Sonder

Summary

Open in April 2025, just as our annual diners’ poll came to an end, this new ‘neighbourhood bar & bistro’ sits on the border between Canton and Pontcanna and looks promising. It’s the brainchild of Nick Saunders, and chef Jake Lewis, until recently executive chef of Pasture steakhouses in Cardiff, Bristol and Birmingham, but the menu goes well beyond red meat (e.g. chicken schnitzel, tuna loin, tempura smoked tofu). The name ‘Sonder’, in case you’ve been worrying, is taken from John Koenig’s The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a dictionary of made-up words for emotions that we all feel but don’t have the words to express; and means ‘the realization that each random passer-by is living a life as vivid and complex as your own’.