Fallow, London restaurant review

In the age of social media, the viral chef rules supreme. 

It must be frustrating for some chefs these days. When all you want to do is focus on cooking and running a kitchen, success can seem to depend just as much on being a social media personality as it does on your culinary skills. I’m sure many chefs choose a back-of-house career for a reason, and constantly being expected to create content probably isn’t one of them.

Chefs like Matthew Ryle, Adam Byatt, Will Murray and Jack Croft have all enhanced their reputations by pulling back the curtain on how to prepare restaurant style dishes. Each has amassed hundreds of thousands of social media followers and, I’m sure, bolstered their booking sheets as a result.

Will and Jack are the duo behind @fallowchefs, which currently has an eyepopping 1.6 million followers on Instagram. They’re also the chef patrons of Fallow, a restaurant that’s located just a minute’s walk from Piccadilly Circus and is currently ranked at 89 in the National Restaurant Awards.

Billed as serving “conscious gastronomy”, Will and Jack have done a fine job of creating menus that are both aspirational yet accessible. Dishes include crowd pleasers like a dairy cow burger (£19) or crispy fried chicken buns (£10) as well as more challenging plates such as sweet and sour pig head (£59).

As we sat at lovely high table in the window at Fallow on a Sunday lunchtime, we were surrounded by families with toddlers, groups of tourists and chichi couples, many of whom were getting stuck into a Sunday roast. Fallow have certainly succeeded in pulling in a broad customer base – a bit like Cardiff’s Pasture, which seems to appeal to everyone.

As we’d been on the booze on Saturday night, we stuck to alcohol free drinks - a fresh and fruity Dragon Punch (£11) made with tea, apricots and mint, and a highly gluggable Beavertown 0% (£8) pale ale.

We ordered a bunch of snacks, small plates and larger dishes to share, and a smoked leek Caesar salad (£16) was the first to arrive. Layered with sweet charred leeks, crisp leaves, nuggets of salty pancetta and crunchy croutons coated in a briny anchovy charged dressing, it was a first-rate salad. 

Next to show up was a silky smooth, creamy and umami rich mushroom parfait (£18) with a wonderfully complex boozy twang of port, madeira, and brandy. It was served alongside slabs of charred sourdough. I thought Tom Simmons’ version was as brilliant as mushroom pâtés could get, but somehow this was even better.  

Crisp and sweet corn ribs (£9) were coated in a compellingly savoury and smoky spice rub made with kombu and smoked paprika. They were a simple yet highly addictive snack. 

Smoked beef dairy ribs (£15), with just a few mouthfuls of meat left on the bone, were also just the right size to live up to their snack billing. I'd love to have had a go at one before it had been stripped of most of its meat. Stupidly tender and richly beefy, they were excellent dredged through a pool of intensely umami reduced cooking juices.

A cod’s head (£29) was our main event and it looked like a monster, both in portion size and personality. But in fact, it was a delicate beast that required plenty of burrowing around its various nooks and crannies to extract the equivalent of a small fillet of fish. It was well worth the effort as the meaty fish was glorious drenched in a spicy and glossy sauce that tasted like it was 50% sriracha and 50% butter.

Finally, sweet and juicy heritage tomatoes (£12) were piled on top of a bed of creamy labneh and cleverly seasoned with the crunch of seeds and fragrance of deep-fried curry leaves.

At this point, the efficient yet standoffish service that we’d experienced up until now, ground to a halt and after fifteen minutes of waiting for our table to be cleared, we gave up and asked for the bill (which included an eyebrow raising 15% service charge). 

I was seriously impressed by the elevated yet crowd-pleasing food at Fallow and I can see why Will and Jack’s cooking has amassed them over a million followers on social media. It’s slightly frustrating that it was let down by indifferent service as it didn’t come close to the level of the excellent cooking. 

The Details:

Address - Fallow, 52 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4RP
Web - https://fallowrestaurant.com/
Telephone - 020 8017 1788

Pane Olio, Rhiwbina, Cardiff Italian restaurant and deli review

Rhiwbina doesn’t exactly have a reputation for being one of Cardiff’s liveliest suburbs.

Well at least it never did when Mrs G grew up around there.

Until fairly recently, the Juboraj and Deri Inn were about as exciting as it got when it came to places to eat and drink.

But, over the last few years there’s been a string of exciting independent hospitality openings.

First, the Rhiwbina Tap opened in 2021, followed by Mesen in 2023, and a branch of Pettigrew Bakery in 2025.

And just last month, the long-awaited Pane Olio finally opened its doors.

