Bijou is French for jewel or gem and hidden gem is possibly one of, it not the, most abused terms in respect of people commenting on hospitality. You know that “little undiscovered gem of a Mozambique/Portuguese/South African fusion restaurant I have recently discovered (Editor: after they sent you a promo invite) that specialises in traditional, melt in the mouth, cooked to perfection, insanely good poultry dishes done with an Afro – Portuguese twist, that you just have to try as it is literally to die for. For those in the know, this is the place to go – you have probably never heard of it but bookmark a “cheeky Nandos” (think I might Trademark that, lols) for your next taste of the exotic. Best chicken evah!!!!!!! (Editor: If you set your zoom to 1 trillion magnification on the dot part of the fourth exclamation mark after “evah” you will clearly see a very prominent “ad” – that dot is actually made up of millions nano ads – can’t get more transparent than that can you).

Now I am not going to pretend Sonder Bar and Bistro in Canton (I would maintain it is not Pontcanna, regardless of what estate agents may say) is some “hidden gem” (I mean it ain’t a very good marketing strategy being hidden is it ” We were cooking great food, but our cloaking device was in hindsight a bit of a blunder in terms of attracting customers“), but in a fairly short time frame since opening it has garnered a pretty good reputation as a solid and reliable neighbourhood bistro. Somewhere you can go as easily for breakfast as for lunch or dinner. Sounds like the sort of place a lot of people would rather like in their neighbourhood I would posit.

Mind you it is not as if the surrounding area (Pontpangea, which now covers the known Universe out to 93 million parsecs and according to estate agents includes elements of the multiverse – got a lovely property just through the interdimensional rift that is Ton 618, which we like to think is just on the outer edges of Pontcanna) has a paucity of decent places to eat, so it is logical for expectations to be high based on them having to live up to the competition.

J had been before and rated it so it had  been on the list for a while and I rather liked the looks of the online lunchtime/evening menu.

The meat locker, to the left as you walk through the door, is testimony to the providence of the chef (having come from Pasture),

and the place has nice feel to it, with good spacing.   If I had one slight criticism, as to decor, it would be the lighting. It was really quite gloomy where we sat, to the extent that my phone defaulted to night mode when taking some pictures.

Some solid bistro dishes on the menu like beef tartare and steak and frites, as well as a good selection of fish (always a bonus for Mrs. SF who tends to lean towards fish when we eat out, if not this time).

Must admit there are some oddity in terms of accompaniments. So chicken breast in a white wine and tarragon sauce (a bistro banker, along with steak frites, if ever there was one) comes with skinny fries, but the stuffed chicken schnitzel number come with seemingly no carbs? If you add skinny fries to the schnitzel it goes from £22 to £28, whilst the tarragon chicken with fries is £19 and the steak frites is £24! Doesn’t seem right that, to be honest.

Swerving the starters , I started off with some stuff from the “Snacks” section and decided on the beef sliders (£8).

Cute little numbers these, with a style (toasted white bread rather than a bun) in seeming homage to Louis Lunch in New Haven Connecticut (which is considered by some to be the birthplace of the hamburger sandwich).

Nicely gnarly, well flavoured, patties (the beef is from Oriel Jones), cooked with a pleasing touch of pink, topped with a good cheese and a tangy chimmichuri dressing.

These were rather enjoyable, if tricky to eat, although the one thing I didn’t get was the advertised truffle (actually no bad think in my view) and I would say they were quite dinky for the £8 price tag especially compared to the size of the starters others had.

On the starter front, Mrs. SF and one of our friends had the rather robust beetroot, plum and whipped ricotta number (£9).

An interesting sunflower seed pesta was the green base, with a rather superfluous  Asian style slaw also on the side (more on that later).

This mostly worked, with the earthy beets operating as a good counterpoint to tangy (and spicy) plum sauce and the sweet salty tang of the whipped ricotta and the light nuttiness and herbal zing of the pesto.

The remaining person in our party of 4 went for the tempura fritto misto (£11).

I didn’t get to try this but the person who ordered it very much enjoyed it, with the suitably light tempura batter encasing pearly white hake and batons of courgette. A curry infused mayo added nicely to the mix and I must admit I suffered a bit of food envy in terms of not having ordered that myself.

