Small Canteen, Sandyford, Newcastle restaurant review

As a Geordie I’m probably slightly biased, but Newcastle is a bloody cool city.

It’s not just its beautiful setting on the banks of the Tyne, the stunning Georgian architecture, the 50,000 seater stadium located in the heart of the city, and the thriving cultural scene. It’s the food and drink scene that I’m primarily talking about. And I don't just mean the number of branches of Greggs.

Newcastle is a city where it’s possible to stumble between pub after pub serving excellent craft beer. It’s something that I always find strangely lacking in Cardiff, except for a few notable exceptions (and probably explained by the dominance of Brains pubs).

And it’s a city where there's always a huge list of restaurants that I want to visit, from street food to something swanky.

This time around it was the turn of Small Canteen, in the Sandyford area of the city, which we made our way to after a mini pub crawl that culminated in a half of Northern Helles at the excellent Donzoko Brewery.

Small Canteen is a restaurant that more than lives up to its name.

With just fourteen covers and the feel of a tiny café where chef-owner Sam Betts quietly cooks singlehandedly behind the counter, it’s undoubtedly one of the smallest restaurants that I’ve visited in the UK.

Understandably, Small Canteen’s menu is compact too – there are just three starters, mains and desserts. But, they all sound like compelling eating and the prices are impressively small as well - starters are £8, mains £18 and desserts around £8.

Whilst the dining room and prices might be small, the generosity of hospitality is huge.

There was excellent service all evening from the sole member of front of house. And when we arrived, our table was already set with baskets of crusty bread and kaleidoscopic dips - a punchy garlic allioli, sweet peppery romesco, and a vibrant salsa verde.

No sooner had we polished them off than we were brought a complimentary plate of golden salt cod croquettes, loaded with flakes of fish and light mash. They were delicious dunked in herb flecked mayo.

All the while, we got going on carafes of gluggable house wine, a fragrant viognier and berry packed Provencal red, which cost a mere £10.50 per half litre.

To start, a trio of mushroom arancini (£8), continued the deep-fried golden ball theme. Well-fragranced with fungi and light in texture with a molten mozzarella core, their richness was balanced by a good dollop of herb yoghurt.

 

Potted sweet white crab (£8) was capped with a slab of butter. Its accompaniments, a trio of super short cheesy biscuits and cleansing dill cucumber slices, made the dish really sing.

Onto mains, and a hunk of gorgeously crisp confit duck (£18) was joined by iron rich Swiss chard, sweet and sharp berries, roast shallot, and a fruity berry jus. It was a lovely bit of hearty cooking. 

So too was a fennel and gruyere gratin (£18), the soft anise-twanged vegetable a lovely pairing for a thick, cheesy sauce. Whilst it was already a hefty portion, an excellent potato and pine nut salad added even more ballast.

Lighter but equally comforting was a slow-braise of gorgeously tender octopus (£18) dotted with soft spuds and sweet slow-cooked onions.

The generosity didn’t let up with dessert.

A slab of soft and sticky honey and polenta cake (£8) was topped with fragrant pear and served with an excellent scoop of crunchy nut flecked pistachio ice cream.

Cheese and fruit cake is an epic combination and a salty and funky brick of Colston Bassett stilton (£10) paired with a light, spiced fruit loaf was no exception. On the side, a shot of Courvoisier was included in the £10 price – I'm sure my palate isn’t refined enough but it always just tastes like fire water to me.

We had an excellent meal at Small Canteen and I’m all in favour of the killer combination of small dining spaces, menus and prices combined with big hospitality and flavours. Small Canteen adds further weight to my argument that Newcastle is a damn cool place. If you haven't yet visited then I can't recommend it highly enough. 

The Details:

Address - 17 Starbeck Ave, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 1RH

Web - https://www.instagram.com/smallcanteen/

Telephone - 07816 524826

Syriana Grill House, Roath, Cardiff kebab house review

It’s a testament to the quantity and quality of Middle Eastern grill houses on Cardiff’s City Road that we’re often slow to visit the latest openings.

Why would we take a punt on somewhere new when we’re guaranteed a killer kebab at one of our old favourites? (Saray is our pick of the bunch in case you’re asking).

However, whilst feeling a little ropey on a Sunday lunchtime, we were drawn towards the gleaming new décor of Syriana Grill House.

One of the newest additions to the street, Syriana opened its doors three months ago on the former site of Lilo Express.

For followers of Cardiff kebab lore, Lilo was one of City Road’s OG grill houses and one of our favourite spots when it first opened over ten years ago. Unfortunately, their shameful demise bore parallels to Disney’s Ratatouille for all the wrong reasons.

Syriana has certainly given the place an overhaul as the glitzy dining room’s gold, bronze and silver flourishes give off the vibes of a luxury Las Vegas casino.

Most importantly, as soon as you cross the threshold, a healthy pair of shawarma and fridgeful of fresh kebabs are a very good omen.

Syriana’s menu sees cold and hot mezze rub shoulders with charcoal grilled meats and slow-cooked dishes like lamb mandi, okra stew and dawood basha (meatballs with tomato sauce).

It’s always great to see freshly squeezed juices and smoothies on offer, and Syriana’s fine selection includes strawberry, lemon mint and watermelon. A Story Brooke smoothie (£4.50) was an ice cold, thick and not too sweet combination of strawberry, raspberry, mango and apple.

A bowl of thick hummus (£4.50) was generously drizzled with oil, dusted with paprika and studded with soft chickpeas.

It was a lovely dip and even better served with a pair of complimentary hot and crisp pillowy bread pockets, which were different to any other carb offering that we’ve encountered on City Road.

Whilst we were warned by the friendly waiter that there was going to be a fifteen-minute wait for our main dishes as there was only one chef in the kitchen (that seemed pretty quick to us anyway), they ended up sat on the pass and so arrived less than piping hot. 

Despite this, both of our main dishes were very good.

Impeccably tender, juicy and well-seasoned lamb and chicken shish were the stars of a mixed grill (£15.95). Minced lamb halabi kebabs were nicely flecked with parsley and pepper but were a touch on the bouncy side.

A massive mound of buttery, vermicelli flecked rice was bang on and I was a big fan of the battered onion garnish. Which savoury dishes wouldn’t be improved by a smattering of battered onions?

Pieces of shocking pink pickled turnip, charred peppers and tomatoes, and a pokey pepper paste topped flatbread were lovely extra flourishes. But, an advertised salad accompaniment was conspicuous by its absence.

Lamb shawarma was undoubtedly the highlight of a plate of mixed shawarma (£12). The shavings of spit-roasted sheep were addictively caramelised in places. In contrast, pallid pieces of chicken shawarma were commendably tender but lacked both seasoning and crispness.

Overall, we had a very tasty lunch at Syriana Grill House, and I’d gladly eat another of their kebabs anytime. Despite the strength of the competition on City Road, it's a fine grill house in its own right.

The Details:

Address - Syriana Grill House, 72 City Road, Roath, Cardiff CF24 3DD

Web - syrianagrillhouse.com

Telephone - 0292045 0089