The word “Kindle” has a number of meanings, including the Amazon device (are they still a thing – I remember when they just sold books, now they even have a giant space dildo 🚀 ), to arouse (not deliberate placement) or inspire and stuff you use to set a fire. The ability to do the latter, from scratch, is probably the most transformational skill humans acquired back in the past, which I suspect the majority of us would be unable to replicate without significant industrial age aids. As such, come the impending (probably AI driven) apocalypse the majority of us are probably fxxked, even if we survive the initially onslaught (well that’s something to look forward to isn’t it😬).

In this instance I think we can discount the multinational conglomerate (probably an anathama to all things Cardiff Kindle) with this more a rekindling of a love of that most elemental form of cooking, the use of  fire, in a restaurant located inside Sophia Gardens in the centre of Cardiff.  As such it is here both a kindling of interest and a fire starter (and there we have the tortuous hook to the post title with the song “Firestarter” being one of the tracks on the Prodigy’s seminal album “Fat of the land”). Actually the ethos of this place fits in rather well with the fat of the land title, with the seasonality of the menu taking advantage of abundance when it is available and preservation when it isn’t.

Not getting into town much these days, I must confess I had sought of forgotten about this place (shame on me), which doesn’t seem to get talked about much (at least within my very, very limited social media circle – basically me).

Despite its City centre location, it seems to be down on the interweb as being in Pontcanna.

This really seems a bit of a stretch (even for the most audacious estate agent) and further validates my view that Cardiff and beyond will ultimately just become known as Greater Pontcanna.

Food wise the menu online looked interesting, with an ethos very much wedded to not only the use of fire (via naked flame, ember and smoke),

but also provenance and sustainability.

I like very much the former as I am always keen to know where what I am eating comes from.  Here the website refers to them growing a lot of their own stuff and where not buying from as many local farmers and producers as is physically possible and lists a fair few of them in their environmental policy.

On the wider sustainability front, in some places I can find this all becomes a tad performative/well we have to say that (rather than actually do anything) don’t we. A case of “Well yes we do fly stuff in daily from Antarctica, how is the it’s all right whale stew and orcacchiette by the way and do make sure you look out for the vaquita ceviche special next week, but we did plant a tree (for tax carbon offsetting purposes) last year”.

Here there is seemingly no “greenwashing“, with everything very much geared to upcycling, recycling and reducing food miles (on site veggies so a lot is food yards rather than miles). In effect, they actually practice what they preach and do something positive rather than just moan and tell us the end is nigh unless the plebs (not the merchants of doom) return to living in mud huts.

With the British weather the eating outside concept (in play at Kindle) can be a challenge. When the sun is out and the wasps aren’t, however, eating outside in the UK can be glorious (rarely gets too hot).  Luckily we picked a doozy of a day for our visit and the wasps obliged by being absence.

The menu on the night (substantially different from that on the website – I can find that a tad annoying, but here seasonality and what is available on the day dictates so it is fair enough) had more of a veggie than meat or fish focus.

Have to say nothing wrong with that as long as said veggies are well sourced and in the right (imaginative) hands

The food

The format is small plates, which often fills me with dread.  My initial reaction to seeing small plates is “Are they going to irritate me and call it tapas?” (regardless of cuisine – thankfully here no) and “Is it going to be a case of a small meal, with a disproportionately large bill?” (a toucan gesture of a meal, if you will). The blurb on the website states that they go for quality rather than quantity and I am fine with that as long as they are true to the promise of a reasonable bit of something really nice as oppose to a lot of something not so nice.

We ordered pretty much everything on the menu and some, with a mix for veggies, meat and fish, because why not.

Whilst waiting  for the rest of our party to be fashionably late, we tucked into some olives (£3.50)

and the sangak flatbread (£4.50)

Very much enjoyed the burnt onion butter with the latter (could have done with a blob more), but would have liked the bread a tad crispier.

A gratis amuse bouche of karaage oyster mushroom was gratifyingly meaty with a good light and crisp crust.

J had eulogised about the Kindle potatoes (£7) and I have to admit I thought she was overegging it a bit.

To me it was a game of two plates. One was fantastic with the crushing of the potatoes giving them a beautifully craggy crispness, as well as that homely baked potato taste. The other plate seem to have missed the crushing stage so was basically a couple of crispy skinned baked potato🤷‍♀️. There was a  punchy aoili with both. First plate great and fully lived up to their star billing from J. Second plate a bit less impressive.

Teriyaki asparagus (£10) had a lovely charred smokiness to them,

that enhanced rather than detracted from the asparagus flavour. A miso infused mayo added a nice umami hit, but I didn’t get the purpose of the BBQ egg. If it had been runny (it wasn’t) I could have dipped the spears into it but without that I didn’t really see the point.

The picture doesn’t do the next dish justice (everyone bar me broke the cardinal rule of tucking in pre photo), which was a quarter of a hispi cabbage (£7.50) when it arrived.

A beautiful smokey flavour imbued the cabbage, with that smokiness amplified by a lovely charry richness from it being doused in smoked ghee. The advertised jalapeno honey was a bit subtle for me, but I really enjoyed this elevation of the humble cabbage.

Again the “wait till” rule was abused with a Jerusalem artichoke dish (£8).

Probably my least favourite dish on the night, with the supposed star attraction  lacking the innate nuttiness I associate with that vegetable and overawed by the  fried onions and onion jam.

A Kindle BLT (£7.50), made up of burnt lettuce, streaky bacon and a tomato sauce divided the table.

I was not a huge fan as I found it an odd concept sans the sarnie.  The centre piece burnt little gem lettuce just didn’t, for me, have the gravitas to carry the dish.

Things got back on track with a rather good carrot dish (£7.50).

