I  blogged about this place a while back, in terms of their everyday offering (and very good it is too), but I recently went to one of what they have named their “Swill sessions” which take place on Sundays and offers something rather different to your standard UK Sunday lunch.

One of the Cardiff Wine Buyers Club chaps suggested the chicken Kiev ramen was somewhat in the hipster/fusion camp sort of thing and thus he expressed some surprise that this was, being (at my age) more the “mightneedanewhip-ster” (fashion trends rather pass me by, to put it mildly), of interest to me (bearing in mind my rather ardent dislike of anything hipstery or of, all too often, con-fusion food).

My initial view was” Well yes, chicken Kiev ramen does sound a bit weird, but in the Hiraeth Boys we trust and besides it was booked by friends so I have plausible deniabity“.

Back to the menu, chicken karaage has very much been a staple, dare I say signature dish (as part of their “kick off your meal” chicken tea offering), at Hiraeth and I am quite partial to the oyster mushroom variant (I am big fan of  the Matsudai one) with its perversely rather meaty character.  I, therefore, had high hopes for the veggie version here.

Looking eerily like Rocky from Project Hail Mary,

I hear you ask was it “amaze, amaze, amaze“.  Well yes, actually, it was pretty fist my bump-able.

The coating was crisp with a nice level of spicing and seeds added to the mix to bring both flavour and texturally contrast. The oyster mushrooms themselves were properly meaty and a tangy kewpie (I assume) based sauce had been applied (but not overly so) to the top. Really nicely flavoured dish this and I might just prefer it to the chicken variety

On to the main, I must admit, I was rather perplexed as to how a chicken Kiev (are we still allowed to call it that or is it now chicken Kyiv, don’t care to be honest but we don’t call stuff Francais Toast or België/Belgique Waffles or Beijing duck do we) ramen would work. I assumed it would be breaded but how would the crispness of the outer shell be retained with it sitting on a soupy noddle base and wouldn’t it just sink? Also would the, integral to a chicken Kiev/Kyiv, garlic butter just dissipate into and be lost in the depths of the ramen broth?

What arrived was well a chicken kiev in a bowl of ramen

It was pretty much what it said on the tin, with a breadcrumb coated chicken breast sat on a ramen broth. Good to see none of the deconstructed bollocks (i.e. with the chicken and coating in different postcodes and the garlic butter on holiday in a different time zone) in play here.

Contrary to my concerns ,the coating retained a nice crispness for the most part (slightly soggy bottom aside) and the garlic butter was still in evidence on/in the chicken (when I try making chicken Kiev no matter how rigorously I apply the coating, even if I line it with lead and then put it is a 10 foot thick concrete sarcophagus, when I open it up the garlic butter has always teleported out somehow – I then call it deconstructed, whereas Mrs. SF calls it abject failure).

A nicely jammy, soy cured, egg yolk brought a lovely umami hit to the proceeding, as well as richness to the broth, and crunchy pak choi added a bit of green virtue (and a mild peppery flavour)

The ramen in the broth was suitably bountiful with just a bit of retained chew to it. I would wager they were dried, but regardless they were great for slurping. Mr. SF expressed amazement as to the lack of splatter marks on my clothing. At the best of times I tend to be incapable of not throwing my food all over my tops, so coming away unscathed here was a “feeding the 5000/parting of the Red Sea”  level miracle.

The broth (shoyu, I would hazard a guess so probably was no such thing) had a lovely deep savoury flavour, with the garlic butter having permeated it leaving a nice fatty sheen.

I drank the dregs straight from the bowl much to Mrs. SF’s horror.

Dessert was a departure from the advertised menu, with the brown rice ice cream replaced with a soy and miso one,  with caramelised pear and a sesame and Szechuan pepper crumb added for good measure.

The soy and miso cream was very reminiscent of a salted caramel number, melding sweet and savoury, with the salt really amping up the flavour.

The rubble – esque crumb added a nice bite and just a touch of heat (from the Szechuan pepper). The pears brought nutty floral notes and worked well in refreshing the palate as against the richness of the ice cream.

On the booze front, two of our party of 4 wanted wine and a quick perusal of the wines on the board found a grüner veltliner. This is a wine that has a well founded reputation for going well with Asian food, with its high acidity and herbal  (and if you are lucky white pepper) notes working well as against the aromatic spices in the food here.

I didn’t try it but it seem to go down well with the two who did. Both agreed it paired very well with the starter and the main.

Price wise it was £32 as against a retail price of about £13 (at under a 2.5 x mark up that is not bad for the UK).

I (unusually for me) went for beer, with an Extra Nice Larger (which I felt was very apt for me, Mrs. SF disagreed and suggested that if they had a “Bit of a twxt” (and) stout on that would have been a more appropriate choice🤷).

Very easy drinking number that quenched the thirst nicely (£5.80). Not bad price when compared to a mate paying £7 of a 330ml of Heineken (the price of flavoured water these days is just shocking) in London the other day!!!

The verdict

It was reassuringly busy with a steady flow of dinners and it is another feather in the cap of this much needed boozer by Victoria Park.

For an alternative Sunday lunch (I know inexplicably some do not favour a roast on a Sunday, love them personally) this was rather fun. Much lighter than a full roast with some interesting, fun and above all good flavours on display.

Good value I thought for 3 course x 4 and plenty of booze.

Interesting to note that a reduction in VAT to 10% would have reduced the bill all in to £177.87. That sort of reduction would certainly encourage me to eat out more and I genuinely think hospitality needs all the help it can get at the moment.

I also noticed they are doing weekend brunches

and I have already informed Dick the dog to expect a weekend detour (may be a bit of sausage in it for you, boy).

This was our second visit of the weekend to a Hiraeth operation, with us eating (very well as always) in the restaurant the night before.

I think it has been a rough summer for a lot of hospitality, with the heat putting people off from going out let alone eating out (certainly did with me) other than for picky bits, but now the weather is back to normal (and we can moan about the torrential rain rather than the lack of it) it is a good time to visit those favourite places again.

The details

Address: 1 Victoria Park Rd W, Cardiff CF5 1EZ

Website:  just on Itsagramaaaazing 

Hours: The Swill sessions operate between 16.00 and 20.00 on Sundays (not everyone it seems, so best check their Instagamaaaaazing feed if thinking of going). Outside of that hours (slightly revised from my previous post) are below:

They don’t normally take booking, but they do regarding these Swill sessions (DM them on Instagramaaaaaaazing or pop in and do so in person and have a pint/glass and some nibbles as you are there already).