591 by Anatoni's, Victoria Park, Cardiff restaurant review

The longer I write this blog, the more that it feels like it’s a means of documenting Cardiff’s culinary history.

On these pages are reviews of tons of restaurants which have shuttered their doors over the last decade, and accounts of the early enterprises of some of the country’s most celebrated chefs.

One chef whose career I’ve recorded in the pages of this blog is pizza maestro Tony Frawley.

From his first Anatoni’s restaurant in Lakeside, where he pioneered Neapolitan pizzas in Cardiff, to a rebrand to Da Mara and move to Albany Road, a subsequent short hop to Anatoni’s on Wellfield Road, and a return journey to Scaramantica in the same Albany Road venue, Tony’s journey has been more meandering than most. 

After parting company with Scaramantica in early 2022, Tony spent time cooking at pizzerias in London before his inevitable return home to Cardiff.

He’s now resurrected the much-missed Anatoni’s for the third time, this time in the form of 591 by Anatoni’s, on the former site of the Dough Thrower in Victoria Park. The makeover from its previous incarnation has been very subtle. 

591 by Anatoni’s menu focuses on Neapolitan pizzas with a handful of starters and desserts bookending the main event - it’s where Tony’s heart has always been, laser focused on pizza.

And, according to the man himself, the pizza oven at this newest venue is the finest bit of kit that he’s worked with. It shows, from the first mouthful of the meal.

Garlic bread was so much more than the stodgy filler it so often is. A puffy tyre of light and soft pizza bread was filled with an ooze of addictive garlic butter. 

Light, soft and decadent, it’s a killer dish for a mere £3.50. And if you want, there’s the option to customise it with ’nduja or buffalo mozzarella too. 

Bruschetta (£5.95) was excellent too – gorgeously light sourdough pizza bread, with a delicate chew, was topped with a beautifully balanced combination of sweet vine tomatoes dressed with vinegar, oil, basil, onion and garlic.

We tried a few of the deep-fried starters too and both were great.

Whopping golden whitebait (£4.50) were zhushed up nicely with a squeeze of lemon and a dip in tangy thousand island sauce.

Calamari (£6.50) were the right combination of tender and crisp and served with more of that lovely dip.

Finally, a mound of skinny chips (£3.50) was wolfed down by our mates’ kids. I managed to pilfer one and can confirm that they hit the mark.

Onto the pizzas, and it’s worth flagging just how good the key components are. A beautifully leopard spotted rim encased a soft and airy interior with a delicate chew. It’s the kind of pizza crust you could eat all day long without feeling bloated. Light and fruity San Marzano tomato sauce and and a creamy ooze of fior di latte cheese were all on point too.

Both the kids demolished their margheritas (£10.95) that were dressed with a couple of leaves of fragrant basil - a resounding success for the most dedicated pizza purists amongst us.

 

The Caruso (£14.95), a dish which has previously featured in my year’s best Cardiff dishes list, was every bit as good as I remember it. The combination of crisp salami, vibrant spinach, creamy and tangy goats cheese, crunchy pine nuts and a decadent drizzle of sweet and funky truffled honey is so brilliantly addictive.

Another perennial favourite, the Santa Anna (£13), was on fine form too. It was topped creamy whipped mascarpone and sweet, juicy cherry tomatoes that balanced the fiery heat of ’nduja sausage.

Last up, a Sophia Loren (£13) successfully combined spinach, mushrooms and garlic with the added luxury of a runny-yolked egg and the savoury funk of pecorino romano shavings.

It’s great to see Tony Frawley back in Cardiff cooking pizzas which are as good as any I’ve ever eaten in the city. The only tiny tear I have to shed is that he’s now cooking on the opposite side of the city to where I live.

After a break for Christmas, 591 by Anatoni’s will reopen on Wednesday 10 January with a slightly expanded menu and an alcohol licence. Whichever part of Cardiff you’re based in, I’d highly recommend checking out their exemplary Neapolitan pizzas.

