Ichiban, Roath, Cardiff Japanese restaurant review

People are always drawn towards the shiny new thing.

It’s how this blogging schtick works and I’m no exception. A new restaurant opens and bloggers and influencers clamour to be the first to review it (or get a free meal). Everyone posts about it on social media. The next place opens and then the whole bandwagon moves along.

I last visited Ichiban over twelve years ago when I reviewed one of Cardiff’s oldest Japanese restaurants at its previous home on Albany Road in Roath.

Whilst we had a good meal, I always found the interior a bit dark and oppressive and the barred windows uninviting. So, despite walking past it at least a couple of times a week ever since, we never returned.

However, when we saw that they’d moved location along Albany Road to the former site of Zio Pin, I was of course drawn back towards the shiny new thing. What can I say, I’m a cliché.

The clincher was that they’ve done a beautiful job with the décor. Out is the dark wood and boxed in feeling. In is a calming palette of whites and light greys, light wood, fabric screens, and a rather cool display of daruma dolls. It's certainly one of the nicest looking Japanese restaurants in Cardiff.

Delicious ice-cold pints of Kirin lager got things underway before we were overwhelmed by Ichiban’s colossal menu. Featuring 171 dishes of sushi, tempura, teriyaki, poke bowls, yaki soba, salads, and ramen, it’s the kind of size which makes you wonder if everything can be rustled up with consistency time and time again.

Tuna and salmon sashimi (£12.90) was the first dish to arrive and it was prettily presented on a bed of crushed ice with shredded mooli and slices of cucumber. The salmon was beautifully pert and meaty and whilst the tuna slices were fresh and well-flavoured, they were marred slightly by a few bits of sinew that meant there was a bit more chew than I would have liked.

A top-drawer pile of vegetable tempura (£7.90) was the first highlight of the meal. An excellent mix of precisely cooked carrot, sweet potato, onion, pepper and aubergine were coated in a shatteringly light and grease-free batter. A bowl of hot, savoury and sweet tentsuyu sauce was a lovely dip and I must admit that I drank the leftovers.

The other standout was a pair of inari pockets, which are always one of our essential orders when we visit a Japanese restaurant. This time the sweet and soft tofu pockets were crammed with diced meaty salmon as well as the usual pile of well-seasoned rice. At £5.40, it was also the best value dish of the meal.

If you’re going to put your business’s name to a sushi roll then you’ve got to assume it’s worth an order. Ichiban special maki roll (£13) saw tender rice rolls filled with soft and fatty barbecued eel, crisp tempura prawn, and fresh cucumber that was glazed with a sticky teriyaki sauce. 

I’d completely forgotten that I’d ordered the chicken katsu don on our last visit to Ichiban and it’s a sign of the inflation that we’ve experienced over the last decade that its price has gone up from £7.50 to £15.20.

Hearty is the word that I’d definitely use to describe this dish. A whopping bowlful of savoury and sweet dressed sushi rice was topped with a crumbed chicken breast that was subsequently piled with fried egg, sweet onions, mushrooms and carrots. It was all very tasty and comforting but much like last time, the chicken’s crumb lacked crispness. Still, at least they were consistent.

We had good dinner at Ichiban and like our last visit, some of the dishes were more successful than others. I’m pretty sure that I’ll be back in less than 12 years’ time for another bite to eat and it’s that beautiful dining space that’ll draw me back in.

The Details:

Address - Ichiban, 74 Albany Road, Cardiff CF24 3RS

Web - https://ichibancardiff.co.uk/

Telephone - 02920 463 333

Hatsu Udon, Grangetown, Japanese noodle bar review

It’s probably an overstretch to dub the crossroads of Clare Road and Penarth Road in Grangetown as Cardiff’s noodle quarter.

But, areas of the city have been given their titles for less.

Cardiff’s Brewery Quarter, Laundry Quarter, Castle Quarter, Morgan Quarter, Capital Quarter, and Canal Quarter all add up to more than a whole city’s worth of dubiously named quarters.

