Hiraeth, Victoria Park, Cardiff restaurant review 2025

It’s fair to say that Pontcanna is Cardiff’s swanky restaurant epicentre. 

Cardiff's boujiest district is home to Gorse, Cardiff’s only Michelin starred restaurant, the two other Tom(my)’s eponymous restaurants, Heaney’s and Thomas, and a pair of the city’s most exciting recent openings, Ember and Sonder. 

So, despite Hiraeth being just a mile down the road in Victoria Park, it perhaps feels slightly out of sight and out of mind.

However, after enjoying an excellent set lunch there last December, I’ve been itching for a return ever since. 

The stars aligned when friends invited us along to use a 20% off food voucher they’d received through their letterbox to encourage locals to give Hiraeth a go. 

In addition to their set lunch, Hiraeth offers an eight (£70) and ten course tasting menu (£90) that changes monthly. We visited for dinner on the last day of the month and so our ten course menu consisted of dishes that straddled both August and September. 

Hiraeth’s cooking brings together big, comforting flavours, inspired by a diverse mix of influences, including Wales, France, India, China and Japan.

Wines were all excellent – a citrusy Vilarnau Cava (£38), aromatic Thomas Stopfer Gruner Veltliner (£38), red fruity Calusari Romanian Pinot Noir (£30) and a glass of Kopke Tawny Port (£7) to round off the meal. 

We kicked off with Hiraeth’s riff on prawn toast and it was a corker of a substitute for a Saturday night takeaway. Sweet fried brioche, a kick of togarashi shichimi and salty pearls of flying fish roe all took it up a notch.

A golden dinky doughnut was glazed with mustard, filled with a pokey Tunworth cheese custard and topped with a sweet hit of red onion jam and a flurry of savoury Old Winchester cheese. 

Hiraeth’s chicken course is a mainstay of their menu, and I can see why. Beautifully executed karaage chicken was gorgeously juicy, marinated in ginger and garlic, and topped with the punch of sriracha mayo and furikake. It was as good as any we ate in Japan.

Light, soft and sweet Japanese milk bread was excellent slathered with umami-rich and meaty chicken skin butter. Finally, a whopping flavoured chicken consommé and dashi blend was a gloriously meaty and savoury comforting bowlful.

Verdant freshness arrived with the next course. A well-judged watercress porridge was essentially a risotto made with oats instead of rice. The grains had just the right amount of bite, were flecked with sweet peas, broad beans and runner beans and topped with crisp nori and creamy frozen goats curd. 

Indulgence returned with our first fish plate. A brilliantly crisp skinned and flaky fillet of gilt head bream was sat in a bowlful of rich and buttery café de Paris sauce seasoned with a warming wallop of curry. 

A meaty fillet of monkfish was cooked precisely with a good meaty texture and a char-licked exterior from its Indian spiced yoghurt marinade. A creamy raita, the sweet spice of dried chillies and raisins, and the crunch of poppadom shards completed the delicious plate. 

Lamb part one was reminiscent of an old skool suet pudding, and I was fully on board with it. A crusty yet soft suet bun was filled with slow-cooked shredded lamb belly, coated in a sticky lamb jus and topped with the crunch of toasted breadcrumbs. The only downer was a pair of gritty cockles that detracted from rather than added to the already excellent dish.

Lamb part deux was an excellent contrast to the sticky richness of part one. Pink and super tender lamb fillet with well-crisped fat was served alongside a sweet and savoury sundried tomato emulsion that was balanced by the lightness of sauce vierge and chard, which had been grown by one of the front of house staff. 

The transition to dessert came with a scoop of light and fragrant mugwort ice cream and the crunch of feuilletine wafer and honeycomb, which were balanced by the cleansing acidity of fresh orange pieces. 

Hiraeth’s riff on tiramisu was a proper boozy boi. A dollop of dark chocolate mousse was flavoured with Kahlua and Cointreau whilst an aerated cream was laced with bourbon and marsala. Throw in the crunch of biscuit crumbs and shavings of dark chocolate and this was an excellent dessert. 

