A new restaurant and bar is opening in Cardiff in the site of what was the once very popular and highly-regarded La Cuina.
Poca, which is set to open in the spring, is set to be a "small, neighbourhood, friendly eatery" and comes from the team behind popular Barry restaurant Alium (read our review of it here), which is headed up by Cardiff-born chef Antonio Simone, also known for The Humble Onion in Dinas Powys.
Simone has been described as "hugely talented" by restaurant reviewer (and son of the Queen Consort) Tom Parker Bowles. His restaurant Alium in Barry replaced the renowned Hangfire Southern Kitchen after it announced its sudden closure in 2021.
The new Cardiff restaurant is described as having "an informal relaxed dining environment, focusing on humble ingredients of the highest quality, serving seasonal small plates, hand-selected wines and cocktails"..
A sample menu from Poca's website - see here - details delicious-sounding dishes such as cured monkfish with cucumber, blood orange and almond, pork belly hash brown with lardo and a spiced egg yolk, lamb sweetbreads with lamb fat crouton and hazelnut butter and roast cauliflower croquettes with curry mayonnaise and coriander.
If you follow a gluten free diet,fear not as there are several options in which you can indulge, like whole wild prawns with wild garlic butter, porlock oyster of the day, aged dexter rump steak tartare with house sauce and crispy confit potatoes with manchego and roast garlic aioli. For those with heartier appetites, there are a number of larger plates such as orzo with creamed wild garlic and glazed whole neck of lamb with roasted courgettes. The drinks look great too.
Writing on its Instagram announcing the news, Alium wrote: "We are opening a small neighbourhood, friendly eatery in Pontcanna. Please give us a follow @pocacardiff".
People were quick to comment on the post, voicing their glee at this news. One wrote: "Yay!! SOOOOO exciting" alongside another who stated: "We will follow you anywhere!!".
A third added: "i am beyond excited. already obsessed!!"
While the opening date for Poca has not yet been announced, it is aiming to open in the spring (check out when 'spring' officially begins here). La Cuina, which previously occupied the site at 11 Kings Road, closed its doors last September after ten years as a result of experiencing difficulty with importing products due to Brexit and staffing issues.
Speaking to us ahead of its final day, Catalunya-born Montserrat Prat, who owned La Cuina, said: "We have sustained this idea of ethical sourcing whenever possible during these 10 years of trading, and this had driven our approach throughout. [Then] Brexit was implemented and things have changed substantially. Although we try to source some products locally whenever we can, the nature of our project is Mediterranean and Catalan food, and importing is essential, and we have done it ourselves throughout." Read more on that here.
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