The Details:

Address - 591 by Anatoni's, 591A Cowbridge Rd E, Cardiff CF5 1BE

Web - https://www.instagram.com/591byanatonis/

Telephone - 07882016735

Zi's Cafe, Cathays, Cardiff dim sum review

Mrs G and I are both big fans of an early meal.

Firstly, it usually means you get the best food and service before the kitchen and front of house teams are slammed at peak hours.

Secondly, if you're out for dinner then you can get home at a reasonable hour and have time to digest before bedtime. Rock and roll hey. 

I'm a big fan of an early lunch too. In fact, I’m that weirdo in the office who cracks open their packed lunch the minute the clock strikes midday.

However, the other day, we took our preference for an early lunch to even greater lengths when we visited Zi’s Café in Cathays to try out their new dim sum menu. Supposedly open for lunch at 12pm, we found an open sign on their door at 11.57am and gladly got stuck in. It was lucky we did, because as soon as midday arrived, two other large groups and a table of two arrived for lunch too.

Having brought in a specialist dim sum chef and only started serving their new menu in the past couple of weeks, news has clearly spread quickly.

I can understand why as we’re already huge fans of Zi’s main evening menu, which features belting dishes such as lamb with cumin, chicken with dried chilli and spring onion, and salt and pepper aubergine.

Zi’s dim sum menu offers a tick sheet divided into sections such as steamed, pan fried, deep fried and, porridge, noodles and rice. As per usual, I got a bit carried away ticking too many boxes.

 

In a break from the festive excesses, Mrs G and I shared a pot of fragrant jasmine tea (£3) to drink.

Deep fried prawn dumplings (£4.80) were gloriously crisp and grease free, and absolutely rammed with plump and sweet king prawns. Dredged through a bowl of creamy and tangy mayonnaise, it was a corker of a dim sum.

Steamed house special prawn dumplings (£5) were superb too. The thin glutinous cases were packed with sweet crustaceans.

Cubes of crisp-edged soft-textured turnip cake (£5.50) were compellingly seasoned with the deep umami hit of XO sauce. Even more addictive were the crispy scraps littered around the plate, which were like fish and chip shop batter bits on steroids.

Fried Peking pork dumplings (£4.20) saw delicate cased wrappers filled with juicy minced meat seasoned with chive. They were delicious dipped in ginger scented vinegar.

Salt and pepper squid (£5.50) was nice and tender but lacked the uber-crisp batter coating which I usually expect from Zi’s crispy squid. Still, shreds of spring onion flecked with a mammoth hit of garlic were a lovely balance to the fried stuff.

Cloud-like honey barbecue roast pork buns (£4.50) were an excellent example of their type. Light and squidgy, they were filled with tender barbecue pork in a sweet and savoury sauce, which avoided being too sickly.

Singapore noodles were arguably the weakest link of the lunch. Whilst the noodles had a really good bite and the veggies were nice and crisp, we both found the amount of curry powder and level of seasoning a bit too high.

It’s great to have somewhere serving delicious dim sum on our side of Cardiff and I’m glad to see that it’s somewhere with the pedigree of Zi’s Café which has taken up the mantle. We’ll definitely be back to work our way through the rest of that tick sheet.

Update 30/10/2024

Having already levelled up once this year with the addition of dim sum to their menu, Zi's have done it again by adding Cantonese roast meats to their roster. Handily, both their dim sum and roast meats are available in the evening as well as at lunchtime. 

I ordered the triple roast meats with rice (£14.50) and everything was bang on - the pork belly had light and crisp crackling, the char siu was juicy with a sticky honey glaze, and the tender duck had glossy skin. Also, they were served hot, which I much prefer over room temperature. 