Nice char caused caramelisation that added to the natural sweetness of the carrots. The satay style sauce was laced with cashew nuts (hmm not sure re food miles here as most UK ones are imported from Vietnam) and chilli and worked well with the carrot

Huevos rancheros (£8) were a mess, in a good way,

with the smoked goats cheese and the earthy beetroot salsa elevating it over the standard for this dish. Good hit of chilli too.

On to the meat and fish, a fillet of mackerel (£12), such an underrated fish, was nicely cooked with a good blistering to the skin.

The smoke worked well with the oiliness of the fish and the veg (mooli/turnip?) added a good crunch. Whilst nicely flavoured, with Asian spices, the pork and prawn wonton seemed a bit out of place (not great also if sharing this dish). The tare added a nice umami hit to the dish.

A pork chip (£17) was big on size, but a touch lacking in flavour.

For me it was a little overdone and dry  (best bits were had from gnawing on the bone) and in need of more sauce.

The pork ball was very reminiscent of what you get in a Chinese takeaway right up (regrettably) to the sogginess of the batter. Good favour though and I enjoyed the over the flame cooked pak choi.

As the most expensive dish, this disappointed a bit and needs tweaking for me to contemplate ordering it again.

Kindle fried chicken (£11) excelled on the coating, with a nice lightness of touch and good spicing of the delightfully crisp, craggy, coating. 

Good quality thigh meat inside retained a nice juiciness. The burnt cabbage slaw split the table. I enjoyed it, but others felt that the smoked flavour overwhelmed and it wasn’t really a slaw when the veg and mayo are not intergrated  Good punchy aioli which was advertised here (and else where on the menu) as “garlic” aioli (odd as isn’t aioli an emulsion of garlic and oil 🤷‍♀️).

The last savoury dish was a flat iron steak (£13).

Nice dish this, with the beef cooked on point (we weren’t asked how we wanted it) and the mushroom having taken on a pleasing smokiness. Pink pickled onion cut through the richness nicely and dill (which you normally see with seafood) frongs added an interesting aniseed hit that worked surprisingly well.

Puds were ordered, with a banoffee cockie choux bun (£7) first up.

Nice, if oddly lacking in banana and sweetness.

The other dessert (a white chocolate ice cream, with marshmallow and crushed oat biscuit – £8) look far less pretty,

but was more to my liking (especially the charred marshmallow) delivering much more on the flavour front.

The booze

On the booze front, this place seems to go very much down the “natural” wine route. I admit I have expressed reservations regarding such wine in the past and continue to do so.

Firstly, I don’t really know what it means. I am told low intervention, but with no universally accepted agreement as to what that means how low is low.  Also if it doesn’t have to be organic (it doesn’t), what does it have to be to be “natural“? Seems to me that without any set standards there is the real risk of it being the playground of the shysters and the lazy to the detriment of those that are genuinely committed to producing good wine.

I have certainly had some very good wine that have been labelled as “natural” and priced accordingly (usually more than I would have liked to have paid at that quality point if I am honest), but I have had some awful rubbish that is just poorly made wine using the “natural” label to argue it is unique or idiosyncratic (ok we know it tastes bloody odd, but that is a good thing, honest gov, and that will be £50) and to up the price.

An area to tread carefully within, therefore, but here I think the fact that they wholeheartly embrace it means they are and indeed need to be picky about the wines they choose. It would be an odd business model to be so wedded to a style of wine that you serve stuff that the majority of customers will probably hate (even if you yourself are a fan).

The pricing seems a bit haphazard, if I am honest.  The De Alto Campo Flores is £39 on the list and retails at well under a tenner. So a pretty hefty mark up even by inflated UK standards . On the other hand the cheapest white wine (a hefty £36) in the form of the Costador, Presa Romana, retails at over £20 (so a very reasonable mark-up for the UK). Doesn’t make a lot of sense to me that.

We decided on one white and one red, with the white the Costador.

The initial nose was a bit off putting with an element of volatility (vinegariness), but this blew off fairly quickly. Nice touch of salinity and lots of citrus fruit (think preserved lemon) as well as a touch of spice. Good with the veggies and the mackerel.

On to the reds on the list some looked a bit big and bold for our need and I wish there was a gamay on the list. After much deliberation on my part (J was like, just bloody choose one), I decided on the Peira Lavada, Lust for Wine.

This can be found at around £24 retail so  the list price of £45 is a fair mark up by UK standards

This is one of those natural wines that can split opinion.  It was all a bit clunky for me and lacking in integration. Very savoury (almost Marmite on the nose), it was a bit chalky and stalky (characters in my wine based cartoon, the Symingtons 😁) on the palate. I stuck to the white mainly, while J moaned about my choice of red that I wasn’t drinking 🤣

We were much more enamoured with the De Mena Creature (J and I had a glass each – £6.5 per glass £39 a bottle on the list and  it retails at about £15 – £16 mark) which had nice rich juicy cherry fruit and a good freshness to it (in hindsight should have got bottle of that over the Lust for Wine number).

Still not really sold on natural wines, if am honest.

The verdict

When the weather is with you there are few nicer spots for an alfresco meal than Kindle. In the Cardiff City centre it may be, but it is a haven of tranquility.

Good food, interesting booze and a fab setting 

made for a lovely evening.

Oddly, for carnivore me, my favourite dishes were the veggie ones. Not going to convert me, but Kindle has shown me that a meal with a preponderance of veggies and a sprinkling of meat can certainly be no bad thing.

My only real quibble is the wine prices. I know with raging inflation things are all alot pricier than before, but £36 as the cheapest bottle on the list seems to me to be “ambitious“. Think the list needs a couple of quaffers in the £20s.

The details

Address: Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, CF11 9SZ

Website: https://www.kindlecardiff.co.uk/