So, the fact that two of Cardiff’s noodle specialists can be found within a couple of hundred metres of each other, means that a Noodle Quarter isn’t too ridiculous a notion.

Whilst Matsudai Ramen’s whopping flavoured bowls of tonkotsu ramen and chippy lane mazesoba have built up a dedicated following over the last few years, Hatsu Udon is the new kid on the block, having only opened a few weeks ago.

Much like London’s Koya Bar, Hatsu specialises in fat and slippery udon noodles.

It’s something they clearly take seriously as they’ve gone to the trouble of importing a rather snazzy noodle making machine so that they can make their udon in house from scratch.

If you’re going to go to the trouble of making fresh udon, then it’s perhaps unsurprising that it’s very much the focus of Hatsu’s compact menu.

On offer are hot udon soup and cold dressed udon with a variety of toppings as well as stir fried udon and a few different sides.

On the Sunday lunchtime we visited there was just one other set of guests dining in the bright and clean restaurant.

Hatsu don’t serve alcohol but they serve a good selection of interesting soft drinks.

A pineapple Hata Ramune (£4) and can of Oolong tea (£3.20) occupied opposite ends of the soft drink spectrum. The fizzy pineapple soft drink was super sweet and reminded me of sticky childhood boiled sweets. In contrast, the iced tea was a much more grown-up proposition with its savoury and tannic flavour. It was definitely my pick of the two, although the Hakata Ramune was served in one of the coolest glass bottles I’ve ever seen with a glass ball sat in its neck.

Chicken karaage (£7.50) was a corking example of the dish. A super crisp, grease free and rugged crumb cocooned nuggets of juicy thigh meat. Squeezed with lemon juice and dunked in mayo, I’d happily have guzzled a whole bird’s worth by myself.

Pork gyoza (£7) looked a picture with their frilly laced sheet joining them together. The crisp and soft dumpling skins contained a commendably juicy pork mince filling. But, I think they would probably have benefited from a dipping sauce to provide contrast and they’d lost quite a bit of heat by the time they arrived at the table.

Both udon dishes for main were very tasty.  

Kake udon (£14) with prawn tempura saw a generous quantity of slippery noodles with a good bite bobbing in a hot, savoury and sweet soup with plenty of depth of flavour from what I think was a combination of kombu and miso. It was topped with diced spring onions, slippery seaweed and a pair of beautifully light and crisp battered tempura king prawns. I inhaled the crustacean as quickly as possible before the batter had a chance to lose its crispness. The same couldn’t be said for a pile of tempura flakes which rapidly sogged into the soup.

Nikutama udon (£15.50) was a cold dish that was better suited to the swelteringly hot summer’s day that we visited. The tangle of cold udon had more bite than the hot dish (which I preferred). They were dressed with a light and savoury soy-twanged dipping sauce and accompanied by a pile of tender marinated stewed beef, spring onions, a runny onsen egg and tempura batter flakes, which more effectively retained their crunch. It was a lovely light and fresh dish but the lightly set wobbly egg white might not be to everyone’s tastes. It definitely wasn't an issue for Mrs G. 

We had a very tasty lunch at Hatsu Udon. With its warm and friendly welcome and light and fresh udon, it’s a fine addition to the city’s noodle quarter.. okay, I don't think that name is going to stick.

The Details:

Address - Hatsu Udon, 146 Penarth Rd, Cardiff CF11 6NJ
Web - https://www.instagram.com/hatsu_udon/

Yakitori #1 and Picton & Co, Cardiff Bay restaurant review

What is the meaning of life? Can we expect life after death? Does God exist? Are there any decent independent restaurants in Cardiff Bay?

These are all some of life’s biggest questions and the latter has cropped up time and time again since I've started this blog.

One place that I’m always quick to recommend in the Bay is Yakitori #1, an independent Japanese restaurant that’s been a longstanding fixture for over a decade.

