My New Year’s resolution last year was to be more succinct in my posts on the blog, and I think it is fair to say I failed abysmally in that aim. In a belated attempted to rectify this, I have tried to be just a tad more succinct than usual with this post (Editor: He has failed).

Well it certainly doesn’t get any easier for hospitality does it, with the year starting with sky high inflation and energy bills and ending with the propect of even higher costs next year based on the NI hit job in the budget, ever increasing energy bills and the spector of stagflation. I really feel for hospitality, which seemingly just can’t catch a break from our increasingly puritanical/killjoy lords and masters.

I will repeat my naysayer/doommongering annual prediction of an industry on the edge of wholesale destruction, with each year the resilience of the industry proving me wrong. We shall see, but this time the position feels even more precarious and I fear the worst if I am honest. Wondering who will be left standing by the end of 2025 is a depressing line of thought!!

Anyway, on a lighter note, after having stuffed your collective faces with turkey et al (out of interest does anyone actually like Christmas cake, Christmas pudding and the absolutely vile brandy butter?), I thought you would all (well my Mum) like to know what I most enjoyed eating (may do one for 2024 wines at some point, but probably not as you lot do “love” a wine post don’t you) last year (categorised, as I am OCD like that).

Best snack /amuse bouche

I rather like the in vogue offering with lunch and dinner of (pre the main menu items) snacks (even with set lunch menus) and I include in this category pintxos (mainly because I need to, as you will see, and they are in theory a prelude to lunch or dinner).

Strong field in this class, with the top notch offerings from Heaney’s, Gorse and Hiraeth

being very much in the mix

The winner, however, was from a return trip (after too long) to Donostia-San Sebastian with a stellar foie gras and white bean pintxos number from Casa Urola in the Old Town.

Lovely caramelisation to the outside and custardy interior to the foie, in a rich broth that had flavour by the spade full. A surfeit of yielding beans, with just a tiny bit of bite to them, had absorbed the broth to become little flavour bombs. Just delightful and about as classy a bar snack as you can possibly get. Absolute steal at €6.50 (£5.38)

Whilst Donostia-San Sebastian is no longer quite as breathtaking food wise as it once was (others have caught up and in some cases overtaken it), I feel this dish proved it is still a joyous place to spend a few days stuffing your face.

Best starter

With menus seemingly increasingly geared towards tasters and multi mini course meals, the title is perhaps a little misleading. For want of a better descriptor for courses post the initial snack, however, I have settled on “starter” and again some class in this field from the likes of Gorse and Heaney’s in Cardiff and Zazpi in Donostia-San Sebastian,

but a seemingly rather innocuous sounding cheese soup from Hiraeth came out on top as part of a really excellent event they put on for the annual Mystere Wine Club dinner.

Made with a rich chicken stock, with  caramelised onion, double cream, gruyère and Old Winchester added to this and a shokupan on the side, it had the whole room captivated and all vocal in their praise along the lines of “Wow, this is bloody amazing“. Soup as an art form this, with it being a cup of proper loveliness. It kind of exemplifies the ethos of Hiraeth, where everything is rather lovingly understated.

Best veggie dish

I am often dismissive of veggie dishes, hating the faux meat “chickun” bollocks that they constantly try and foist upon us. When, however, I get a proper veggie dish it can be the highlight of the meal. 

I think a veggie course can really show a chef’s true talent, with the ability to make the mundane into something marvellous.

A case in point was a courgette number at Heaneys.

The courgette they delivered up was an altogether different beast to the oft washout and watery bag of insipid nothinginess, with a pleasing sweetness of flavour and crunch of texture. Smoked ricotta bought delicate woody smokiness with a touch of salty piquancy to the party and it all sat in a gossimer thin pastry case. A whey sauce, split with herb oil, brought a tart creaminess and refreshing herbatiousness to the party.

This was just the sort of veggie dish I would happily have in place of meat or fish and being as far as is possible from the highly processed crap they seem intent on peddling as “plant based“, with the plant probably a bio reactor.

Best fish dish

Very strong field again, with perennial favourites Heaney and Hiraeth all featuring in my deliberation with some stellar fish dishes.

A monkfish (such an easy fish to f’ff up) dish from Gorse, however, netted top spot.

