Labaire's Restaurant

Andy and Sharon (3 December 2007)

The meal was fabulous and beautifully cooked. The service is excellent and uses quality ingredients. Yes, I am talking about a restaurant in Swansea. In fact, not even in Swansea but down the road in Mumbles. For £80, I bought two courses and an excellent bottle of wine plus one shared dessert - great value.

The waiters were young and clearly inexperienced. That sure was a unique way of pouring wine. And bringing the bottle to the table opened was a disappointment. But their enthusiasm and sincerity made up for that. I am guessing sommeliers are in short supply in these parts. Both owners came for a chat and clearly had a passion for their restaurant.

What did we eat? The pigeon breast with chorizo and sherry sauce was a beautiful and rare treat. It was tender and tasty. You could almost forgive the misspelling of choritzo (stet) - the only negative talking point among us three pedants. In fact, the menu was embarrassingly littered with bad spelling including viege, portabella mushrooms and Italian in lower case, among the more obvious ones. But back to the food, the orange and duck liver pate was tasty though the orange was a little overpowering.

Our mains included an exquisite rack of Welsh lamb on sweet potato mash and rosemary demi glace. Ignoring the pretension of the description, it was a well executed contemporary variation of classic fare. The meat was cooked to perfection, no mean feat for that cut. An absolute must is the surprising lightness of the whisky bread and butter pudding. Better vanilla ice cream on the side would have set it off but the wafts of whisky marked a delightful end to a great dining experience. Even by the standards of our native London.