Nighthawks wine bar and Mad Dog brewery tap, Cardiff review

When I saw that both Nighthawks wine bar and the Mad Dog brewery taproom, located just about 50 metres apart from each other in Cardiff city centre, were both serving delicious looking toasted cheese sandwiches, the opportunity for a pun-tastic blog post theme seemed too good an opportunity to miss.

So, I present to you a tale of two toasties.

First up, is Nighthawks. Located on a glass-fronted corner entrance to the Castle Arcade, this wine bar’s name must surely take inspiration from the famous Edward Hopper painting. 

With an interesting selection of 14 wines by the glass (I won’t pretend to know what I’m talking about), each option is accompanied by an evocative description which helps a lot when choosing what to order. If wine isn’t your bag then there’s also Welsh Mountain Cider and beers from Wiper & True and Brooklyn.

Working our way through a couple of glasses each, I enjoyed a Loire Valley Sauvignon Blanc (£6.95) with plenty of citrus and gooseberry, and a really excellent Puglian negroamaro (£6.95) with heaps of raisins and soft tannins. Mrs G was a big fan of both a natural granacha blanca (£6.95) and a Uruguayan petit manseng (£8.95) which lived up to its apple pie crust billing.

With a menu of elevated snacks, which include posh paprika crisps with sour cream and fish roe; anchovies with garlic oil; and cheese and charcuterie boards, their toasted cheese sandwich is very much the eye-catcher. It certainly lived up to its billing.

Top drawer crisped and buttery Pettigrew sourdough (£7.50) cosseted a thick ooze of creamy mozzarella, tangy cheddar, Rutland red and lubricating white wine bechamel sauce. Pieces of spring onion provided a hit of allium whilst a pot of thick and fruity tomato chutney had just the right amount of acidity and the addition of nigella seeds provided unmistakably naan bread like seasoning.

With one excellent toastie under our belts, Mad Dog Brewery had a lot to live up to. 

Having relocated from Monmouthshire to a spot opposite the castle earlier this year, I was interested to read that one of the owners had experience of working in the kitchen of the three Michelin-starred Fat Duck.

So, the signs were more than promising and it translated into a delicious sounding menu of small plates and sandwiches, with dishes including padron peppers with sumac yoghurt, duck croquettes with mustard mayo, and buttermilk fried chicken with chilli mayo.

With beers on offer including the brewery’s own marmalade IPA and a guest amber ale from Crafty Devil, Mrs G and I both enjoyed a light, crisp and juicy Hair of the Dog American pale ale - it’s the kind of beer I could happily have a few pints of.

Once again, top drawer crisp toasted sourdough bread provided the foundation for the sandwich (£9).

This time, it was loaded with a looser creamy cheddar cheese sauce, which provided a lovely coating for a fine dice of soft and sweet leeks. It was a deliciously filthy and rich toastie but I think the Nighthawks toastie edged it due to its ooziness.

We supplemented our sandwich with a portion of mushroom fritters (£5) - a fine dice of seriously savoury mushrooms were bound together by bechamel (I think) and coated in a extremely crisp panko crumb, which was perhaps just one shade of brown too dark. An accompanying bowl of delicately sweet and savoury miso mayo completed the delicious snack.

We had excellent toasted sandwiches at both Nighthawks and Mad Dog so it’s a story with a happy ending. I'll certainly be going back to both places to explore more of the snacks and booze on their menus.

The Details:
Nighthawks

Address - 47-49, Castle Arcade, Cardiff CF10 1BW

Web - https://www.instagram.com/nighthawkscardiff/?hl=en

Mad Dog Brewery

Address - 17-19 Castle St, Cardiff CF10 1BS

Web - https://www.maddogbrew.co.uk

Telephone - 07500 225616