Vicino, Pontcanna, tapas and cocktail bar review

All hail the picky bits.

I’m a big fan of Spanish and Italian bar culture where you can enjoy a couple of drinks accompanied by some tapas or cicchetti.

It’s a very civilised way of getting sozzled and a fine way to enjoy lots of little different things to eat as you meander between bars.

Which brings me to Vicino, the new Mediterranean tapas, wine and cocktail bar from the team behind Sonder. Meaning ‘neighbour’ in Italian, it’s unsurprisingly located across the road from its vibey Pontcanton mothership, a restaurant which has taken the city by storm since opening twelve months ago.

Billed as “somewhere small bites turn into big nights”, the cosy venue was already buzzing in the middle of the afternoon of their first Saturday in business.

Vicino offers a big selection of cocktails and wines by the glass as well as a few beers and ciders. Mrs G got stuck straight into the Veuve Cliquot champagne (£13) whilst I tried a couple of their long drinks. A grown up yet refreshing Garibaldi (£12) was the standout, combining Campari, blood orange and basil. A slightly less complex Levriero (£12), made with grappa, white port and grapefruit, was still lovely.

Vicino’s food menu is a collection of mostly cold nibbles, charcuterie and sandwiches. It’s a lot less involved than the food on offer at Sonder and most definitely the kind of thing you can pick at over a few drinks.

The first thing to turn up was a slice of tortilla (£5) and it was the first dish that had caught my eye on the menu too.

The combination of golden eggs, caramelised onion sweetness, a dusting of salty cheese and poky aioli was very good. But, I thought there was a bit too much bite in the spuds so that it didn’t quite cohere into a soft textured whole. Mrs G of course disagreed and enjoyed the texture contrast.

Tuna tartare crostini (£7.50) were my favourite of the dishes we ate. Crisp and fatty golden toasts were topped with a meaty dice of raw tuna and avocado that were seasoned with the zing of lime and fresh coriander. I could have smashed a dozen of them.

Home fried earthy crisps (£5) were delicious dredged through a light and creamy dip with a good funk of salty and smoky blue cheese. A salsa of tomato, olives, peppers and onion brought freshness to the plate.

A sweet and flavoursome salad of heritage tomatoes (£5) were well dressed with good quality olive oil and vinegar.

From the sandwich and toastie section of the menu, we ordered a couple to share.

A pressed grilled cheese and leek sandwich (£7) was laden with oozy dairy and soft, sweet allium. It didn’t necessarily need the pot of sweet and umami burn onion ketchup on the side, but I gladly forked it straight into my gob.

Even better was a light and airy focaccia sandwich (£9) that was stacked with creamy stracciatella, salty cured prosciutto and grassy olive oil.

 

Vicino is another vibrant addition to Pontcanton’s hospitality scene and the team behind Sonder have hit the mark once again with their follow-up. We had a lovely time grazing and boozing over lunch but it’s most certainly the kind of place you don’t need to go for a meal. You could just as easily pop in for a drink and a snack, then see where the rest of the evening takes you, which might happen to be across the road to Sonder.

The Details:

Address - Vicino, 72a Llandaff Rd, Pontcanna, Cardiff CF11 9NL

Web - https://www.instagram.com/vicino.cardiff/

Nok and Roni's Kitchen, falafel and Thai cooking, Cardiff review

*Update - Nok & Roni's Kitchen has now relocated from Cardiff to Monmouth*

It feels like it’s been a very long and wet winter.

It must have felt even longer for outdoor-centric businesses like Nok and Roni’s Kitchen in Canton’s Boneyard.

Whilst they’ve got covered seating to take shelter from any inevitable downpours, this is a place where you’re acutely aware of the elements.

So, on the first sunny day in Cardiff in what seemed like months, we decided it was time for a long overdue visit to Nok and Roni’s.

For keen followers of Cardiff restaurant lore, Roni is the former owner of Crwys Road’s Falafel Kitchen, home of the best falafel that I’ve ever eaten in the city.

Having closed in 2018, Roni started a Mediterranean and Thai street food stall with his wife Nok. Hence the name Nok and Roni’s.

After stints at Roath and Riverside Markets, a short-lived cafe on Trade Street, and a spell at McCarthur Glen in Bridgend, Nok and Roni relocated to the Boneyard in early 2025.

I’ve always thought the Boneyard is a bit of a funny location. Hidden away at the end of an industrial estate alongside other shipping container creative companies, it’s the kind of place which has almost no passing trade.

So, unless you’ve planned a visit to Nok and Roni's, it’s very unlikely you’re going to stumble across them. It’s a shame because Nok and Roni’s menu of Mediterranean and Thai street food classics is the type of food that deserves to be stumbled upon.

Having ordered at the counter and following a short wait for everything to be cooked to order, we were in business.

