Gaucho Cardiff — Restaurant in Wales

Welcome - positive friendly welcome from what appeared to be the manager despite wearing full on nike joggers, as had just finished a gym sesh, was lunch time.

Service was patchy 1st female sever was slow to come over poured some water in glass then disappeared, then had another sever approach table about 10 mins later, which continued to provide service throughout. He did not check in on how food was, did not re-fill water when clearly empty, when bringing food but did offer re-take order on cocktails. I also noticed a stark contrast between service and manner provided to myself in comparison other diners, which were all of an older demographic. This waiter appeared to be a foreigner from his accent, which would explain the lack of expected manners, kind of like the rude service you'd get in a French cafe'.

Third waiter clearly British young guy briefly brought over the steak, and the contrast was apparent much more friendly and considerate approach e.g. asking if needed any extra sauces for fries etc. and general expected manners and his customer service approach was consistent from observation.

Food and drink, ordered from lunch set menu went for focaccia starter, which would not recommend, as tasted like stale dry bread with tomato puree smeared on top with some melted cheese and herbs...

Main was good steak was decent and cooked right, which you would hope for in a restaurant geared towards steak, i've had better Chimichurri really lacked the vinegar element in the mix.

The dessert I had was Tarte Tatin and I would not recommend, the worst i've ever had. Pastry was not right the apples were not sufficiently caramelised. It kind of tasted like condensed milk, sugar and al dente apples, not sure if pre-made and reheated or what the situation was, but it was just way off a usual Tarte Tatin. Value for money was competitive on food wise.

The cocktails not so much, and they are tiny glasses. The lychee cocktail was not very sweet and lacked a strong lychee flavour have had way better lychee cocktails and it was served with some random black spec of dust on the foam which i had to remove with a fork. Banana cocktail was more as expected, but tiny, but no i'ce so maybe why so small.

Service charge, as expected but not that it was deserved for the level of service given.

Overall underwhelmed and definitely prefer pasture if going for steak. Not really impressed to be honest....

I’m not entirely sure where all of these top reviews have come from.

We booked here on Friday, purely because the actual steak house we wanted had no availability. But it was well reviewed so we gave it a go.

Positives: the aesthetic of the place is lovely. Attractive spot in a good location.

Now the rest: upon arrival, the guests in front of us were offered use of the coat room, yet we weren’t. Inconvenient but nothing more.

We were seated upstairs and it was not a full cover. Probably 60% of tables were occupied. Yet the staff seemed so slow to attend despite us only being a table of two, with there being plenty of staff mulling around or talking amongst themselves.

We ordered drinks, but they were so slow to arrive, we’d finished our starter before we were served drinks. We were offered water for the table but no bottle was left. So we had to ration the water and drinks accordingly. Because shockingly, we were never offered another until after we’d finished our mains. I paid £9 for a kiwi, alcohol free cocktail which was the size of a thimble. Not great.

The food was terrible. The steaks were cooked as expected in a steak house and were good, but the sides were dire. The mash tasted like Smash from school, the broccoli almost needed to be shaved like asparagus; there was an inedible, hard coating over all of it which had to either be removed mid-chew (gross) or just not eat the broccoli whatsoever, and the butternut squash had not been peeled so texturally, there was undercooked squash with unpalatable hard skin around it. Just poor quality and attention to detail. I ordered a lobster tail with my steak and it was only as my food was brought to the table that they told me they couldn’t give me lobster as the quality was poor (although appreciate not selling me awful lobster). But you’d think that that information would be passed prior to serving the food?! Granted, the burrata starter was lovely but that was it. The empanada starter was one small, solitary empanada.

I’ve eaten at many high end restaurants in this country and abroad and this is one of the worst for food...

We arrived at the restaurant and were greeted by Camilla. Lovely woman and offered if we’d like to put our coats in the cloak room. We were sat upstairs quite central of the room, very busy room but not loud. Noticed there was big function/party in the room next to us but couldn’t hear them at all as they had a moveable sound proof wall. I loved the lighting in there, nice warm colour. Then our waiter came over- Wayne. This man was great at his job could answer all manner of questions we had and was helpful on which wine and steak would suit us best. Not only was he great at his job but great with customers and interacting he remembered lots considering how much he was doing. I could see how he was with other guests and he was amazing with them too. 10/10 for Wayne, he’s a credit to the establishment. We decided not to have starters due to the fact we’d be having a lot of steak, we went with the ‘The beef bar sampler’ which came with 3 different steaks: fillet, sirloin and ribeye which were marinated and seasoned. You then get a choice of a side and sauce. As there was two of us we decided on chimichurri and fiery chimichurri, then as a side chips and truffle mac and cheese. The best steak was the fillet- so tender and bursting with flavour. Sirloin was good also that came with chimichurri on it. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the rib eye but that’s self preference as I don’t like a fatty steak. Chips were incredible! They used the same seasoning as they do for the chimichurri sauce. For dessert, as it was my partners birthday, we had a complimentary dessert of our choice. We chose the cookie dough with ice cream which was amazing and warm where the ice cream melted straight through the cookie dough. Great steak restaurant overall, would go back and when I make steak at home now I will make...