Since moving to Penarth last year, I've tended to frequent the same few places to eat; the new Pier 64 in the Marina, the tiny Japanese San Kai which I constantly rave about, La Marina at the Custom House, and Ocho Lounge in the town centre.
However, Penarth is teaming with other places to visit so in the interests of research, I'm going to make a more concerted effort to try some new places and report on their foodie offerings.
So far, I've amassed the following. Do let me know if there's anywhere brilliant you think that I should try.
* The Fig Tree - I've heard mixed reviews but am intruiged by their chef's evenings and vegetarian Mondays. I'm also a sucker for places with sea views so their spot, on Penarth Esplanade, is enough to tempt me in.
* Cafe des Amis - Only noticed this place nestled next to the Washington Gallery a few weeks ago. Tea and cakes by day, candlelight and some tasty-sounding dishes by night mean that this is probably number one on my list.
* North Meets South cafe - Located at the top of Windsor Arcade this offers a range of interesting burgers and dishes from various cuisines and South African theming. Intruiging.
* Villa Napoli at the Glendale Hotel - The website promises an award-winning Italian experience whilst the menu offers a comprehensive range of dishes and a well-priced set menu.
* Neale's Restaturant at Holm House Hotel - A confession: I've looked for this hotel on Marine Parade a few times and never been able to find it. But once I do I'll be raring to try their Welsh inspired menu including dishes like Wild Sewin, or Welsh Pork Filler with Gwnt Y Draig cider, Carmarthen ham and mushrooms.Grady Atkins was their Head Chef before his recent move to the Park House in Central Cardiff.
* Jaflon - A Bangladeshi restaurant on Albert Road that was recommended in a Wales Online survey of best Indians in the area. They say "The lamb tikka starter is beautifully sweet and crispy on the outside and tender all the way through. The side salads are perfectly presented, the main course curries all haveconspicuously different, and interesting flavours and the service is polite and friendly". And that's good enough for me.
* Last but not least, The Olive Tree on Glebe Street. Recommended in the 2011 Michelin Guide and with a Head Chef trained by a chef from Le Gavroche, it's certainly on my do-to list asap. There are the usual A La Carte menus, an epic looking Sunday Lunch, and an early-bird option of 2 Courses £13.50 and 3 Course £17.50 before 7pm or 2 Courses £18.50 3 Courses £22.50 after 7pm.
If you've never ventured to Penarth to eat before, I recommend it. There's a range of choice and cuisine on offer as well as some great places to drink. That, however, is for another post...
Showing posts with label Penarth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Penarth. Show all posts
Wednesday, 9 November 2011
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
A hidden gem: San Kai, Penarth
San Kai
46 Plassey Street
Penarth
Vale of Glamorgan CF64 1EL
Phone: 029 2070 8357
Website: http://www.sankai-restaurant.com/
Closed Mondays
San Kai is something of a hidden gem in Penarth which already has its fair share of well-known restaurants including The Custom House and the new Pier 64 at the Marina and The Fig Tree on the seafront. It’s therefore easy to overlook San Kai which occupies an unobtrusive corner of Plassey Street in the town centre. At first glance one would assume that it was just another Chinese takeaway. It does offer a takeaway service but this tiny restaurant offers much more than that.
Promising that it is Penarth’s only sit-down Chinese restaurant it also offers some delicious Thai dishes and Japanese offerings that rival those I’ve had at Canton/Roath’s Ichiban and City Road's Tenkaichi. It’s usually the Japanese that draws my partner and I to San Kai every few months. The place itself is housed in a former corner-shop and is intimate without meaning you have to listen to every word the couple seated next to you are saying. It’s decorated with colourful lanterns and has the unique distinction of playing karaoke videos of pop classics in the corner. On weekends, the opportunity to sing karaoke presents itself although there’s no pressure to do so and this doesn’t happen until very late into the evening. Having visited 4 times, I've never actually seen anyone partake in this! The staff is also friendly and efficient; the owner remembers you and details about you and visiting is always a hugely welcoming experience.
What, then of the food? My partner and I are creatures of habit and almost always opt for the cucumber (£3.50) or California maki (£4.50) from the sushi menu and the Ebi Tempura (prawn) (£5.50) or vegetable tempura (£4.95). The sushi is always fresh and the vegetables crisp and textured. The tempura is equally good with a light crisp batter and huge prawns. On our last visit we added some Nama Hotate (breaded scallops) to the mix which, at £5.95 were a little more pricey than our usual choices. However, they were a revelation; meaty and well cooked and served with a spicy sauce and we'll certainly be ordering them again. There’s also a complimentary bowl of prawn crackers and sweet chilli sauce if you decide to espouse starters altogether.