On the main, I love lamb and thus was instantly drawn to the “lamb mixed grill” (£29)

This consisted of two chops, cooked on point with a good crust to the exterior and a  blushing pink interior, a lovely bit of lamb breast (refuse to call it rib, as well it just isn’t called that) with a pleasing richness to the properly rendered down crispy fat and the meat beautifully tender. It all packed a big flavour.

An unadvertised, but very welcome,  bonus was a charred cabbage leaf stuffed with slow cooked shoulder.  Good as the chops and breast were, this was even better. A good jus tied it all together nicely and a quince ketchup operating to cut the richness of the lamb fat.

My only really quibble were the beetroot and Asian slaw,

which didn’t really add anything and personal I don’t think they were needed  on the plate at all.

Oddly my £29 dish didn’t come with any spuds, so I added a bowl of roasted newies (£6)

These were very nice and I think they should just bin the beetroot and Asian slaw and add these pots. to this lamb dish.

Mrs. SF and one of our party also went lamb, but the lamb leg steak (£25) option.

Well flavoured and cooked hulking beast of a leg steak, with the bone in, the meat itself was very well received. Less so the advertised crush new potatoes, which whilst tasting nice were a rather diminutive portion size.

I think if you are going to advertise a dish as coming with potatoes it should be a decent portion rather than in homeopathic proportions. Luckily as I ordered a side of pots these were shared to make up for the potato famine on the lamb leg dish.

The Asian slaw also, rather inexplicably, made an appearance whilst adding nothing to the dish.

The final member of our party had the steak frites of which I didn’t take a picture. He pronounced it very good, with a nice medium rare cook to the steak, a good zingy peppercorn sauce and crispy French fries.

So main generally good, but the obsession with adding Asian Slaw and lack of pots. on certain dishes did detracted a little bit.

On the pud. front there is a short, if not unattractive, selection.

I passed, but others had the tirimisu and the profiteroles.

The latter looked rather fine,

and the former (no picture) was better than the Stefano’s effort (more pronounced coffee and booze flavours in the mix).

I had a very nice double espresso (I was flagging a bit at this stage, as had been out on a boozy evening the night before at Stefano’s).

In terms of booze, there is some interesting wines (especially if you have deepish pockets) and mark ups seem generally pretty fair

The Royal Tokji Furmint is a really good wine, which retails at about £14 (on the list here at £38 so pretty fair mark up by UK standards),

as is the Phillipe Aufranc Fleuie ( retails at £17+ and on the list at £42).

If you move up the gears there are some very good wines, such as the fantastic La Rioja Alta 904 (£145 here, with the excellent 2015 vintage retailing at £70 + (which is a very good wine for the price) and the Corton Grand Cru Les Renardes retailing at £75 + and is £125 on the list.

Whilst these prices look (on the face of it) pretty fair, I do think when wines are £100+ you really should be giving details of the vintage (which can make a huge difference).

We went a lot more low rent and settled on a Spanish monastrell and garnacha tintorera (aka alicante bouschet) blend.

I thought it was OK, tannins were a bit chewy and it needed food to tame its rougher edges. Mrs.SF on the other hand actively disliked it  Price wise I think is was £36, with it retailing at about £12, so one of the lesser good value bottles on the list from a quick check 🤦‍♂️.

The verdict

Despite the slight oddities regarding obsessive use of Asian slaw and a seeming unwillingness to put potatoes on plates, we all enjoyed our food.

Portions are hearty and there is plenty of flavour in each dish. It isn’t the cheapest, but I do think prices are justified based on portion size (would help if they peeled a few more spuds).

It is certainly popular and I think justifiably so.

I will be back, as I quite fancy the breakfast menu

as well as a deeper dive into the lunch/dinner menu.

I wonder if they offer a reasonable corkage charge, as if so it certainly would be a good venue for a Cardiff Wine Buyers Club dinner.

One word of warning, if you need a cab out of the place make sure you get the WiFi code as the place is (as with much of Pontcanna and Canton, which appears to be build on a Iridium mine or surrounded by a Faraday cage) a mobile phone signal dead zone. I think my phone actually displayed negative signal bars at one point.

The details

Address: 72 Llandaff Road, Canton, Cardiff

Website:  https://sonderbarandbistro.com/