Silures, Roath, Cardiff restaurant review

When it comes to the distribution of Cardiff’s high-end independent restaurants, the city centre and the west side of town have all the fun.

Thomas by Tom Simmons, Heaney’s, The Heathcock, Pasture, Asador 44, Purple Poppadom, Parallel and Poca are just a few of the places which I wish were closer to my doorstep on the east side of the city.

So, I’ve always felt there’s been a gap in the market (if there is such a thing during this perilous time for the hospitality sector) for something a bit swanky on Roath’s Wellfield Road.

Enter Silures, which opened on the former site of the Cameo Club in May last year and is named after an ancient tribe of warrior people who occupied Southeast Wales during the first century AD.

With owners who come from a background in luxury hotels, it’s unsurprising that Silures so effectively conjures a high-end experience. Its moody lighting, wood-panelled walls, rich colour palette, and a beauty of a bar, make it a place which would look just as comfortable in Mayfair as in Roath.

Silures’ all-day dining menu is billed as “Modern European” with dishes including Orkney XL King Scallop with champagne beurre blanc (£18), half lobster thermidor (£35), miso-glazed aubergine (£24), and Cote de boeuf for two (£85). This pricing clearly positions it at Cardiff’s pricier end of the spectrum. But, if you’re looking for a more budget friendly visit then their three course set lunch will set you back £30 and their Sunday lunch menu is £35 too.

We were visiting Silures with friends who are regulars and had a voucher for 50% off the bill as part of a Christmas promotion. But, on certain days of the week throughout January, February and March, Silures are offering 30% off their a la carte menu for tables booked through The Fork.

On the booze front, a bottle of Montgomery sparking Seyval Blanc (£65) was a light and very gluggable bottle of Welsh fizz. It’s great to see the Welsh wine industry going from strength to strength. A delicious bottle of Greywacke New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc (£56) was packed with crunchy green peppers.

Snacks took the form of grilled sourdough (£4), which had a good char and was pre-drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. However, with the range of amazing butters on offer at similar level restaurants in the city, Silures’ bread offering felt like a bit of a missed opportunity.

To start, a big bowl of thick, sweet and earthy Jerusalem artichoke soup (£10) was well-seasoned with the umami hit of black garlic. 

A Jerusalem artichoke skin crisp provided welcome texture contrast, but it was an accompanying warm blue cheese scone that was the star of the show. Soft crumbed and studded with salty nuggets of cheese, it was a huge upgrade on a bread roll.

A pair of super tender and fat-rich boneless lamb ribs (£14) had a great intensity of flavour. I really enjoyed their sticky, gelatinous skin but some might prefer a crisper finish. Accompaniments all served to balance the meat’s richness; the tang of sorrel fragranced yoghurt, briny cured anchovies, and pearls of cleansing pomegranate were all bob on.

Onto mains, and a wild mushroom risotto (£26) had a good loose texture and just the right amount of bite on each grain of rice. The funk of fungus, a savoury twang of Spenwood cheese, and crispy sage leaves all contributed to a very good risotto, but I think the flavour intensity could have been dialled up another notch. Surprisingly, generous shavings of Welsh black truffle were slightly muted and didn’t add a huge amount of flavour to the dish.

Creedy Carver duck breast (£30) hit the bullseye in its cooking. Blushing pink and tender, with well-rendered fat, it was just a slight shame that it was noticeably cooler than the other excellent elements on the plate. Fall apart tender confit duck leg with a sweet and savoury soy glaze, precisely cooked leaves of cavolo nero, a dollop of squash puree with crispy cavolo nero, and an intense, glossy and sticky bordelaise sauce all combined to make a delicious plate of food.

Bowlfuls of first-rate macaroni cheese (£5) had an indulgently thick cheese sauce with a big hit of sharp and savoury cheese and a crust of melted stuff on top for good measure. I’d have been happy with it as it was, but our friends insisted on pimping it up with sweet and meaty chunks of lobster and crayfish (£6 extra) and a flurry of funky truffle (£4 extra­).

