I live very close to Insole Court (a lovely Victorian mansion house and grounds in Llandaf, which is great for walking the dog or just blowing away the cobwebs/getting away from the home office).

and within the grounds is a rather nice cafe in the form of the Potting Shed.

I have often said to Mrs. SF “You know what, they should do pop ups in the evening there. Would be a great use of the space when it is empty in the evenings. ”

Great minds obviously think alike as I then heard that Gorse (whose food I highly rated when there were at Ground in Pontcanna) were taking up a summer residency there. Top quality food within spitting, let alone staggering distance, of my house is the stuff of dreams and a booking was made tout suite. As Mrs. SF was otherwise engaged (doggy business), J stepped into the breach.

A fine looking menu suggested a very good meal was going to be had

with J breathing a sigh of relief that my request for an extra course of sweetbreads was turned down.

Very reasonably priced, particularly as I had negotiated corkage in order to bring my own wines (really have to start drinking the stuff quicker than I buy it otherwise Mrs.  SF and I are going to drown in bottles – we are currently approaching 500), I thought.

People often complain that food is too pricey these days, but with lobster and top end beef on the menu here this looked to offer a pretty exceptional bang for your buck to me.

First up was a really refreshing consommé type affair, billed as a summer vegetable tonic

Spiked with fig leaf oil, made using leaves from a tree in Llandaf North of all places (I mean it is hardly fig tree central is it), it had a nice earthiness to it as well as the vibrancy of the summer veg. 

A virtuous yet delicious (a rather rare combo) start to the meal

Next up was a coddled egg, which seems to be a way with eggs that has gone somewhat out of fashion (although the dreadfully named Eggslut has revived it somewhat) as against the ubiquitous poached egg (I blame the brunchies).

The yolk was cooked on point, with lovely runny gooeyness with just the right level of viscosity. 

A laverbread puree, providing a rich yet not overpowering saline hit, seasoned the yolk nicely. The cultured cream topping brought welcome tanginess and crisp croutons added texture to the party.  Really good dish this, elevating the humble egg to new heights.

The one dish that has been ever present on the Gorse menu has been their milk bread and for good reason.

This truly is bread of Heaven, with a heavily salted golden crust and a lovely warm pillowy softness to the interior. This is the sort of bread you could take to bed.

The sarawak pepper infused butter melted into the warm bread, providing a surprising fruity (citrus) hit.

Bread and butter may be the epitome of simplicity, peasant food to sustain the masses if you will, but when it is this good it is just joyous to eat (and cake be damned). Getting one each was generosity personified.

Chalk stream trout seems to be a very on trend ingredient at the moment with it appearing everywhere with more than a hint of the Manuka Scandal to it (I mean how many chalk streams are there really in the UK and are they all absolutely stuffed to the gills – excuse the pun- with trout?). The trout used here, I am sure, is the real mccoy and certainly was a quality bit of fish cooked à point.

Lovely flake to it, with a just cooked interior and a great clean flavour

The skin has been crisped up nicely (as with chicken, fish skin done properly is a rare treat), providing a pleasing textural contrast to the trout. Pearls of roe, adding bursts of salinity, operated to season the fish.

The trout sat on a sauce of roasted tomato and kelp, which had a real intensity of flavour without overpowering the trout. The tomatoes were sweet and rich, with plenty of acidity, whilst the kelp added a touch of umami.

Tricky balancing act this, with the risk being that the sauce overwhelms the clean, quite delicate, flavour of the fish. The chef nailed it in my view.

Cardiff has its fair share of potato dishes that people wax lyrically about. Some I get the hype over (Thomas Simmons’ chips, the Heathcock’s confit potatoes and Heaneys’ potato terrine), others not so much (Nook’s hasslebacks and Kindle’s baked potatoes – heresy I know, but 🤷). One to add to those I get are Gorse’s earlies.

The Pembrokeshire earlies here had their signature creamy texture and nutty flavour and were taken to the next level by the accompanying elements.

The pots sat on a umami rich bed of pureed preserved mushroom and were covered in a positive drift of caws cerwyn cheese. The latter operated to amp up the innate nuttiness of the pots. Really good dish this and one the veggies can eat (no animal rennet in the cheese).

A touch of luxury next, with a substantial portion of lobster (tail and claw).

Cooked beautifully, the lobster had a lovely sweetness to it. A shellfish bisque added coastal pungency to the mix and a rather interesting green elderberry sauce brought earthy tartness to the party.

The elderberry provided a nice contrast to the sweetness of the lobster and richness of the bisque, with nasturtium leaves added a peppery hit as the cherry on the cake.

Really clever stuff this and a very decent portion of a high end ingredient for a tasting menu (at the £70 price point).

Longhorn beef had a great flavour to it, but was slightly marred by it being a tad on the chewy side. Looking at it, it appeared to have been cut “with” rather than “against” the grain which would perhaps explain the chew.

