Madame Fromage

There is something really comforting about sitting outside Madame Fromage in that gorgeous arcade, eating real home-​made soup with big hunks of freshly baked bread. If you are lucky you can sometimes hear the violin being played from the shop above.
A great place to eat and escape the chains when out shopping.

Sans faute pour ce resto à consonnance francaise: Madame fromage.
Des assiettes hautes en couleurs, pas de prix qui font peur, des associations qu’on reconnait, bref, j’ai beaucoup aimé.
D’autant plus que je pense que c’est la première fois que l’on me sert du chèvre au Royaume-​uni servi avec une compotée sucrée et pas juste tel quel. Un régal.
Bien sûr, faîtes un tour dans la partie épicerie pour retrouver tous les bons fromages!

This little delight is right in the heart of the Castle Arcade and well worth seeking out.
After doing the tourist thing around Cardiff Castle, the Mrs and I were looking for a little pit-​stop before venturing to the next attraction.
We only came in for a quick coffee, but were tempted in to stay for a bite to eat. Madame Fromage is a small and quirky café come deli with quirky decore and smiley staff.
The Mrs took advantage of the Coffee and Cake deal. £3.50 for a coffee and homemade cake which happened to be raspberry and lemon drizzle (mega Yums)
Myself — I went for the savoury option of a glass of house white wine and mini cheeseboard. It was hard not to be tempted into this with the deli just sitting there beside us! For £6 odd you got a good chunk of at least 6 cheeses, 4 hunks of bread with a pickle, apple and grape. The cheeses were all fresh (not end of the line –need to use up) and pickle was surprisingly delicious — without being so sweet.
Looking around what other people were eating, everything looked soo homely and fresh. Big chunky breads, warm Wholesome stews and big platters of meats and cheeses.
This is my ideal café/​restaurant of all time and I wish there were more like this around. Nothing was extortionately priced and the staff were friendly and efficient.
This place seemed very popular without being crammed. Get in early and endulge yourself.

I popped in here for lunch and had the mini cheese board. You get a selection of 6 cheeses with bread and chutney and garnished of apple and tomato. This was exactly what I was hoping for and everything tasted great, although I have no idea which cheeses were actually on the plate! If you have a dislike of certain types of cheese I would say so when ordering as the waiter did not ask about my preferences. They also have a great deli counter for all your cheesy needs.

Glorious. Just cheesy cheesy glorious! Amazing choice, good price ranges, friendly and knowledgeable staff. Lovely location. Highly recommended for cheese lovers!

For lunch, we found ourselves in this horseshoe-​shaped tunnel filled with eateries and shops. The area had an electric and sunny buzz with diners and food and we found ourselves drawn to one in particular, Madame Fromage. Imagine our surprise when we saw a note that there is an extra cover charge for eating between the regular lunch hours on a Saturday.
That didn’t stop it from being packed though so I guess they must be popular.
We placed out orders and chilled out basking in any form of sun that decides to lay its rays on us.
Welsh rarebit and salad £8
Steak and Ale Pie with salad and chutney
Grilled French Goats cheese salad with red onion marmalade £8
The food arrived and I have to say that it was fantastic. They were all made well, each combination of flavours balances each other beautifully and was more-​ish. I mean cheese and chops can be heavy but that didn’t and couldn’t stop us from wiping the plates clean.
It’s not out-​of-​this-​world amazing but at these prices, they are pretty damn good! This is what we should have in London, places that make great tasty food at prices that don’t burn a hole in your wallet. I only wished they were located in London which we tried to convince them to do but without much success.
I know where I’ll be eating the next time I am back here.

Incredible. Where has Madame Fromage been all my Cardiff life?
I’m seriously regretting not walking out to Castle Arcade more during my time here and have promised myself that I won’t miss such an opportunity again.
As soon as you walk within 50 yards of Madam Fromage you know you will end up there, the smell is just so good. Wafting down the arcade corridor your nostrils sense the wonderful cheeses, and if you’re anything like me, immediately tell your stomach that this isn’t an opportunity to be missed.
If my wallet could afford it I would do the entirety of my food shopping in luxurious deli surroundings and get fat on fancy cheese and rich wine. I’d go the way of Orson Wells and surprise people with my incredible girth.
Madame Fromage reminds you what good food is actually like. You get so used to supermarket offerings that they become the norm, here your senses are reawakened and good food comes alive.

This is a café down an arcade that is fast becoming one of my favourites in Cardiff, Castle Arcade. Particularly because of the peculiar balcony and L-​shaped structure, you just feel shut off from everywhere else in the city even though you are simultaneously in the heart of it.
Madame Fromage is beginning to gain a bit of notoriety for the quality of food it supplies. As the name suggests, cheese is most certainly on the menu. They’ve got cheese coming out of their ears, loads of different varieties. And it’s the openness of the place that adds to its appeal. At first I wasn’t sure if it was a deli or a café as it has a fairly large cheese counter and then some seating dotted around, but then I used my eyes and saw a large sign that told me it was both.

