Maison de Boeuf, Cardiff city centre restaurant review

There’s a few reasons why this blog includes a menagerie of restaurant reviews from places across the UK and beyond.

It’s not just in case you find yourself craving pork knuckle the next time you’re in Munich or roti canai when you’re waiting for a train at London Euston.

It also hopefully shows that I have a frame of reference when it comes to reviewing places in Cardiff.

There's no better example than when it comes to Maison de Boeuf, a new opening in Cardiff's Castle Arcade, which is unquestionably inspired by one of my favourite restaurants in Paris, Relais de L’entrecote. 

Having first opened in Paris's Porte Maillot in 1959 and gradually spread across the world, Relais de L’entrecote and its sibling restaurants offer a no choice menu of green salad followed by a main course of two portions of steak and chips. The steak is accompanied by a superb signature sauce which is made with a combination of green herbs like tarragon and thyme, chicken livers and butter; it's the kind of thing which would make even an old boot taste great. 

L'entrecote's success all comes down to their singular focus on doing one thing very well indeed. And then serving it to you twice. You could say it's a case of deja moo. 

So, how does Maison de Boeuf compare to the OG?

First up, a tick in Maison de Boeuf’s box is that you can actually reserve a table. In Paris we had to queue up before Relais de L’entrecote even opened to avoid a lengthy wait for a table. So, on a busy night in Cardiff where 60,000 people had descended on the city centre to see Beyonce, we were pleased to be able to waltz straight into the restaurant.

Secondly, the team behind the perennially popular Coffee Barker, Gin & Juice and Rum & Fizz have done a really good job at capturing a romantic Parisian ambiance. With its moody lighting, ornate chandeliers, crisp white tablecloths and red leather banquettes, it oozes French charm. There’s also the option to sit outside in the arcade and watch the world go by; an option which I took up in the name of decent food photography.

Maison de Boeuf’s selection of wine by the glass is the first thing which doesn’t quite hit the mark. Whilst there are a couple of French reds, whites and rosés on offer, their fizz by the glass is only prosecco and there's no champagne. And their dessert wine by the glass is a singular port with no sauternes or monbazillac. Sacré bleu.

We both kicked off with a couple of halves of easy drinking Bière Napoleon (£3.50). And I followed it up with a gluggable glass of Château Laulerie Bergerac merlot (£7.45).

Maison de Boeuf’s set menu offers a choice of one course for £20.95, two for £24.95 or three for £29.95. In the evening it seems reasonable value to me, especially with steak as part of the equation. But at lunchtime, when there's some cracking deals on offer at the city's top restaurants, it's less of a compelling proposition. 

There’s a selection of three starters available and unlike Relais de L’entrecote, none of them are green salad. 

Passing on the option of snails with garlic butter, I ordered a cauldron of French onion soup. With a good balance of savouriness and sweetness, it was chocka with soft caramelised onions and topped with a soup soaked crouton and a generous ooze of melted gruyere.

Mrs G enjoyed a twice baked cheese soufflé with a light texture that was bathed in a rich cheese and mustard sauce. Serviceable pieces of soft baguette acted as a good mop. 

Onto mains, and Maison de Boeuf does a good tribute act to Relais de L’entrectote.

Thin slices of extremely tender rump steak with a good level of beefiness were served an accurate medium pink; unusually there's no option for medium rare, only rare or medium. Hyper crisp golden fries were excellent – in fact these guys could easily open an offshoot called Chateau de Frites. And that secret sauce, whilst thicker and much less plentiful than in Paris, had a lovely herby, savoury, buttery intensity.

A bowl of lightly dressed frisée lettuce hit the mark as a side dish; it was nice to see the greenery still appear on the menu. 

Once we’d cleaned our plates, right on cue, we were offered the rest of our beef and more sauce and fries. Impressively there didn’t seem to be a limit to the amount of chips on offer as the waiter only stopped when Mrs G showed concern for my health.

A small quibble but it felt like the initial portion of steak and sauce was smaller compared to the second – it’s something which could be easily rectified by adjusting the balance between the two servings.

For dessert, there’s a good selection of classics on offer from tarte au citron to choux buns and cheese.

Both the puddings we ordered were underwhelming. However, hats off to the restaurant who were quick to take them off the bill when we shared our feedback.

Tarte tatin wasn’t tarte tatin – it lacked both crisp puff pastry and a layer of golden caramel. Instead, warm cakey pastry was topped with soft sweet apple and a dollop of creamy vanilla ice cream.

A Paris-Brest choux bun was soft and leaden instead of light and crisp and drizzled with an overly sweet chocolate sauce. But I did enjoy the bun’s hazelnut custard filling and fresh raspberries.

Overall, I enjoyed my meal at Maison du Boeuf, despite the issues with the dessert and wine list, and I think it does a good job at emulating the restaurants which it's inspired by. With its warm and friendly service and charming setting, I think it’s a decent addition to Cardiff city centre’s restaurant line-up.

The details:

Address - Maison de Boeuf, 21 Castle Arcade, Cardiff CF10 1BU

Web - https://www.maisondeboeuf.com/

Telephone - 029 2280 4462

The Broad Chare and six of the best pubs in Newcastle and Gateshead

I’m not sure how many times I’ve told you I’m a proud Geordie, but here we go again.

On a recent visit to the promised land, I was struck by the quality of Newcastle’s pub scene.

It feels like around every corner there’s a characterful freehold pub serving an interesting selection of craft beers and real ales. A fair few of them serve top notch food too.