The Details:

Address - Zi's Cafe, 94-96 Woodville Road, Cathays, Cardiff CF24 4ED

Web - https://ziscafecardiff.co.uk/

Telephone - 02920 216 294

Sofia's Greek Corner, Adamsdown takeaway review

We were all set for a weekday lunch out at Sofia’s Greek Corner in Adamsdown when we stepped through their doors and realised that they don’t have any seats.

We should have known better as they’re located on the former site of Broadway Fish Bar, so magicking a seating area in such a small space was never going to be likely. Still, as we live just a five-minute walk from Sofia’s we decided to crack on.

As well as the usual selection of gyros, dips and salads, Sofia’s offers a range of pies, pastries, desserts and mains, including moussaka, stifado, and meatballs. Many of the dishes are available in family-sized portions so there’s even better value to be had than their already keen prices if you order in bulk.

 After a short wait for our order, we were back at home guzzling lunch in no time at all.

To start, Sofia’s feta (£3.80) was every bit as naughty as I hoped it would be. A brick of melted feta was sandwiched between layers of crisp filo pastry and drizzled with sweet honey and nutty sesame seeds.

Thick hummus (£3) had a really good chickpea flavour and a compelling extra dimension of spice, perhaps paprika. It was served with wedges of soft griddled pitta bread.

Dakos (£5), aka Cretan salad, was an excellent example of one our favourite Greek dishes. Crisp nuggets of nutty barley rusk were drizzled with olive oil and scattered with briny olives, white onion, tangy feta and fragrant oregano. It was a corking combination of textures and flavours.

A whopping pork and chicken gyros plate (£9.90) was the weakest dish of the line-up, but it was still very enjoyable. Golden-edged shavings of meat and standard issue chips were both well-flavoured but lacking in crispness. Fresh salad, more of that excellent griddled pitta bread, and a pot of potently garlicky tzatziki, were all lovely accompaniments.

We had a really tasty and cracking value lunch from Sofia’s Greek Corner - we were both absolutely stuffed for £21.70. If you're in the area, then it’s well worth a look.

The Details:

Address - Sofia's Greek Corner, 168 Broadway, Cardiff CF24 1QJ

Telephone - 029 2280 8836

Inn at the Sticks, Llansteffan, Carmarthenshire restaurant review

Tucked away on the Towy Estuary in Carmarthenshire, Llansteffan has been on our list of places to visit in Wales for a very long time.

But, there’s never really been a sense of great urgency. There’s always been other places to visit, with tempting restaurants to turn my head.

That was until we heard that Teej Sparks had taken over the Inn at Sticks, a pub with rooms in the middle of Llansteffan, which dates back to the 19th century. Teej was formerly the ops manager for Ultracomida and became a friendly face on our doorstep during the pandemic when we stocked up regularly on absurd quantities of their olives. As a consummate hospitality professional, anything Teej turns her hand to is clearly going to be worth checking out. 

Inn at the Sticks is a beautiful venue that’s been lovingly restored with cast iron beams, exposed brickwork and a sturdy wooden bar. There's also a delicatessen and wine tasting room in the offing, which will add another string to the business’s bow.

On the booze front, there's sherry and vermouth by the glass as well as an interesting selection of wines from vineyards such as Kosovo’s Stone Castle and Lebanon's Chateau Musar. As we were driving, we enjoyed halves of Estrella Dam before moving onto alcohol free Asahi.

The menu bills itself as Welsh tapas and is divided into sections such as “from the land”, “from the garden” and “from the sea”. In reality, influences come from across France, Italy and Spain too and it’s in the use of top-drawer Welsh suppliers, such as Trealy Farm, Atlantic Edge oysters, and Teifi Cheese, where the real Welshness can be found.

We were recommended between four and six dishes to share and plumped for five.

Soft crumbed granary bread was accompanied by a bottle of grassy olive oil and PX sherry vinegar. It's a fine example of the benefits of Teej's background in working with top drawer Spanish produce.