Despite having only been to Yakitori #1 a couple of times since I last reviewed it over ten years ago, I’ve continued to hear good things from people whose opinion I trust.

This time around, we visited early on a Saturday evening before a trip to Wales Millennium Centre, and it was great to see the understated dining room packed with people enjoying stir-fried noodles, sushi platers, katsu curries, and bowls of ramen. With swift and efficient service, we were in and out within an hour, making it an ideal pre-theatre option.

During dinner, I knocked back a couple of bottles of crisp and malty Sapporo lager (£4.75) whilst our friend who wasn’t drinking tucked away a few glasses of Yuzu Mitzu (£3.95), a super refreshing mix of yuzu and honey.

Vegetable tempura (£7.50) was made up of a toothsome combination of aubergine, pepper, sweet potato, and mushroom in an airy and grease-free batter. It was accompanied by a light and savoury tentsuyu dipping sauce.

A Yakitori #1 nigiri special (£20.50) hit the mark on all accounts with its well-seasoned, unclaggy and room temperature rice. Meaty salmon, tuna and yellowtail, sweet prawns, and sweet-savoury inari tofu were all delicious. We ordered another portion of the inari tofu (£4.60) as it’s always Mrs G’s favourite.

A bowl of plump and fatty salmon sashimi (£9.95) was served in thick tranches over crushed ice.

Unagi maki rolls (£13.95) were topped with barbecued teriyaki eel with its addictively sweet, savoury, fatty and smoky properties.

As expected, we had a lovely meal at Yakitori #1. Before dinner we also had excellent pre-dinner drinks at the recently opened Picton & Co, which is also located in the Bay.

Alongside their chi-chi delicatessen and restaurant, they serve a belting range of cocktails which are mixed by an alumnus of the acclaimed Lab 22.

My favourites were a glasslike take on a White Russian (£11.50), made with coffee distillate, cream soda, and vanilla. 

A pitch perfect whisky sour (£11.50) was cleverly scented with bay leaf and a spritzy take on a pina colada (£11.50) was super refreshing on a muggy evening. All the other cocktails we ordered were great too.

Picton & Co's dinner menu of small and sharing plates also sounds very good, but it's worth noting that they're not served till 6 pm, so sadly it's not viable as a pre-theatre option.

If you’re the kind of person who lies awake at night wondering whether there are any good independent hospitality businesses in Cardiff Bay, then sleep soundly because Yakitori #1 and Picton & Co are the answers to your worries.

The Details:

Yakitori #1
Address - 10 Mermaid Quay, Cardiff CF10 5BZ

Web - https://www.yakitori1.co.uk/

Telephone - 029 2049 5050

Picton & Co
Address - Unit 9, Mermaid Quay, Cardiff CF10 5BZ

Web - https://www.pictonandco.com/

Telephone - 029 2066 2080

Matsudai Ramen, Grangetown, Cardiff restaurant review

It’s fair to say that James Chant’s Matsudai Ramen has had a meteoric rise since it first popped up in Cardiff in 2019.

Their big-flavoured bowls of Japanese noodle soup have garnered praise from national restaurant critics like Jay Rayner and Tom Parker Bowles and there have been ramen kit collabs with Youtube star Uncle Roger and MasterChef winner Tim Anderson.

Matsudai’s ramen kits provided me with more regular nourishment than any other home delivery during the pandemic but I was always hopeful that they'd eventually open a bricks and mortar restaurant.

Located in an old bank in the heart of Cardiff's Grangetown, Matsudai’s modern and vibey interior is centred around an open kitchen and ramen bar. I’m a big fan of counter top restaurants where a seat at the bar transforms a meal into a performance.

On our visit during a two month long “soft launch” period, Matsudai’s compact menu focused on three types of ramen - tantanmen, nikko shio (described on their menu as a clean and complex summer ramen) and shiru-nashi mazesoba - with vegetarian, vegan and dumplingified versions available too.

