MASTER A
MALESSERE
Is this the new El Bulli? Neville Blech catches a crab in Cardiff.
Martin Blunos achieved two Michelin stars whilst cooking at his Lettonie restaurants in Bristol and Bath over the last 20 years or so, so it was with some anticipation that we went to the newly opened Crown Social restaurant in the Parc Hotel in Cardiff, where he is now in charge of the kitchen there.
On the menu it states...
“Rather than offering individual starters and main courses,
the Crown Social has designed the menu for sharing.
We suggest that you pass our plates amongst your friends
and companions. Our staff are here to guide you.
Eat as much or little as you desire.”
Effectively, this is designed to be a kind of grazing menu – small plates – sometimes VERY small plates, so although the prices look to be very reasonable you really do need to almost double up to have a satisfying meal. The dishes are, on the whole, well executed, with one or two surprising exceptions which I will mention later, but many lack substance with minimalism perhaps taken to a somewhat annoying degree.
For our first test meal, we decided to order two “nibbles”, two “small plates” and three “social” or “meal” plates. A cold, hard boiled pheasant’s egg with a little sea salt (£1.50) was OK and the tiny piece of Sticky Middle Beef Rib (£1.80) was succulent enough. The small slab of home made Black Pudding (£4.95) was a tasty morsel to whet the appetite, whilst the small round slice of Poached Sewin (£5.45) was exquisitely cooked but gone in a trice.
We then had what would appear to be the signature dish of the restaurant - The SOCIAL CLUB (£14.95) buttered tiger prawn,(yes, singular) pancetta, chicken breast, duck egg, gem lettuce. Not only was the tiger prawn singular, but it was pretty tiny, too, I would have thought that if you were only going to serve ONE prawn, it ought at least, to be a big fat one. The pancetta was a tiny sliver of streaky bacon and the piece of chicken breast was dry and overcooked. But the most astonishing thing about this dish, was the hamburger bap with something like a Marie-Rose sauce thinly spread on it which consisted of half of the overall mass of the dish. If you took this away (which in my view was a totally unnecessary accompaniment to the dish anyway), there was little of any substance left. At least, not for £15.
The Crab Tortellini with Crab Cream Sauce (£5.00 for 3 pieces or £10.95 for 5 pieces – accountants, please note) were tasty enough but again a little overcooked and the cream sauce was notable by its absence. Roast Quail, Satay Sauce and Straw Potatoes (£11.95) consisted of half a quail, the leg of which was quite succulent but the breast again a little overcooked, was accompanied by a few matchsticks of fried potato. A tasty sauce, but not something which in my opinion would warrant 2 Michelin stars.
A bitter disappointment for us, but by that time we discovered from the staff that Martin was not in the kitchen that night but was at some function in London. Good luck to him, but this wasn’t something we appreciated.
We did mention our concerns to the waiting staff, particularly about the overcooked food and to their credit, they offered us the dessert which did consist of a selection of 5 tiny different desserts from their dessert menu which were all very well made.
The wine list was pretty large with wines starting at £20, but there was nothing with any sort of a reputation less than £50 and some fairly outlandish prices on smart Bordeaux and Burgundies. We went for the small selection of wines by the glass – a Gewurztraminer and a Pinot Noir from Cono Sur at £4.50 for 125 ml .seemingly the best value.
Service at times was somewhat haphazard. The restaurant wasn’t full by any means, but I had to ask three times for one of the glasses of wine and when it did finally arrive, it was the wrong wine! That finished up on the house, too. The staff were pleasant enough and were obviously trying their best, but some were clearly inexperienced or undertrained.
Our second visit produced a more traditional Sunday Lunch menu formula (at least on paper) – a three course prix fixe menu at £24.95. There were about 4 choices in each course. At this meal, we were joined by a friend, who only had two course and coffee instead of a dessert, but nevertheless, was charged for three courses and for the coffee on top. We each had a different starter, Sonia had a Gazpacho with two small “tiger” prawns in it, I had a rough terrine and our friend some asparagus. All portions were very small. Then the three of us decided to have the poached sewin as the main course and when they came, we doubted that they could have weighed more than 100 grams each. It looked more ridiculous since Sonia and I asked for our fish to be lightly cooked (which they were) but looked considerably larger than our friend’s one since it had further shrunk with the extra cooking to about the size of a large postage stamp.
Somebody must have woken up to the fact that Sunday lunchers in Cardiff might expect a bit of substance, so these tiny pieces of fish were accompanied, by 4 Yorkshire puddings, a large dish of roast potatoes and some plainly cooked cauliflower and carrots, which frankly one could have had at any roadside pub in the land.
Desserts were just as tiny as in the grazing menu. What is incomprehensible is that this was a three course Sunday Lunch, not a five or six course tasting menu. I could have understood the portion sizes if it were. I would like to have asked Martin how much of this was his idea, but he wasn’t around on Sunday, either.
Was this supposed to be Cardiff’s answer to El Bulli? Well El Bulli is closed now.
Crown Social
The Parc Hotel Park Place
Cardiff CF10 3JD
Open 7 days a week
Lunch 12 noon to 2 p.m.
Dinner 6 p.m. To 10 p.m.
Tel: 02920 785593
Ratings
Food 34
Wine 10
Service 4
Atmosphere 3
Value for money 0
Total 51
Martin Blunos