Thick-cut chips (£5) had a lovely golden hue, rustly crunch, and soft fluffy interiors.

For dessert, a dome of soft and light crumbed sticky toffee pudding (£8) was well-drenched in a creamy caramel sauce which didn’t go too big on the toasty dark sugar notes. In case my blood sugar levels needed topping up further, an extra jug of the sauce was left on the side. Dense and silky clotted cream ice cream and buttery shortbread crumbs were lovely accompaniments.

A saucepan of thick and smooth white chocolate crème brûlée (£8) was well-judged in its use of white chocolate; it deftly avoided being too sweet whilst adding an extra flavour dimension. Meanwhile, the fine crunchy caramel top was bolstered by the presence of additional nuggets of toasty honeycomb.

We rounded off our meal with a pair of cracking cocktails, a White Russian (£10) and a margarita (£10.50). Having previously visited Silures for cocktails, it’s fair to say that they really know their way around a drinks cabinet.

Overall, we had an excellent evening at Silures. With their high-end comfort food, attentive service and classy setting, Silures brings a bit of lux to Roath. Whilst it’s clearly possible to splurge a load of money on a visit, their current 30% off deal and set lunch menus mean there are some very good offers to be had too.

The Details:

Address - Silures, 55 Wellfield Rd, Cardiff CF24 3PA

Web - https://www.silures-amh.com/

Telephone - 029 2280 6369

Hug Paeng, Roath, Cardiff Thai takeaway review

Setting up a food business in your own home was very 2020-21.

From cookies to chilli sauce and brownies to biryani, there were plenty of people who got in on the side hustle action during lockdown.

However, whilst many of these cottage industries have fallen by the wayside as the pandemic has (hopefully) begun to disappear in the rear-view mirror, one business which has had longevity is Hug Paeng.

Based out of a home kitchen in Roath, I originally interviewed Hug Paeng’s owner Sranya Khaengkhan for WalesOnline shortly after she’d set up the business in 2021.

Mrs G and I were both seriously impressed by their fresh and fragrant Thai food, which utilises curry pastes that Sranya makes from scratch. And in the years since, several people have told us it’s their favourite Thai cooking in Cardiff.

As I haven’t reviewed Hug Paeng on this blog, I thought it was high time for a revisit. Open in the evenings from Tuesday to Saturday, you can order to collect from Hug Paeng directly via their website. Or if you’re looking for home delivery, they’re available on the usual platforms.

Hug Paeng’s menu is reassuringly concise, offering green and red curry and spring rolls as well as a selection of seasonal specials. This month there’s pineapple fried rice, tom yum soup, and stir-fried homemade rice noodles. It’s also worth noting that Hug Paeng’s curry pastes are vegan and almost all the dishes are available with tofu or vegan chicken (as well as chicken or king prawns).

As were a bit early to collect our takeaway, we had a couple of halves of Hobby Horse from the Andrew Buchan on Albany Road, which is located just a minute from Hug Paeng HQ. Our order was ready as soon as we knocked on the door and by the time we got home, it was still nice and hot.

Totally crisp and grease-free veggie spring rolls (£4.75) were loaded with a savoury and spicy mix of carrot, glass noodles, onions and dried black mushrooms and accompanied by a pot of sweet and spicy sweet chilli sauce. They were excellent, and as they were baked, they felt less naughty than your average spring roll.

Green and red curries were both belters - heady with lemongrass, galangal, garlic, and chilli, and decadent with creamy coconut milk. Beautifully fresh and fragrant, I think you could tell that they were cooked using scratch-made curry pastes.

The chicken red curry (£10.25) just edged it for me with a more rounded richness and fiery chilli heat. In the depths of the bowl were plentiful pieces of beautifully tender and lightly caramelised grilled chicken and vibrant vegetables, including courgettes, green beans, carrot and tangy pineapple.

The milder and more herbal green curry (£10) was laden with bronzed-edged tofu pieces and plenty more fresh vegetables, including peppers, aubergines and courgettes. It was so rich and meaty yet still vegan.

