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Tag Archives: st davids 2

Review: Boof rotisserie & grill

April 18th, 2011

I can sometimes be hypocritical in my musings, but I think that’s only human – as long as it doesn’t happen too often.
I advocate  local business over chains, especially when it comes to eating out. The food at chains is usually daudry, plain and shipped in frozen – but on this blog I have still reviewed places like Ruby Tuesday.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Ruby Tuesday – and I think it may even be an exception to the rule because it’s Cardiff branch is the only one in the UK and is run by a pair of Welsh businessmen who bought into the franchise – so technically it’s independent, right? Or at least that’s what I’ll tell myself to make me feel less like a sell-out. Their food is good though, and definitely not shipped in.

Anyway, I talk about chains but this review is not of one – but Boof is situated in the domain of the chain, inside a shopping centre. Adjoined by a chain baked potato place and a chain chocolatier, directly across from a chain coffee shop and a chain sushi restaurant, it’s firmly in the land of big business.

Boof opened at the same time as St David’s 2 – in October 2009 – and is owned by the team who ran the stylish and classy Le Gallois in Pontcanna until their decision to close down a few weeks back. Boof remained open and has appeared to be doing quite well since; the majority of tables are taken whenever I walk past - granted there are probably only about 12 tables – but still, that’s not bad for an unknown. When people go to eat at a shopping centre they stick to what they know – this is why the mall concept does well; familiarity and well known brands all under one roof.

Boof intrudes on this party and seems to be doing quite well for it. They have the mall concepts figured out too, a simple menu with familiar favourites – burgers, steaks, salads – and the service is quick too, with our food delivered to the table within a couple of minutes.

We all chose the Boof burger, with varying degrees of cheese and bacon – not being a fan of bacon I opted just to have cheese.

The first thing you notice is the cheese, in fact – you can’t even see the beef for the dairy – all melted over the patty, whitish in colour, proving that it is indeed cheese and not a single wrap slice made in a factory out of pencil sharpenings.
Once you do get to the burger however, it is different. Good different. It’s very hard to describe, I haven’t had another burger like it on my burger conquest (post coming soon!)  - it has to have been ground in a very different way, a method that I have not come across before. Here, look at it:

It’s too tightly packed, too well formed – it’s as though the beef has never been minced. Answers on a postcard please, if you think you know the method to making this type of burger.

Anyhow, once I got past the make-up of the patty I could really enjoy the food. The cheese, beef, moist lettuce and seeded bun all seemed to work together very well. The burger wasn’t too moist, but also not too dry – although I’d probably say it was closer to the dry side than not, but that’s generally fine, a little longer and it would have been overdone.
In my burger conquest post you will hear me rant about burgers that are gratuitously  large, bigger than they need to be in order to satisfy the “bigger is always better” mentality that has seeped into consumers expectations – that if the burger is not massive and popping out at the sides, and holding the bottom and top parts of the bun 10 inches apart then it isn’t a good burger. The Boof burger doesn’t suffer from this, but it fills you up and you will leave happy.

Fries, fries, fries. Fries are a real wildcard, is something I have learned on my burger conquest (post coming soon!). No two establishments have the same method around making, cooking and storing and presenting their fries (or chips), and this makes for some very interesting analysis. With Boof’s fries, the little holder is a nice touch, I think – especially with the little ketchup receptacle on the side, it saves wastage as I’m a real “big splodge, use hardly any” kind-of guy. The fries themselves were hot, straight from the fryer and crispy – just how you would expect them to be. All too many times I have been presented with soggy, nearly cold fries – and this is a real turn-off. So, Boof fries = 8/10.

Service at Boof is odd – semi-table service is the name of the game here, a waiter seats you – but refuses to take your order, you order and pay at the counter, and then the waiter who seated you brings you your food. I can kind-of see how this works to cut staffing costs, because then patrons do not have to wait to get the attention of the one waiter who is on shift to order food or drinks or to get or pay the bill – it’s all done at the counter. In fairness, the more I think about it now the less uncommon I am realising it to be – it’s  just the same as at a pub, except with somebody seating you first.
Food arrived relatively quickly, i.e. not in a second like at a Wetherspoons – which usually denotes microwaved produce, but still quickly enough for us not to think “where is our food” and the service was pleasant.
We took Tristan with us and there was a choice of highchairs – in fact, this was the first time he had ever been in a highchair so we tried two of them, the server was good enough to bring each of them to us to try.

Rating: 7/10
Bill: £21.90

 

Ruby Tuesday: Part deux

September 17th, 2010


We decided to revisit Ruby Tuesday, after-all I had been anticipating its arrival for months – so to only visit on the opening night and to take that as a representation of their usual quality of experience would be silly.

I tried their “triple prime cheddar burger”, which apparently has been said to be “the worlds best burger”, and it certainly ranks up there – it looks good too.

