Garcon!
Reading the notes of some nibblers you’d imagine the whole restaurant
reviewing shebang was one long chore. However, sometimes a restaurant comes
along that gets even the most spoiled gastro-brats excited. Garcon! is one
of these. A new venture from the team behind Le Gallois and France Galle, the
concept is a thoroughly French experience in the heart of Cardiff Bay. This
is clear as soon as you enter the restaurant with its powder-blue banquettes,
decadent bar and the kind of fixtures that reek of Parisian charm. In a good
way, of course. After the décor comes the service - knowledgeable, splendidly
aproned, and purring with Gallic intonation. I must stop now or there won’t
be room for the food, and that would be a crime worthy of the guillotine. My
companion C started with a black and white pudding salad while I went all earthy
with pan-fried wild mushrooms. Both more than lived up to their price tag and
had us waiting with bated breath for the mains. C had a filet of beef so perfectly
cooked it could have been mistaken for Turkish Delight from a distance. But
perhaps the meat was merely blushing at my feeble attempts to hide astonishment
at my own main course. A royal seafood platter of lobster, clams, oysters,
razor-shells and king prawns. It was so good I had to take a picture of it.
Not very cool, not very French, I know. Given that we washed the whole lot
down with a Sancerre pinot noir that disguised it’s 13% volume almost
criminally, it is not surprising that we both left giggling like kids who had
just got an extra foam shrimp in our 10p mix-up. To sum up? Go there. Go there
as soon as you can.
Matthew David Scott has some thought for food