For the main course I usually plump for some form of udon dish – so far I’ve tried the chicken (£7.95), seafood (£9.50) and pork (£7.95) options and all curried favour although the seafood dish was a little too heavy on salmon for my tastes. The other half always choses the spicy pork yaki soba (£7.95), so convinced is he of its quality. All the noodle dishes are plentiful and full of flavour and good value for money .
Pork yaki soba
Yaki udon
In the past, we’ve also shared the set Chinese menu for two which offers mixed hot starters of spare ribs, prawn toasts, chicken satay, spring roll, deep fried squid) and mains of sizzling beef in satay sauce, Kung Po pork, chicken in honey and lemon, and egg fried rice all for £13.95 per head. This was also really impressive and offered more food than the two of us could reasonably consume without losing flavour and quality. It’s not the Chinese menu that draws us back to eat out at San Kai but we’d certainly try it again or order it to take-away. There is also a more elaborate set menu for £19.95 for those with even bigger appetites.
Overall, a meal in San Kai for two people, with starters, noodle main courses and two drinks each will set you back around £20 a head. If you’re in Penarth it’s well worth a visit. But don’t tell *too* many people about its secret…
46 Plassey Street
Penarth
Vale of Glamorgan CF64 1EL
Phone: 029 2070 8357
Website: http://www.sankai-restaurant.com/
Closed Mondays
San Kai is something of a hidden gem in Penarth which already has its fair share of well-known restaurants including The Custom House and the new Pier 64 at the Marina and The Fig Tree on the seafront. It’s therefore easy to overlook San Kai which occupies an unobtrusive corner of Plassey Street in the town centre. At first glance one would assume that it was just another Chinese takeaway. It does offer a takeaway service but this tiny restaurant offers much more than that.
Promising that it is Penarth’s only sit-down Chinese restaurant it also offers some delicious Thai dishes and Japanese offerings that rival those I’ve had at Canton/Roath’s Ichiban and City Road's Tenkaichi. It’s usually the Japanese that draws my partner and I to San Kai every few months. The place itself is housed in a former corner-shop and is intimate without meaning you have to listen to every word the couple seated next to you are saying. It’s decorated with colourful lanterns and has the unique distinction of playing karaoke videos of pop classics in the corner. On weekends, the opportunity to sing karaoke presents itself although there’s no pressure to do so and this doesn’t happen until very late into the evening. Having visited 4 times, I've never actually seen anyone partake in this! The staff is also friendly and efficient; the owner remembers you and details about you and visiting is always a hugely welcoming experience.
What, then of the food? My partner and I are creatures of habit and almost always opt for the cucumber (£3.50) or California maki (£4.50) from the sushi menu and the Ebi Tempura (prawn) (£5.50) or vegetable tempura (£4.95). The sushi is always fresh and the vegetables crisp and textured. The tempura is equally good with a light crisp batter and huge prawns. On our last visit we added some Nama Hotate (breaded scallops) to the mix which, at £5.95 were a little more pricey than our usual choices. However, they were a revelation; meaty and well cooked and served with a spicy sauce and we'll certainly be ordering them again. There’s also a complimentary bowl of prawn crackers and sweet chilli sauce if you decide to espouse starters altogether.
For the main course I usually plump for some form of udon dish – so far I’ve tried the chicken (£7.95), seafood (£9.50) and pork (£7.95) options and all curried favour although the seafood dish was a little too heavy on salmon for my tastes. The other half always choses the spicy pork yaki soba (£7.95), so convinced is he of its quality. All the noodle dishes are plentiful and full of flavour and good value for money .
Pork yaki soba
Yaki udon
In the past, we’ve also shared the set Chinese menu for two which offers mixed hot starters of spare ribs, prawn toasts, chicken satay, spring roll, deep fried squid) and mains of sizzling beef in satay sauce, Kung Po pork, chicken in honey and lemon, and egg fried rice all for £13.95 per head. This was also really impressive and offered more food than the two of us could reasonably consume without losing flavour and quality. It’s not the Chinese menu that draws us back to eat out at San Kai but we’d certainly try it again or order it to take-away. There is also a more elaborate set menu for £19.95 for those with even bigger appetites.