I finally got to experience the “endless fries”, every time I ran out I was asked if I wanted more – awesome, except when the waiter asked I expected him to round off the sentence with “…you fat bastard”.

8/10, good dinner and good times. We spent over two hours there, which is not too bad.

Tex-Hex

April 12th, 2010

I’ll be honest from the outset, I have not always been a fan of Mexican food, or Texan flavours or Tex-Mex or whatever they’re calling it these days, but I think that I’m getting sympathy cravings as Misia goes through her pregnancy. In the past few weeks I have made no less than 3 tortilla based meals and I’m starting to get a tongue for it, where I previously didn’t even fancy peppers so much I am now using a whole bell pepper in a wok full of minced beef and Mexican spices.

On the basis of this I decided that it was time for a visit to one of the newest additions to Cardiff’s culinary scene, the chain Tex-Mex restaurant Chimichanga which opened late last year on the East-Side of the new St David’s 2 shopping centre. Sitting alongside its chainy-buddies Pizza Express, Nando’s, Yo! Sushi and Café Rouge it seems well in its place. Would it do well elsewhere in Cardiff, say for example on St Mary Street? Something tells me that it wouldn’t, but this isn’t a blog about effective urban location demographics so let’s move on.

It was 3pm on a Wednesday and the entire centre was pretty much deserted, not like at 3pm last Wednesday afternoon, at the height of the Easter half-term holidays when the entire place was filled with screaming children, when I was secretly wishing they would all throw themselves face-first down the escalators. No, the place was empty.

After hanging around for 5 minutes to be shown to a seat, despite being the only people there, bar a party of 4 who were already tucking in, we were asked if we wanted to sit inside or outside, which was quite a puzzling question to be asked when you’re in a shopping centre. It turns out that there is an “outside” which is outside of what would be considered the main dining area, but of course is still inside, on the second floor of a shopping centre. A little puzzled we humoured him and said we’d sit inside, I guess it’s not quite summer yet so it might be chilly sitting outside. Inside a shopping centre.

The menu is extensive, with all the dishes you would expect from any good Tex-Mex restaurant, Tacos, Fajitas, Cajun Chicken, Chilli, Burritos and the rest. The choice looked good, now what would I choose?
The closest I suppose I have been to a Tex-Mex restaurant before would probably be Taco Bell which I sometimes stop by on my visits to the States. They do a mean 99¢ Burrito, let me tell you, they must either be making a fantastic loss on it or its all made out of ground-up horse bones because it’s packed with minced beef.

I had to try the Beef Burrito because it promises “A baked flour tortilla with jack cheese, sautéed onions and peppers garnished with sour cream, chives, guacamole and tortilla croutons”. Hell, if Taco Bell can do it right for GBP 0.75 (est) then for £10.25 this must be the mac-daddy of all Burritos. In fact it must be 13.66666666 times as good!

The chef was bored. I got a great view of his open-plan kitchen from my seat, and he was clearly not feeling the afternoon quiet spell. All alone with the shiny utensils, ovens and such he had nothing to do. I didn’t see his face light-up when he got our order, but I’m sure that it did. Finally, he could do what I can only imagine is his life’s work, to bring good Mexican food to the malnourished British public.

No less than 5 minutes after placing our order the plates were at the table, piping hot and waiting to be consumed. This chef is a wizard! Making a perfectly wrapped Burrito, garnished with hot beef chilli, nachos and salad and my dining partners “Grande Chicken Quesadilla” all by himself in 4.5 minutes flat? Wow.

Sarcasm aside for one second, we’re talking pre-made, pre-plated microwave job here aren’t we?
Seriously, if I wanted that I would have gone to Wetherspoons, where I could probably have had it for £3.99 or less.

What can I say? I noticed the quick turnaround time, attributed it to a microwave job and this immediately knocked 5 points off their possible 10 point review. It could only go down-hill from here.
The side garnish nachos were slightly soggy, something that is not good for any corn based snack and the Burrito itself was almost completely devoid of any flavour. It wasn’t wet, it wasn’t dry, it wasn’t spicy, it wasn’t mild, in fact, were there any spices in there at all? Nothing on the plate did anything to excite the taste buds at all, something that Tex-Mex is supposed to do with its fusion of spices from both North and South of the border. It’s supposed to reach up and bite you, but in a good way.
We were offered desserts but declined, dessert is never good in restaurants anyway.

But wait! There was one good thing. I ordered a beer with my meal, a San Miguel (from the choice of that, Brahama (which is Brazillian?!) or Corona) and the mug that was presented to me to pour it into had been kept in the freezer, a trick which always gets points in my book. There is nothing worse than pouring your cold bottle of beer into a warm pint glass.

Bill: £24.50 + tip.
Verdict: Go for the cold beer glasses and the amazing Tasmanian devil chef. The food? Old El Paso could have done better.