Now it has been well documented (by me) that I am a big fan of Hiraeth (my favourite Cardiff restaurant and where Mrs. SF and I eat pretty much every month). It is, I think, also fair to say I have been consistent banging on about the need for there to be somewhere decent to have a drink in the Victoria Park area of Cardiff not least for a swifty (as in a quick beer rather than the more modern Taylor’d meaning) before or after a meal at Hiraeth.

When I saw the Pig & Swill crowd funding  proposal, with the following OM

I immediately supported it, as did Mrs. SF, as to me it promised the equivalent of the occurence of the planetary alignment in the Fifth Element (such an underrated film).

Victoria Park’s need for a decent place for a drink (wine wise at least) had been addressed in part by the Welsh Cheese Company, but a needed final piece to complete the food and drink jigsaw down there was a decent boozer.

On the face of it the Pig & Swill proposed offering hits an awful lot of nails firmly on the head in terms of what I felt was needed to complete the areas already pretty good food and drink offering.

The fact that it is dog friendly, with Dick the dog joined by a new (and rather more energetic than Dick, which to be fair even a sloth is – in his defence he is 15+) arrival,

rather sealed the deal. We decided that this would be her first (of many trips) to the pub,

a test she passed with flying colours (putting Dick, who is about as user friendly as Windows Vista, to shame).

The inside is a nice space for just a drink

(we were there, of course, for food as well) and there is also a covered outside space

from where you can observe the wildlife of Cowbridge Road East.  Not quite herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically across the Serengeti Plain, but once the sun goes down the wildlife on display will, I suspect, be no less jaw dropping.

The drink menu has nice mix of wines (all by the glass, which is always great to see),

a decent roster of beer (predominately from Lost and Ground in Bristol, I believe) and some cocktails (not my thing, but seemingly mandatory these days).

As we considered our food options, I had a large glass of the Funkstille grüner veltliner (£11) and Mrs. SF had a similarly large glass of the Gran Cerdo tempranillo (£11.50)

The grüner has a nice orchard fruit (pear mainly) nose, which followed through on the palate with a nice touch of citrus as it lingered. No trade mark grüner white pepper notes, but highly gluggable none the less.

The Gran Cerdo was an easy drinking  unoaked tempranillo, with a good level of dark berry fruit on both the nose and palate.

Price wise the grüner retails at about £13, so £32 a bottle is very reasonable (by UK standards). The Gran Cerdo hovers around the £13-£14 mark retail, so again the bottle price of £34 is pretty fair (by UK standards). 

These both went down dangerously easily, in what is a very convivial environment

I moved on to the beer offering next

with a Saison D’Avon (£6.50 a pint).

Enjoyed this, with a nice peachiness as it initially hit the palate followed by floral (luckily not the pot porri floral that is the curse of many a “craft” beer in my opinion). Didn’t feel too boozy, despite it being 6.5°, either.

So booze offering met my expectations , which leaves the food in respect of which (well it is the Hiraeth boys) I had high hopes.

The menu had lots of interest which made choosing quite hard.

Bar snacks of battered black pudding were pronounced very nice by the table adjacent to us and I was somewhat intrigued by the Mushroom Matt’s cultivated mushrooms (which had me thinking of Matt as one of the infected in “The last of us“, season 1 good and then well……., but I am sure in reality he is a really fun guy).  Mr. SF is not much of a mushroom fan, so I reluctantly decided to pass this time. Alas(t of us) this mushroom dish wasn’t on the menu on subsequent visits

After much prevarication, we decided on an initial order of a surf and turf mix of the crab rarebit, the beef cromesquis (I had to look up what that was, being a food philistine) and the chicken schnitzel.

We started off with, to me the quintessential bar snack, with a bowl of smoked almonds (£5).

Nicely salted, with a light smoke such that it wasn’t too dominate, these went down rather well with my grüner (a great, very versatile, food wine)

Next up was a crab rarebit (£9).

