Mrs. SF is a bit of a gardener and I most certainly am not. She has done a marvellous job with our garden, with no help whatsoever from me  She lovely tends roses, whereas I tend to love certain rosès (the Vina Tondonia Rosada in particular).

If there is an afterlife and I am lucky enough to escape the firey pit, I anticipate a rather long stint in purgatory where a suitable punishment (as I spend eons atoning from my sins) will be being required to wander the aisles of an infinite garden centre with someone (unable to make their mind up) pottering around infront of me and constantly turning to me to ask  “Do you like this?” What do you think of this?” (a plant that looks like the previous 50 million already suggested) to which my exterior facade nods sagely with me saying  “Yes, it is [once again] lovely” (whilst screaming inside “Don’t care, don’t care! I wonder if they have a deli/farm shop?” (Editor’s note : there will be no deli/ farm shop).

The segue here to the Potting Shed cafe (in the rather grand Insole Court estate in Llandaff) is not only its name, but also (seemingly much more so since Grady Atkins has taken the reins food wise – makes for a lovely place for a wedding breakfast/other catered event I bet) their use (where the seasons permit) of veggies grown in the onsite community gardens.

In terms of said veg., a board helpfully tells you what they are getting from the onsite garden(er),

The cafe is right next to the gardens, with vegetables, herbs and edible flowers (I presume this changes as the seasons ebb and flow),

so you can’t get fresher and more local than that can you (I also believe the bread – certainly the sourdough – is baked in-house). I mean, if you are into such things, you are talking food feet rather than food miles.

The menu is short, but has a nice balance to it ,

and there were a couple of specials on on the day of our visit.

It is a busy little place and when the sun is out the outside areas are very pleasant.

I love a good Caesar salad (loath a poor one) and was immediately drawn to the one here (£7.50 – with cured white anchovies in the mix on top of those in the dressing).

Lovely looking dish this,

with nicely crisp lettuce (limp dick lettuce is a crime against humanity), a shoal of fat vinegar cured white anchovies, robustly sized crisp croutons and a blizzard of grated parmesan. The star of the show (as it should be with this dish) was the Caesar dressing. Rich and creamy, with a lovely balancing spike of acidity and a good hit of salty umami. I liked that an even hand had  been used in the application of the dressing, such that the salad leaves were lightly coated rather than drowning in the stuff.

Mrs. SF went for one of the specials, in the form of the Insole Garden’s veg frittata (£5.95)

Again, it was a fine looking thing and a good size portion to boot.

The lovely, almost caramelised, crust was liberally covered with grated parmesan

and gave way to an airy eggy interior flecked with garden veg and herbs.

Really good frittata this, with a nicely dressed side salad (tad small perhaps, but it was only £5.95) and pickled cucumber slices.

Really like the use of Insole Court garden veg. here.

On the drinks front, they have the usual coffee and soft drinks suspect, but a cooler full of a peach infused ice tea (think it around the £3.50 mark) was rather appealed on what was a warm day,.

Really refreshing this, with a nice balance of sweet and (slightly bitter) tannin.

The verdict

Had a lovely lunch here and the use of the estate’s veg gave it that little extra va va voom. Makes for a very pleasant and good value place for a bit to eat and I count myself lucky to have it pretty much on my doorstep

For those not as close to the place as me, there is a big car park and it is a short walk from both Waun-gron Park and Fairwater train stations.

Nice to see them using the space for other stuff, with their upcoming Spring Socials

and Grady Atkins’ pop ups.

The details

Address: Insole Court, Fairwater Road, Llandaff  CF5 2LN

Website: https://insolecourt.org/the-potting-shed-cafe/

Opening hours: