Reviewing restaurants is an undeniably subjective
activity.
Whilst there’s often a consensus of opinion
about a particular place, variations in food and service and differing tastes
and palettes often result in drastically different conclusions. The contrasting
views of Egg Wallace and John Letoad on Masterchef, and the varied conclusions of professional critics is evidence of this.
One of the difficulties of forming an opinion of a restaurant is that on a single visit you can only sample a small proportion of the menu. As a result, there’s every chance you’ve ordered the 3 worst
or 3 best dishes on offer. Whilst it can be argued a top restaurant sends out food
which is consistently excellent, in reality most places have a few duds and
winners lurking somewhere.
One of the benefits of last weekend’s visit
to Bar 44 Tapas Penarth with a large group was that I was able to sample almost their entire menu. As such, I’m pretty confident in my opinion that Bar 44
serves chuffing awesome tapas. In fact, whilst some of the dishes were blow
your socks of brilliant, the worst dishes were ‘merely’ good.
On the Saturday night we visited, Bar 44 Penarth
was absolutely rammed - drinkers thronged the bar and the restaurant was full. In
spite of this, service was friendly, repeat drink orders were taken throughout
the meal and our 20 or so tapas dishes were brought out in quick succession.
Essential dishes, to name a few, include
some wondrously crisp and fluffy triple cooked patatas bravas (£3.30),
moreishly rich ham and bechemal filled
croquettas (£4.00),
pan fried goats cheese with chestnut honey
and walnuts (£4.20),
slices of spiced morcilla (blood sausage)
with a runny duck egg and piquillo peppers (£3.80),
a textbook tortilla (£4.00),
rioja poached chorizo with a pot of crispy bread
crumbs (£4.00),
tender beef skewers served with a decadent
Romesco sauce and a plate of medium rare Iberico pork fillet served with bacon
infused lentils.
Even the olive oil served with the fresh
bread was absolutely top dollar (£2.75).
The well prepared yet slightly un-inspirational
chestnut mushrooms with garlic and fino sherry (£3.80) and a whole lemon sole a la
plancha were the low points (£4.50) - relatively speaking of course.
On the booze front, a bottle of Ferran
Adria designed wheat beer was one of the best I have ever tasted. Its lightness
meant it lived up to its billing as a perfect match for tapas.
A pint of Estrella Galicia was highly
drinkable yet run of the mill. Meanwhile, other members of the party did some
serious damage to Bar 44’s extensive cocktail list.
For dessert, a dish of Pedro Ximenez sherry
and raisin ice cream was smooth and creamy with a gentle wallop of booze (£2.50).
A flourless almond and lemon cake was
moist, citrusy and had a good density (£3.00).
A crema Catalana delivered everything you
could want from a crème brulee – most importantly, a thin and crispy caramel
top (£3.80).
I summed up my review of Bar 44 Tapas Cowbridge
by rueing the fact that their second outlet was set to open in Penarth and not
Roath. I’ll take this opportunity again to implore Bar 44 to open a
Wellfield Road branch…
The details:
Address - 14 Windsor Road, Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, CF64 1JH
Telephone - 02920 705497
Web - http://www.bar44.co.uk/
Great review of somewhere I'd love to try. I believe the Estrella was in conjunction with El Bulli to complement some of the dishes they had made so that it was a twist on having a matching wine with a course, he felt a beer could do it too - and to be fair I think they succeeded as it is a treat. Keep up the great site
ReplyDeleteps: yes, I'm a pedant!! :)
ReplyDelete@Andrew - That beer would be an ace match with most things. Think I'm going to have to track some down for home consumption!
Deletefor sale in Waitrose (certainly the Abergavenny one anyways!)
DeleteI wonder if another review is due , there seems to have been a change both in the portions and quality of food that makes you wonder if it is under the same management with the same philosophy .
ReplyDeleteWent on Friday. The wheat beer is no longer on the drinks menu , the lunctime menu was quite limited , the food was ok but not outstanding , I would go again but not in a rush to return , service was fine . 15 dishes , four deserts , six bottles of lager , 1 gin , 1 bottle water large , 143.50 for 5 people .
ReplyDelete