Smokehouse Wales has been open now for almost a month and we finally managed to get ourselves table! We happened to walk past and see that they had started opening for Sunday lunch. We popped in and were able to grab a table for three.
Smokehouse Wales is on the site of Diner 77 that was apparently a Cardiff institution, I always saw it as an out of date restaurant that was waiting to close down. Thankfully, Smokehouse Wales has taken its place and is a welcome addition to the culinary scene in Pontcanna. On entering the Smokehouse you are greeted by the smell of fresh wood. It's everywhere: the walls, the floors, the tables, the chairs. It smells amazing. We walked in at just gone 12pm and it felt a little as though they weren't quite ready for us. The waiter had to check and see if we could have a table and thankfully we could.
The menu is simple - smoked meat! Actually they do have a couple of vegetarian options but don't get your hopes up - smoked cheese only goes so far, as does Veg chilli for that matter. It's a smokehouse, it's not meant to do vegetarian food!
Whilst looking through the menu we were given a small dish of pretzels to help stave off the hunger. For drinks we had a couple of Cokes and some water. It was good to have bottles of coke rather than watery post-mix out of a gun.
Our mains took about 25 minutes to arrive, which did put us on edge a little but when the food arrived, it looked fabulous.
I had the pulled pork with BBQ (£10.95) sauce, chips, onion rings, poppy seed apple coleslaw and mixed smoked beans. Our dishes came served on lovely chunky wooden blocks and provided a bit of theatre.
My pork was moist, smoky, succulent melt in the mouth and covered in BBQ sauce. The chips, chunky and crisp, the onion rings homemade crunchy and not mushy. The homemade BBQ beans were lovely and smokey but the coleslaw was a little disappointing. The coleslaw wasn't seasoned well enough and the poppy seed didn't add anything to the flavour. I would have expected a fresher herb infused coleslaw bursting full of flavour.
My wife's half rack of ribs (£13.95) was enormous (apparently it was an end cut so we benefitted nicely) and came with the same accompaniments as my pork. The ribs were smothered in BBQ sauce, large and satisfyingly messy to eat. The mini saucepan of extra BBQ sauce, which really was finger licking good, was essential if you wanted to smother your ribs and yourself in sauce heaven! The meat was tender, smokey and had enough bite left in it to feel like you'd just finished off your first dinosaur.
Our friend's attempt to eat healthily resulted in a halloumi salad(£5.50), smoky BBQ beans(£2.95) and Smokehouse coleslaw(£2.95). Halloumi is a squeaky cheese to eat and was no more than satisfactory. I'm sure they could do better for a salad and only need look at Kemi's Cafe round the corner for inspiration.
This was a quick lunch so we weren't hanging around for dessert, but I did want a coffee to keep me going. To my horror they haven't had their coffee machine installed yet and couldn't even provide me with a Nescafé for a quick caffeine fix! Aaarrgghh! I got over it. Eventually.
Smokehouse Wales are in their first month and therefore still finding their feet. The food on the whole really was excellent with only a couple of mediocre offerings. The meat is clearly the star turn and is everything you'd expect from a smokehouse. The lack of a coffee machine is really poor considering all the social media hype they created before opening, you have to be ready to provide the whole experience. Unfortunately they're not quite there yet, but I must say they show great promise and I look forward to going back and having a full blown pig out in the near future. They have spent a lot of money on making the place look and feel good and the quality of everything in the place does stand out. I wish them every success and look forward to doing a full review in the near future when their "full blown menu" is published.
Details:
77 Pontcanna St, Cardiff, CF11 9HS
https://www.facebook.com/SmokeHouseWales
Open: Sunday 12-5pm
Monday-Thursday 6pm-9pm
Friday 6pm-9.30pm
Saturday 12-3pm 6pm-9.30pm
Tel: 02920 344628
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