Cardo (Portuguese for thistle) is a family-run bistro that over the last two decades has built up a loyal following of customers who appreciate good food, consistency and friendly but professional service – a simple but all too elusive combination.

I am with Mission Control today to celebrate The Birthday – the date, the 20th of April is seared into my consciousness. It also happens to be the birthday of Adolf Hitler, another vegetarian. The coincidences stop there, honest.

Cardo makes an effort for vegetarians fed up with the pasta and risotto options so detested by my beloved. To start, she chooses a crispy arancini of mushroom and sweet corn flavoured with truffle oil and finds it most agreeable. Phew.

I’m opting for the set menu – three courses for £27.50 – and begin with mussels. As the bi-valves arrive steaming in a white wine, cream, garlic and shallot soup I am haunted by the horror-stricken countenance of a marine biologist friend who once emphatically declared that he would never eat mussels in any circumstances. It’s so annoying, he always comes to mind when I opt for moules.

Happily, they are plump, meaty and perfectly steamed (I was once caught in a Sicilian tourist trap that served a bowl of cozze that appeared to be dried out elastic bands in congealed tomato soup.) The sauce is light, not too creamy, sans lardons and enlivened by the unusual addition of pink peppercorns – which add a subtle bite to the liquor. An excellent and satisfying starter.

Service is brisk but friendly – in true bistro fashion – and our mains arrive quickly. I do not know how many goat’s cheese salads I have witnessed my partner devour over the years, hundreds certainly, but once again a salade du chèvre is put before her. A thick roundel of grilled goats cheese oozes tangy goodness on a bed of salad with beetroot, walnut and poached pear. Pleasingly, this is judged to be one of the better ones.

My main is classic bistro fare. The plat du jour is slow-cooked lamb shank on a cushion of mashed potato with a rich red wine sauce and slightly caramelised batons of carrot and parsnip adding crunch and texture. The beautifully cooked lamb seems to fall apart at the mere appearance of the knife, the sauce is delicious and not too salty.

We’re abstemious today, so no vino. It’s a pity. The St Desir Pinot Noir on the list, a light, easy-drinking, fruity red from the Languedoc, France’s under-marketed wine-producing power house, would have been a perfect partner – at a reasonable price too of £30.

Our repas is going well and, in a stunning impersonation of a boring old fart, I tell our waitress of the origin of the term bistro – in the 1900s Paris was plagued by a gang of violent pay-roll robbers. Police were baffled until a surviving security guard revealed that one of the attackers had used the word ‘bistro’ as they made their get away. Russian for ‘quick’, the clue led Clemenceau’s specially-formed police ‘Tiger’ brigades to a gang of Russian anarchists and the word was attached to quick and popular Parisian restaurants. Well, I thought it was interesting.

MC sensibly opts out of a dessert and chooses to have a coffee with a salty caramel macaron. I have never understood the attraction of these confections and their limpet-like ability to stick to your teeth but they are hugely popular and Cardo’s are made in-house and said to be very good.

My dessert, pear and almond tart, is presented with a boule of vanilla ice cream. It looks good but fails to deliver. Bland and seemingly devoid of both pear and almond, it is disappointing.

Cardo has fallen at the final hurdle. But it would be churlish to complain about a three-course meal for under £30. We’ll be back.

Verdict: 7/10

Cardo
38 South St
Perth
https://cardo.restaurant