A basket of golden cockle popcorn (£9) was just as addictive as the buckets of popcorn you get at the cinema. I shoved fistfuls of the crisp sweet and salty bivalves into my gob alongside a delicately honking wild garlic mayonnaise and vinegar twanged with the heat of chilli.

A trio of gloriously tender mini faggots, made with minced pork belly and chicken livers, delivered only the merest hint of offal, making them as accessible as this dish gets. Served with crushed sweet peas and a thick meaty gravy, the only quibble was that I wanted more. At £12, for this dainty dish it perhaps wasn't an unreasonable expectation.

A symphony of beetroot (£12) most certainly lived up to its billing, delivering harmonious textures and flavours of the earthy root vegetable - roast yellow beetroot, sharp pickled beetroot, and sweet beetroot chutneys and gel. It was accompanied by the crunch of candied walnuts and the creamy, salty funk of whipped Perl Las blue cheese.

A potato terrine (£9) was every bit as decadent as it looked. Thin layers of buttery potato retained just a smidgen of bite and had crisp caramelised edges. The luxury levels were dialled up further with a dusting of savoury parmesan and a splodge of truffle mayonnaise. A minor quibble, but we both found the dish a tad salty. 

Finally, a nicely flaky and delicately sweet fillet of plaice (£15) and pieces of hispi cabbage were bathed in a corker of a rich and buttery sauce flecked with the savoury salinity of laverbread. It wouldn't have looked out of place in a far swankier restaurant.

For dessert, we passed over the rather awesome (and foreboding) sounding dark chocolate oblivion. A smooth and creamy panna cotta (£8) was spiced with tonka bean whilst soft macerated strawberries were cannily fragranced with orange peel and the sweetness of honey.

Clever and delicious cooking in a lovely setting make Inn at the Sticks a belting Welsh pub. If you find yourself in this part of west Wales, then I'd very much recommend a visit. And whilst you’re there I’d recommend a stroll along the beautiful Towy estuary and a yomp up to Llansteffan Castle to work up an appetite.

The Details:

Address - Inn at the Sticks, High Street, Llansteffan, Carmarthen SA33 5JG

Web - https://innatthesticks.com/

Telephone -  01267 612727

Tukka Tuk Canteen, Cardiff south Indian restaurant review

Anand George’s return to Whitchurch Road has a feeling of history repeating itself.

Cardiff’s godfather of southern Indian cooking first made his name in the city at Mint & Mustard on the same street when it opened in 2007. And next door, he subsequently launched Chai Street, a more informal street food interpretation of his spice-packed cooking.

There’s been a lot of water under the bridge since then, with Anand departing both businesses and building an even bigger reputation for himself at Purple Poppadom in Canton. He’s also opened Tukka Tuk, a street food venture in Cardiff Market and Barry Goodsheds, alongside his business partner Rupali Wagh.

But, there’s clearly unfinished business on Whitchurch Road as it’s where Anand has now opened Tukka Tuk Canteen, a destination where he can showcase a wider repertoire of southern Indian and Sri Lankan canteen-style cooking.

The dining space certainly fits the brief with its colourful cartoon adorned walls and bench and banquette seating. Tukka Tuk Canteen’s menu features a broad range of short eats, kothu roti, tiffin meals, kari, and sides. If you’re unfamiliar with this style of cooking then there’s a handy glossary of terms on the back of the menu and the exceptionally friendly front of house team are on hand to talk you through the dishes on offer.

We visited with a pair of mates and shared a heap of dishes so we could put as much of the menu through its paces as possible.

Pints of cobra (£5.85) and a bottle of Allan Scott New Zealand Riesling (£30) were well-suited accompaniments to the big-spiced cooking.

Bone marrow varuval (£10.90) was the star of an illustrious line-up of starters. A pair of beef bones were loaded with soft and buttery marrow which we are advised to mix through a rich and spicy coconut curry sauce.

