Le Monde Restaurant Cardiff — Restaurant in Wales

As it's been said before, overpriced and overrated despite de somewhat decent service (although I asked for salt and pepper and I got pepper sauce, so the comment about the waiters needing their English a bit polished "pun intended" is accurate) Nice friendly atmosphere, the display of fish needs looking at more often, you would not buy fish from the market that looks like it's been on that shelf for days with faded eyes and literally dried skin, why would you pay 10x the price for it to be cooked by someone who does or does not know what is doing. Too noisy, there was a band there with all the "songs" filled with something they would have liked to be jazz I reckon but all pieces sounded the same, the guitarist (or so he might have liked people to call him) was pulling arpeggios and random notes on an instrument, I may not know much about Jazz but that definitely was not IT. The young lady with the voice was good, pity she did not have the support from the rest of the "band" Now getting back to the food, starters were delivered, one of my friend's soup looked like a "cioppino" only under a different name, it did look nice but nothing out of the ordinary, my friend finished it, which means it was good so nothing more to say about that. My friends Oysters were served beautifully and he also finished them so no comment there, I got my Tiger Prawns (the hot sellar starter in that place as they claim) and one of them was supposed to be fertilizer perhaps a few days ahead, for people that do not know what I am talking about, when you peel a shellfish (prawn or shrimp or lobster) the meat has to come off the shell, not to stay glued to it, the meat needs to be pink and smooth, I ate it nonetheless and hoped for the best, the second Prawn was delicious, I am a chef and I know for a fact that unless you go under the shell to see how the meat presents itself you can't possibly know so this should be not really seen as a bad comment but perhaps as constructive criticism, the taste and texture of the second Prawn was very good. Now getting to the mains, I was not terribly hungry, so I wasn't going to order a starter in the first place and the main meal I wanted something made in the house, small and simple, so I was going to go for the Lamb Burger, guess what .... they had none, it's been said before that the menu in this place is quite small, big compared to some places, but for a place that serves bottles of wine worth £1400 that is a terrible limited choice for the food, so instead I had to go for the chicken advertised in the menu to come with some "I Don't Know What" Barbados sauce I said ok, I should hope this is nice as being priced £15 (or around that) for chicken you would think it to be something out of this world, my friend who had the Oysters ordered the Ribeye steak, claiming to be some decent cut, my friend who had the Cioppino like soup went for half roast duck. To keep it short and simple, I had better chicken breast from Iceland, I will only say that I can produce that same meal for under £2, they sell it for £15.95, the sauce was bland, not much to say about it, I was not impressed by it so I will not rave about it, came in a messy ramequin overfilled and spilled over the sides of the dish .... Rice was overcooked and bland again, hence me asking for salt and pepper. I asked my friend who had the rib eye how his steak is, although I didn't really needed to ask because by that time, he was already taking off layers and layers of fat and bristle from the side of the steak, reducing the steak after that to less than half, I must mention here that he asked for the steak to be cooked rare, it was more like medium when it reached the table. The half roast duck seemed to be good, I wish I had something extraordinary to say about it but I can't. If it wasn't for the company of friends I had I'd have named the above mentioned experience a horrible one and I am not going to go back...

Arrived for lunch with a friend and were left standing at the door for ages even though the restaurant wasn’t busy and a number of the wait staff looked our way but ignored us! The opposite of welcoming. In fact no one came to us at the door - so we finally went to the counter where people order and asked the guy serving about the lunch specials - he pointed out the two course lunch menu (£26) I asked about the one course lunch menu (which is still advertised on their website) and he told us that the only lunch menu was the two course one - then turned away from us and went back to ignoring us! Naturally, we left.

We encountered a couple heading into the restaurant and shared how dismissively we’d been treated and the apparent fact that the one course lunch special was no longer available and suggested that, like us, they head up the road to Ty Madeira if they wanted a better experience and then saw them arrive not long after us!

I’ve been a regular customer of Le Monde and have taken many people here for lunch over the years I’ve never experienced such awful customer service. There are so many restaurants to choose from in Cardiff I would have thought they’d bend over backwards to keep customers - not go out of their way to lose customers.

Incidentally, we ordered a bottle of wine with the 2 course lunch special (£16) as well as an additional dessert at Ty Madeira - money I had fully intended to spend at Le Monde.

UPDATE: Thank you for your prompt reply Your website shows as I said, a lunchtime special menu for £16 - it doesn’t mention or give examples of 2 courses only mains. So perhaps I’ve been getting duped into paying for 2 courses and only getting one course on previous visits? The rude waiter behind the counter pointed out the lunchtime special on the blackboard which clearly says £26 for 2 courses. He did not deign to elaborate or offer any alternative - he didn’t even offer to get a waiter to attend to us before turning away from me and continuing his previous occupation of ignoring me and my guest. Considering that I was about to spend good money in your establishment I’d have thought your staff could have found it in themselves to put on a brave face and try being nice to the customer waiting at the door. I notice you have had a number of other negative reviews predicated mostly on the rudeness of your staff: so our experience was obviously not an...

Our party of around twelve recently dined at Le Monde, and while there were definitely some positives, a significant issue with service left a sour taste in my mouth.

The restaurant itself boasts a fantastic atmosphere and nice decor. The ambiance was lovely, and the sheer variety and appealing presentation of the food on offer was impressive.

The menu had a great selection, and everything that passed our table looked and smelled delicious.

The servers we did manage to interact with were genuinely lovely and helpful.

However, the service model for a large table like ours was severely lacking. Situated at the far end of a long table, we felt completely neglected. Drink orders were only ever taken from the head of the table, leaving those of us further down struggling to get any attention. I personally had to get up multiple times to actively seek out servers just to order a drink, which felt quite inconvenient and disruptive to our group.

For my main course, I ordered the rack of lamb for £37. When our food finally arrived, I was excited to try it, given how appealing it looked. Unfortunately, my first bite of the lamb was noticeably cold. My second bite confirmed it was stone cold. I even had two other members of our party try it, and they both agreed it needed to be sent back.

Naturally, I wanted to bring this to a server's attention, but frustratingly, there were none to be seen. Despite attempting to make eye contact with several staff members, our end of the table was consistently overlooked. I was reluctant to be the only one making a fuss by getting up to complain, but after nearly ten minutes of waiting for some attention, I resigned myself to eating the cold food as it was clear no one was coming to assist us.

Despite the temperature, the lamb itself was cooked beautifully and tasted fantastic. Had it been served warm, it would have undoubtedly been an incredible dish.

Overall, I left feeling quite disappointed with my visit. While I can appreciate the challenges of serving a large group simultaneously, the lack of attention to our end of the table was disappointing. The fact that my £37 main course was served cold and I had no opportunity to rectify this due to the absent service at our end has left a bad impression, especially considering my total bill...