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So after trying the eagerly awaited opening of Asador 44 for my birthday back in April for the evening menu and having our first taste of Old Cow, the revered Rubia Gallega aka Gallician Blond we have been meaning to come back to compare against the lunch time menu. Thankfully the lunchtime menu offer features Picanha steak and fries for just £10, which was a welcome relief as I don’t think I could ever justify an £80 steak for lunch.

It just so happened I’d booked two days off for Mwsh’s birthday so it seemed the perfect opportunity instead of going for our normal breakfast outing on a day off and we’d had a few the past few days having camped on Flat Holm Island then stayed the night at Holm house in the 2 days prior.

I told myself I was only going to order the £10 lunch deal on the menu but that was never going to happen really after seeing the standard menu peaking up behind the smaller lunch menu offerings.

The Food

There were four options for the £10 lunch menu

  • Charcoal squash, chard, beetroot, goats curd, hazelnut
  • 40 day dry aged welsh rump cap, asador fries, salad
  • Mackerel, endive, charcoal mayonnaise, capers, asador fries
  • Charcoal market fish of the day

They also do the following childrens menu for lunch:

  • Welsh beef picanha steak, asador fries
  • Market fish goujons, asador fries

I did fancy the fish option but had seabass the day before for lunch at Holm House so it was steak option for me cooked medium rare.

charred bread and jammon butter Asador 44 Cardiff

As I wasn’t sure what the portion size was going to be like for the price I thought I’d throw in some house made chared breads with the jamon butter and oil to nibble as we waited. I loved it last time with the little meaty nuggets of cured ham mixed into soft butter allowing you to actually spread or dip into the bread without masacring the doughy chunks unlike some restaurants who think it’s acceptable to store their butter in what seems to be liquid nitrogen sometimes. Sorry just a pet hate of mine frozen butter, just why!

 

Not one to pass off scallops on a menu they offered them by the portion baked with breadcrumbs and samphire so I just went for the one to turn my steak dish into a surf and turf. Thinking it might be an idea to eat my first vegetable in four days I went for a side of spiced charcoal cauliflower too and pot of the Romesco sauce as I can’t eat my fries without something to dip them in and I daren’t ask for ketchup at this joint i think i’d be barred for life.

I was suitably impressed with the portion size when the mains did come out I have to be honest and not just the steak but the portion of fries too. This was one thing I mentioned in my review of the evening menu where we had one portion of fries between us with a massive steak but the bowl of perfectly cooked, crispy skin on fries was probably bigger than the sharing one we had previously.

medium rare steak picanha lunch Asador 44 Cardiff

We both ordered our steaks medium rare with Mwsh snatching the first plate that came out that was a perfect medium rare whereas mine bordered more along the medium end of the scale although this wasn’t too much of an issue as it was perfectly pink and succulent. I love the charred, bbq effect the Parilla grill has on the steak crisping it up yet locking and sealing in all the juice and flavour.

The romesco sauce was ok to dip the skin on fries in but as we asked the waiter what was in it and the word chilli was in there I was hoping for something a bit spicier. It was an ok dip but we tried the peppercorn and the rijoca and bone marrow last time and it didn’t quite live up to those tasty numbers.

charcoal spiced cauliflower Asador 44 Cardiff

The spiced charcoal cauliflower was a good sized portion with a whole head of purple cauliflower slightly chared in the centre atop a creamy mayo like sauce. I’d only ever seen a purple cauliflower the day before in a fruit and veg shop in Penarth and was going to buy one for my nan for a Sunday roast or cauliflower cheese on the way back to the car but the heavens opened and had to make a run for it shortly afterwards.