Finally, our cheese course, saw a slice of warm and sweet bara brith topped with a quenelle of perl wen cream and served alongside a blob of plum chutney and crispy onions. Whilst it was very tasty, we both felt the cheese was a little bit too delicate and that the crispy onions tipped things a little too far towards the savoury.  

We had an excellent meal at Hiraeth and I’m a big fan of their fun, huge flavoured and technically accomplished cooking in a relaxed yet slick setting. If you’re looking for a special meal in Cardiff and want a change from Pontcanna then it’s most definitely worth travelling a mile down the road to Victoria Park. 

The Details:

Address - Hiraeth, 587 Cowbridge Road East, Cardiff CF5 1BE
Web - https://www.hiraethkitchen.com/

Asiad, Porthcawl set lunch review

The last time I visited Porthcawl's Cosy Corner Lounge, I remarked that its chain-like name didn't really reflect their menu of big flavoured pan-Asian cooking.

Fast forward a few months and they changed their name to Asiad.

Following a walk along the coast on one of the nicest days of the year, we pitched up at the restaurant formerly known as Cosy Corner Lounge (TRFKACCL) for a last-minute midday lunch. Impressively, the place swiftly filled up.

It’s understandable as Asiad’s set lunch menu is a cracking value thing, offering three small plates for £16.95. From a selection of nine, we ordered six to share.

But first, alcohol free cocktails, which I remember being excellent last time too. Yuzu shandy (£6.50) combined a big wallop of citrus with a malty hit of alcohol-free lager. A chilli and lemongrass smash (£6.50) was a more complex number, balancing the fragrance of lemongrass with apple, lime and vanilla.

With one eye on a blowout dinner, we ordered the least carb heavy of the dishes on offer. I have *no regrets* about not ordering their brilliant triple cooked chips.

First up crisp lettuce cups were home to a sticky, spicy, sweet and sour minced chicken laab topped with the fragrance of mint and crunch of nut. With their huge flavours and contrasting textures, they really demonstrated what Asiad is all about.

A pair of whopping crisp crumbed croquetas were filled with silky squid ink stained bechamel. The savoury hit of mollusc balanced well with a big hitting aioli seasoned with the umami hit of crispy chilli.

Long cooked and charred soft aubergines were a delightfully meaty vehicle to soak up a super savoury soy and sesame sauce whose spice was dialled up by the presence of crispy chilli. This was Mrs G’s pick of the meal.

Korean fried cauliflower saw al dente florets coated in a shatteringly crisp batter drenched in a sticky sauce seasoned with the savoury and spicy hit of gochujang.

A bowl of impeccably fresh and crisp whitebait were lovely dredged through a wasabi charged mayonnaise.

Lastly, gorgeously tender slices of lamb were coated in a Mongolian sauce which seemed to be hoisin and five spice based. Lighter notes were provided by the fragrance of basil and heat of red chilli slices.

We had a belting lunch of excellent value pan-Asian cooking at Asiad and there’s no doubt that their new name is a much better fit for what they’re doing. If you're visiting Porthcawl and looking for something other than fish and chips, then Asiad should be top of your list. 

The Details:

Address - Asiad, 33 Esplanade, Porthcawl CF36 3YR

Web - https://www.asiadfusion.co.uk/

Telephone - 01656 503245

Ember, Pontcanna, Cardiff set menu review

In an alternate timeline, I’m a man who lunches.

During the working week, I’d go for a spot of bird spotting before enjoying a set lunch at one of Cardiff’s best restaurants with a glass or two of wine. Of course, I’d then head home for an afternoon nap.

In this parallel universe, one of my regular haunts would be Pontcanna’s Ember. 

With a daily changing set lunch and early evening menu offering three courses of Dave Killick’s cooking for £30, including bread, there aren’t many better deals on offer in the city. 