Good intense jus with it and a lovely smoked onion cream added a nice subtle alium touch. Mustard leaves from the chef’s garden had a lovely peppery sour intensity to them – we should eat more of these (I shall definitely be hunting these out).

The star of the beef show was braised beef inside an onion scale

Full on flavour, which really showcased the quality of the beef here.

Shame about the tad toughness of the beef, as it somewhat detracted from the meat that had a really good depth of flavour to it.

Next up was a pre – dessert of strawberries stuffed with preserved gooseberries.

My preferred way of serving strawberries is with cracked black pepper, with the heat of the pepper balancing out the sweetness of properly ripe strawberries. Here, the counterbalance to the sweet and fragrant strawberries was the tartness of a gooseberry fool type affair that filled the cored out fruit.

Gooseberries seem to have disappeared from the consciousness of us Brit (replaced by fruits from more exotic climes) which is a shame. When I was a child, back in the 1870s, I would gorge on gooseberries at the “pick your own” farms my parents use to take me to and this fruit is well deserving of a comeback in my opinion.

Dessert at my last meal at Gorse had been a rather disappointing affair as against the fabulousness of the rest of the dinner (a palate wash awayer rather than cleanser). Thankfully, here, the main dessert was absolutely bob on.

The milk pudding had a lovely wobble to it,

with the Pendreyn oloroso (oloroso is my favourite style of sherry) caramel sauce (under it) being absolutely dynamite stuff. I am not a whisky drinker (hard liquor just doesn’t tend to agree with me), but I adore the smell of it. Here the harshness of the achohol was mellowed out by the booze having been burnt off, leaving lovely notes of creamy vanilla, barley sugar, sultanus, peach and a hint of spikey pepper. Just lovely when mixed on the spoon with the refreshing lightness of milk pudding.

The chef came out (knowing we were not fans of the dessert last time) to see if this one faired any better. We gave it a resounding thumb up. If I eat a better dessert this year I will be very happy indeed.

Proceeding, food wise, were finished off with a couple of classy petit fours

Nice zingy pineapple weed (new one on me) jellies, with a flavour reminiscent of (you guessed it) pineapple and a touch of chamomile, and some lovely lemon thyme cakes with wild cherry jam and coriander seeds. The latter had a nice crisp exterior, a chewy interior and tart jam, with the coriander seeds adding citrus and Indian aromats.

Fine end to a very fine meal.

On the booze front, there was a pretty decent pairing flight on offer

witth some good match ups.

There was also a decent selection by the glass and bottle,

with (always nice to see) Welsh and English wines on offer.

Mark ups were very fair, with the Lyme Bay bacchus on the list at £32 (retails at £18) and the Eschol Red Blend on the list at £45 (retails at £28).

With an overflowing cellar, we (well I, as J just goes with the flow wine wise) opted for corkage (£25 first bottle and £15 for each there after).

A classy saffer riesling worked very well with much of the menu,

with a lovely limey nose (a whiff of petroleum too and ginger) and a good slake of refreshing acidity (grapefruit, kaffir lime and a touch of quince) on the palate. Glorious with the lobster.

Red wise, I bought a garagiste wine from Penedes (only 5500 bottle produced of which I managed to get hold of 12 a while back) which is a blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cariñena.

Lovey wine this, that belied it age (the 1999 vintage – so 24 years old – which was the producer’s first and very well received).

Nose was big on blackcurrant, with a pleasing touch of rose petal. Nice tertiary notes of singed meat, smoke and cigar box, as well as spice (star anise).

Suprisingly there is still plenty in the tank here (happily I still have some left).

Service throughout the meal was excellent and well deserving of the tip we gave (often forgotten or underestimated when payment is made in advance). The front of house element of a meal is often taken for granted, but service (good) often makes or (bad) breaks a meal. Front of house’s role in making for a pleasant meal is all too often unfairly overlooked, with the banal “On arrival we were taken to our table” (I mean what did you expect them to do, take you to the toilet, shopping next door or give you a tour of the Taj Mahal?), but without it a meal can seriously suck (no matter how good the food). I still rage over a meal in Paris at a 2 star establishment where the maitre’d was a total arsehole.

Here they got it just right, being there when needed and not when not.

The verdict

Fantastic meal this and an absolute bargain at £70 a head. Personally think Tom Waters is one of the brightest stars of the Cardiff food scene and the sooner he gets a permanent gaff the better. Quick chat post meal revealed he is currently looking for a full time base of operations, with a possibility in the Cynoed area of Cardiff it seems. You lucky buggers if that is case. So wish it was Llandaf.

Going by the website, there is still some availability for this run (2nd, 15th and 16th September – new dates added due to popular demand) at Insole Court.

My advice is book this now before it is too late. Seriously missing out if you don’t.

Have to say the Potting Shed is a lovely little venue for this sort of event. More pop ups here please!

The details

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