Generous pots of sticky grained fragrant jasmine rice (£2) were a lovely accompaniment for the curries.

A seasonal special of sen yai pad krai chicken (£10.25) saw thick, lightly glutinous and soft homemade rice noodles stir fried with tender chicken thigh, golden omelette pieces, carrot shavings and kale. Fragrant with lemongrass and galangal and accompanied by a dollop of sweet and fiery chilli paste, it was a comforting yet different fried noodle dish to any I've encountered.

The finest example of a tom yum you'll encounter was hot, sour, sweet and savoury with an excellent complexity. This was no mere starter, but a meal in itself. In its depths bobbed mushrooms, fresh tomatoes, onions and courgettes. A prawn version (£10.75) was packed with plump sweet prawns and cubes of light, well-caramelised omelette whilst a tofu iteration (£8) contained airy tofu puffs and meaty grilled tofu. 

You can tell that everything Hug Paeng serves is homecooked with a lot of care and attention rather than churned out in bulk. Their gorgeously fresh and fragrant Thai food is the kind of takeaway food I’d gladly eat every week.

The Details:

Address - Hug Paeng, 23 Donald Street, Cardiff CF24 4TJ  Wales, United Kingdom

Web - https://www.hugpaeng.com/

Riverside Cantonese, Cardiff Chinese restaurant review

Every year, on New Year’s Day, we go out for a Chinese feast with a big group of friends in Cardiff.

It’s a great opportunity to catch up with mates, nurse a hangover, and most importantly eat a huge amount of delicious food. With the inevitable anti-climax of New Year’s Eve, I always look forward to it more than the night before.

In previous years we've been to Yang's, Happy Gathering, Bo Zan and Good World.

This year was the turn of Riverside Cantonese, a Cardiff institution which relocated to a new home on Leckwith Road in 2017. We’d only ever visited their previous venue on Tudor Street, which was a little tatty around the edges, and so we thought it was high time we checked out their new location.

In light of another Cardiff Chinese institution recently receiving a zero-hygiene rating, it's worth noting how bright and clean Riverside Cantonese looks. And, there's big windows that look onto the kitchen from the dining room, so you can see exactly what's going on. 

Riverside Cantonese’s menu features familiar Cantonese classics as well as more interesting dishes such as Szechuan monkfish skewers, pork with aubergines in chilli and black bean, and stuffed duckling. There’s also dim sum on offer at lunchtimes.

We ordered a bunch of crowd-pleasing dishes and multiple rounds of ice cold Tsingtao beer, all of which arrived swiftly throughout the meal.

A generous whole crispy duck (£43.80) delivered on its promise of crisp and tender meat stuffed into pancakes with sweet hoisin and cleansing cucumber. It was supplemented by the less familiar addition of lightly pickled mooli and carrot; it certainly provided balance to the richness of the duck but wasn’t quite my bag.

A big plate of excellent grease-free prawn toast (£7.80) had plenty of sweet crustacean and toasty sesame.

Fresh as you like lettuce wraps (£7.80) were enjoyable piled high with minced pork and crisp vermicelli, but I thought the sweet and savoury sauce could have delivered a bigger punch of flavour.

Last up, very good barbecue ribs (£7.80) had plenty of flesh on the bone and were pleasingly sticky and zingy.

For mains, a tangle of crispy chilli beef (£10.80) was the most impressive; the tender beef was lightly-battered and the sweet and spicy sauce avoided any gloopiness. We polished off one portion and swiftly ordered another.

Fillet steak (£14.80) in satay sauce was another highlight. Big hunks of meat and crisp veggies were coated in a sauce with a good richness of peanut and hit of spice.

Szechuan king prawns (£11.80) were all thriller and no filler – the plump and sweet crustaceans were bathed in a light sauce with a good thrum of chilli.

Crispy squid (£10.80) looked a little pallid, but the batter was crisp and the flesh tender, with an unexpectedly potent chilli heat.

Kung po pork (£9.80) was probably my least favourite dish, owing to the presence of rather bland water chestnuts, but the addition of cucumber provided a nice contrast to the dish’s heat.

