Mission Burrito - (The Friary, Cardiff) - Review

Generally speaking this blog will contain far more dinner reviews than lunch reviews, but that said you cannot underestimate the value of a good lunch. Or rather, you cannot underestimate how difficult it can be to find a good lunch. Increasingly few people enjoy chain food to go such as Subway and yet there just isnt a wealth of choices to avoid it always. Which is why of an afternoon you'll still see me wandering about with a footlong steak and cheese, or a McHeartAttack, or - god forbid - a Tesco meal deal. If you have seen me doing this you'll have noticed the blank look behind my eyes, the lack of soul from my food reflected in my sad and weary expression. With this in mind i introduce to you Cardiff's latest opening - Mission Burrito.

 (Burrito with extras £6.45 and Jarritos Mexican Cola £2.50)

 
Founded by Jan and Sharon Rasmussen, Mission Burrito is a small string of independant burrito shops around England. Now having crept over the border to Wales, the new Mission Burrito shop in The Friary (you know, where Live Lounge is) becomes their sixth addition to the family. When you walk in it strikes a lovely balance between the professionalism of a chain and the feel of an independent. Clearly now this is a polished enterprise.

The food is simple what it says on the tin type stuff. They make a burrito and they make it well. A four step ordering process makes it simple - you choose the dish, then the filling, then the extras, then the salsa. I plucked for a burrito with a carnitas (pulled pork to you and me) filling, with added lettuce, sour cream, monteray jack cheese and guacamole topped off with chipotle salsa. Not much to say apart from it worked. Infact, looking at the menu you get a feeling any combination would work easily, taking any strain out of ordering. The burrito itself was a brick. Deceptive in size, it took far more eating than most lunches around town. Every bite revealed a new combination of the contents. A surprise though for real winner of the day came from the Jarritos Mexican Soda range. At £2.50 each for a bottle, the fruity tasting cola was a real find. I'd be tempted to pop in to buy a bottle even if i wasnt stopping for food. It was that good.

Sadly there is a downside... Mission Burrito might be good, but it straddles an awkward gap in the market. Something that is neither lunch nor dinner. Or is both lunch and dinner, depending on how you look at it. I've went ahead and catogorised this as a lunching establishment, but you can if you prefer also nip in for dinner. Apart from it feels just too much like lunch. Which is fine because with the number of offices etc in town there is always room for new places to pick up gourmet fast food on your break - but wait! Mission Burrito comes in at a minimum cost of £5.45. Or, if like me you have a couple of extra sauces and then a bottle of the excellent Jarritos cola, it can cost you a whopping £8.95. Now, £8.95 isnt a lot of money really. But it's a hell of a lot more than a Tesco meal deal or a sandwich from a sandwich bar. Not many people fancy spening nine pounds on their lunch break often.

Therein lies the issue - Mission Burrito makes an excellent product to fit a gap in the market that, well, doesnt really exist. Too expensive for lunch but not a proper dining out experience for dinner it falls somewhere in between. It seems they were so busy thinking that creating an outlet to sell a burrito was the gap in the market that they forgot to decide which meal of the day to cater for.

• File under impulse buy. 
• File under once in a while. 
• File under that great place you loved but didnt really go back to often. 

I really hope there is a place for Mission Burrito in Cardiff because it was cracking. The service was fast, the venue was quirky, and the taste was authentic. Hopefully it wins enough people over that it's still there in a few months time when i begin to fancy another - as although i know why i'd go back, i just dont know when.

• Food: 8/10
• Service: 3/5
• Value: 2/5
• Setting: 3/5
• Overall Rating: 16/25

Pier 64 - (Penarth Marina, Cardiff) - Review

When thinking of starting this blog, it was obvious that i had to kick off by reviewing somewhere in Cardiff that had a great reputation and it appealed to me to try somewhere i was yet to visit. Pier 64 was the obvious choice. Actually, how obvious Pier 64 is perhaps contributes to why i had never visited before - mention fine dining or even just steak and it's one of the first places to get mentioned by any of the multitude of social climbing types you could know. I dont know about you, but sometimes this critic feels that a place can be too hotly tipped, so perhaps always feared this could be the case. Regardless we booked for a Saturday night and headed down to sample the menu.

Pier 64 from the front view leading to the entrance

Arriving at Pier 64 is a pleasing affair - even on a coldish and dark Saturday night at 9pm. There's generous carparking available and the location of the building on stilts in the water is clearly a winner. No doubt it'd be a good bit better on a bright and sunny day too. A member of staff lunged forward to open the door saving us the hassle... of erm, y'know, opening a door for ourselves... #firstworldproblems

Complimentary Breads (Free)

After being shown to our seats and ordering we were given a selection of breads for the table. Sorry, correction: We were given bread for the table. No variety. Just the one type of bread with some butter. It's churlish to complain about that i guess seeing as it was free. However it's fair to say that with only butter to add taste to the bread it could definately have benefitted from some, say, balsamic vinegar?

Salt & Chilli Calamari With Saffran Garlic Mayonnaise (£6.95)

For starters I plumped for the Salt & Chilli Calamari With Saffran Garlic Mayonnaise (£6.95) which - for me at least - is always a safe choice, being the "prawn cocktail of the 21st century" to quote... myself. Ahem. On arrival the Calamari looked promising - more similar in size and colour to that which i've previously eaten in Italy than to what i've become accustomed to around the UK. True to form then, it was a safe choice - but lacked any real punch. It's hard to say quite why but it seemed to be missing another taste somewhere around the dish, despite looking busy enough on the plate. Could perhaps have used some lemon somewhere. All the same, pass marks for the starter.

10oz Sirloin Steak (£17.95) & French Fries (£3.00)

The main course was steak, predictably as Pier 64 is known for its steaks what with being a steakhouse and all. Served marooned upon a large white plate with only three tomatoes for company my 10oz Sirloin Steak (£17.95) was cooked medium-rare to perfection. I'd expected nothing less from what i'd been told to expect and I wasnt let down in the slightest. The side of French Fries (£3.00) came seperately, a pet hate of mine, but something you come to expect nowadays. Sadly they were already overly salted when they arrived. Luckily i quite enjoy that, but the extreme coating of sea salt wouldnt be to everyones taste. Indeed it's something of a trend to have chips like this in waterside restaurants which i can only assume has been sparked by over zealous chefs trying to tie their menu in with their locations as well as possible.

Lemon Meringue (£5.95)

The dessert was perhaps the only real standout of the night however. An interesting and highly zesty Lemon Meringue (£5.95), each serving individual and not cut from a larger cake. Impressive stuff with a great biscuity base both to add texture and to hold it in place on the plate. Solid stuff.

The service all night was excellent and couldnt be faulted, as was the decor of the establishment. Somehow both were just a little bland perhaps though. Everything felt excellent but also slightly cold and lacking personality. It depends what you go looking for when you go for a meal out i guess - for me its not just about the food and the service, it can also be about more than that. Which is where Pier 64 could be found lacking if you wanted to split hairs. An injection of personality, both in decor and the staff wouldnt go amiss. Indeed, some more personality in the food would probably be a good thing too - and save the venue from simply being an exercise in excellence by numbers. On the plus side, the only real mistake they made all night was to forget to charge us for our drinks when giving us our bill - always appreciated!

Pier 64 is certainly somewhere worth a repeat visit as the food does warrant it. Shame that it isnt a little more exciting though.

• Food: 7/10
• Service: 3/5
• Value: 4/5
• Setting: 3/5
• Overall Rating: 17/25