I ate at a new restaurant with a beloved chef, tucked away in a leafy city suburb, and one dish was the best I'd ever had
Tucked away right in the middle of the leafy Cardiff suburbs of Canton and Pontcanna, is the capital's newest restaurant, Sonder. With sleek, sophisticated and cool vibes, Sonder opened on Easter Monday.
Sonder is run by a former chef of the much-loved city steakhouse Pasture. The new neighbourhood restaurant, headed up by Jake Lewis, will offer casual daytime dining to long, relaxed evenings of dinner and drinks.
We went along on its second opening night to the general public, with our table booked for 5.30pm. At first the restaurant was pretty quiet and as we arrived early we took a seat at the polished bar for a drink.
Drinks are something Sonder specialises in as on the Sonder team is Alex Mills who has previously won Best Bartender in the top 50 cocktail bars in the UK in 2018
He brings experience from his eight years at Cardiff's award-winning Lab 22, and his recent role as head of bars at the Celtic Manor Resort. For the latest restaurant news and reviews, sign up to our food and drink newsletter here .
We opted for the classic cocktails of a Hugo spritz and a strawberry negroni, both £11, and they were a great choice. The Hugo spritz was light, bubbly and refreshing on the tongue, with a good taste of elderflower.
The strawberry negroni had a very strong kick of gin, the strawberry adding a slight sweetness to its usual bitter flavour pallette, not one for the faint-hearted. After starting our drinks we were soon led to our table, which was a long booth and tucked away in the corner.
Wanting to try a bit of everything we carefully looked at the menu, which includes dishes like pizza fritta with carbonara sauce, wild mushroom French toast, a toma-pork chop with caramel rhubarb (for two) and aubergine 'parm' with smoked mozzarella and tomato jam.
(Image: Steph Colderick)
We opted for a roasted beetroot and whipped ricotta starter, £9, a giant Atlantic king prawn starter, £9, two mains of flat iron steak frittes, £23 each and a side of wild mushrooms for £10.
Both starters were impressive and the giant prawn really was giant. It had generous meaty presence on the plate and tasted so fresh, straight from the fish market.
This was not surprising as Sonder is committed to offering quality, flavour and value and that will lean heavily on local and high-quality suppliers. The garlic aioli was smooth and creamy, the perfect texture to match with the prawns and you got a good hunk of melt-in-the-mouth sourdough bread that was perfectly drenched in butter.
The beetroot and ricotta complimented each other very well with the light cheese having a delicious whipped texture, that was almost like a yogurt. Both starters were the perfect size and not too filling before the mains.
The mains were simply delicious and after just one bite you could tell it was high-quality meat. Served medium, the steak was tender, juicy and, cut like butter.
(Image: Steph Colderick)
As my dining partner said: 'When I order steak that's exactly what I want' and even better it came with a huge portion of fries. While Sonder is very high-quality food, unlike other places, it did not skimp on the portions and we came away feeling very full.
The fries were light, very well seasoned and despite the massive portion, very moreish and easily disappeared. For me though, the highlight of the meal was the wild mushrooms.
There were simply the best mushrooms I have ever tasted and I could have eaten plates of them. They were so incredibly fresh like they had literally just been picked from the garden and had a real earthy taste.
(Image: Steph Colderick)
The tarragon complimented them perfectly, giving a brilliant herby kick that wasn't too strong but wasn't too subtle. They were drenched in oil, which was so smooth and silky it almost tasted like butter, and came with confit egg yolk that only added to the dish. If you go to Sonder you simply have to get these mushrooms.
By the time we left, around 7.30pm, Sonder was busy and bustling which was lovely to see midweek. Many diners were enjoying their meal and it had a chatty and lighthearted atmosphere, it's going to be a great addition to the local eating out choice in Canton.
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