Getting Cheesy in Cardiff: Madame Fromage
If you know me or you have read any of my previous blogs, you
would know that I am really trying to restrict myself to helping local
businesses and not eat at any food chains (despite my Nandos yesterday, oops).
I just think that chains always serve the same average meal just with an extra
side of crappy customer service. My parents often visit this cute, boutique
little cheese shop at the end of Castle Arcade called Madame Fromage. They've
recommended it to a few of their friends and each and every one of them have
returned their verdict to my parents saying they fully enjoyed it. This made me
think that it was my turn to try it whilst I was home on the weekend!
We walked towards the shop and
there were no seats available for quite a while - this is always a good
indication of how nice a place is. We waited a few minutes and noticed the
staff were incredibly busy, but despite being rushed off their feet they still
managed to apologise and say hello. My mum spotted a group of boys leaving so
shouted "GET THAT TABLE!!" in a similar tone she would shout
"GET THE WASHING IN!!" when there is a slight bit of rain. I
ran to the table and sat down with a tray of Camembert that had been dug into
by the boys there previous. Even the Camembert that was half eaten and cold
looked amazing, it literally made my mouth drool. From this point, my mind was
set on that Camembert, I had sat down and fully decided that I was going to get
it without even having looked at the menu.
At first, the food menu does
look quite expensive. The Camembert (I know I keep talking about the Camembert
and you know what, I didn’t even order it) was £13.50 I believe, which I
thought was quite a lot. But when you think about it, there is no way that a
Camembert the size that it was could be for one person, it was definitely for
about 2/3 people and the salad garnish and the bread definitely made up the
price. However, we ordered a bottle of wine despite my mum saying, "I
can't drink anymore Emma-Leigh, I have been off sick for months" blah blah
blah. The wine was only £15 which was quite reasonable considering most pubs
that I have worked in usually start their wine list from about £18.
The main issue with this board?
The fact that me and my mum didn't speak to each other for a good ten minutes
whilst we dug in - don't even think we touched our wine for a little while
because we were too stuck into the food. Again, at first the price looks
daunting; £18.50 for a sharing platter which seems a bit much for a little bit
of tapas in town. Again, what you need to remember is that it is to share with
up to 4 people and the amount of cheese alone would have been that much so it is
100% worth it. The olives are full of flavour, the brown and white bread is
fresh and warm which is always the best bit, chutney which we asked to top-up
and the staff did it without hesitation and a delicious mix of ham and cheeses.
I was going to write a paragraph about my low-points, so that
cheese-lovers and chain-banners know exactly what to expect when they visit,
but I can’t really think of anything that bothered me throughout our sitting.
Perhaps the food took a little longer to come out than normal, but perhaps
because we were sitting in jealousy watching everyone else’s food come out
before ours which made time go a lot slower. Overall, I would highly recommend this
place and I can understand why it has 4.8 stars on TripAdvisor. A hidden gem,
but when you find it, you’ll love it.
0 comments