Was so impressed by my lunch out this work break-time, I had to sneak this in here…
If there’s one place you have lunch in Cardiff city centre make it Café Minuet. It’s utterly excellent. It’s in Castle Arcade and is about the size of a shoebox. Step through the door and you have the kitchen area to the left behind the till, a space about the size of a sandpit crowded by the fine eccentric Italian chef and owner Mr Marcello and his two young and rather pretty daughters.
Marcello loves classical music, deeply and passionately. Plastered upon the walls you will find photocopies of Deutches Gramophone record covers, printed-out portraits of famous composers and score sheets. A signed well-wishing poster of soprano Emma Kirkby adorns the far wall, of whom a recipe is named after. In fact nearly all the dishes are named after famous composers, tenors, sopranos and notable musicians. The creamy mushroom tagliatelle in nutmeg and white wine sauce is called Don Giovanni, for example. On each table a large A3 sheet laminated poster sits, each one peppered by the intense stares of various composers, with a little autobiographical history beneath the name of most dishes. Meanwhile a stereo plays whatever Marcello fancies at the moment, be it a light opera, rousing Slavonic symphony or Italian waltz.
So how’s the tucker? Filter coffee puts a fair few expensive café roasts to shame and is a mere £1.50. Pro-tip, drink it black and savour, it’s quite mellow and sweet. This meal myself and my friend Alice plumped for two spinach dishes. I went for an Involtini Gioachino Rossini (Rossini composer of thirty nine operas, most famous being the comic Barber of Seville) and Alice for an Emma Kirkby (English soprano and famed expert of early music).
Both were spinach pancakes done a little differently. My Rossini consisted of three beef burger sized pancake wraps containing chopped porcine mushroom with a soft cheese and spinach, smothered in a delicious, zesty but happily none too aggressive arrabbiata sauce. The entire affair was melt in the mouth delicious, but with a feeling of pleasing substance too; perfectly balanced between stomach filler and a light concoction. It came with a side dish of garlic bread for no extra charge, generously consisting of two long half batons of home baked bread, both crunchy, decently seasoned and again meltingly good.
Alice proclaimed her meal just as delicious. And the total bill for two meals and two coffees? A staggeringly cheap fifteen pounds exact. Despite being incredibly busy on a match day lunch time the service was swift if necessarily a little formal, and there were no compromises in this rush hour feast.
My verdict? Whilst the Vegetarian Food Studio down in the Cardiff suburb of Grangetown remains to my mind the best restaurant in town, it merely edges ahead of this charismatic café bistro. Obscure, independent, with flavoursome dishes that are quite unique and run by a legend and served up by two rather attractive sisters, this is the best place you could eat out at in the city centre. Alas, it closes at half four, but for a luncheon and a good atmosphere it can’t be beat.
This wins the coveted BETEO Restaurant Award Rating of…
Any others out there I should know?