This Italian restaurant and delicatessen is owned by chef David Thomas, a Rhiwbina native with an impressive CV to his name. He initially trained under Stephen Terry at the Hardwick before working in top kitchens in Tuscany for eight years. Returning to Cardiff during the pandemic, David then cooked at the brilliant Casanova for five years before finally striking out on his own.

By day, Pane Olio’s deli serves freshly baked bread, cold cuts, and pantry items whilst the next-door restaurant offers a set lunch menu with three courses for less than thirty quid.

When we visited on a Wednesday evening, the outside terrace was humming with people enjoying aperitivi. The classy dining room, which is less pile-it-high pizza pasta joint and more classy Tuscan trattoria, quickly filled to capacity.

Pane Olio’s compact focuses on a tight selection of antipasti, primi and secondi. Dishes include panzanella (£10), fresh taglioni pasta with king prawns and chilli (£21) and sirloin steak with rocket and parmesan (£30).

On the booze front, a red-focused all Italian list, includes a few well-priced house wines by the glass. Fruity Fiano (£7 for a medium glass), super gluggable Chianti (£7), and prosecco (£7.50) all very much did the job.

Airy crumbed focaccia and toasty crusted sourdough (£5.50) were accompanied by a bowl of grassy olive oil.

A golden arancino (£7), which was sat on a pool of fruity and creamy tomato and mascarpone sauce, was the standout of the starters. Beneath its hyper crisp exterior was a layer of courgette-flecked and mint-scented rice surrounding a core of compellingly molten cheese. Classy yet hearty, it was a sign of things to come.

Caponata (£8) saw soft aubergines and crunchy celery bound together with a palate enlivening sweet and sour tomato sauce. Nuggets of crumbly ricotta cheese and toasted almonds provided flavour and texture contrast.

I can’t see mortadella (£9) on a menu and not order it. Here, the thin slices of luxury Billy Bear sausage were nicely flecked with pistachios. Each mouthful transported me back to last year’s guzzling trip to Bologna.

Wild mushroom risotto (£18) was a decadent bit of comfort food with a bang on texture that balanced intense umami and funky mushroom flavours with luxurious cream and cheese notes. I suspect a background kick of booze might have added even more complexity.

Coarse and meaty sausage ragu (£18) was accompanied by al dente trottole pasta and a generous dusting of fresh parmesan. It was very tasty but less memorable than the risotto.

A lot of care had gone into a side salad (£5) too – mini cucumbers, baby plum tomatoes, thinly sliced shallots and an interesting mix of leaves all had plenty of flavour, were properly dressed and precisely plated.

Just the two desserts were on offer on our visit during our meal as they’d run out of panna cotta.

Thankfully, there was no shortage of tiramisu (£9). Light yet decadent, it was very good indeed. A big dollop had just the right ratio of coffee-soaked sponge, mascarpone cream, and bitter cocoa.

 A ramekin of rich and thick chocolate mousse (£9) dusted with crushed hazelnuts hit the spot too.

We had a lovely meal at Pane Olio and their classy yet big flavoured Italian cooking is another welcome addition to Rhiwbina's restaurant scene. This North Cardiff suburb has most definitely found its groove when it comes to independent hospitality.

The Details:

Address - Pane Olio, 2B Heol y Deri, Rhiwbina, Cardiff CF14 6HF
Web - https://paneolio.co.uk/

Etles, Walthamstow Uyghur restaurant review

Over the years, one of the questions that I've been asked that pops up now and again is,“Can you recommend any BYOB restaurants in Cardiff?” 

I can totally understand why. If you want to have a few drinks whilst you’re out for a meal, then the typical mark-up for wine and beer can make it a seriously expensive endeavour. 

At my last time of checking, the places in Cardiff that I would recommend are Vegetarian Food Studio, Sen BBQ and Pim's @ iCookThai. Sadly it looks as though the excellent Ponnuswamy has now closed. Although, it’s been a while since I’ve visited any of them... 

But I digress, because this week I’m writing about a BYOB restaurant in Walthamstow, where we happened to be visiting an old university friend of Mrs G. 

Etles is an understated place that’s located near Walthamstow Central tube and focuses on Uyghur cooking from the Xinjiang region of northwest China. Due to Xinjiang's location along the ancient Silk Road, Uyghur cuisine incorporates a colourful fusion of influences and utilises spices like cumin, Szechuan pepper and chilli.

I’ve only had Uyghur cooking once before when we were in Munich and fondly remember the cumin spiced meat and elastic hand-pulled noodles which we ate. 

On the menu at Etles is a selection of dumplings, hand-pulled noodles, meat skewers and sides. 

And to drink, we shared a selection of local Pressure Drop beers and German lagers, with a 20% service charge added to the bill to cover the booze.

We shared a couple of starters between three of us whilst we waited around 30 minutes for our sharing main course to arrive. 

Minced lamb filled boiled tugur dumplings (£9.99) were juicy and thin cased if a little light on flavour. However, a big hitting chilli vinegar added plenty of oomph.

Lamb kebabs (£14.99), served on their ornate metal skewers, were commendably tender and had a lovely cumin chilli marinade going on.

Large plate chicken (£39.99), Etles’s house special main dish, most certainly lived up to its no nonsense name. The large plate was laden with plenty of food for three people. It probably could have served four with a few more additional sides. 

Elastic thin flat homemade noodles, soft potatoes, toothsome peppers and nuggets of tender chicken on the bone were coating in a mammoth flavoured, warming spiced and meaty sauce with chilli, Sichuan peppercorns, five spice and bay leaf.

On the side a crisp, soft and dense crumbed naan bread (£2.99) topped with nigella seeds was the ideal mop.

We had really tasty, well-priced and laid-back meal of Uyghur cooking at Etles and it’s well worth a visit if you’re ever near Walthamstow - especially if you’re on the hunt for somewhere that’s BYOB. 

The details:

Address - Etles, 235 Hoe Street, London E17 9PP
Web - https://etleswalthamstow.com/Home.html
Telephone -  020 3620 6978

The Tamil Crown, Islington, London desi pub review

I've said it before but I’m a huge fan of desi pubs. After all, delicious Indian food and well-kept beers are a match made in heaven.

Tap and Tandoor in Solihull and the Soho Tavern in Gateshead are both places where we've eaten and drunk very well on our travels. 

On our most recent trip to London, we managed to squeeze in a visit to The Tamil Crown in Islington. Whilst it stretches the definition of a pub as most of its space dedicated to restaurant dining, there’s still room for a few people at the bar to enjoy a pint alongside an onion bhaji or two.

Owned by former Roti King executive chef Prince Durairaj and ex-Market Halls general manager Glen Leeson, the Tamil Crown is currently ranked as the 35th best gastropub in the UK in the ever reliable Top 50 Gastropubs list. Alongside its stablemates The Tamil Prince and Tamila, the Tamil Crown leans towards Southern Indian cooking, as that’s where Durairaj hails from.

We weren't drinking after a craft beer holiday in Tallinn but I think it’s fair to say that the Tamil Crown’s beer selection isn’t the most inspiring, especially when there are London breweries on its doorstep like The Kernel and Pressure Drop. Harbour’s Beach Party Pale Ale (£8 a pint) and Purity Session IPA (£8) are about as exciting as it gets. Instead, I enjoyed a bready alcohol free Lucky Saint lager (£6.50) and Mrs G saw off a fruity and fragrant Desi Spritz alcohol free cocktail (£11.50).

Snacks kicked off the meal, and okra fries (£9) were probably the best I've ever eaten. Hyper crisp and grease free, their potently spiced batter surrounded thin fronds of vegetable.

Beef masala uttapam (£12.50) was the standout dish of the meal. A light and crisp rice flour pancake was topped with slow-cooked, headily spiced shreds of beef which had been fried to a golden crisp on their surface. It was joined by a creamy and fiery coconut chutney.

Finally, a gorgeously juicy and crisp-skinned lime leaf scented chicken thigh (£13.50) was delicious dunked in a pot of fresh and fruity pineapple chutney. It had lux Greggs mango chicken oval bite vibes, and I was fully sold.

Onto mains, and the other standout dish of the meal was a corker of an aubergine curry (£13.50) with soft and sticky chunks of the meaty vegetable and long cooked sweet onions. It was a rich, deeply spiced and decadent curry.

A Chettinad lamb curry (£16) had a well-spiced and meaty gravy and a decent amount of soft and tender pieces of meat. But it was no better than similar dishes I’ve eaten at Cardiff’s myriad excellent southern Indian restaurants.

On the carb front, coconut cream was stirred through pilau rice (£6.50) to give it a sticky rice-like decadence. Its creaminess also worked exceptionally well to balance the punchy spicing of the other dishes.

A good roti (£4.50) was light and elastic, but it didn’t quite live up to the exemplars at Roti King – it just wasn’t as flaky or crisp.

With its combination of big-flavoured southern Indian cooking in a laid-back pub setting, we had an excellent meal at the Tamil Crown. I can see why it’s a contemporary London desi pub success story. 