Mrs G ordered the falafel wrap (£8) and its main component was every bit as good as I remembered. At least half a dozen golden falafel were beautifully crisp and grease free with light, soft and herb-flecked centres. They were stuffed into a whopping soft flat bread alongside thick hummus and fresh salad. On the side was a generous pile of skinny, paprika-dusted fries. For £8 this was a hell of a feed.

Despite also wanting to order falafel, I thought it would be churlish to not give Nok’s Thai cooking a go. I was very glad I did.

A tofu pad Thai (£9) was excellent. A generous portion of slippery noodles with just the right amount of bite were coated in a tangy, sweet and savoury sauce that was lifted with a good squeeze of lime. The crunch of smashed peanuts, fresh spring onions, a dusting of chilli flakes, caramelised omelette pieces and a scattering of squishy tofu puffs completed the delicious and well-priced dish.

I was worried about having FFOMO (falafel fear of missing out) so I ordered a side of falafel and hummus. Six of those brilliant chickpea fritters were sat in a bowl of thick and smooth tahini rich hummus. I was very glad I ordered them but at £6.50 I’d question their value compared to the wrap with chips that costs just £1.50 more. Next time I’ll skip breakfast and order a wrap and a pad Thai.

We had a belter of a lunch at Nok and Roni’s Kitchen and it’s great to see Cardiff’s falafel king still reigns supreme.

At the end of our meal, when I asked Roni how things were going in their new home, he told me that they’d struggled with the wet weather and so are potentially looking at relocating once again to a bricks and mortar space. I totally understand their dilemma. Wherever they’re based, Cardiff is very much better off with Nok and Roni’s cooking.

The Details:

Address - Nok and Roni's Kitchen, The Bone Yard, Paper Mill Road, Canton, Cardiff CF11 8DH

Web - https://www.instagram.com/nokandronikitchen/?hl=en

Telephone - 07400 522233

Workhorse, Canton, Cardiff cycle cafe review

What is it about bike repair shops and coffee? 

You don’t pop to a cobbler for a cortado, a mechanic for a macchiato, or a horologist for a hot chocolate.

But, there are bike repair cafes up and down the UK. I guess it must be because there’s a big overlap between people who love cycling and snaffling artisanal coffee.

So, it makes perfect sense that Workhorse on Cardiff’s Cowbridge Road East grinds both coffee beans and cycle gears. The front of their building serves as a small café whilst the back operates as a cycle repair workshop. 

Workhorse has been open for two years but it’s only in the last few months that they’ve started serving freshly baked bagels. It certainly seems to be a winning formula, as they were down to their last few bagels when we visited between Christmas and New Year. 

On Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, Workhorse sells a pleasingly compact menu of filled bagels alongside a few rotating seasonal specials. Mainstays include the BuLliTt with bacon, rocket, tomato and roast garlic mayo as well as the Cinelli Hash with sweet potato hash and chimichurri rojo. If you happen to visit on a Monday to Thursday and there are any bagels left, then they’re served toasted with more basic toppings.  

I’ve got a hell of a lot of time for a good homemade bagel but there are barely any available in Cardiff. The only other place I’ve had one is the Bagel Place in Cardiff University Student’s Union.

But first, coffee and our friendly barista of ten years backed himself when it came to making a belting flat white (£3.60). He didn’t let me down. Made with Hundred House Bon Bon blend, it was a corker of a coffee with plenty of fruity notes. Mrs G also really enjoyed her long black (£3.20). 

Onto the sandwiches and we ordered one classic and one more creative flavour combination. Weirdly the menu offers prices for full sandwiches (£8.50), open half sandwiches (£7.50) and open full sandwiches (£14.50). I can’t really see many people ordering an open full sandwich when a closed one costs six quid less.   

Crucially, I thought the bread component of both bagels was bang on, with a light chew and soft fresh crumb. Bagels are at their most disappointing when they’re simply a bread roll with a hole in the middle. 

A Bagel + Locks sandwich (£8.50) was crammed with plenty of smoked salmon alongside sweet tomatoes, caper-flecked cream cheese and red onion. It was a very well executed classic. 

A Paneer Roubaix (£8.50) was equally memorable. This whopper of a sandwich was packed with thin slices of creamy, caramelised paneer, a good drizzle of sweet and fiery hot honey, the zing of lime pickle, slices of tomato and a handful of peppery rocket. 

Based on the strength of the sandwiches, I decided to give a sweet treat a run for its money. From a choice between a salted caramel cookie and slice of birthday cake (£4), I was recommended the latter. 

Topped with addictively good coffee and vanilla buttercream icing and a menagerie of sprinkles, it was tasty but let down by a slightly dry sponge. 

We really enjoyed our lunch at Workhorse and they’ve definitely found a winning formula of bagels and coffee that sets them apart from other places in the city. I’m no cyclist but Workhorse most definitely deserve a “chapeau” for their efforts.