And with its cream and contemporary art bedecked dining space, it’s a stylish yet informal place to lunch. 

Whilst Ember’s main menu offers sharing plates like braised Welsh lamb shoulder with green sauce (£48) or British seafood stew with fermented chilli (£32) as well as a selection of fresh pasta dishes, their set menu is more focused on the latter. It makes sense, with pasta being cheaper to make compared to more expensive meat and fish. 

To drink, glasses of grassy Sentidiño Albariño (£8) and appley Vinho Verde Loureiro (£6.50) were both delicious.

Piping hot focaccia had an excellent crisp crust and airy structure, and it was delicious dredged through a silky smooth, hummus-like, white bean and roasted garlic dip. But it was perhaps slightly too drenched in olive oil and its crumb a tad dry compared to the last time around.

Both starters were belters. A gorgeously juicy and light crumbed piece of boneless buttermilk quail was cooked with care when it’s so easy to dry out. It was accompanied by a coarse and zesty salsa verde and char-licked baby gem. 

A mountain of shatteringly crisp light-battered courgette batons sat on a terracotta pool of smoky, nutty and savoury romesco sauce. It was an understated yet whopping flavoured dish.

Both our pasta dishes were big hitters on the flavour front too. 

Linguini was bathed in a sweet white and earthy brown crab laden sauce with a big wallop of chilli and garlic, savoury hit of anchovy and fragrance of parsley. A dusting of pangritata provided welcome crunch.

An even bigger portion of fettucine was bathed in a creamy sauce flecked with wild mushrooms and courgettes and dressed with slithers of salty air-dried ham, more crunchy breadcrumbs and a flurry of savoury cheese. 

Our desserts were both befitting of one of the last hot days of the summer.  

A warm, light crumbed lemon sponge had excellent caramelised edges, a bit like a madeleine. Combined with sweet macerated strawberries and thick coconutty fig leaf custard, the pudding had a luxury trifle vibe. Mrs G was planning on giving me most of it, but it was so delicious that I barely got half… 

Across the table, the lightest and crispest of meringues was topped with thick vanilla-scented whipped cream and crowned with finely diced sweet peaches and raspberries. Slivers of fresh mint add a compelling freshness to the dish. 

We had an excellent lunch at Ember. Their technically accomplished yet understated cooking, warm service, and stylish setting make it one of Cardiff’s best openings in recent years.

In an alternate timeline, I’d be going back next week for lunch to see what’s new on their set menu. 

The Details:

Ember’s set lunch and early evening menu is available from Wednesday to Friday 12.00-2.30pm and 5.30-6.30pm.

Address - Ember, 5 Romilly Crescent, Pontcanna, Cardiff CF11 9NP

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

Telephone - 029 2297 2274

The Shed, Swansea Marina restaurant review 2025

Considering the ridiculous number of restaurants on my “to visit” list, the chances of us ever revisiting anywhere outside of Cardiff are very slim.

So, it says a lot about how much I enjoy a restaurant if I’ve visited it multiple times.

The Broad Chare. Upstairs at Landrace. Osip. Le Champignon Sauvage. Noble Rot. These are the obvious ones that spring to mind, but there really aren’t very many.

The Shed in Swansea is the latest restaurant to be added to this elite group.

Since visiting shortly after it opened in February last year, The Shed has garnered a clutch of glowing reviews in the national papers.

The reason why it was probably so quick to grab national attention is because it’s owned by Gorseinon native Jonathan Woolway, the former long serving chef-director at St John in London, arguably the UK’s most influential restaurant of the past 30 years.

Located in a former grain warehouse in Swansea Marina, The Shed’s unembellished industrial aesthetic very much belongs in the St John mould. So too does their understated yet flavour-focused seasonal cooking.

