I have for many years followed Grady Aktins at the various places he has cooked in Cardiff, with Le Gallois (where he cooked) being (along with Le Cassoulet) being my first proper introduction (as a paying adult) to top notch food.

In recent years, he has popped up all over the place with Chez Vous amongst other ventures more recently. His latest iteration is an “at the weekends” residency at Fidos, a resolutely dog friendly cafe in the trendy Cardiff burb of Pontcanna.

The stuff Grady produces is always interesting and I booked without seeing the menu.

The dog friendly cafe by day had been transformed into a cosy bistro affair by night

and the menu looked a rather fine affair.

J did baulk at the sweetbreads and I was curious as to them seemingly not being done in my preferred, crispy exterior and creamy interior, manner.

To make life easy for the waiting staff and because J and I are pigs we just said we would have the lot (which we were advised would arrive in ones or two, an approach we heartily agreed with). J did reiterate her strenuous objections to the sweetbreads by saying “I am not bloody eating the sweetbreads!” My response was ” You gland order what you like” 😀.

First up were some top notch salted Valencian almonds (are there any better snacks to be had with a drink, especially if that drink is fino – I think not) and a duo of peppers. The padrons were pretty mild (after eating about 2 bazillion of these I  have yet to experience a properly hot one – one in twelve, my arse) and, perhaps, could have done with just a tad more blistering. The long ones (which I, thinking would be quite mild guindilla peppers from Pais Vasco, inadvisably ate in one fell swoop) packed a fair bit more of a punch than I expected and had me reaching for the water (J showed true concern at my predicament by laughing).

A lesson learnt in terms of properly reading the menu, as it clearly referred to them as “Hot Wax” (a Hungarian pepper than can go up to 15,000 on the Scoville scale). Whilst this apparently means it is mild to medium at worse heat wise, it felt a lot hotter to me. Just goes to show what a chilli wuss I am!

Nice way to start off the meal, despite my chilli wuss induced splutterings.

A riff on peanut butter on toast arrived at the same time, with the nutty element being supplied by sunflower seeds and the toast subject to a hearty dose of toasty cold pressed sunflower oil. Sunflower oil seems to be looked down on as the uncouth country cousin of the suave and urbane olive oil, but if this stuff is anything to go by it shouldn’t be.

I have fond food memories of these particular seeds as I spend many a happy summer’s days in my youth in a village between Motril and Granada sitting on a shop door step shelling and eating bag loads of these pipas with my friend Inma (whilst she tended, somewhat reluctantly,  her father’s said shop).

The next duo was a goats cheese

and tomato affair,

which we combined to make a sort of ensalada caprase (not a typo, plenty more I am sure, but rather based on “capra” being goat in Italian and that other famous Italian cheese and tomato combo)

The tanginess of the goats cheese was balanced by a judicious application of fragrant honey and the grassy, earthiness of fig leaf oil.

The cured tomatos were busting with flavour (how I remember toms before the watery, tasteless, Dutch shite came to prominence) and were set off nicely by a simple dressing (all you need, along with sea salt,  with good toms) of stellar quality Pegullal olive oil (interestingly from the North West of Spain). Floral, with fresh herbs and a nutty finish, this was a lovely olive oil that set off the toms. beautiful. A splash of 30 year aged balsamic added a fruity tartness and a touch of balancing sweetness. 

A seemingly very simple dish, but fabulous flavours on display here.

The theme of simplicity continued with a plate of charcuterie,

A classy lomo was the star of the show, with a nice seam of creamy fat on display. This prompted a discussion between J and I as to the merits of fatty meat. She can be a bit squeamish about any abundance of it, whereas to me where there is fat there is flavour.

A rather superior take on the humble cauliflower cheese was next up, with the rather more visually arresting purple variety of cauli in play

The roasted cauliflower retained a pleasing level of bite to it and had its trademark nuttiness in abundance. The cheese sauce was the absolute business, being rich, velvety and jammed packed with tangy cheese. This is the sort of stuff I would happily bath in.

The puff pastry manchego pasamontes straws, had a lovely crunch to them and provided a nice textural contrast to the cheese sauce and cauliflower.

Puff pastry again featured in the next dish, which was a positive cornucopia of quality veggies sat on a crostade.

Juicy tomatoes sat on almost meaty, caramelised with a touch of char,  aubergine and aniseedy and slightly sweet confit fennel.

Sort of dish this that I suspect would make many people question why they need to eat meat.

Fish was next up, with a lovely bit of poached hake cooked à point. Pearly white, just past translucent, flaked beautifully with the merest prod of the fork.

Plump mussels added a touch of saline, which was amped up by a seaweed puree topping the fish. Grilled cucumber brought a wiff of summer and smokiness. Really refreshing dish this.

Next up were J’s bête noir, the lamb sweetbreads.

Bountiful portion, with a rich sauce (not as much viscosity as I was expecting, actually not sure what I was expecting with the desciption merely viscous sauce – doesn’t exactly get your drooling that descriptor does it), with red wine (I think) and bacon in the mix as well as a hearty lamb stock (I suspect). I couldn’t really discern the mint jelly if I am honest.

The sweetbreads acted like a flavour sponge, sucking up the well favoured sauce, but I have to admit I was not a huge fan of the texture here (bit mushy/spongy for my tastes). I definitely prefer the  golden crispy exterior, creamy interior, cooking style for these. J was just horrified by the whole thing.

The final course, which we shared, was a cherry clafouti.

I enjoyed this, especially the intense cherry couli and the vanillary tonka bean biscuit. J felt the clafouti was a touch on the over eggy side, I thought it was very nice, but sort of understand where she was coming from.

On the booze front, there was a pretty good selection

including some reasonably priced wine.

We ordered the Picpoul de Pinet (a good all rounder white from the Languedoc-Roussillon DOC that excels with seafood – if you like vinho verde or sauv. blanc you will like this) and the one we got was very pleasant (if not the one on the list).

Very refreshing with good minerality, crunchy green apples and saline notes. Retails at £12.50, so the list price here of £26 is very reasonable by UK standards.

I had messaged ahead as to what the booze offering was and asked if corkage was an option. It was (for a fair price), and I brought a wine from my selection that I thought probably needed drinking up.

Fruit still there (black mainly, with blueberry and blackberry), but starting to fade, with teritary notes of leather, singed meat and a touch of the cigar box. Actually ageing quite well for its 25 years, but the finish was perhaps just a tad short.  Worked well with the charcuterie and the sweetbreads.

The verdict

As ever, with Grady Atkins, a very good and thought provoking (here the sweetbreads’ treatment) meal was had and this pop-up is certainly worth a visit. It is back on the weekend of the 11th August.

There is also this

as part of Curado Bar’s supper club series, looks great, which (very regrettably) I can’t make.

The details

Address: Fidos, 186 – 188 Kings Road, Pontcanna, Cardiff, CF11 9DF.

Book by DM’ing Grady Atkins on Twitter (or whatever it is called now) @GradyAktins or emailing on gradya.ga@gmail.com.

Contact Curado for their supper club event with Grady.