I was spoiled the very first time I visited Ticklemore Cheese on Ticklemore Street in Totnes, Devon. Since then, well… since then, only the best will do I’m afraid! And that can be expensive!
This fabled visit occurred back in 1996, and seeing as i have long since moved on from this quirky little town, I have had to find the finest purveyors of cheese in quite a few other places. In Cardiff, Madame Fromage cannot be beaten. With over 150 different types of cheese on offer, some of which are organic… oh the joy!
A visit usually includes a stop off for lunch in the café. They do great soups, with generous portions that come with lovely big hunks of bread, all of which will keep you going into the evening. What’s particularly good about it is that they have a liquor license, so you can accompany your meal with a great glass of wine… and lets face it, cheese and wine is a match made in heaven!

Now that I’m no longer a student, I’m really starting to enjoy the luxury of shopping in delis. In particular, I’m having great fun buying fancy cheese rather than the cheap, plastic supermarket stuff that I had to live off in poorer times.
Madame Fromage allows me to really get into what food shopping should be like. No more Tesco Value and Saisbury’s Basic, from now on it’s [mostly] only the good stuff, and this is the kind of shop that makes food the pleasure it should be.
It’s hard to come in here without visiting the café, as the smells that waft through the store are irresistible and are guaranteed to make you hungry at any time of the day. It’s a great opportunity to get to know the food better too, while you enjoy a relaxing snack or hearty lunch in a wonderful atmosphere.

I know I sound like a traitor, but I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say the baguettes at Madame Fromage Café are just as good (or even better) than the hoagies at New York Deli.
Today was the first time I’ve been in there, so I must admit, the whole takeaway and dining in set-​up left me a bit confused — I didn’t really know where to pay (I paid for my baguette up at the café counter) and then after milling about the shop, found a pie that had to be mine, so I paid at the cheese counter on the other end.
The staff working there are harried but helpful, and willing to indulge a daffy Yank with her «American» fillings (their very true words, not mine). I can’t help it — I love turkey and cheese sandwiches.
In any case, my made-​to-​order baguette was delectable. Really. The combination of crusty-​on-​the-​outside, soft-​on-​the-​inside bread was stuffed with shredded turkey, a hearty helping of cheddar (but too hearty), fresh salad and a sprinkle of sprouted baby greens.
I imagine you’re supposed to eat a baguette that size in a few sittings, but that baby was gone in less than twenty minutes flat. I’m so going back for a lazy weekend lunch!

I’m not usually a massive fan of cheese. Not to say, of course, I don’t like it, I do! But I’m just not a massive fan.
Some friends of mine will quite happily treat themselves to brie or Camembert. I will usually be quite happy to stick to a safe ricotta or mozzarella. But when last I went in Madame Fromage (on a wander-​like whim) I found myself trying little samples of goat’s cheese, blue veined stuff and smelled hard cheese that I almost had to surreptitiously spit out again.
But it was fun, and I discovered a new favourite (Wensleydale — okay, not very adventurous, sorry) and left feeling more informed.
Of course, this wonderful little Aladdin’s cave sells so much more than just cheese, but it’s the mouldy dairy that sets this place apart from other delis in the area, such as Wally’s.

Madame Fromage Café is a tiny, slightly chaotic, but atmospheric little place, only seating about 16 people at a time — and in fact you can even hire out the whole place for a group or small party, if you fancy it.
Located on the corner in Castle Arcade, it has a typical French café culture ambience and serves up food made with the finest ingredients, mainly from Wales and France. As you might expect from specialists in fine cheese, the menu offers some wonderful cheese platters — plus a range of real home made Breton– and Welsh-​influenced food.
On its own admission, the café’s service can sometimes be slow, so this isn’t the place for a rushed lunch — but no one seems to mind taking it easy when you can see the staff preparing the food in front of you. From their current summer menu, the grilled goats’ cheese salad with a red onion marmalade is delicious, as is their Welsh Rarebit — both simple but well-​executed dishes.
The place has become so popular that they regularly have to turn people away on Saturday lunchtimes — so if you want to eat there during their peak times, make sure you book in advance!

I’m a mouse. I may as well be a mouse, at any rate. I think I could live on cheese. I went out for dinner last night and managed to have cheese in each of my three courses. As such Madame Fromage is my kind of food shop heaven. There are over 150 different types of cheese in this one deli. And the other one. There are two locations for Madame Fromage now, within the same Victorian architecture of Castle Arcade. Both boast a shop and a restaurant where you can feast on cheese platters and traditional Welsh and Breton cuisine and soak up the French-​style café culture.
Abondance, Bel Paesse, Can Pujol, Dunsire Blue, Explorateur… Yum. The superb range and quality of cheese on offer is made possible by daily deliveries direct from the Rungis in France and regular trips to artisan producers in Brittany and France. As well as cheese, the shops stock homemade chocolates, cakes, twelve different coffees and freshly baked bread — try the olive-​packed Fougasse, it is wonderful. They also make wedding ‘cakes’ of cheese, a genius idea.