A rich seam of Welshness runs through the Shed’s menu, from the produce to the dishes. As expected, I wanted to eat everything on it from black pudding with fried egg (£13) to braised Gower lamb with mint sauce (£29). And its priced fairly enough so that regular visits could be a possibility, especially considering they serve a set lunch menu offering three courses for £28. 

On the night we visited Jonathan wasn't there, but the team calmly worked away in the open kitchen.

Wines, a much bigger selection by the glass than when we last visited, were all lovely. A summery Quinta Raza Vinho Verde (£7.20), vanilla-scented Don Placero Tinto Rioja (£7.20) and nectar-like Ginestet Sauternes (£5.20) were a few of the highlights.

Cockle croquettes (£8) were a lovely bit of nostalgic comfort food. Briny cockles and bechamel in a golden crumb were elevated by a generous dash of malt vinegar and an assertive dust of white pepper.

Patti pan (£13) was a new one on the both of us. It also now happens to be Mrs G’s new nickname. Soft sweet squash pieces were nicely charred and served on leaves dressed in a fragrant mint vinaigrette and creamy ewe's curd. It was the ideal light dish for a hot sunny day.

Sardines (£12.50) are one of my favourite fish, but I know having to fillet them puts a lot of people off. Here someone had gone to the trouble for me and I didn’t find a single bone. All the accompaniments enhanced the oily fish - a vibrantly herby and acidic mojo verde, zingy pink pickled onions with a good crunch, and sweet and fiery pickled red chillies.

Onto mains, and a very good yet smallish skate wing (£27) was uniformly caramelised all over and accompanied by toothsome French beans and a big flavoured nutty, sweet, smoky and spicy romesco sauce.

I love rare breed Mangalitza pork, so I didn't look past the roasted chop (£28) when I saw it on the menu. However, when it arrived, it was disappointingly well-done, dry and chewy. I enquired as to whether that was how it was supposed to be cooked, the manager checked with the kitchen, informed me that it wasn't, and a replacement was knocked up.

This time it was served with a blush of pink, and it was immeasurably better for it. Gorgeously caramelised with a brilliant intensity of flavour and a crisp cap of fat, it was a knockout chop.

Kaliboos cabbage was another new vegetable that I hadn’t tried before. Appearing like a cross between a hispi and a red cabbage, it was served as a lovely sweet spiced braise. Meaty cooking juices, pokey wholegrain mustard and apple sauce completed the dish.

A side of Welsh rarebit (£8) was inevitable. A textbook example with its cheesy beery mustardy topping, a nice bit of tableside theatre saw it grooved with a knife and splashed with Worcestershire sauce.

Mrs G loved the Shed’s bara brith (£9.50) so much last time that there was no decision to be made when it came to dessert. Served warm with a knob of butter melted into it, the loaf’s soft crumb and crisp edges were bang on. Accompanied by pieces of salty and funky Teifi cheese, it was a lovely sweet savoury dessert.

I was in the mood for something naughty and a bowl of baked cookie dough (£11) from the specials board very much fit the bill. The combination of rye, hazelnut and dark chocolate was just on the right side of sweetness with extra indulgence coming from a scoop of fragrant honey ice cream.

Despite the hiccup with my main course, we had another excellent meal at The Shed and a third visit is inevitable. It really is a privilege to have a chef of Jonathan Woolway’s calibre running his own restaurant in south Wales.

The Details:

Address - The Shed, Unit 1-2, J Shed Arcade, Kings Rd, Swansea SA1 8PL

Web - https://theshedsa1.com/

Telephone - 01792 712120

Genatsvale, Georgian restaurant, Cardiff city centre review

Here are three bits of pub quiz trivia that it’s handy to know as a primer to this review:

1. Genatsvale, which has recently opened on Cardiff city centre’s St Mary’s Street, is the only Georgian restaurant in Wales. I am of course referring to the country and not the US state or the period in British history. 

2. Khachapuri is a traditional cheese filled bread that’s the country’s national dish. It’s so popular that one measure of the rate of inflation in Georgia, the Khachapuri Index, is determined by the cost of the ingredients needed to make one.