I liked the use of the brown meat, which has much more flavour than the more asethetically pleasing white meat, with a good grating of Old Winchester (they seem to use this instead of parmesan) adding a nice buttery nuttiness. I enjoyed this, but I did feel it was just a touch underpowered on the crab front. Mrs SF said I was talking rubbish and thought it was great.

The cromequis (£8) were a pleasing riff on what I would call a croqueta

Good crisp outer shell was adorned with a drift of cheese (old winchester again?) and encased a rich beef and gravy filling. It sat on a beautifully smooth carrot puree, spiked with the flavour of star anis. I wasn’t particularly fussed on the frazzles, which in my view didn’t need to be there, but they brought a touch of whimsy to the proceedings I suppose. Pickled shallots added a welcome touch of acidity to balance out the richness.

Mrs. SF was very keen on ordering the chicken schnitzel (£10) and was rather upset that I was intent on sharing it. On its arrival I could understand her being rather put out at having to share it as it was a handsome and rather enticing beast.

Not strictly what I regard as a schnitzel, as in my pedantic twxt world it would be wider and flatter, but still a lovely bit of fried chicken

Good crunch to the coating, with beautifully tender chicken. The cafe de paris butter added both richness and acidity (from the capers), as well as a pleasing hit of umami from the anchovies running through it.

The runny egg

added nicely to the mix and it all made for a crackerjack of a dish.

Mr. SF was equally enamoured with it and said next time she would most definitely not be sharing it with me or indeed anybody else.

Can see this becoming one of their signature/always on the menu dishes here.

A second round of food and drinks were ordered as we were having a rather fine time.

Proper pork scratching had a lovely crunch, without any residual oiliness,

and a good apple sauce brought a pleasing balance of sweet and sour as against the fattiness of the scratchings. Great with a beer these.

Mrs. SF is a big fan of a good sausage roll and was rather enamoured with the girthy number here (£8).

Lovely crisp pastry, which was but a wafer thin layer as against a big heft of nicely seasoned sauage meat. Good yielding texture to the meat too.  It came with a really good homemade punchy ketchup, which was a million times better than the sweet heinz shxte.

A second visit for prinks in advance of a Mystere Wine Club dinner, at (yes you guessed it) Hiraeth  (which was excellent as ever), had me further exploring the beer offering.

with a pint of “Wanna go to the sun” (£5.90, a pale ale from Lost and Ground).

Even though I was having dinner later, across the road, I couldn’t resist the allure of the food and thus had a cheeky plate of their rather fine sounding chips (I did share them with two others).

Top tier chips these, with that sought after exterior crunch and soft fluffy interior. The nuttiness of the old Winchester and the spike of acidity from the malt vinegar crumb worked very well (although I can’t say I got much, if any, of the advertised garlic butter which was not actually needed in my opinion).

Very moreish and perfect beer food these. Decent portion size too.

A third visit, on a rather nice day to take advantage of the outside space,

brought a quite gluggable Keller pils

and a very superior mackerel paté into play.

Really enjoyed this, with the smoke on the mackerel not overbearing and a really pleasing hit of anis from the liberal use of dill.

Unlike the slightly disappointing pickles at Tonkotsu, these were top draw.

Slathering the paté on the lighly toasted Pettigrew sourdough and then adding pickle slices and a squeeze of lemon made for a very satisfying end of week lunch.

The verdict

The Pig & Swill is a cracking addition to the burgeoning Victoria Park food scene, with a very good food and booze offering.

You can go in for just a quick pint or fill your boots food wise.  Very much a case of what’s not to like and it is pretty much all I had hoped it would be and more.

It was nice to see the place packed early doors on a Wednesday evening, which seems to suggest there was a latent demand for a place like this. Very much a case of “If you build it they will come!”.

So, in summary (an oxymoron if ever there was one when it comes to me), it is most definitely very swell at the Swill (as I knew it would be).

I will be in this place a lot and noticed on leaving a rather interesting Sunday proposition in the form of their Swill sessions

The details

Address: 1 Victoria Park Road West., Canton, Cardiff, CF5 1EZ

Website: Can’t find one, but they  are on Istaamaaaaazingram @thepigandswill

Opening hours: