With the weather verging on the “You’re gonna need a bigger boat, Noah” due to  biblical levels of rain (God, it is depressing), ranging any distance from the comfort of my sofa (bar from the obligatory dog walk with Dick the Dog aka Oscar – total arse in Heathcock the other week and as I typed this up he was sitting outside in the rain sulking after I refused to give him a 58th treat) is not exactly my first choice of actions in terms of the need to feed.

As such the option of a place that is a short run in the rain from my house for lunch after a rather fine Mystere Wine Club tasting the night before

certainly appealed, as does a fixe prix menu (which the tight arse in me, getting worse as I age disgracefully, loves).

This combo, with the rain incessant (Victoria Park is soon to become Lake  Victoria – fun fact: Lake Victoria is nearly 3 times the size of Wales and probably has better transport links from South to North  – I shall be floating my Vicki Ark on there shortly), bought me to Moura (a place I have reviewed before, but not their fixe prix offering). It is a short walk from my gaff and their set daytime menu looked rather good value.

Decent selection on offer, for the price I thought, with only one dreaded supplement (unusually here being applied to the chicken rather than the steak – don’t like them regardless, as fixe prix should be fixe prix in my book).

I started off with the chicken liver pâtè.

Generous portion size, with a good flavour to the pâtè. Slightly sweet with a nice, rich,  savouriness and a pleasing residual touch of gaminess.

Whilst not a huge fan of sourdough toast (can be too hard and altogether holier than thou), the texture here was actually quite good in terms of application of the pâtè.  The chutney had a nice contrast of sweet and sour and cut the richness of the pâtè.

Garnishes can all too often be an underdressed mess, but here it was nicely attired with a bit of French savoir faire (otherwise known as a good vinaigrette). Nice, but not really needed here in my opinion.

On to the main, having had bread with my pâtè I didn’t want anything in a bun/sandwich. It was, therefore a choice between the seabass, the grilled chicken and the minute steak.

The steak won the day, as I love the simplicity of steak frites.  Choosing this dish off a menu is, however, not without certain risks. When done properly, you get a good flavoured piece of meat with crispy fries, but when done badly (all too often) it is lacking flavour, tough as old boots and accompanied by limp dick chips.

Here the steak was requested rare

and that was exactly what I got.

Good garlic infused butter melted (albeit a tad slowly) onto the beef, adding a extra tier of seasoning.

Nicely flavoured bit of meat this, with it being pretty tender for a minute steak. My only (very minor) gripes were the cooking of steak could have had a bit more heat to the sear to create a crust and there could have been a touch more seasoning (I added from the salt and pepper on the table).

The French fries (in a wire basket –  not sure why to be honest) were nicely crisp and well seasoned (condiments were provided on request and it is always mayonnaise for French fries, unless you are a devil worshipping heathen in which case you poison is probably, saccharine loaded, ketchup) and the (very much a valid addition) salad had a good French dressing on it. All in all, I rather enjoyed this.

I passed on dessert,

which looked good value for the extra £3.

Mr’s. SF eschewed the fixe prix menu, having been tempted by the “special” (£12.95) in the form of a meaty chicken leg in a Cape Malay curry sauce.

She very much enjoyed this, with well flavoured and juicy chicken and a mild but nicely spiced curry sauce. Despite the absence of the perhaps more usual rice, the new pots. were perfect for crushing into the sauce for soak up duties and the French beans had that pleasing (having not been overcooked) squeak to them.

On the drinks front,

I had a very pleasant glass of Portuguese wine (very underrated, outside of port,  wine country) in the form of an Bojador tinto from the Alentejo region (£8.25 for a 175 ml glass, £29 a bottle with it retailing around the £12-£13 mark so not a bad for the UK mark up).

Nice ripe black fruits and a touch of pencil shaving, this worked well with both the pâtè and the steak frites.

As Mrs. SF wasn’t drinking (booze) I felt I couldn’t (in all consciousness) take advantage of their rather stellar corkage offer.

Really good deal this, with them having a nice selection of wines to choose from on the shelves.

An example of how good this is, is they have the wonderful Vin de Constance (an absolutely stellar South Africa sweet wine, which is a wine to drink before you die) for £60 (retail), so £70 with corkage to drink in, and I have seen that wine on restaurant lists (depending on vintage) at prices ranging from £145 to a whopping £230.

At a lower price point (and probably a more suitable style for the lunch menu) the very nice Contino white rioja is £27 retail here and getting it to drink in for £37 is a bargain (I have seen it on lists in London for £80), as is the ever reliable  Cerro Añon crianza rioja at £24 (inc corkage).

The verdict

Very good value fixe prix menu this, with a good selection of not too run of the mill choices, good flavours and good portion sizes. The fact they do this offer on week days until 19.00 and on Saturdays is rather the cherry on the cake, with no work to worry about and their fantastic corkage offer to take full advantage of. What’s not to like?

Outside of the fixe prix lunch menu, there is an appealing breakfast menu,

an al a carte menu,

Sunday lunch

and wine dinners and tastings.

With all these things on offer, I think this place is a real boon to the neighbourhood and I really must use it much more often.

The details

Address: 6 Waungron Road, Llandaff, Cardiff, CF5 2JJ.

Website: https:

https://www.moura-restaurant.co.uk/

Opening hours:

Sunday 9am – 4pm,
Wed – Sat 9am – 10pm