To go alongside the ramen, there’s a selection of small plates, desserts, cocktails, beers and rather lethal sounding boiler-makers.

Small plates arrived at the same time as our mains meaning it was all hands on deck to ensure everything was enjoyed at maximal freshness. Fortunately, I’ve never been one to dither when it comes to getting stuck into a meal.

The clear standout of the small dishes was a mountain of triple-fried oyster mushroom karaage (£8) with a hyper-crisp grease free crumb and impressively meaty texture. Accompanied by a bowl of dreamy Coronation-esque curry mayo, this vegetarian dish was an upgrade on the excellent chicken version which I ate at one of Matsudai’s pop-ups.

A beansprout salad (£5) provided welcome lightness compared to the rest of the dishes. Dressed simply with chilli oil, spring onion and sesame, it was very enjoyable but the crisp sprouts would arguably have benefited from an additional dimension of seasoning.

Salty and crisp nuggets of chicken skin (£2.50) scattered with seaweed salt certainly lived up to their bar snack billing. A bowl of these and an ice cold beer would make me a very happy man indeed.

Onto the main event and a soup-less shiru-nashi mazesoba (£12) combined thick wavy noodles with a lovely al dente bite; a deeply meaty chicken and lamb ragu with a good thrum of chilli; and a deliciously creamy and savoury sesame, soy sauce and soy milk base, which provided a lovely coating for the noodles.

Mrs G was advised to stir the bowl 30 times to ensure all the sauces and toppings (including egg yolk, sweet pickled cucumber, fresh red onion, fermented bamboo shoots and greens) had mixed together effectively.

My tantanmen (£13), a Japanese version of Sichuan’s fiery Dan Dan noodles, utilised many similar elements as the soup-less dish. A rich chicken broth (which didn’t seem quite as intense and chicken-y as their tori paitan) was bolstered by the addition of the spicy chicken and lamb ragu and a sesame-soy sauce tare. Combined with its various garnishes, including a fudgey-yolked egg and beansprouts, it was a deliciously spicy and decadent dish.

A pair of swirls of beautifully tender chashu pork belly (£2.50) provided excellent side-action. Frankly, if any menu has the option of additional pork belly then it’s something I’m not going to turn down.

Onto dessert and as we’d missed out on the last slice of banana chocolate cake, we shared a roasted green tea creme brûlée (£6). Despite its lack of a proper shatteringly crisp sugar top and its slightly unappetising greeny-brown colour, the thick and creamy roasted tea-twanged custard was lovely.

It’s always great to see a Cardiff success story and Matsudai Ramen is exactly that. There’s been a ramen shaped hole in Cardiff’s dining scene, and James Chant’s debut restaurant has more than filled it.

The Details:

Address - Matsudai Ramen, 183-185 Clare Rd, Cardiff CF11 6QS

Web - https://matsudai.co.uk/pages/restaurant-2

Telephone - 029 2022 6510

Ren Japanese Food, Vale of Glamorgan review

Overseas travel seems like a very distant prospect at the moment. If we make it to West Wales, Somerset and Cornwall for this year’s planned trips then I’ll be absolutely delighted.

One consolation for the lack of jet setting is being able to eat food in Cardiff from different countries around the globe. It makes the world feel a much smaller and brighter place.

I was fortunate to travel to Japan back in 2005 and it’s pretty much my favourite country I’ve ever visited - from the jaw-droppingly beautiful shrines of Kyoto and the free roaming deer of Nara to the zany modernity of Harajuku, everything is so damn cool.

So, it’s fair to say that whenever there’s an opportunity to broaden my Japanese food horizons, I’m keen to get involved.

Yuko Harris’s Ren Japanese Food has been on my radar for a number of years. Yuko has previously organised a series of sell-out supper clubs at Waterloo Tea in Penarth.

