Ground in Pontcanna is in my opinion fertile “ground” for a good feed on many levels, with their breakfast/lunch offering, take away goodies and pop up events like Gorse (returning, it seems, after a brief sojourn at Insole Court).

My latest visit was to the Vines (by Alex Vines) pop up, with a menu of small plates dishes.

As I have previously indicated (Poca post, amongst others), I have mixed feelings about small plates (having had good and bad experiences, with in the latter case me leaving dinner light in both the wallet and stomach fill level). I do think I have now cracked it, however, with a mezze type approach of sharing a set number of plates (for the starter element) and then having one or two (dependent on size) to myself as a main

This formula was applied to this meal and I thought it worked rather well, bar from Mrs. SF accusing me of being greedy with one shared dish.

I am often (rightly) accused of being a glutton, but in this instance I thought it rather unfair.

Anyhow back to the correct order of what we ate, first up was Ground sourdough and Glastonbury butter.

I lived pretty close to Glastonbury (frankly it’s a bit weird – hippy shxt, chakra and healing crystal type of place, although it does have a rather good Persian restaurant) for a fair few years and I don’t recall it being famous for it butter or indeed butter ever being mentioned in the same sentence as the town (or the festival which is on a farm in the village of Pilton, where I wasted most of my teenage years, rather than Glastonbury). The butter was nice enough, but shall we say I don’t regard it as worthy of a PGI or PDO designation (as in, it could have been any old butter).

Bread wise, whilst this was a nice example of the genre, if I am honest I have grown a bit weary of the ubiquitous sourdough (“holey” overdone these day). I like to see a bit more invention/something different with bread in a restaurant (something I can’t get from any home baker worth their salt).

I, for instance, much prefer Gorse’s milk bread and Poca’s focaccia.

It was, however, nice to see four slices for a party of four (always odd and not a little bit irritating to get 3 slices – seemingly the default – when there are 4 of you on the table).

Good, plumb, firm and briney olives followed.

Love a good olive and these were excellent. They had me longing for a glass of fino.

Next up was a dish that had me musing as to the merits of the book “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe” as against the rather schmaltzy film adaptation.

You rarely see fried green tomatoes in the UK (ubiquitous in the deep South of the USA), which is a shame as the sour acidity (contrary to the film’s rather saccharine nature) of the green tomatoes worked very well as against the salty, fried, nicely crisp (and not too thick here) coating.

The preserved lemon mayo added an extra, salty, tanginess to the dish ramping up the flavour profile nicely. Good dish this and again a piece each for the four of us rather than the “Omne trium perfectum“ rule that seem to be de riguer with so many small plates operations.

The sour (which I love) theme continued with the next dish, a sweet and sour leek concoction with chickpeas and raisins.

Nice contrast of soft leeks (very underrated veg, with a mild alium hit) and crunchy chickpeas, with plumped up raisins adding a nice tempering sweetness. Should have kept some of the sourdough to mop up the sauce, but hey-ho.

I love duck in all its forms (don’t care they look sweet, they taste even better) and I immediately honed in on the duck rilletes.

Nice fat to meat ratio here, with  the chilli and mint combo worked really well with the fatty duck.  Shame the brioche toast was a tad singed (adding a somewhat unwelcome bitter note).

The sharing element of the meal, was concluded with a beetroot tonnato.

I really liked the sweet smokiness of the beetroot  as against the salty, sour, capers and the contrast of textures between the crunchy beetroot crisps and capers and the soft boiled egg and yielding beetroot. What I didn’t get was the fish element I was expecting in the billed “tonnato“. If there were anchovies in the mix (I wasn’t expecting tuna, but perhaps anchovy), my jaded palate failed to pick it up in there.

On to what I would call the mains, three of us had the ox cheek and one the chalk stream trout.

Ox cheeks are one of my favourite beef cut (subject to them being subjected to a low and very slow cook time). Tough as old boots (it is a muscle that does a hell of a lot of work, with cows constantly chewing the cud) if not cooked long enough, a slow braise makes for spoon tender meat.

These were excellent, with the connective tissue having rendered down so the meat was fall apart tender, with a rich flavour having absorbed the braising liquor.

Polenta fritters provided a contrasting crunch and pumpkin puree a carbie sweetness. The advertised cavelo nero seemed mostly to be radicchio to me,

but the mild bitterness of the radicchio was a welcome counterpoint to the richness of the beef and the sweetness of the pumpkin puree. Decent portion size for a “small” plate too.

I have previously pondered the explosion of chalk stream trout in UK and the likelihood that (unless every patch of water in the UK has morphed into a chalk stream) we have a manuka honey situation (more labelled as such than the actual supply can provide) developing, but here I am pretty sure it was the real mccoy.

Beautifully cooked crispy skin (properly crisp fish skin is a such an underrated delicacy and here they got it bob on).

The pastel pink flesh, with that trademark minerally, clean, flavour (for chalk stream trout), was cooked on point.

I didn’t try the accompanying green bean concoction or the roasted tomato, but both got the thumbs up from the person who ordered it. Aioli was good and pleasingly didn’t have the pointless garlic foreword (try making it without garlic!).

I passed on pudding, contrary to some small plates experiences I was quite full, but Mrs. SF very much enjoyed her apple, walnut and whisky tart

Very light and well flavoured, with a good pastry base, were her comments.

Post the meal, I saw a picture of the potato and Alpen cheddar pie (an actual proper pie, which are rarely seen in the wild these days having “red and grey squirrel- esque” been usurped by the invasive casserole with a lid) on the menu and instantly regretted not ordering it!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CxxieB0IKTt/?igshid=MWZjMTM2ODFkZg==

Looked so good.

On the booze front, they provided me up front with a list, which looked quite interesting,

but as I have said before I have more wine than I know what to do with and seriously need to start denuded my cellar to make way for new purchases. I, therefore, enquired as to corkage and they came back with a very reasonable £15 a bottle price based on me bringing two. I also said I would buy a white off the list.

The white we bought off the list, from Sicilly, was very pleasant.

Fragrant, with white flowers floral notes and a touch of spice, on the nose. On the palate, it was very refreshing with grapefruit and green apples. Retails at around £10.50, so the list price here of £27 is not bad at all by UK standards.

I brought two aged rioja from my cellar.

Both seemed OK when coravin’d (I tend to check older bottles, using this device, is see if they are ok) and decanted, but the Remelluri Colección Jamie Rodriquez 2002 (not a great vintage) was definitely passed its prime with little fruit and lacking much in the way of teritary flavours to make up for it (touch oxidised too, I would say). Drink up if you have this (may be too late, I fear).

The Ysios Reserva 2004 (which we bought direct from the winery back in 2013 and is a very good vintage), on the other hand, was still very much in its prime. Lush and full bodied, with rich dark fruit, chocolate, mocha and leather. Great with the ox cheek.

The verdict

Very enjoyable meal, I thought, with a good mix of the traditional and the inventive. Favourite dishes were the fried green tomatoes and the ox cheek.

Think it came to £156 sans a well deserved tip (service was excellent), based on one bottle bought off the list and 2 paid via corkage. I thought for 4 with booze this was very good value.

Will be interesting to see where Vines pop up next, as it is well worth a visit in my humble opinion.

Have added Alex Vines to the list of chefs I would very much like to see open up their own permanent base (no easy feat these days), along with the likes of Tom Waters of Gorse and Shane Davies – Nilsson of Nordic Kitchen.

The details

Website : https://vinescardiff.co.uk/

Social media: Instagram @a.vines