On the carb front, Singapore vermicelli (£8.80) was a very good example with a good curry warmth and plentiful tender meat.

Egg fried rice (£4.80) had an unmistakably savouriness from the wok.

For dessert, banana fritters (£6.50) didn’t have the crispest batter, but they weren’t greasy at all and the fruit was deliciously soft and sweet. A scoop of thick vanilla ice cream and drizzle of caramel completed the very enjoyable dessert.

We had a delicious New Year’s Day feast at Riverside Cantonese with excellent service. I've got a lot of time for an old skool Chinese meal and Riverside Cantonese very much hit the spot. Our friends unanimously agreed that they'd be keen to go back next year; I’ll take that as high praise indeed.

The Details:

Address - Riverside Cantonese Restaurant, Leckwith Road, Cardiff CF11 6HN

Web - https://riversidecantonese.com/

Telephone - 029 2037 2163

Rascal Burrito, Cardiff, Mexican takeaway and restaurant review

Mrs G doesn’t like burritos.

She normally finds them a bit stodgy and bland in comparison to their lighter relative the taco.

Well, that was until Mrs G was converted by a visit to Rascal Burrito in Cardiff the other week.

When we arrived at this dinky Crwys Road takeaway, with just a few seats in the window for eating in, we planned to only order their tacos. However, a burrito evangelist in front of us in the queue rhapsodised about how good they are, and well, it would have been rude not to order one after that show of enthusiasm.

Rascal Burrito’s compact menu features burritos, tacos and nachos. If you’re veggie or vegan then there’s a vegan chicken substitute on offer instead of their beef, chicken and pork. On weekends there’s breakfast burritos available whilst on Friday evenings there’s a special of beef birria tacos.

Rascal's Venezuelan and Mexican owners make all of their salsas and marinades from scratch. One of the duo also owns the Venezuelan street food business Queen Pepiada, who make a mean arepa. So, they’re clearly well-schooled in Latin American cooking.

As Rascal Burrito doesn’t serve booze, I opted for a can of Remedy ginger and lemon kombucha. With a good warmth of ginger, hit of citrus, and zippy acidity, it was a lovely match for the spicy cooking.

An El Chapo burrito (£8.50), which was the approximate size of guinea pig, was a super combination of flavours and textures, which harmonised together rather than being disparate clumps of fillings. A soft wheat tortilla, which had been lightly crisped around the edges, due to a spell on the plancha, cocooned tender shreds of marinated chicken, distinct grained rice, creamy melted cheese, black beans with a nice bite, fresh salad, a vibrant pico de gallo, and a really good dollop of mild tomatillo-based salsa verde with a fresh fruitiness and acidity.

A trio of beef barbacoa tacos (£7) were probably my pick of the bunch. Double stacked corn tortillas were pleasingly soft and delivered on their corny complexity. They were loaded with juicy shreds of big flavoured spiced slow-cooked beef, more of that fresh and fragrant pico de gallo, white onion and coriander. 

Based on the showing of these beef tacos, we’ll definitely be heading back to try their birria beef taco special.

Pots of Rascal’s three homemade salsas were delicious poured over the tacos, adding extra layers of flavour. There was more of the perky salsa verde, a medium spiced salsa roja with a tomato sweetness and hit of chilli, and a fiery salsa macha, which wasn’t too dissimilar from the salsa roja but delivered a bigger wallop of chilli.

A trio of Al Pastor tacos were enjoyable (£7) but probably the weakest of the dishes we ate. Whilst the shreds of pork were nicely marinated, the meat was a little on the dry side.

By the time we’d finished lunch at Rascal, I was as well-stuffed as their burritos. We had a delicious, generous and great value lunch and I’ll definitely be adding Rascal to my rotation of places to visit for a quick bite to eat. In fact, the previously sceptical Mrs G has already mentioned going for another burrito soon.

The Details:

Address – Rascal Burrito, 98 Crwys Rd, Cardiff CF24 4NQ
Web – https://www.instagram.com/rascalburrito98/

Telephone - 07462 612298