Overall, a meal in San Kai for two people, with starters, noodle main courses and two drinks each will set you back around £20 a head. If you’re in Penarth it’s well worth a visit. But don’t tell *too* many people about its secret…
Thursday, 14 July 2011
Restaurant Review: Pier 64
Pier 64
Penarth Marina
Penarth
Phone: 02920 000064
Website: http://www.pier64.co.uk/index.html
Pier 64 exterior
There are two, slightly different, reasons why I have been especially excited about the opening of Pier 64 in Penarth Marina since I first witnessed the construction beginning on the venue earlier this year.
Firstly, as a resident of Penarth Marina the options for drinking and eating that don’t involve long walks across the barrage or up to Penarth town centre have, so far, been fairly limited. At one end of the Marina you have The Oystercatcher, a Hungry Horse chain pub serving up BBQs on a plate and sickly flavoured shots (not that there aren’t some evenings when this is exactly what you want). At the other you have The Custom House which, whilst offering excellent food, is not somewhere you can frequent too often without taking out a loan to buy a round of drinks. The option, therefore, of something both geographically and, possible, economically ‘in the middle’ was of particular interest.
Secondly, I’ve yet to get over the disappointment of the fact that, mere months after my belated first visit to Le Gallois in Pontcanna and the outstanding set dinner we had there, the restaurant closed, forever preventing a repeat experience. So, the involvement of Le Gallois’ Francis Dupuy in Pier 64 gave me optimism that the menu on offer would be similarly excellent.
So, how did Pier 64 measure up to these weighty expectations? We visited a week and a half after its grand opening and the place still felt very new. Not in terms of any issues with the staff, service or the food but the building itself which still smelled of paint in the stairwell leading to the bathrooms and the fact that, for example, whilst the cocktail menu is available on the website, printed copies were not yet available at the bar. “On the to-do list”, apparently. None of this in any way took away from the experience which I’m happy to say more than lived up to my hopes about the venue.
The dining room isn’t huge but makes great use of space with mirrors and clean fresh lines; the mirrors ensure that all diners have a view of the marina outside, even if they are facing away from the windows. We also lucked in by being upgraded to a booth; worth requesting one of these when you book since they are much more spacious and feel more luxurious then the ordinary dining tables. The staff are polite and efficient but also friendly and willing to engage with the diners making the service here less formal than at Le Gallois. The waiting staff was attentive and keen to ensure that our evening was going to plan.
In terms of the most important thing, then: the food. Not sure if my waistline will forgive me but, despite my best attempts to be healthy and ‘good’ one must, when faced with a menu of such temptation, give in and throw caution to the wind for one evening. The menu here is concise, offering a few salads, eight or so starters, a wide range of steaks and some other options including lamb, chicken, sea bass, and a vegetarian option. As an avid fan of The Restaurant Inspector and Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares I’ve learned to be suspicious of the freshness and providence of ingredients in restaurants with extensive menus so the brevity here was very welcome.
Menu
To start I ordered the pork belly ribs, using middle white pork (£6.95). These were delicious and without a doubt the best ribs I have ever eaten. The pork was moist and tender, a world away from previous ribs I’ve eaten where one has to prise the meat away from the bone. My only slight issue here was that the ribs came smothered in a wholegrain mustard crust which wasn’t mentioned on the menu. The mustard was tasty and offered a tangy counterpoint to the pork but was slightly overpowering. Just a little less mustard would improve the balance of flavor with the pork.
Pork belly ribs
The soup of the day – asparagus with white truffle oil – was outstanding; full of fresh flavour and depth and came with a large portion of bread which was more than adequate for the amount of soup provided (£4.95).
Soup of the day
For the main I went for lamb (always a favourite on a menu); a rump of salt mash lamb served with dauphinois potatoes, samphire and a red wine jus (£17.95). The portion of lamb was generous and cooked to perfection - I ordered it ‘pink’ and it was tender and soft. This was my first experience of samphire and I was impressed, finding that it offered a salty earthiness to the dish and the richness of the jus and the creamy dauphinoise. The Pembrokeshire sea bass with shallot mash, baby leeks and cream (£16.95) was apparently excellent – I didn’t manage to sneak a sample off the plate!
