1 week Ago By [email protected] (Anna Lewis)
There is always something exciting about going to a restaurant with an open kitchen. Perhaps it's a product of watching too much of The Bear, or BBC's Boiling Point, but I can't stop myself from peeking over the heads of other diners to get a glimpse of the action, perhaps keeping an ear out for yells of 'cousin!' or the chaos that a busy service can inevitably bring. In newly-opened Gorse in Pontcanna, they've taken the concept on an open kitchen and run with it.
With only 22 covers across a handful of tables, the kitchen is very much the centrepiece of the space - offering not just a window to spy a slice of the magic but (nearly) the full experience thanks to just a tastefully-decorated pass separating you from the sights and smells coming from the hobs and ovens behind it. Formerly the home of dog-friendly cafe Fido Coffee, Gorse opened its doors in May this year. It's the brainchild of renowned Newport chef Tom Waters, who has earned his stripes working in prestigious London kitchens including stints at The Square and Bonhams, as well as three years at Heston Blumenthal's The Fat Duck More.
Closer to home you might have come across Gorse at a number of pop-up events they've held across Cardiff, before the team got their hands on a permanent location in the heart of Cardiff's coolest suburb. Read more: I tried one of Wales' best restaurants that's so good we were ordered to bring one dish home with us Read more: The 50 best restaurants in Wales in 2024 Eager to return to his roots, before opening Tom made it clear he was here to bring modern Welsh multi-course tasting menus to Cardiff's food scene, using close relationships with local growers, fishers and farmers to get his hands on the very best Welsh produce to do that. Championing the best of Cymru is so important to him that even the restaurant's name is inspired by the rugged coastline with its flowering Gorse.
For the latest restaurant reviews, sign up to our food and drink newsletter here Visiting on a Saturday afternoon, every table fills up over the two hours we spend there for their four-course lunch menu. At £35 per person, it seemed a good way to see what it was all about before going all in for their seven-course or 10-course evening menus, coming in at £75 and £100 per person respectively. After a warm welcome by the whole team - including the two chefs busy at work in front of you as you open the door - we soon found ourselves being expertly guided through the menu ahead of us.
While certain elements of the menu are set (for us at least, with no dietary requirements), you can choose between two options for your starter and three for your main course, while the dessert and first two appetizers sent your way are chosen for you by the experts. And it's not just the food menu that is all sourced locally - for drinks we went for a light but sweet sparkling Wye Valley mead and a particularly good Royal Flush sparkling tea, serving as an alcohol free alternative to prosecco but with a tang slightly similar to kombucha due to its fermenting process. Orders placed, within minutes our first tasters arrive; two delicate choux buns packed with mature Caws Cerwyn cow's milk cheese, from Rosebush, Pembrokeshire, and pickled walnut.
We're advised to eat them in one bite and so we do; smooth cheese explodes in the mouth, only for the pickled walnut to cut through afterwards. Our next dish is one I have been thinking about ever since. Looking over to the kitchen, the first thing we see are the chefs busy glazing small brioche loaves with butter before they make their way into the oven.
As the smell of freshly-baked bread wafts across you know you're in for something good - and it didn't disappoint. A personal size version of a tear and share loaf split into four, you can either eat your buttermilk brioche served with cultured laver butter as a course in its own right, or save some to mop up any sauces as you go along. While we tried to show some restraint and keep some back, it proved too much of a challenge.
Warm, glossy and golden brown, I can honestly say I've never had a bread so fluffy. Meanwhile the laver butter's pure salted indulgence knows just how to compliment the sweetness; if the Caws Cerwyn brings you to the Welsh countryside then the laver butter takes you straight into the sea. If ever bread and butter could steal the show, this is it.
But that's not to knock the rest that follows. I choose the tomato salad with goat curd, raspberries and basil for my next dish, while my partner goes for the second option of beetroot baked in juniper with lovage and chestnut mushrooms. My salad is quite literally the best of summer served on a plate.
Beautifully fresh cherry and plum tomatoes are piled high on a thick wedge of yet more tomato, on top of a bed of curd and basil oil, while basil leaves and raspberries sit on top. It's light and juicy, with the cheese lending it a bit of heft. On a summer's day I can't think of anything better - proving that simple and fresh is always the best way forward.
My partner's dish by contrast can't help but remind me of autumn to come. Strong, earthy tones from the beetroot and mushrooms are accompanied by a little zing from more pickled beetroots hidden among them, as crackers add crunch to an otherwise smooth mouthful . Onto mains, and I order the hake with courgette, basil and River Dee cockles, served with potatoes and a creamy sauce.
The fish is soft and flaky, while the chunky charred courgette proves to be a suprising star. All together it's comforting and easy on the palate, allowing the cockles to shine through and bring the coastline back to the table. My accomplice orders the salt-baked lamb shoulder with Pembrokeshire potatoes, onion bearnaise and garlic.
While it's not the prettiest dish on the menu it's truly indulgent; a buttery bearnaise meets the equally rich braised meat that's surely the product of many hours in the oven, while the mashed potato serves as a pedestal to let them both shine. Meanwhile, as this is all happening, the chefs standing metres away continue to send dishes out right left and centre as we watch on, seasoning, tasting, and tweasering ingredients onto plates and seemingly calmly co-ordinating it all between them. There are no messy countertops and overspilling pots and pans piling up here - from our point of view at least, it all appears to be going like clockwork.
We can't help but stare and it doesn't go unnoticed by the diners next to us; soon they're also joining the conversation wondering how they do it. To finish off our desserts arrive, beautifully presented bowls of buttermilk and nasturtium honey with Wye Valley blueberries and nasturtium flowers on top, along with jelly-like tiny cubes of the mead that we drank earlier - although the latter proving sadly a little tasteless. If the menu has taken us through the Welsh fields and into the ocean, this one can only be compared to walking through a meadow of flowers and into the beehive - subtle flavours brought to life by floral honey to create delicate, creamy spoonfuls of sunshine.
Unwilling for our experience to end, two final cocktails also went down a treat as we finished our meal. I went for The David (£12), a sophisticated and clean version of the orange fizzy drink you can't move for seeing this summer, combining Aperol, In the Wind Welsh vodka and Antica Formula vermouth, while my partner chose the New Fashioned (£12) with Penderyn Sherrywood whisky, sherry and acorn liquer. As a nice send off we are given a last, bonus sweet to end our experience - two cubes of almost quince-like crab apple jelly covered in pineapple sugar.
They're tangy and fizzy - almost like a gourmet Tangfastic. The bill comes to £117 all in all including a service charge. In a place where you've quite literally seen the work put into it right in front of you, along with a team of attentive front of house staff who are equally enthusiastic about what they're doing, it's easy to see how such an experience is worth it for a special occasion.
If Gorse promises to celebrate the best of what our country has to offer, then hopefully we've got a long old party to come..