The dish here was fine, I like anything with a bit of char on it from a grill and the sauce gave an extra hit of flavour but I couldn’t work out where the spiced bit of the dish came in as that wasn’t coming through for me so it could of done with a bit more of the spice they added for my liking.

baked scallops and samphire Asador 44 Cardiff

Last but not least the scallop came baked in it’s shell with a breadcrumb topping. It said baked with sampire although I only had one little sprig on my shell. The star of the dish though was the scallop though so I wasn’t too worried about a bit of greenery on the side. Soft and tender with added texture from the breadcrumb it did exactly what I was expecting. I only opted for the one so you can control the portion size depending on how hungry or how big your wallet is.

The Verdict

All in all I was very impressed, in fact I’d go as far as saying I enjoyed this visit more than the first as it was a more casual affair and the price was excellent value for money. We paid £45, which included £5 each for a glass of wine with the lunch, which wasn’t too far off 1/4 of the price we paid in the evening. Ok you don’t get the Gallician Blond here but the Picanha and fries on the evening menu comes in at £22 but was a steal at £10 for lunch.

I’d like to try one of the fish and chips options on my next visit for lunch but I’d highly recommend the steak on the lunch menu for the price. Ok you have to buy a drink but the £10 for steak and chips is probably the best lunch deal in town considering the quality of the beef being used and not some laser cut piece of gristle you might get from other restaurants for around the £10 mark.

We’ve been busting to try Owen from Bar 44’s new venture Asador 44 since following their instagram account since November 2016 although they only opened it’s doors about a month ago. It’s been a busy month of late so we set the date of sampling some old cow for my birthday last Friday.

Asador the name comes from the method of cooking the meat BBQ style over charcoal. This can been over a mound of charcoal on the floor with half a carcas speared and scortched over the white embers as they do in Argentina or with modern methods of a metal Parilla Asador BBQ grill championed first in Wales by the girls down at Hangfire Southern Kitchen in Barry.

Parilla grill at Asador 44 Cardiff

With my inner caveman constantly wanting to break out inside eating mammoth slabs of meat cooked on open fires this was right up my street as Asador promised to lead the way in ethical meat production by using retired dairy cows that had time to enjoy life to the max, grazing on pastures and doig lots of chills to a grand old age of 9 years instead of the average age of 3 years that British beef is usually slaughtered after the BSE scare.

They also promised to bring us the Holy Grail of Beef, 10 year old “Galician Blond” or Rubia Gallega Chuleton from Northern Spain. This beef can be reared up to 17 years and some restaurants age it for up to 300 days making it much like an aged cheese but here at Asador they age theirs 45 days for a more mellow flavour.

Cheese cave at Asador 44 Cardiff

The place not only dry ages the steak in house they even have their own cheese cave.

 

The Food

I’d studied the menu for some time having seen other diners upload images of gigantic ribs of beef on Instagram over the past few weeks and was torn between the the Lomo Bajo, the 9 year old ex dairy cow or the Prized Rubia Gallega. The reason for not just going for the best steak on the menu was ultimately the price difference with the ex dairy costing £49 and the Rubia Gallega £8.50 per 100g of weight and seeing that the minumum weights were around 900g that was £76 for a single steak! Ok they were sharing plates but still that was pretty steep for a steak.

Bread and jamon butter at Asador 44 Cardiff

We or I decided we were just going to opt for some bread with jamon butter at £3 to nibble on whilst we decided the rest. The plate had two thick cut doorstop bread slices that had been lightly scortched giving a slight char to the dough and swirls of jamon butter to dollop in.

I loved the smokey chared addition and the jamon butter was silky smooth unlike your standard continental breakfast where the butter has usually been put in the freezer just so the waitresses can laugh at your sorry attempt to butter your bread for breakfast and leaving decimated clumps of bread in your hands.

Cured belly pork and crispy pigs head starter at Asador 44 Cardiff

As I was hoping to go big on the steak for main it was just the one starter to share and that was the cured duroc belly pork, crispy pigs head and apple at £8. I was a bit dissapointed with this as I love a bit of belly pork and was hoping for something a bit more meaty. The cured belly pork was cut wafer thin and for me didn’t actually bring much to the table as it was a bit bland for me. The breadcrumbed crispy pigs head however did add a punch of much needed flavour to the dish and accompanying apple sauce gave a nice sweetness to the dish.

