food/drink
LAS IGUANAS **** Mermaid Quay, Cardiff Bay. 029 2045 9165. Following the success of their already well established city centre based restaurant, Las Iguanas have expanded with a stylish, colourful and contemporary new restaurant in Cardiff Bay.
The new open-plan restaurant is large and welcoming, the design is lively and the service friendly. Although we were visiting on a Monday evening, it was a welcome sight to see the restaurant packed with diners. The restaurant remained busy throughout and the atmosphere was relaxed. Although a chain restaurant, Las Iguanas manage to deliver an exciting menu with great variety. Accommodating for all palates, allergies and flavours, the menu left us reeling with choice. From Brazillian to Peruvian, Mexican and Chilean, the range of dishes on offer was tantalising. Settling on delicious anticuchos to start the meal, and a packed Chimichanga, and flavoursome Xinxim for our main course, the food was balanced with delicious levels of spice. The Brazilian Xinxim contained succulent pieces of lime chicken with a silky crayfish and peanut sauce, while the vegetarian Chimichanga was full of flavour. A delicious warm orange chocolate fudge cake rounded off the meal. With its emphasis on authentic South American cuisine, Las Iguanas are extremely successful in delivering great variety. Avoiding the restrictions of a typically Mexican-heavy South American-themed menu, Las Iguanas explore the entire region with a great range of dishes. Value for money isn’t something you need to worry about as Las Iguanas certainly don’t skimp on portion size. This was my first visit to Las Iguanas, and I was impressed by its contemporary feel and intriguing menu. I’ll be making a return visit soon. GARETH LUDKIN
CROWN SOCIAL***** The Parc Hotel, Park Place, Cardiff. 029 2078 5593. After a fanfare opening and a fabulous redesign, renowned Michelin-starred executive chef, Martin Blunos, and his brilliant team are truly in situ creating gorgeous food and a plethora of contemporary flavours at the Crown Social. Taking into account seasonality and sourcing sensational Welsh produce to create fresh and pleasing dishes, the Crown Social has been created to deliver a unique ‘social’ experience. Whether you choose three starters and a main or two desserts and a coffee, the concept is to pick – at random if you wish – a selection of dishes from the bar or restaurant menu. A champagne bellini after work with a hard boiled quail’s egg and celery salt. Or creamed pearl barley and artichoke with a glass of chardonnay are equally encouraged by the superb restaurant staff. After a couple of nibbles from the bar – crisp pulled lamb breast and sticky beef rib middles – we were shown to our table. White onion soup and grilled mackerel served with a Russian salad was followed by roast quail, satay straw potatoes and Welsh pork belly, apples and Gwynt y Ddraig with a side order of seasonal veg. As expected, all the dishes were beautifully presented, providing a taste sensation on every level. After much deliberation, our desserts arrived in the form of warm doughnuts with a vanilla milkshake and a honeycomb soufflé and coconut and lime sorbet. To say that the soufflé was divine is an understatement. Rounding off the meal, the 1918 Gran Reserva Chilean red wine was exceptional. Perfect. The Crown Social delivers what Cardiff desperately needs – an interesting and varied menu, informed professional staff and a social dining experience to please the most apathetic of diners. ANTONIA LEVAY
.CN**** 228 City Road, Cardiff. 029 2048 6688
The name refers to the domain for Chinese websites, which is reasonably obvious when you see it written down. Spoken aloud, it sounds like it should be French, if anything: dottecienne. (Did you mean: diététicienne, Google asks.) The message could be that .cn is looking to cater to folks who regularly tangle with such URLs: people raised in China who are keen to eat food that actually resembles what is eaten there. When Buzz visits, on a post-payday Tuesday evening, everyone else in there is Chinese, and of student age. While this bears the aforementioned message out, the restaurant – open since January, and laid out with a minimalist, modern decor – is keen to impose itself on the domestic population of Cardiff. It would be a small travesty if it didn’t, because not only is the menu largely unique in Cardiff, based on what Buzz eats it’s also terrific. Industrious in its intent to use the less celebrated parts of the animal, you can get dishes like pig ear, pork lungs, lamb offal soup and spicy duck tongue, if you’re so inclined. I’m banned from doing so by my vegetarian partner, who tolerated me eating a fish with its head on last month, so I go for braised pork in soy sauce as my main. It’s commendably fall-apart tender and just fatty enough. Tofu skin and green pepper is the chosen veggie dish: the former ingredient is sliced to look like tagliatelle and, the difficulty of sourcing it in the UK notwithstanding, as simple as it’s effective. (This also applies to my partner’s shredded potato and chilli starter.) We share a serving of fried rice with cashew and pineapple, and I manage to eat a whole steamed bun. Moreover, I make my first acquaintance with pearl milk tea, a sweet drink with tapioca balls which you suck up through a straw. It’s a pretty incomparably tactile experience, and is only the tip of the iceberg as regards .cn’s efforts to extract Cardiff’s Chinese cuisine from MSG purgatory. NOEL GARDNER
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