The Details:

Address - The Tamil Crown, 16 Elia Street, London N1 8DE

Web - https://www.thetamilcrown.com/

Telephone - 020 3342 0709

Three Flames, Cathays, Cardiff, Nashville hot chicken takeaway review

We very rarely eat takeaway anymore. In part, it’s because we enjoy the whole experience of visiting a restaurant. The dining room, the service, and the ambience, all add to the sense of occasion. The day that going out for a meal stops feeling like a special treat is the day that I give up writing this blog. 

The other reason is because takeaway food quality is inevitably compromised on its journey from a restaurant kitchen to a punter’s home. Especially things that are supposed to be crisp, which quickly become soggy whilst steaming away in a takeaway container. I like to eat a food business's food as it's supposed to be be rather than after its been sat on the back of a delivery bike for half an hour. 

Which brings me to Three Flames, a recently opened Nashville hot chicken takeaway joint that’s located down a back lane in Cardiff's Cathays area. Whilst there’s no way you’d ever stumble across it and their passing trade must be non-existent, you can be rest assured that I’m not going to describe it as a covert trinket, stealth sparkler or some other insufferable cliché.

Having used Google Maps to track them down to their home in what looks like a converted garage at the back of 98 Crwys Road, I was mightily impressed to find a crowd of people waiting for orders at 8.30pm on a Sunday evening. 

Specialising in Nashville hot chicken, Three Flames’s menu comprises of sandwiches, sliders, wraps and loaded fries, all of which are available in a variety of heat options ranging from Spark (mild) to 3rd Degree (extreme). If hot chicken isn’t your thing, then they also offer a selection of beef burgers and a veggie option too. 

I'd preordered my meal on Three Flames’s website, which allows you to live track your meal, and was looking forward to waltzing to the front of the queue to collect my dinner. However, when I arrived on time, the tracker showed that my order had already been collected, and I then had another 10 minutes to wait for it to be cooked. The friendly front of house team was very apologetic but there’s not much point in whizzy technology if it doesn’t work. 

As I was ravenous, and a little bit tipsy, I decamped to the nearest street corner to eat my dinner within a few minutes of it being cooked. 

My Nashville sando (£10.99 including fries and dip) saw a run of the mill toasted St Pierre brioche bun overflowing at the edges with a colossal and supremely juicy buttermilk marinated chicken thigh that was coated in an uber-crisp gnarly crumb and topped with creamy slaw and cleansing pickles. I’d opted for the mild spice level, and it delivered a big hit of flavour with just a delicate kick of heat. 

Served on the side was a mound of exemplary spice dusted crinkle cut chips, and a pot of tangy, creamy and spice-twanged Flamer Fuel dip. 

Even taking into account the unremarkable bun, this was a first-rate fried chicken sandwich meal.

On a second visit during the middle of the week, I had no such issues with the pre-order technology. In fact, quite the opposite as when I arrived a few minutes before my allotted collection slot, my meal was already sat waiting for me. I’m not sure for how long. 

By the time I’d made the 10-minute walk to Roath Park to guzzle my dinner on a park bench, the condition of my chicken tender meal (£9.99 including fries and dip) was somewhat compromised. 

Whilst the pair of mahoosive chicken breast tenders had thankfully retained their heat, tenderness, and crispness, the crumb coating started to fall away when I picked it up. They were sat on a token slice of toasted brioche that was a little bit too sweet for the job – cheap white sliced bread is clearly used in most Nashville hot chicken joints for a reason. 

Whilst the chicken had held up pretty well on its journey to the park bench, the same couldn’t be said for the pile of crinkle cut chips that were sadly tepid and limp.

This time around, I’d ordered my chicken at a medium heat level and whilst it was full of flavour, it was still pretty mild, even in comparison to mild Nashville chicken heat levels that I’ve had elsewhere. I’d certainly go hotter next time. 

An accompanying pot of ranch dip was pleasingly creamy and tangy – it was an ideal foil for all that spicy deep-fried stuff. 

So, what can I say about Three Flames? At its best and when consumed immediately, they serve generous portions of cracking value, top notch Nashville hot chicken. However, after ten minutes sat in a takeaway container, it’s a much more mediocre experience. 

But, I guess that’s the inevitable challenge for a business that operates exclusively as a takeaway. Unless you’re planning on eating your dinner in your car or on a street corner, then it’s unlikely that you’ll be tasting Three Flames at their very best, which would be a shame as their very best is very good indeed. 

The Details:

Address - Three Flames, Rear of 98 Crwys Road, Cardiff CF24 4NQ
Web - https://threeflames.uk/
Telephone - 029 2297 4007