Yes this is another Hiraeth post, but they have a new breakfast service and have changed a few things, so I think it is fair enough to post about them (again).

One (actually the only one I made) of my New Year resolutions that I have to date kept (and intend to keep going forward) is going to Hiraeth as often as possible (I have set a target of at least 12 visits in 2025, so in effect one a month or more).  So far, I have kept my resolution (with me appearing to now have my own table in the corner by the window) and a double header in April bought another tasting menu evening visit

and a try of their new breakfast (some would call it brunch – I don’t and won’t) offering.

For breakfast the price tag is a not inconsiderable £30, although you get a triple header here and you can always guarantee a quality product from the Hiraeth boys. Notwithstanding that, a £30  brekkie has to be pretty darn good, with a full English £24.50 at the fancy pants (so Rachel tells me) Wolseley (add a coffee and you are over the £30 there).

As such Mrs. SF and I went with high expectations,with them not having missed a step in pretty much all of our previous visits.

If anything Mrs. SF is even more enamoured with the place than me, which is saying something,  and one of the 50 quadrillion ways I manage to annoy her is mispronouncing the name (once a mispronouncation/misspelling of a word gets into my dyspraxic brain it is set for life as that, for example a “satsuma” will alway be a “sapsuma” as far as my brain is concerned), which is unfortunate as we go their quite alot.

Back to the food, first up was chicken and waffles, bathed in a miso and maple syrup.

The waffle was a rather lovely thing with a slightly crisp exterior (despite the weight of chicken on it) and a soft, fluffy, interior.

A dousing of maple syrup (imbued with salty, umami rich, miso) added both sweet and savoury to the mix.

The chicken itself was my preferred thigh and had a good flavour with a nice spicing to the coating. If I was being uber critical I would have preferred a touch more crunch to the coating, but it was regardless a rather fine start to the proceedings.

The fry up (here in Wales it is a criminal offence to call it a full English) was a thing of beauty, with everything that should be on the plate.

The sausage was of excellence quality, with a nice caramelised skin and a meaty interior. A slab of brown sugar bacon had been slow cooked to an engaging tenderness and had the ying and yang of sweet and salt. Flabby, watery, fat is the bane of many a slice of bacon, but here it had been rendered down to a pleasing creaminess. A touch more of a crisping up on the exterior, perhaps, could have made this bacon even better?

The slab of black pudding was nicely crisped up on the outside, with a lovely iron richness to it,

and was excellent dunked in the properly runny egg (a bit of “con puntilla” wouldn’t have gone amiss).

The egg sat on a chunk of toasted sourdough, which didn’t have the excessive piety (holiness) or chewiness which I tend to dislike in sourdough.

The hash brown/rosti was a craggy  boulder of a beast,

with a crisp shard riven exterior and a soft threaded interior.

Oyster mushrooms had been cooked off sufficiently to avoid the watery sliminess all too often present in breakfast mushrooms and had a good earthy flavour.

The final element on the plate was a tomato that was slow roasted for a whopping 24 hours, which resulted in a real amping up of its innate sweetness without losing the balancing acidity.

Proper baked beans were served (as they should be) separately (to be shared), so as not to contaminate the plate, with a nicely browned cheesy topping

and (thankfully) lacked the overt sweetness that is the downfall of many a commercial baked bean. I quite liked them, but am not sure they were an entirely necessary addition (they were almost enough of a breakkie dish on their own).

Brown (if you are sensible) and red (if you are a deranged lunatic) sauce was provided on request. I rather liked the retro “Wimpy” sauce bottles (not sure the Tyre people will love these mind).

All in all a really good fry up, I thought, and I was stuffed on finishing it.

Despite the mountain of food already consumed, there was more to come.

The last course was a delightful chocolate and hazelnut canoli.

A crisp pastry case was filled with a light as a feather chocolate and hazelnut  mousse and book ended with nubbins of crunchy hazelnut.

After the first two jumbo courses, I feared the canoli might “wafer thin mint” me. It’s lightness, however, meant it went down a treat.

Coffee is included,with a small cafeteria each which gives you about a cup and a half per person.

Good coffee this, althought I would have preferred warm rather than cold milk and I am not sure if refills are included (we didn’t ask, but think for the price they probably should be).

We didn’t ask for a coffee refill as we decided to be daring and go for a morning cocktail, but if we hadn’t I would have needed another cafeteria to wash down the copious amounts of food.

Now people will know I am not really a cocktail person (when I use to work for a big law firm we use to inexplicably end up at the Alchemist, which I absolutely loathed, for seemingly every works do with it taking about 7 hours to get a drink after multiple people in the group  invariably ordering something entailing a bunsen burner and distilled Vaquita whey, for £850, with the latter environmental apocalypse more than made up for by serving it with a paper straw), but I am partial to a bloody Mary as a morning stiffener.

Good one this (£12) with a good spicy kick to it and the booze there but very much in the back seat rather than driving the show.

On the subject of paper straws, I do think with all the brilliant minds in the world society should really be able to come up with a viable alternative to these bloody useless things. I know it’s all supposedly better for the environment than the “Devil incarnate” plastic ones, but I am not sure chopping down a bazillion trees for such a  “worthwhile cause” as useless paper straws is really that good of a thing.  Here, after it collapsed in on itself about a picosecond from immersion in the liquid, I gave up and resorted to just drinking directly from the glass (I mean isn’t the answer to the plastic/paper straw dilemma to simply endue the “hardship” of sipping it from the glass directly – taking away the little umbrella would, of course, be a radical step too far).

Other cocktails are available,

although I personally think anyone who orders an old fashioned or a martini (albeit brekkie orientated derivations) for breakfast probably has milk vodka with their bowl of cornflakes (and then neglects to put the cornflakes in the bowl). Each to their own, I suppose.

The verdict

This is a really, really big breakfast, with both Mrs. SF and I skipping lunch and dinner that day.

It ain’t cheap but you do get a lot for your moolah and the price certainly doesn’t seemed to have put people off as it was rammed on our visit (second weekend of it being on, with the first week being similarly popular and fully booked).

What you get is a bountiful breakfast bonanza chock-a-block full of quality ingredients, which I thing is worth the money.

Also, if you got this quantity and quality of food for lunch or dinner most people would think it a absolute bargain.

On the size front, much as I am an unadulterated pig I can see the sheer quantity of food would defeat some (table next to us had their canoli boxed up to take away). Offering the chicken and waffle as either an optional extra or a dish in its own right (ditto the beans) could be a viable option I think.

In other Hiraeth news,  they have tweaked the offering further with small plates in place (as I understand it) of what was the smaller (cheaper) tasting menu

Sure these will be great and it will be a good option to pop in for one or two of these with a glass or three of wine, with all their wines gratifyingly offered by the glass, all reataurants ahould do that, but I will rather miss the shorter tasting menu (I always thought it was great value and a good option size wise for a leisurely lunch).

The details

Address: 587 Cowbridge Road East, Cardiff, CF5 1BE.

Website: https://www.hiraethkitchen.com/general-8

The breakfast/brunch offering is available on Saturdays (bookings between 10.00 and 11.00).