The blog is really more a diary for me in terms of eating and drinking (and increasingly a way to keep the noggin active, as I continue to wind down work wise) and as such I am rarely the first (by some distance) to visit a place. I also don’t mind revisting and rebogging about old favourites. It is great to try new places, but there are always those tried and trusted venues where you know you will always get a good meal.

One such venue is the Heathcock in Llandaff, Cardiff which is an easy walk from my gaff.

On top of their rather fine al a carte, set lunch,  bar snack and champagne and oyster bar offerings, they do seasonal focussed tasting menu events and the Autumn one this year looked a rather fine way to cheer in the season of soaring heating bills (I am still steadfast in my resolve to keep the heating off until at least the start of November)

Any menu that includes oysters, brill and venison (why we don’t see more of this highly sustainable meat on menus remains  a mystery to me)

piques my interest and a table (J standing in for Mrs. SF, who baulked at the Jerusalem artichoke on the menu) was duly booked.

I have always loved the Heathcock’s ethos of homegrown or as local as possible. Wales has such stellar ingredients and this menu followed that ethos in spades.  I do sometimes think that a lot of people really don’t appreciate how good the produce here in Wales are. The people at the Heathcock are clearly not those people.

The price of £55 for the food and £20 extra for the 5 glass wine pairing seemed on the face of it quite the bargain. We were asked if we wanted the wine pairing and gleefully accepted (I mean five glasses for 20 quid 🥳).

Proceeding were kicked off by a glass of fizz (prosecco with a rhubarb and vanilla syrup – I think –  added to the mix).

Not my thing really, but I’m sure lots of people love this sort of stuff.  I defaulted to an “off menu” glass of grillo (a Sicillian wine, that is much more my thing).

Food wise, you can always rely on the Heathcock to deliver top-notch snacks and the ones for this evening were in line with my high expectations.

Cure seabass, with the curing firming up the texture for the squeamish, worked really well with orange, chilli and the anis hit of frongs of dill. Mushroom arancini had a light crisp shell and a deep earthiness to their rice interior, whilst lightly (tempora) battered celeriac provided a “actually this veggie stuff aren’t half bad” moment, with a lovely nuttiness and just a touch of sweetness.

The undoubted star of the snack show was a venison tartare on a rye cracker

Nice texture to the raw meat, which had been subjected to (my preferred) rustic dice rather than chopped too finely.  I love the contrast in a tartare of the richness of the meat as against the sharp acidic crunch of cornichons and raw shallots. My only qualm with these was there was only one each.

I have mixed feelings about bread being advertised as a course on a tasting menu, I mean is it really?

The focaccia here is, however, a formidable bit of baking

and up there with the Gorse milk bread in my top tier of Cardiff breads. Properly salty butter melting into the warm “just out the oven” bread was a lovely thing.

Next up were a “very de riguer in Cardiff these days” (no bad thing) duo of oysters

These apple and tarragon, with red wine vinegar, ones are, I think, my favourite topping iteration and provided a very pleasing acidic perkiness as against the meaty bivalves and briney liquor.

These were paired with a pleasant muscadet. Gone, thankfully, are the days of battery acid muscadet, with this number  offering fresh green apples and a touch of creaminess (from being on the lees). Good pairing with the oysters, I thought.

J and I disagreed a tad on the merits of the next dish

She thought the pasta was a touch thick and the squash a little sweet. I disagreed, with the pasta operating as a nice silky purse for the homemade ricotta, the (homegrown) squash not overly sweet to my palate and in a beautifully smooth puree’d form. A sort of granola topping provided a welcome crunch and a herb oil’s fresh zinginess cut the sweet nicely.

This course was paired with a chardonnay from the Côte du Thongue (Languedoc-Roussillon). Nice crisp refreshing wine, with no oak, and lots of citrus flavour. I actually think a touch of oak influence in the wine would have worked well with this dish.

J and I again somewhat disagreed as to the merits of the next dish. To me all the components were good, but one element rather dominated and one (to my surprise) rather faded into obscurity

The brill rather lived up to its name with “Rylan’s teeth” dazzling white flesh, cooked just past opaque. Perhaps a little bit of browning in the pan to the exterior would have amped up the flavour a bit more, but all in an enjoyable bit of fish. Slithers of home cured pork added nicely to the mix, as did the crisp raw apple slices and a medley of Jerusalem artichoke (Mrs. SF’s bête noir).

Personally I would have left it at that as the truffle slices were a bit nondescript, lacking that trademark pungent earthiness, and the green herbal splog underneath all of it provided a very pungent anis smack in the chops which when eaten with the other elements rather dominated. A case of less is more here, I thought (J disagreed with me on the anis, but aligned with my disappointment in terms of the truffle).

The wine pairing here was a Sancerre (Loire Sauv  Blanc).  Nice citrus and apple note, with a touch of gooseberry on the side. I think I would have been tempted to  put a petrolly Alsace or Mosel riesling in here (doesn’t see enough riesling these days and it was every thus) to cope with the more robust flavour elements.

The meat course was a tableaux of Autumn and a belter of a dish.

Beautifully cooked venison had an “á point” ruby red core and a subtle gaminess. A rich, glossy, jus was very much the right side of sweet (being caught before it over reduced) and worked well with the fig (fruit and game is always a fine combo). A mushroom puree had that robust earthiness I was expecting from the truffle in the last dish and a lovely silky texture. I was worried that the parsnip puree would take it all past the sweetness tipping point, but it worked well especially with the salty shards of bacon and the umami hit from the dusting of cep (?) powder.  Lovely dish this.

The wine pairing here was a Burgundian pinot noir (a classic pairing with venison, which doesn’t like too much tannin) from Domaine Gruhier. Plenty of red fruit, but quite light bodied, with a refreshing acidity.  It worked well with this dish.

Pud. was a rather fine salted caramel tart 

Good thin and crisp pastry and a pleasing  wobble to the salted caramel, with the salt acting as an able adjunct on the taste buds  to the sweet caramel.  All nicely topped off by a very citrussy quenelle of chantilly cream.

Wines wise, this came with an apricot rich sauterne. I sipped it, musing as to how J and I are still friends as she asked to swap her glass of it for a glass of merlot (my wine work is far from done with that one)🙄.

The final part of the meal was a generous selection of petite fours.

Star of the PF show were (to me) the sugared jellies, which had a tongue tinkering zinginess to them. Luckily, as J has a jelly phobia (the wierdo), I got both of them.

The verdict

An excellent meal and really good value for money (I mean 5 glasses of decent wine for a mere £20 extra is never to be sniffed at) made for a very fine evening.

The Heathcock continues to do really good things, with a heady mix of very superior bar snacks and more formal lunch and dinner dishes, as well as these seasonal eveningsl. Decent wine offering too.

In these trying times, it was good to see it so busy on the night.  A case of if you put out good food, at fair prices, then people will come.

I noticed and rather like the sounds of their monthly board game evenings, with 2 bar snack (actually quite substantial) and a carafe of wine for £24.

Long may it continue to be an old favourite.

Will be keeping an eye out from the next one – with the Autumn taster done “Winter is coming“.

Details

Address: 58 – 60 Bridge Street, Llandaff, Cardiff, CF5 2EN.

Website: https://heathcockcardiff.com/#food