3. Georgia is widely recognised as the birthplace of wine, with archaeological evidence showing that winemaking began there 8,000 years ago. 

Armed with this trivia, my sights were set on an a khachapuri and a glass of qveri wine when we rocked up at Genatsvale for a Friday night walk-in.

They’ve done a lovely job with the refurb of the old Café Jazz. Design features include a mix of folk art, ceilings adorned with artificial lemons and pomegranates, and a grand piano that wasn’t put into action on our visit.

With Georgia’s location at the intersection between Eastern Europe and Asia, the country’s cooking bears many similarities to Eastern European, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Turkish cuisine.

Gentasvale’s menu is an interesting one to navigate with sections dedicated to stews & pan-fried dishes, mixed grills, khinkali (dumplings) and khachapuri (cheese-filled breads).

It would have been easy for Gentasvale to play it safe with a wine list offering Savvy B, Prosecco and Merlot as well a few Georgian wines. But, it’s good to see that they’ve gone all in with an entirely Georgian list.

With wines this tasty, I can see why. All four we tried were all delicious. A light Rkatsiteli Qveri orange wine (£7.20) was clean with delicate tannins whilst a Tsinandali white (£6.20) was crisp and citrusy. Red wines were both delicious too. A chilled Pirosmani (£7.20) and a Saperavi (£5.95) both had plenty of red fruits.

 Endeavouring to try as many new dishes that we hadn’t encountered before, we kicked off with the “four starter plates” sharer (£21.95).

This monster of a platter was dominated by a quartet of vegetable pate cylinders sat on discs of crispy corn bread. Carrot, beetroot, green bean and spinach all tasted as though they were very good for you. But, they were quite heavy in texture and light on flavour. I thought the spinach was the most pleasant as it had the softest texture and tasted the most of its headline ingredient… Mrs G disagreed as it tasted the most like cold spinach.

Things were much more positive on the other side of the board. Warm dolmades were filled with well-spiced rice. Crisp fried crepes were loaded with nicely herbed minced meat. And soft aubergine rolls were filled with a nutty walnut paste and topped with pearls of pomegranate. A creamy garlicky yoghurt was a good condiment for everything.

Onto mains, and a quintet of whopping khinkali (£15.90) had a light casing and were filled with juicy and herby minced pork and beef and meaty broth. 

However, due to my Georgian dumpling inexperience almost all of the liquid ended up on the plate. Apparently, you’re supposed to pick them up by the top knot, bite a small hole in the side and slurp out the broth. This also explains why the top knot was tough and inedible. An explanation from the front of house team might be helpful as I’m sure many diners won’t have eaten them before.

I can see why Georgia’s inflation rate is determined by the price of a khachapuri. If I lived there then I’d be eating them all the time. We ordered the acharuli khachapuri (£18.95) and a gorgeously light and delicately crisp boat shaped bread was filled with a pool of creamy, tangy and salty golden molten cheese. 

If it wasn’t already rich enough then a knob of butter and a runny egg yolk ramped up the luxuriousness even more. And the crust also appeared to be stuffed with even more cheese. 

With all this rich carb and fat, a side dish of ajapsandali (£8.50) was the MVP (Most Valuable Plate). Gorgeously soft and tender slow cooked aubergines, soft spuds, peppers and onions were bathed in a super herby and well-spiced sauce. Served hot, it added layers of complexity to our two main dishes.

We had a very enjoyable evening at Genatsvale guzzling food and wine that’s unlike anywhere else in Cardiff. Whilst our starters didn’t fully hit the mark, I’d gladly go back for khachapuri, ajapsandali and a glass or two of Rkatsiteli Qveri and Saperavi, any day of the week.

The Details

Address - Genatsvale, 21 St Mary street, Cardiff CF10 1PL

Web - https://www.genatsvale.co.uk/