very excited about the prospect of going to Brasserie Roux with some colleagues from work. However, that excitment was misplaced. They had difficulty booking a table of eight for us and treated one of my female collegues very poorly - they thought she was a personal assistant booking a table for her male boss. They also did not appreciate it when one person did not turn up (she was feeling ill so was in no mood to go out).
The menu at the restaurant looked very impressive and had all the best of brasserie food. It was too bad that it did not really live up to the same kind of food that you get in France in more ordinary places that don't have the fancy decor. Nonetheless, I had a very good terrine, followed by some beef cheek which was very tender and came in an excellent sauce. Some of my colleagues were a bit disappointed with their French onion soup (very stringy cheese), another was served some rather uninspired pasta.
While the food was generally of good quality, the service was appallingly poor. The service was slow on a night that was not very busy for the restaurant. On top of that, wrong dishes were served, it took ages for what turned out to be rather bad coffees to arrive. After drinking our coffees, the waiter surreally asked if we wanted any coffee. When we did ask for the bill, they forgot to bring it as they were setting things up for breakfast the next morning - we had to ask again. We did not pay the service charge included on our bill, since frankly, we did not received very good service. As retribution for our injustice, the staff refused to bring our coats to us.