Based in Barry, Ren Japanese Food has a changing monthly menu available to pre-order via email or text message. Service takes place only on Saturday evenings with collection or delivery available (up to 10 miles from CF63 2PL for £5). Ren’s menu features meal sets such as chicken karaage and yakitori, sushi sets, katsu curries and desserts.

A misokuze salmon set (£15) saw a flaky fillet of fish bathed in a savoury-sweet miso and mirin crust. It was joined by a bevy of sides including light-textured Japanese omelette, charred spring onion, broth cooked carrot and mushroom, and crisp lotus root salad.

Vegetarian fotomake saw a nice mix of cucumber, pepper, carrot and avocado coated in well-seasoned loosely packed rice.

Kakiaga tempura was an absolute belter - a mix of finely shredded sweet onions and carrot were coated in super crisp and light batter.

A non-vegetarian sushi set (£15) was commendably fresh across the board. Fatty salmon, sweet prawns, salty fish roe, pert sea bream, crisp cucumber, and big flavoured smoked salmon and mackerel inside out rolls were all joined by more of that well-seasoned rice as well as soy, pickled ginger and wasabi.

 

Desserts were enjoyably different - the skewered dango mochi with sweet soy sauce on the menu also caught my eye. 

A slice of matcha chocolate cake (£4.50) had a fudgey brownie like texture with a good note of grassy green tea and sweet chocolate. Whipped cream twanged with red beans and a chocolate shard added an extra dimension.

Ichigo daifuku (£2.50) saw a soft and slightly elastic glutinous rice flour ball filled with sweet red bean paste balanced by the clarity of fresh strawberry. I really liked it but Mrs G wasn't a fan of its elasticity.

We really enjoyed our dinner from Ren Japanese Food and it certainly transported me across the globe for the duration of our meal. If I was based in the Vale of Glamorgan, where there are limited Japanese food options, then I think I'd be a regular. 

The Details:

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

Email - renjapanesefood@gmail.com

Yukiyan, Cathays, Cardiff Japanese restaurant review

Located on the former site of Woodville Road’s Jalan Malaysia, Yukiyan Sushi's cartoon adorned walls give the place a fun, modern vibe. 

Their menu is certainly comprehensive, scarily so in fact. Running to five small-fonted pages, it includes a range of sushi, tempura, teriyaki, fried noodles, ramen and rice bowls. With so many dishes available, I was worried it might be a case of “Jack of all trades”. 

Mrs G slammed a couple of bottles of Sapporo (£3.75) whilst I remained designated driver for the night. 

Yasai tempura (£6.25) were gorgeously light and bubbly of batter and generous of portion. The tender mixed vegetables included green peppers, aubergines, enoki mushrooms, carrot and squash. 

Agedashi tofu (£5.85) was also enjoyably crunchy of coating. The soft, creamy and wobbly tofu pieces were bathed in a warm savoury broth. I quickly gave up on chopsticks, resorted to a spoon and then picked up the bowl to drink the leftovers. 

Inari sushi (£3.15), Mrs G’s perennial favourite, were given the thumbs up. The sweet soy-sauce simmered tofu pouches were stuffed with sushi rice with a nice bite. 

Spider maki (£8.55) were generously stuffed with crisp battered soft shell crab, saline pearls of flying fish roe, cucumber and avocado. 

California rolls (£6.25), stuffed with that familiar guilty pleasure of crab stick and mayonnaise, were the most average dish we ate but they were still good.

Finally, a big piece of soft, fatty and meaty grilled eel (£8.85) was bathed in a sweet, sticky and savoury teriyaki sauce. It was sat on a green salad laced with finely shredded omelette. 

We had a really tasty meal at Yukiyan. It’s another lovely Japanese restaurant in Cardiff which I’d gladly go back to anytime.

The Details:

Address - Yukiyan, 101 Woodville Rd, Cardiff CF24 4DY

Web - https://yukiyansushicardiff.co.uk/

Telephone - 029 2132 8992