Salt marsh lamb
Pembrokeshire sea bass
Finally, the rib eye steak (which at £17.95 just for the steak is fairly pricey) was also a delight; well cooked and generous. My companion ordered it with blue cheese sauce (£2.00) which worked well with the meat and French fries which lived up to the criteria of being crisp on the outside and fluffy and soft on the inside (£3.00). If you’re in the market for more pricey cuts the restaurant offers 600g chateaubriand for £40, ideal for sharing judging by the amount of fellow diners who were ordering this. They also offer wagyu beef if you fancy paying nearly £100 for a steak.
Steak with cheese sauce & French fries
By dessert time I was too full of tasty treats to have a dessert but got some samples from the other diners at our table. The strawberry cheesecake was a revelation. I love strawberries and I love cheesecake but strawberry cheesecake always leaves me cold – I find it quite mushy and lacking in substance. This, however, was quite different; both sweet and tart with a crumbly base and served with a strawberry sorbet on a tuile and strawberries sprinkled with mint. I’d certainly order it in the future. The summer pudding with clotted cream was less to my tastes but was apparently also very good with a particularly sharp blackcurrant kick.
Strawberry cheesecake
Summer pudding
Overall, the evening was almost faultless and reasonably priced with the bill coming in at £130 for 2 starters, 4 mains, 2 desserts, a bottle of wine and a couple of beers (including service as well). I’d return in the evening to sample some of the other options and will be trying out the breakfasts and the reasonable set lunch offer (2 Courses £12.95 3 Course £15.95) very soon. I’m also yearning for a visit to try out the cocktails once they finally put together the finishing touches and tick everything off the to-do list.
Guests expecting a mini Le Gallois will be disappointed but for those looking for a stylish dining experience with fresh well-prepared food, attentive service and a wonderful view there is much to recommend it.
Penarth Marina
Penarth
Phone: 02920 000064
Website: http://www.pier64.co.uk/index.html
Pier 64 exterior
There are two, slightly different, reasons why I have been especially excited about the opening of Pier 64 in Penarth Marina since I first witnessed the construction beginning on the venue earlier this year.
Firstly, as a resident of Penarth Marina the options for drinking and eating that don’t involve long walks across the barrage or up to Penarth town centre have, so far, been fairly limited. At one end of the Marina you have The Oystercatcher, a Hungry Horse chain pub serving up BBQs on a plate and sickly flavoured shots (not that there aren’t some evenings when this is exactly what you want). At the other you have The Custom House which, whilst offering excellent food, is not somewhere you can frequent too often without taking out a loan to buy a round of drinks. The option, therefore, of something both geographically and, possible, economically ‘in the middle’ was of particular interest.
Secondly, I’ve yet to get over the disappointment of the fact that, mere months after my belated first visit to Le Gallois in Pontcanna and the outstanding set dinner we had there, the restaurant closed, forever preventing a repeat experience. So, the involvement of Le Gallois’ Francis Dupuy in Pier 64 gave me optimism that the menu on offer would be similarly excellent.
So, how did Pier 64 measure up to these weighty expectations? We visited a week and a half after its grand opening and the place still felt very new. Not in terms of any issues with the staff, service or the food but the building itself which still smelled of paint in the stairwell leading to the bathrooms and the fact that, for example, whilst the cocktail menu is available on the website, printed copies were not yet available at the bar. “On the to-do list”, apparently. None of this in any way took away from the experience which I’m happy to say more than lived up to my hopes about the venue.
The dining room isn’t huge but makes great use of space with mirrors and clean fresh lines; the mirrors ensure that all diners have a view of the marina outside, even if they are facing away from the windows. We also lucked in by being upgraded to a booth; worth requesting one of these when you book since they are much more spacious and feel more luxurious then the ordinary dining tables. The staff are polite and efficient but also friendly and willing to engage with the diners making the service here less formal than at Le Gallois. The waiting staff was attentive and keen to ensure that our evening was going to plan.
In terms of the most important thing, then: the food. Not sure if my waistline will forgive me but, despite my best attempts to be healthy and ‘good’ one must, when faced with a menu of such temptation, give in and throw caution to the wind for one evening. The menu here is concise, offering a few salads, eight or so starters, a wide range of steaks and some other options including lamb, chicken, sea bass, and a vegetarian option. As an avid fan of The Restaurant Inspector and Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares I’ve learned to be suspicious of the freshness and providence of ingredients in restaurants with extensive menus so the brevity here was very welcome.
