Sonder unquestionably takes the prize for Cardiff’s most esoteric restaurant name.
Coined as an English word by American author John Koenig in 2012, it means “the profound feeling of realising that everyone, including strangers passing in the street, have a life as complex as one's own.”
It’s clearly the name of a restaurant that belongs to a chef who thinks about what their diners want to eat rather than just what they want to cook.
The elevated yet crowd-pleasing dishes scattered across Sonder’s menu most definitely proves this point.
Cooking top drawer food with mass appeal is a skill that Sonder’s co-owner Jake Lewis most likely honed during his time as executive chef at the acclaimed Pasture, a group of steakhouses that remain eternally popular and with good reason.
Located in Pontcanna’s Laundry Quarter in the former home of Outpost, Sonder is Lewis’s debut restaurant, a collaboration with Nick Saunders of Depot-fame.
With its exposed brickwork, pumping beats, whopping bar, and meat ageing fridge, it’s certainly of a Pasture-ilk.
Sonder’s menu of bistro cooking, however, uses a much broader brush. Divided into sections like ocean, mountains, birds, pigs and veggies, equal emphasis is given to all types of animal and vegetable.
On the mineral front, a pair of cocktails were both summer quenchers – a tropical fruit packed East 8 Hold Up (£11) was balanced by the bitterness of Aperol whilst a citrusy and fragrant Picante (£11) combined an unusual mix of tequila, tomato, cucumber, lime and hot honey.
Wines by the glass had varying degrees of success. Ruinart Champagne (£14) and a strawberry scented Lago Vinho Verde rose (£7) both hit the mark. However, we weren’t blown away by either a Deusa Nai Albarino (£11) or a Corte Ottone Brindisi (£9).
A pork belly starter (£11) was a smartly plated take on a Chinese takeaway classic. I was fully on board with it. Shatteringly crisp crackling capped pieces of pork belly and charred pineapple were bathed in a sticky sweet, zingy and sour sauce.
With the owner's steak cooking credentials, it would have been rude not to put a bit of beef through its paces. A sirloin was a very fine piece of beef indeed and a bargain at £23 including fries and sauce. Apparently, it’s normally a flat iron on the menu, but we got lucky the night we visited. Cooked a precise medium rare, the steak had a good crust and beefiness whilst the bronzed peppercorn sauce was pleasingly meaty and sinus-tickling.
It was accompanied by a whopping bowl of crisp fries whose seasoning was high but fine for us sodium addicts. However, we noticed that the adjacent table sent theirs back.
Arguably the star of the meal was an aubergine parm (£17). A proper bit of Italian American comfort food, a panko-crumbed meaty aubergine half was topped with a fruity chilli and garlic twanged tomato sauce, a molten ooze of mozzarella, and vibrant green pesto. A well-dressed endive and rocket salad went some way towards balancing out the dish’s richness.
Finally, char-licked tender Wye valley asparagus spears (£9) were drenched with aromatic and creamy wild garlic pesto.
Desserts were all indulgent crowd pleasers.
A chalice of tiramisu (£9) ticked all the right boxes, balancing dark chocolate, coffee and creamy whipped mascarpone.
A super Basque cheesecake (£8) had a molten middle and toasty edges. Sticky, sweet and raisiny PX caramel sauce was excellent too. But I'm not sure it was the best accompaniment as it brought richness rather than welcome lightness to the dish.
With its big-flavoured, crowd-pleasing and well-priced cooking, Sonder is another coup for Pontcanna and its wealth of top restaurants. I just wish one of Cardiff’s best chefs would have their own moment of sonder and consider opening a restaurant on my side of town.
The Details:
Address - Sonder, 72 Llandaff Road, Pontcanna, Cardiff
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