Côte St Albans

Walk past the cathedral and you'll spot Côte tucked into St Albans' High Street, looking every bit the Parisian brasserie it's channelling. The room's got that effortless French thing going on—dark wood, brass fixtures, the kind of place that feels equally at home for a business lunch or a proper night out. You're here for the classics executed without fuss: thick-cut fillet steak with proper béarnaise, moules marinières that remind you why the French do seafood, duck confit that falls apart on your fork. The wine list knows what it's doing, and the cocktails are genuinely thoughtful rather than overthought. Service strikes that rare balance between attentive and unbothered—they're not fawning, but they're not invisible either.