Menu
To start I ordered the pork belly ribs, using middle white pork (£6.95). These were delicious and without a doubt the best ribs I have ever eaten. The pork was moist and tender, a world away from previous ribs I’ve eaten where one has to prise the meat away from the bone. My only slight issue here was that the ribs came smothered in a wholegrain mustard crust which wasn’t mentioned on the menu. The mustard was tasty and offered a tangy counterpoint to the pork but was slightly overpowering. Just a little less mustard would improve the balance of flavor with the pork.
Pork belly ribs
The soup of the day – asparagus with white truffle oil – was outstanding; full of fresh flavour and depth and came with a large portion of bread which was more than adequate for the amount of soup provided (£4.95).
Soup of the day
For the main I went for lamb (always a favourite on a menu); a rump of salt mash lamb served with dauphinois potatoes, samphire and a red wine jus (£17.95). The portion of lamb was generous and cooked to perfection - I ordered it ‘pink’ and it was tender and soft. This was my first experience of samphire and I was impressed, finding that it offered a salty earthiness to the dish and the richness of the jus and the creamy dauphinoise. The Pembrokeshire sea bass with shallot mash, baby leeks and cream (£16.95) was apparently excellent – I didn’t manage to sneak a sample off the plate!
Salt marsh lamb
Pembrokeshire sea bass
Finally, the rib eye steak (which at £17.95 just for the steak is fairly pricey) was also a delight; well cooked and generous. My companion ordered it with blue cheese sauce (£2.00) which worked well with the meat and French fries which lived up to the criteria of being crisp on the outside and fluffy and soft on the inside (£3.00). If you’re in the market for more pricey cuts the restaurant offers 600g chateaubriand for £40, ideal for sharing judging by the amount of fellow diners who were ordering this. They also offer wagyu beef if you fancy paying nearly £100 for a steak.
Steak with cheese sauce & French fries
By dessert time I was too full of tasty treats to have a dessert but got some samples from the other diners at our table. The strawberry cheesecake was a revelation. I love strawberries and I love cheesecake but strawberry cheesecake always leaves me cold – I find it quite mushy and lacking in substance. This, however, was quite different; both sweet and tart with a crumbly base and served with a strawberry sorbet on a tuile and strawberries sprinkled with mint. I’d certainly order it in the future. The summer pudding with clotted cream was less to my tastes but was apparently also very good with a particularly sharp blackcurrant kick.
Strawberry cheesecake
Summer pudding
Overall, the evening was almost faultless and reasonably priced with the bill coming in at £130 for 2 starters, 4 mains, 2 desserts, a bottle of wine and a couple of beers (including service as well). I’d return in the evening to sample some of the other options and will be trying out the breakfasts and the reasonable set lunch offer (2 Courses £12.95 3 Course £15.95) very soon. I’m also yearning for a visit to try out the cocktails once they finally put together the finishing touches and tick everything off the to-do list.
Guests expecting a mini Le Gallois will be disappointed but for those looking for a stylish dining experience with fresh well-prepared food, attentive service and a wonderful view there is much to recommend it.
Tuesday, 12 July 2011
Meat-free Monday at The Fig Tree
Interesting news from The Fig Tree on Penarth Esplanade. They've launched an initiative to encourage people to forego their meat for one day per week by having an entirely meat-free menu on Mondays.
The menu is still under construction but, according to their website, they want to contribute to efforts to "reduce the strain on the environment caused by meat production and the strain on the Health Service through diet related illnesses".
Apparently, menu ideas are welcome but the general notion seems to be a set menu with three choices of starter, main and dessert.
Although not a veggie myself, this sounds like a great initiative and I hope customers will support this. Once they launch the menu, I'll be very interested to check it out.
For more info contact:
The Fig Tree, The Esplanade, Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, CF64 3AU
Phone: 029 2070 2512
http://www.thefigtreepenarth.co.uk/
The menu is still under construction but, according to their website, they want to contribute to efforts to "reduce the strain on the environment caused by meat production and the strain on the Health Service through diet related illnesses".
Apparently, menu ideas are welcome but the general notion seems to be a set menu with three choices of starter, main and dessert.
Although not a veggie myself, this sounds like a great initiative and I hope customers will support this. Once they launch the menu, I'll be very interested to check it out.
For more info contact:
The Fig Tree, The Esplanade, Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, CF64 3AU
Phone: 029 2070 2512
http://www.thefigtreepenarth.co.uk/
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