The Details:

Address - Workhorse, 364 Cowbridge Road East, Canton, Cardiff CF5 1HE
Web - https://www.workhorsebikes.co.uk/
Telephone - 029 2297 1173

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/

Hiraeth, Victoria Park, Cardiff restaurant review

“A blend of homesickness, nostalgia and longing, ‘hiraeth’ is a pull on the heart that conveys a distinct feeling of missing something irretrievably lost.”

It’s also perhaps an inadvertently fitting name for Victoria Park’s newest restaurant.

Because Hiraeth, the restaurant that is, is currently on its third home in less than 2 years.

Having settled in at their initial home in a former pub near Cowbridge and gained listings in the Michelin and Good Food guides, they were turfed out just a year after opening when the building they rented was put up for sale at the end of 2023.

They then had a brief stint at Court Colman near Bridgend but from an outsider’s perspective it never seemed like a natural fit. Perhaps because a traditional country house hotel isn’t quite the right setting for modern and intimate Welsh dining.

So, now Hiraeth’s chef-owners Lewis Dwyer (who you might recognise from this year’s Great British Menu) and Andy Aston, have settled in Cardiff’s Victoria Park on the former site of Nook and Mangla’s Spice of Life. On a Wednesday lunchtime the cosy dining room was buzzing. It felt like a restaurant that had inhabited this space for years.

I’m always a sucker for a set lunch menu as it offers an affordable way to experience high end restaurants before committing to a full-blown tasting menu. At Hiraeth, £35 buys you bread, three courses and a glass of wine. It’s a bloody good deal and to be fair, their six-course tasting menu for £65 seems reasonable too.

Hiraeth’s weekly changing set lunch menu offers a choice of two starters, three mains and two desserts with a couple of additional snack and side options.

On the wine front, there was a choice of a Spanish white or Italian red but they kindly let Mrs G’s mum have a glass of Cava as she only drinks wine if it fizzes. A glass of floral white rioja and easy drinking Vilarnau Cava were both delicious. They also get extra swank marks for serving the bubbles in a coupe glass.

I’ve heard great things about Hiraeth’s bread and it most certainly lived up to expectations. A beautifully light, soft and sweet warm Japanese milk loaf glistened with herb butter and was served with a quenelle of savoury and meaty chicken skin butter that was flecked with the odd crispy bit of its headline ingredient. We’ve got plenty of top-drawer flavoured butters in Cardiff and this is deserving of its place in the A-list.

Roast cauliflower soup had huge boredom potential, but Hiraeth’s version was anything but dull. Thick and velvety, it tasted like it was made with as much butter and cream as cauliflower. It was zhushed up by a pretty garnish of crunchy crushed pistachios, caraway seeds, mouth warming pepper and I’m sure plenty of other spices too.

Mrs G really enjoyed a torched fillet of oily mackerel that was paired with the traditional accompaniment of roast and pickled beetroot as well as a grating of tangy goats curd and a salty and umami black olive tapenade.

It’s always great to see retro classics appearing on restaurant menus and a suet pudding is about as old skool as it gets. A golden, crisp and squidgy suet-crusted pudding was a handsome devil.

Its filling was a cracker too - long cooked shreds of beef shin and an ooze of pokey cheddar. On the side was a slab of earthy roast celeriac and a savoury and tangy puree, which I think must have been black garlic and mushroom based on the menu description.

Mrs G also highly rated a crisp-skinned fillet of grey mullet and plump briny cockles that were perched on top of comforting fregola pasta balls coated in a big-flavoured sauce with a good hit of seafood.

Sides were just as well considered as the main dishes themselves.

Sprouts (£6), with a good crisping and caramelisation, were flecked with fragrant sage leaves and loads of nuggets of salty pancetta. I’m all in favour of vegetable side dishes which are equal parts meat.

 

Sweet roasted carrots (£6) were covered with a flurry of crunchy and compellingly smoky almonds.

Desserts were both dinky but decadent. Considering how rich they were, it was all that was needed.

Silky smooth and creamy caramel ice cream was drizzled with caramel and served alongside pieces of warming ginger cake and a slab of crunchy almond brittle. An all-important scattering of sea salt brought balance to the dish.

Light and airy yet intense chocolate mousse was garnished with hunks of toasty cinder toffee and the boozy kick of rum soaked raisins.

I was really impressed by Hiraeth’s modern yet comforting cooking and it was lovely to engage with the chefs as they served food from the open kitchen.

Hiraeth certainly shouldn’t long for things it has lost - it belongs in Victoria Park.

The Details:

Address - Hiraeth, 587 Cowbridge Road East, Cardiff CF5 1BE

Web - https://www.hiraethkitchen.com/