In fact, judging by other recent visits to Brighton, Bath, and Manchester, it feels like Cardiff is missing out.

Whilst we have a few excellent pubs, including the Lansdowne, Heathcock, Grange and Four Elms, and craft beer bars like Pop ‘n’ Hops and Scaredy Cats, most other places serve the same beers from the same brewery and an identikit menu of underwhelming food.

It really would be great to see more places with kitchen residencies like Hench Burger at the Royal Oak on Newport Road, and more venues stocking craft beers from the UK’s best breweries like Beak and Deya.

Which brings me on to the Broad Chare on Newcastle’s Quayside. Owned by Terry Laybourne’s acclaimed 21 Hospitality Group, it’s a regular fixture of UK’s Top 50 Gastropubs list and currently sits at number 44.

Downstairs there’s a dedicated pub area with guest beers on draught from the likes of Verdant, Burnt Mill and Siren, whilst upstairs in the restaurant there’s a menu of high-end pub cooking to bring out anyone’s inner trencherman. Dishes include liver and bacon, megrim sole with spiced mussel butter, and glazed bacon chop with prune and mustard sauce.

As well as the draught beer, the Broad Chare also stocks an interesting selection of bottles including smoky rauchbiers and vinegary Flanders red ales. We shared a superb bottle of Nøgne Ø Banyan By the Sea (£20), a wild rhubarb ale with plenty of fragrant fruit, a little funk and a good balance of sweetness and acidity.

Wanting to try as much of the menu as possible, we shared a bunch of snacks and smaller and larger dishes between four of us.

A textbook scotch egg (£6.50) married a crisp crumb, well-seasoned sausage meat and a fudgy yolk.

Golden battered pieces of cauliflower (£5.50) were served with a compelling pot of Coronation-esque curried mayo.

A "small plate" of haggis on toast (£13) most certainly stretched the definition. A massive piece of crunchy toast topped with peppery haggis, a runny-yolked egg and warm HP sauce (with a lovely sweet-savoury acidity) was a dreamy combination.

Crisp-crumbed scrumpets (£9) were packed with long-cooked pieces of intense flavoured lamb. Their richness was counterbalanced by a light and crisp white cabbage slaw and dollop of tartare sauce.

Silky smoked cods roe served with peppery radishes and garlic croutons (£8) was a fine example of its type. I think Mrs G might be single-handedly keeping the UK’s cods roe industry in business, such is her passion for the stuff.

Sweet charred leeks (£16) were accompanied by creamy and cooling sheeps curd, the crunch of hazelnut and a comforting spelt risotto, which might have benefited from an extra twist of seasoning.

The best dish of the night was a massive disc of soft-textured spicy black pudding (£19). Everything about its accompaniments hit the mark - a mustardy and savoury Devilled sauce, thick buttery mash and fresh greens.

For dessert, the silkiest of delicately-spiced egg custard tarts (£7), which would have benefited from slightly crisper pastry, was served with a pile of well-soaked prunes. It’s my kind of way of getting fibre into your diet.

A soft squidgy ginger loaf (£7) was drenched in deep dark butterscotch sauce and topped with a scoop of ice cream.

So, the Broad Chare is a great example of a Newcastle pub. But there are so many more quality boozers in Newcastle and Gateshead which I hold in high regard. Here are just a few examples:

Free Trade Inn, Ouseburn

Take a short walk along the quayside from the Tyne Bridge and you’ll find yourself at the Free Trade in Ouseburn. Sit in their elevated beer garden and you’ll enjoy stunning views looking back along the Tyne whilst enjoying craft beers from the likes of the Kernel, Cantillon, Donzoko and Old Chimneys. There’s also a street food van regularly parked up outside on the weekend and samosas and pork pies on the bar.

 

Bridge Tavern, Newcastle Quayside

Located slap-bang underneath the Tyne Bridge, the Bridge Tavern has nine rotating cask lines from breweries like Wylam and Burning Sky as well as keg beers from the likes of Deya and Neon Raptor. They also do a fine selection of quality pub grub with dishes including frickles, scotch eggs and game pie. You can read my review of the Bridge Tavern here.

Crown Posada, Newcastle Quayside

The Crown Posada’s grand building dates back to 1880 and its name, which is Spanish for “inn”, comes from the many Spanish sailors who used to dock on the River Tyne. With its ornate stained-glass, coved ceilings and wood-panelled interior you’d be forgiven for thinking this would be a dusty old man’s boozer; it’s anything but. On our visit we enjoyed a Northern Monk x Other Half DIPA and a Pastore raspberry and blackberry sour.

Cumberland Arms, Ouseburn

If you were asked to draw a quintessential pub it would probably look something like the Cumberland Arms. With its regular live music, comedy, poetry and traditional music sessions, this is a pub which is very much at the heart of its local community. When we visited we enjoyed an excellent session IPA from Salopian, there was a burger van parked up outside, and live music playing from local up and coming musicians.

Hawker Market, Gateshead Quayside

Okay, I know it’s not really a pub but it’s just a couple of minutes over the bridge to Gateshead's Hawker Market. At this street food market, adjacent to the superb Trakol, there are craft beers from Wylam and By the River Co and traders include Parm-o-Rama’s high end parmos and Acropolis’ groaning souvlaki.

Axis, Gateshead

Whilst you’re over in Gateshead you definitely take a short stroll up the hill to Axis. Located in a railway arch they serve an interesting selection of craft beers from the likes of Track, Burning Sky and Verdant as well as natural wine. We stumbled in on their first birthday party when they had a tap takeover from Deya.