Sonder, Pontcanna, Cardiff restaurant review

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).

From the snack section, ham and cheese bites (£5) were a close relative of the croqueta family. The crisp crumbed morsels were filled with pokey molten cheese sauce flecked with nuggets of salty ham and sweet leek. With five balls for a fiver, they kicked off the theme of generous and big flavoured cooking.

Cornish crab French toast (£10) was also billed as a snack, but Mrs G ordered it as a starter. It most certainly fitted the bill in terms of size. A slab of light and soft golden toast was topped with a mountain of sweet white crab meat seasoned with mixed green herbs and the occasional zippy caper.

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

Web - https://sonder.restaurant/

Crispy Dosa, Cardiff city centre restaurant review

Why do people read food blogs?

Is it to be entertained with witty anecdotes and clever turns of phrase?

Perhaps it’s to gawp at beautiful food photography or to find out about cuisines that aren't covered by mainstream media?

Or maybe it’s simply to find out from a trustworthy source whether a restaurant is worth visiting or not?

Whilst all of the above play their part, I’d argue that it's the latter which is the most important.

When it comes to trustworthy blogs, they don’t come more highly regarded than Andy Hayler’s Restaurant Guide. With a knowledgeable yet unflowery approach to restaurant writing, Andy has self-funded reviews of over 1,000 restaurants in London and until the pandemic had visited every three Michelin-starred restaurant in the world.

You can be assured that if Andy says a restaurant is worth visiting then it really will be.

Which brings me to Crispy Dosa on Cardiff’s High Street.

With twelve branches across the south of the UK in locations including Watford, Windsor, Croydon and Bristol, Andy reviewed the Hounslow branch in November 2024 and scored it 13/20 (good cooking, showing sound technical skills and using quality ingredients) with a top rating for value for money.

The Cardiff branch of Crispy Dosa opened a few weeks ago, and much like its sibling establishments, focuses on southern Indian vegetarian cooking.

On the menu, dishes include chilli paneer (£8.99), onion chilli uthappam (£9.49), a mini tiffin (£11.99) and a variety of dosas, including cheese masala (£9.99) and ghee paper roast (£10.99).

Whilst Crispy Dosa serves booze, I opted for a mango lassi (£3.99) as it was the middle of the working day. Creamy and tangy with a good hit of tropical fruit, it was served in a whopping milkshake glass. However, it could have done with being a bit colder.

To start, gobi Manchurian (£8.99) was excellent. A mountain of lightly battered and tender cauliflower florets and stir-fried shredded cabbage were coated in a fiery savoury, sweet and tangy sauce. It was as good as an example of the dish that I’ve eaten and would have been a meal in itself alongside a bowl of rice.

With a name like Crispy Dosa, I of course had to order a dosa for main course.

The behemothic masala dosa covered a good proportion of the table. Light, crisp and pliable, it was well-filled in the middle with warming spiced mashed potato flecked with sweet onions, mixed beans and seeds. At £7.99 it was a generous and delicious lunch.

Accompanying chutneys and sauces were good but could arguably have packed a bigger punch. They included fragrant coriander, creamy coconut, and sweet tomato chutneys as well as a thin vegetable studded sambar.

I was very impressed by both dishes I ordered from Crispy Dosa and their dosas are most definitely worth checking out if you’re on the hunt for a good value meal in Cardiff city centre - this is of course no surprise as Andy Hayler said it was worth a visit.

The Details:

Address - Crispy Dosa  30 St Mary Street, Cardiff CF10 1AB

Web - https://www.crispydosa.com/

Telephone - 029 2297 2849