Seeing as prawns on offer are revered as the finest red prawn in the world  and it was my birthday I thought I’d splash out and see what the fuss was about. At £16 a pop for a single prawn I was expecting a whopper on my plate. After being bullied into downing a shot of Wray & Nephew at Mythos Greek restaurant in Chepstow by the guy behind the bar as a birthday “Gift” and the lions share of a bottle of pinot I was in high spirits and bit the bullet on the mains, opting for the Rubia Gallega and 940g of the stuff at £80.

Rubia Gallega and Carabinero prawn at Asador 44 Cardiff

The mains arrived and I was pretty impressed with the plate of severed ruby red, meaty portions cut from the bone and presented on a platter and the waitress kindly advised on the optimal method of eating the prawn. For £16 I wasn’t all that blown away by the size of the prawn and after removing the head, carefully decanting the juices into a bowl and unfolding the shell away from the body there really wasn’t that much meat left. The wholesale price for these prawns though are eyewatering, which reflects in the the higher price here.

I dipped the flesh into the rescued juices, had one bite and it was half gone. I couldn’t go it alone and I certainly wasn’t going to stump up that much for a prawn again so gave the other half to Mwsh so two bites and that was it. It tasted good and never used the juices to baste the flesh before eating before so that was a new one on me but considering you can get half a lobster for the same price in some restaurants I wasn’t overfly impressed and would pick lobster over it drenched in thermidor sauce any day.

The centre piece was next to delve into, the creme de la creme of steak lay before me ready to be gorged with my bare hands. It was unlike any steak I’d laid eyes on in terms of sheer size and colour. The living age and the post slaughter aging process had built a deep ruby like colour. Ready cut into manageble pieces of meat I was expecting to have to gnaw at it to chew and swallow but it just disolved on contact with my tongue. The same for the fat too I’d never experienced beef fat that just melted away in the warmth of my mouth it was quite sureal as the fat on steak is usually tough and chewy.

Rubia Gallega Steak, bean and saffron puree, fries with rioja and bone marrow sauce at Asador 44 Cardiff
With the giant steak option you got 2 sides of your choice, which we opted for the Asador fries because you simply can’t have steak without chips and we also went for the white bean, safron and roast garlic puree.

Portion wise I was a little dissapointed with the fries. When you’re paying £80 for a steak and it’s to share with someone else I’m expecting a generous bowl of fries to go with it. After grabing half a handfull and scattering on my plate there wasn’t even half a bowl left for Mwsh. I’d also bought a wheelbarrow full of real chip shop chips in Chepstow earlier in the day for £1.80 that could of fed a family of 4 in comparison. Having said that the small bowl of real fries were very good. None of that plastic fantastic pre cut and pre cooked rubbish here, I just could of done with a double portion size to what we got.

On to the white bean, safron and roast garlic puree. It didn’t really know how to take this i’ll be honest. The first dip of my chip was quite pleasant but with after quickly running out of fries I was  left with just a fork as a vessel to consume the puree, which became rather sickly. The bean puree I think would be great as a snack with some of the bread or flatbread to dip but as a side dish it just felt out of place and awkward to eat without some form of carb to give it substance.

One other thing I was a bit annoyed at with the steak was you didn’t even get one sauce to go with it included in the price. Ok I know they are only £3 each and if you were paying £10 for a steak at Harvester you would probably expect to pay a little bit extra for a sauce as it isn’t exactly bank shattering to start with but when you are paying £80 I would expect one sauce at least.

