Small plates. Natural wines. Open-flame cooking. Sustainability-focused.
Kindle, Cardiff’s newest restaurant opening in the old Warden’s House of Sophia Gardens, ticks all the boxes on the trendy restaurant checklist.
Owned by husband and wife team Phill and Deb Lewis, who also own Dusty’s Pizza and Nook, Kindle has been a long time in the making.
A successful crowdfunding campaign back in 2019 saw the couple raise funds towards renovation costs. But delays in the project occurred due to the pandemic and other unforeseen hurdles.
Now, in September 2021, Kindle has opened its gates.
The first phase of the project sees the restaurant set up for outdoor dining whilst phase two, which may take up to a couple of years, will see the building renovated with indoor seating and a shiny glass extension.
Leading the kitchen team is Tom Powell, a former head chef at the Michelin-starred Walnut Tree in Abergavenny. He’s pulled together a menu which balances its focus on vegetables, meat and fish, and international influences including Southern India, Korea and Iran.
We visited Kindle on a humid midweek night and welcomed the fresh air in the sheltered outdoor dining room. As the Welsh weather inevitably turns colder, Kindle plan to offer blankets and hot water bottles and curtain off the seating area to provide respite from the elements.
During the meal we knocked back some delicious glasses of natural wine - peachy Naturlich pet nat (£6), a fragrant In a Gadda da Vida orange wine (£8) and honey-like Monbazar dessert wine (£6).
A complimentary snack saw a slice of sweet tomato coated in breadcrumbs and topped with a flurry of rich and salty provolone cheese.
We ordered six small plates between us as recommended by our friendly server and it made for a good sized meal.
Highlights included a super-crisp crumbed piece of bone-in quail (£11) sat in a silky and buttery champ and glossy meaty gravy. Fried chicken, mash and gravy is a classic combination and here it was elevated excellently.
It was cracking served alongside a bowl of lightly bitter and slightly smoky collared greens (£5) tangled with soft and sweet caramelised onions and topped with crispy onions.
Crispy potatoes (£5) lived up to their billing. With their soft interior and drizzled with rich confit egg yolk and burnt onion salt, it was a high-end take on hash browns and dippy egg.
Sweet and tender leeks (£6) with a nice bite and shavings of raw leek were bathed in an oniony, nutty and slightly sweet brown butter sauce with a great depth of flavour. I mopped up every last drop.
Delicate white crab (£11) was tumbled together with crisp white radish and sat in a pool of romesco sauce with a good thwack of earthy brown crab meat. Whilst it was very tasty plate, the wateriness of the radish somewhat washed away the flavour of the sweet white flesh.
Lastly, crisp sangak flatbread (£4) with a good chew was topped with soft aubergine with a delicate lick of char.
Two puds were on offer and we of course ordered both of them.
A crisp cannoli (£6) was loaded with rich dark chocolate ganache and a smooth sweet custard.
A moist and nutty oaty cake (£5), not to be confused with the oat cake found on a cheeseboard, was served with a caramelised roast apple piece with a delicate fragrance of rosemary and a good dollop of cream.
We were really impressed by the open-fired seasonal small plates and natural wines at Kindle. There’s most certainly substance to back up the buzzwords and it's a great addition to Cardiff's restaurant scene.
The Details:
Address - Kindle, Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, CF11 9SZ
Email - info@kindlecardiff.co.uk
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