Welcome to the utterly fabulous Cocorico Patisserie (http://www.cocoricopatisserie.co.uk/) based on Whitchurch Road.
(Artsy photo I know!)
This sleek, modern and minimalist patisserie is one of our favourite places in Cardiff for many different reasons.
One of those is the bacon, which is heaven, we are serious, you haven't tried bacon until you try it here (we love bacon).
Another is the absolutely delicious pastries, cakes and treats all lined up just waiting for you to guzzle down, just thinking about them while typing this is making my mouth water for one of their éclairs, which is not like any éclair you'll ever have!
The coffee... words can't describe how good they can brew their coffee. If they were open earlier when I make my morning commute to work I'd be in there every morning getting coffee!
And the staff top it all off, they are very informative with all the treats and are generally lovely people who will always greet you with a smile and chat.
(Yummy treats, drooling)
Obviously we were hungry and excited to get stuck into an incredible brunch...
So you can imagine our disappointment when, this time, we came away slightly underwhelmed with some of the food.
We started with drinks and first up we wanted to order their amazingly fresh orange juice, but sadly they had run out of oranges and we were pretty upset about that. But we can live without OJ, we can't live without coffee!
Two flat whites and an iced latte. To put it simply, unbelievably nice.
The iced latte was just creamy goodness and we would say one of the best, if not the best, iced latte in Cardiff. On a hot bank holiday Monday, perfection.
The flat whites went like this, first sip "oh that's good". Second sip, pause, "oh my God". Again just perfect with the taste. However, unusual for Cocorico, the flat whites where not well presented.
The coffee is roasted by James Gourmet Coffee (http://jamesgourmetcoffee.com/) based in Ross on Wye, you may have seen them floating round other places in Cardiff and the South West. I tell you now, they know what they are doing when roasting coffee and are one of our favourite coffee roasters, exceptional coffee Mr Peter James!
On to the food, two of us ordered the full breakfast and one of us ordered the scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, toasted sourdough and maple syrup with added avocado, mushrooms and a croissant.
The scrambled eggs, etc, were great quality produced and cooked to perfection. Here I'm going to have to mention the bacon again because it is just too delicious. If someone told me all I could eat was Cocorico bacon, Id be a very happy man!
The sourdough bread is fresh and well made (not sure if they make their own in house or buy in, but it is superb sourdough bread). The scrambled eggs well seasoned with the mushrooms perfectly grilled and lovely ripened avocado.
There were absolutely no complaints about this meal, it came how we expect with Cocorico; tasty, perfectly cooked and irresistible.
The disappointments in food came from the two full breakfasts we ordered. Let us state, we have had full breakfasts at Cocorico before and they were phenomenal, in fact I think the first time I went there for brunch I had the full breakfast.
The full breakfast includes two free range eggs (cooked how you like), merguez sausage, crispy bacon, sautéed chestnut mushrooms, roasted cherry vine tomatoes, baked beans and toasted sourdough.
The bacon again was just perfect, and we love the merguez sausage. That different taste from the sausage is great in a full breakfast. The eggs were seasoned and nicely cooked and the sourdough was the same as the meal above, nice and fresh.
The two disappointing aspects of the full breakfast were the baked beans, and the roasted cherry vine tomatoes.
All the previous times we have had their full breakfast the beans are beautifully homemade which were delightful, however this time they were just ordinary baked beans.
We were wondering if they have changed the beans, which would be upsetting, or if they just had a crazy bank holiday weekend and sold out of them.
In any instance it was still disappointing not having those tasty homemade baked beans.
In the picture of the full English you can also that were are no roasted cherry vine tomatoes and in their place just an ordinary tomato. Again is this a change in menu or sold out we don't know, but on the menu it does say roasted cherry vine tomatoes, also when we ordered the food we were not told that the tomatoes would be different.
These two seemingly small (but significant) differences, added with the no fresh orange juice, poor presentation of the flat whites and them forgetting to bring over the croissant (which has actually happened a few times) are what gave us that underwhelmed feeling.
We love Cocorico because it is something different. They give you incredible tastes with brilliant presentation, but sadly today some of that was lacking.
This is also not the first time that some of the small points, that make Cocorico stand out above the rest, have been missing. We feel that they are sometimes inconsistent, which can be quite bothersome when you go expecting the usual high quality that they normally deliver.
On to the verdict then!
Even with the small inconsistencies, Cocorico (or as we like to call it Croc, I don't know why...) still delivered on incredible coffee, bold flavours and the all important perfect bacon.
On previous occasions I wouldn't hesitate on giving them a ten out of ten. However for this visit we have decided on an 8/10.
We know they can produce some of the best brunches in Cardiff and we can't wait to go back again and again.
We hope you enjoyed reading.
Much love,
The Cardiff Brunch Club Team.
Hi Cardiff Brunch Club. Thanks for choosing to visit us on the bank holiday. We're really grateful for your feedback and kind words about our cakes and brunch. On this occasion we missed the mark in some respects and are very sorry about the fact that you felt some of our usually high standards were lacking. In response to your query about the baked beans, they are indeed no longer our home made beans. However this was not simply a cost cutting exercise, we were getting a lot of feedback from customers which seemed to indicate a preference for a simpler less rich type of bean, more akin to a traditional breakfast. Whether this is the right way or not is obviously quite subjective, we try and listen to our customers point of view and in this case the majority had spoken. We try not to get too stuck in our ways though, so perhaps we will revert to the homemade beans if people vote in that direction with their forks. As to the oranges, we're ever so sorry, we struggled to get enough in over the bank holiday weekend, and as there were no deliveries made on the Monday, we were in a bit of a squeeze (sorry couldn't help myself). Thank you for your comments about our sourdough bread, it is indeed made in house (as are all of our white, granary, focaccia & speciality loaves). Apologies for the poor presentation of the flat white, as we are a small business with a small team, there are indeed times when we slip up on some of the smaller (very important) details, we try and ensure that our standards are kept high though and truly hope that next time you come in we'll be able to iron out some of these creases. Thanks also for highlighting the quality of James Gourmet Coffee, we have worked so closely with them that they feel more like partners than suppliers, we're really pleased you enjoy there brew. Until next time Cardiff Brunch Club. We look forward to being able to serve you again, all the best. (By the way this is Phil from Cocorico)
ReplyDelete