I wanted the Rioja and bone marrow sauce but Mwsh wasn’t sure on the bone marrow so went for the safe option of Torres brandy peppercorn so on top of £80 for the steak we had to pay £6 for a sauce to go with it. Ok I know it was my option to go for that steak and there were a lot cheaper options but when I’m paying tripple what I would normally spend on a steak a sauce to go with it in the price isn’t asking a lot in my eyes.

Both sauces were good although I did prefer the Rioja and bone marrow as it had a richer flavour and probably because I’d peppercorn sauced my steaks to death over the years but it was a good peppercorn none the less if you are thinking of going for that.

rice pudding and fig dessert at Asador 44 Cardiff

For dessert I went for the Arroz con leche, which is Spanish rice pudding croquetas, poached fig and green apple. I misread the menu and was expecting a bowl of rich creamy rice pudding and with my favourite fruit at the moment figs but as the menu clearly states they were croquetas. Breadcrumbed and fried balls of rice pudding with the soft poached figs and similar apple sauce to the starter. They were enjoyable but not what I was expecting although that was my fault for not reading the menu properly.

chocolate with cherry sorbet at Asador 44 Cardiff

Mwsh opted for the chocolate, hazlenut, olive oil, vanilla salt and cherry sorbet. This was delicious and my favourite of the two desserts and brought a refreshing end to a meaty meal. Both Desserts cost £7 or you could of gone with a cheese board with 3 for £7, 5 for £12 or 7 cheeses for £17.

cheese menu Asador 44 Cardiff

Drinks prices are quite reasonable with Mwsh option for a carafe of house white for under £10 and mine was a carafe of Garnacha Tinorera red was £16.50. They have over 100 wines to choose from with a good selection by glass or carafe if you don’t fancy the whole bottle. There was a nice selection of Gin’s I’d not heard of but didn’t get the chance to sample but I’m guessing they were all sourced from Spain.

The Verdict

Bread was really good, an ok starter and wasn’t blow away by the best prawn in the world. It’s a prawn and cooked in the shell so there’s not much you can do there and not knocking the quality I was just expecting something a bit bigger although the price does reflect wholesale price that go for at least £70 per kilo, which I wasn’t aware at the time.

This was a fine steak and was the crowning plate of the meal. It was an epic, the best I’ve had in Cardiff to be fair and perfect for a celebration as it really does wow on delivery to the table.

I’ll without doubt be back to Asador but I’ll probably go for something a bit normal next time like the suckling pigs leg or the lamb sounded luscious. I wouldn’t recommend the £16 prawn as for me it didn’t warrant the hefty price and now i’ve tried it I won’t be going Rubia Gallera again but I would give it a go if you haven’t tried it before and was glad I’d tried it.

Portion size of the chips need to be increased if you ask me or one each of the current ones seeing as it’s a sharing plate. Maybe I would of been able to finish the bean puree if i’d had some chips to mop it up with but as it stands with a handful of chips I struggled eating my share of the dish with just my fork.

I think they should include one sauce into the price of the rare breed old cow fair enough charging for it with the smaller Picanha but for £80 I would expect at least one sauce thrown in out of principle. I think flavourwise though the sauces were spot on.

Desserts were good too and had no issues there on both options I tried.

Service was excellent as always and what I’ve come to expect from the team behind bar 44. They must have some of the best training in town in regards to product knowledge and you can’t beat someone actually having tasted everything on the menu and being able to pronounce it and background knowledge behind everything unlike someone on their first shift who has absolutely no idea about anything on the menu or what drink they have on draught.

I’m probably going to try the lunchtime deal some time soon for £10, which includes:

  • 40 day dry aged rump cap with fries and salad
  • Charcoal market fish of the day
  • Charcoal squash, chard, beetroot, goats curd, hazlenut
  • Mackerel, endive, charcoal mayonnaise, capers and asador fries.

The lunch deal is available Wednesday – Friday, 12 – 3pm

They also have a children’s menu available for lunch too, which includes:

Welsh beef picanha steak, asador fries
or
Market fish goujons and asador fries

Both priced at £6