Inspired11 (20 August 2010)

Cafe Rouge in Cheltenham - A four and a half stars out of five all round great place! Situated in what is perhaps one of the most stylish and cosmopolitan areas of Cheltenham city centre, Cafe Rouge is not to be missed if you can find the time in the middle of your busy shopping trip. Whether eating inside in their fairly spacious, comfortable, unapologetically and quite convincingly French-flavoured interior or outside in the conveniently ring-fenced area outside their front entrance under the intimate cover of a huge tree, which is very practical given the unpredictable and often rainy British weather!, you'll always be treated to a pleasant, friendly and un-rushed time. In all my visits there I've never noticed this establishment come even close to seeming short-staffed. That means the service is fairly quick, very reliable and always friendly. And that last part is worth repeating. In what is a lively, bustling and clearly popular place, the staff deliver the epitome of relaxed, attentive service, always with an unforced smile and a little polite and friendly conversation - if you invite it. Interestingly though, having said that Cafe Rouge Cheltenham is a lively and bustling place, it never seems over-crowded. The only mystery to me is how they, situated as they are in the South West of England, manage to employ so many staff who speak with either a strong French accent or one flavoured by some other foreign language. Do they ship them to the UK from abroad or just before they employ a born-and-bred English person do they say: ‘OK, congratulations you've got the job but just one more question, How's your French accent?’ However they do it, it definitely adds to the experience.

The food isn't exactly cheap but neither is the menu exorbitantly priced and it's quite varied. So it caters to both the cultured and the less adventurous palette. That means there's a good selection of reassuringly familiar English fare as well as French, though none of the latter is so obscure as to be alienating to the staunchly 'meat and two veg' crowd. They have a reasonably good French wine selection too. With the ever-present musical accompaniment of some smooth jazz or something a little more French-flavoured on the sound system, eating in is a pleasant experience too, with ample room amidst a thoughtfully arranged seating plan. To be honest I have spent evenings having meals in cozier places with more comfy seating but of course this isn't one of the big British restaurant chains. Cafe Rouge Cheltenham is for those who like a more lively and enlivening yet still quite comfortable place to eat and drink whilst they enjoy good conversation. Which they always can - it's never too loud and you often get background musical accompaniment to the alfresco experience too - courtesy of talented street-performers.

On a more practical note, access to the ground floor cafe is wheelchair friendly and so is the whole of the ground floor interior. The ladies' and gents' toilets are upstairs and there are quite a few stairs to climb up!. But that's no problem for the wheelchair-user since there's a disabled-dedicated toilet on the ground floor. There's a glaringly obvious 'disabled' sign on a door at the far end of the ground floor cafe area so whilst it's not exactly the most discrete arrangement I've ever seen, it is very easy to find. For that more English-type restaurant experience there's a cozier restaurant upstairs which also has a nice little balcony that looks out onto the outside tree-covered area in Cheltenham's Promenade, but it has one huge limitation. They don't have a lift so it's not wheelchair accessible at all. I've no doubt that food normally intended for the upstairs restaurant will happily be brought downstairs for the mobility-disabled patron and perhaps is, to all patrons, as standard practice, but that doesn't change the fact that effectively half of the establishment is off-limits to some of those who are not fully able-bodied and ideally, 'special arrangements' should not have to be made for people who have such limitations.

When you go to Cafe Rouge Cheltenham you can be sure of a spacious interior, a relaxed atmosphere, good food and a good range of coffees or coffee liqueurs, quite varied French wines, reliable and memorably friendly service, an eat inside or out option and the choice of a cafe or restaurant dining experience. So don't delay, go there today!