Pontcanna, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

2021 Review: This “friendly and interesting” Pontcanna three-year-old serves up “outstanding” modern Welsh fare. Chef-owners Tom Furlong and Gwyn Myring met while working on the premises 15 years when it was an Italian restaurant, Cibo.

“Excellent in all aspects!” – so say fans of Tom Simmons’s ambitious Pontcanna HQ, who moved back from three years running his eponymous restaurant in London to open here in early 2020. In addition to the à la carte selection – he provides a seven-course tasting menu for £75 per person. His cuisine is traditionally grounded (e.g. chicken liver parfait with sourdough, braised pork cheek, turbot with caviar) rather than striving for flash foodie fireworks.

“Tommy (Heaney) is a great chef and a great character”, say fans of the chef’s swanky five-year old, in the Cardiff ‘burbs, which he launched after working at Bridgend’s Great House hotel (an appearance on Great British Menu boosting his profile). Sample tasting menus or à la carte, or hit up his next door oyster and wine bar, Uisce (pronounced ‘ish-ka’, meaning ‘water’ in Gaelic).

2022 Review: “Worth a detour to the old docks” – a converted red-brick Victorian railway building “down by the Barry Island waterfront” is the new (May 2021) home for one of Wales’s best-known chefs, who closed his former Penarth HQ in July last year. It’s an attractive contemporary setting with 30 covers for a menu that’s not as chefy and expensive as his former Michelin-starred one – more affordable and in a style you might describe as ‘brasserie plus’. A range of steaks is a feature, and early reports speak of “classy cooking by James Sommerin's team from a short, well-realised menu”.

2023 Review: This “buzzy hotel restaurant” in a “lovely sunny setting overlooking its vineyard” is “great to know about if you’re in the area”. Chef Andy Aston wins good ratings for cooking that is notably “good-value” for its quality.

2023 Review: “Always excellent food” has built a strong reputation for local lad Tom Watts-Jones’s well-regarded pub in the Vale of Glamorgan. Chef’s CV includes stints at London’s St John and also The Anchor & Hope. There are numerous menus here, including an à la carte or nine-course tasting option.

2023 Review: “Tiny! Difficult to get a table but worth it” – ex-Hedone-chef Lee Skeet’s 12-seater above Pontcanna’s Milkwood opened in January 2022 following the success of his 40 Days, 40 Nights pop-up, and he serves a seasonal tasting menu, majoring in fish and seafood. Limited early feedback all says the food is good, although one reporter felt “I really wanted it to be great, but thought the food was a little muted”.

Next door to the more formal Heaney’s, this two year old spin-off (whose name means water in Gaelic) is a no-booking affair, serving small plates. Oysters are the speciality.

“A great place for warm summer evenings” – Phill and Deb Lewis’s sustainably focused outdoors venue (sibling to Nook) is built around Sophia Gardens’ old Warden’s House and offers a menu of well-prepared dishes cooked over fire, complete with natural wines and blankets to keep the cold at bay. It’s rated on limited but highly enthusiastic feedback.

Two former Gordon Ramsay and Galvin Bros staffers have joined forces to launch this ambitious restaurant and cocktail bar in the suburb of Roath. Its May 2023 debut occurred just as our annual diners’ poll was concluding – too late for feedback – but it aims to provide ‘something for everyone, whether you’re visiting post-dog-walk for a cocktail on our terrace or celebrating your 25th wedding anniversary’. The name? – as you probably know, the Silures were a powerful tribe of ancient Britain, occupying what is now south east Wales.