Review: Thomas, Cardiff

I’m writing this review a bit late, really. It’s a good couple of weeks since we ate at Thomas – Tom Simmon’s Cardiff restaurant – and I didn’t take notes at the time. But! It was too good a meal not to record, so here are just a few thoughts and recollections…

It’s got a really nice “posh neighbourhood restaurant” vibe, from the decor to the service to the sensible wine list to its position in a suburban parade of shops in a slightly more upmarket-hipster neighbourhood of Cardiff. I’d come here a lot if I lived in the city!

The mushroom parfait sounds like a bit of a signature dish and it’s very worth – absolutely packed with flavour, pungent with black garlic, and in texture and umami really on a level with the very best chicken liver parfait.

Oooo… but what he really oughta trademark are the potatoes that came with the duck main. Very good duck, by the by, flavours of star anise and carrot. Anyway, the potatoes are like… well, first you make a potato dauphinoise. Then you let it go cold. Then you chop it up into batons and fry them like chips. See? See? You don’t even have to try them to imagine how good they are.

I remember finishing the £75 tasting menu and agreeing that this was easily excellent value and a great place for Cardiff to have at the fine-without-faff end of dining. Michelin ought to be handing them a Bib Gourmand if not a star.