It was epic dolloped onto the flakiest, buttery homemade parotta, which were probably the best I’ve ever eaten. There are well-known street food businesses which have built their reputation using frozen parottas; these knock spots off them.

Beef fry (£8) was a little bowl that packed a big punch. Stupidly tender nuggets of beef were coated in an intensely garlicky, gingery and peppery spice rub that was lifted by the fragrance of curry leaf.

A refined take on chicken kothu roti (£11.90), one of my all-time favourite southern Indian dishes, was packed with comforting flavours and textures. Soft pieces of homemade roti had been stir-fried with pieces of tender chicken, egg and mixed vegetables, and seasoned with warming spices. Just hand me a bowl of this and a spoon and I’d be a very happy man indeed.

Lamb rolls (£7.50) were as good as I’ve eaten too, the uber-crisp breadcrumbed cylinders densely packed with an exceptionally tender and intensely spiced mix of minced lamb and potato. A tangy chilli ketchup provided zingy contrast.

Keralan fried chicken (KFC) bites (£7.50) were the only short eat which was merely enjoyable rather than excellent. I didn’t think this version of the dish was as good as the one they serve at Tukka Tuk in Cardiff market as the meat was a little bit bouncy and the coating less crisp.

Following round one, we moved onto a selection of kari, tiffin meals and sides.

A behemoth of a folded masala dosa (£9.90) was commendably thin and crisp and stuffed with a spice-spiked potato masala. Its accompanying homemade chutneys provided a medley of flavour contrasts. There was a vivid green coriander chutney, a creamy coconut chutney, rich and sweet tomato and onion chutney, and an earthy lentil stew (sambhar).

A palate energising side of batu moju (£6.90) was one of the other highlights of the meal. Well caramelised soft discs of aubergine were coated in a potently sweet, spicy and sour sauce.

A trio of curries were all excellent but perhaps the most questionable when it came to value as each dinky bowl weighed in around the £13 mark.

Jaffna lamb (£13.90) was our pick of the bunch. Gorgeously tender pieces of meat bobbed in a gravy which was both intensely meaty and heady with spice.

Mangalorean fish curry (£13.90) saw meaty pieces of the halibut bathed in a creamy coconut sauce that was twanged with the distinct tang of tamarind.

A vibrant green chicken curry (£12.40) was fragrant with the aromas of coriander, coconut and curry leaf.

More of those superb parottas (£3.50) and a nei choru (£3.50), a bowl of buttery rice topped with cashews, raisins and almonds, were lovely with all the delicious curry sauces.

 

I’m normally stuffed by the time I get to dessert at Indian restaurants but we were still raring to go at Tukka Tuk Canteen. It was just as well, because their pudding selection is a cut above the ubiquitous bought in ice cream filled coconut shells.

A knickerbocker glory (£8) was layered with a kaleidoscope of sweet treats. There was fruit jelly, fresh kiwi, grapes and strawberries, thick creamy custard, rose-scented vermicelli custard, dried glace fruit pieces, and nutty chia seeds.

Pazham pori (£7.50) was a rather grown-up take on a banana fritter. Utilising less sweet ripe plantain that was stuffed with aromatic cardamom, toasty jaggery and grated coconut, it was coated in crisp batter and served with a scoop of cleansing berry sorbet.

Finally, a coconut pudding (£7) was a lovely riff on a panna cotta. The wobbly, not-to-sweet set creamy coconut milk was accompanied by the balancing sweet sharpness of berry coulis.

We had a fabulous meal at Tukka Tuk Canteen and Anand George’s return to Whitchurch Road is a triumph. Tukka Tuk Canteen is one of Cardiff’s best openings of 2023 and if this was a London restaurant opening then national critics would already be frothing at the mouth. 

The Details:

Address -  Tukka Tuk Canteen, 90-92 Whitchurch Rd, Cardiff CF14 3LY

Web - https://tukkatukcanteen.com/

Telephone - 029 2063 0704