Lovely cook on the fish here, with a pleasing external char adding nicely to this fish’s innately meatiness. The hen of the wood mushroom was the perfect adjunct, with its meaty texture and nutty taste working really well with the fish. 

An onion bearnaise brought buttery richness and a touch of alium acidity to the party.  A seemingly simple dish, which just dazzled.

Beat meat dish

In theory, the meat course was the centre piece of any meal in days gone bye. With the advent of taster menus this is less the case, but the carnivore in me always looks forward to a bit of meat.

Pais Basco (Bilbao and Donostia) provided plenty of top quality beef and pork (both cooked pleasingly rare on all occasions),

whilst a rabbit and smoked eel dish from Hiraeth and a beef stew from Casanova both wowed in very different (but good) ways (one a complex blend of ingredients,  the other much more simple).

The winner was again from Gorse, with a perfectly cooked piece of fallow deer and a game changer elderberry sauce to go with it.

Lovely flavour to the meat, with bob on cooking and seasoning and the elderberry brought a delightful fruity, slightly tart, earthiness to the dish.  A perfect pairing to the venison. A beautifully smooth celeriac puree put the tin hat on this winner.

Best pudding

I am not a great pudding eater, preferring savoury nine times out of ten. A couple of puds did, however, stand out this year’s

Hearneys’ take on an apple crumble,

with a fantastic ginger beer ice-cream was just pipped at the post by a superlative lemon solera tequila by Hiraeth.

Really zingy sour citrus flavours, melded seemlessly with the spicy, sweet, fruitiness of the tequila.

A sweet and sour sensation.

Worse dish

For every winner there has to be a loser and in terms of this “booby prize” category, the easy winner with a really odd (verging on the really unpleasant) dish as part of a wider (otherwise quite good) taster menu at Zazpi in Donostia-San Sebastian.

The slathering of an obscene amount of squid ink onto an oyster killed stone dead any other flavours and eating it was like being water boarded with iodine. At best an very ill conceived dish, at worse I can only imagine the kitchen was taking bets as to who would manage to eat it.

My favourite place of 2024

I have always had a lot of time for the food from the chaps behind Hiraeth and was delighted when they opened up down the road from me in Victoria Park. That delight grew with each visit, with them consistently knocking it out of the park delivering creative and above all tasty food at very fair prices.

A compelling offering all around and a must visit if you haven’t been.

Verdict

In a year where I stayed closer to home than usual and thus ate out more in Cardiff than previous, contrary to the Tyre people’s seeming blind spot for the place, I was fed very well.

To my mind Cardiff now has a plethora of really good restaurants like Hiraeth Heaney’s, Gorse, Thomas by Tom Simmons, Casanova, Asador 44 and Gorse.

To add to that we have some great bars (Bar 44 and Curado being my go to places) and a myriad of good places for a quicker, cheaper bite to eat.

With next year likely to be a challenging one for many in hospitality, we can only continue to support our favourites and hope they manage to weather the coming storm. 

On a lighter note, I am already booked into Hiraeth for their rather cheeky Sixbyhiraeth January offer.

I would even be tempted by the veggie option!

A steal at £40, with a really rather interesting wine pairing for an extra £40 also pretty darn good value.

I will also (hopefully) be visiting Ember in January, which promises much from two chefs I have always highly rated. Will also hopefully (eventually) get to Cor in Bristol, about which I have only heard good things from people whose food opinions I tend to trust.

Grady Atkins at Insole Court is also one to watch.

To conclude, thanks to all those who have read the blog during the last 12 months (amazingly people from over 120 countries around the world have, with it even getting a bit of traction in sub saharan Africa –  North Korea remains stubbornly elusive and I simply can’t think why!) and most of all thanks to the hard working people (in the kitchens and front of house) in the restaurants and bars who have fed and watered me this year.

Details

Casa Urola,  Fermin Calbeton 20
20003 Donostia – San Sebastian, Spain

Heaneys, 6-10 Romily Crescent, Pintcanna, Cardiff, CF11 9NR

Hiraeth, Cowbridge Road East, Cardiff, CF

Gorse, 186- 188 King s Road, Pontcanna Cardif, CF11 9DF