Cardiff’s Riverside and Grangetown areas are definitely on their way to becoming a haven for new dining experiences and pop ups and Neighbourhood Kitchen - which opened up a little over a year ago - has had a big part to play in it. And this month it's taking the food scene in the Welsh capital to the next level.
For it will be introducing the Louisiana Crawfish Boil, a traditional, regular event in the southern states of America. Running from Wednesday, May 25 until Saturday, June 4 (Wednesdays to Saturdays only) it will see bibbed-up diners served with half a kilo of seasons crawfish, or crayfish as we call them over here - tipped out onto newspaper after being boiled - alongside corn on the cob, smoked sausage and red potatoes.
Owner Tudor Barber, who runs the restaurant and boutique hotel with wife, Caroline, had long wanted to recreate a Louisiana crawfish boil and it turns out, the time to do it is right now, as the crustacean is an invasive species in British waters and are in season.
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Tudor said: "We've been wanting to do this for years and as someone who's into seafood I just thought it looked amazing. I made initial enquiries a year or two ago about how we could possibly do it. Quite interestingly, I did some research and found out that two companies fish them in British waterways. They are an invasive species brought here by accident and now they are running havoc through the British waterways and they need to be removed and they are being so that means they've become available. So we're having a benefit on environmental impact and from a sustainable source, too."
The Neighbourhood Kitchen team is always trying to bring something different, cuisine-wise to their customers and have different pop-ups joining them on a regular basis including Jamaican specialists, The Real Ting, sandwich wizards Hot Damn Hoagies and plant-based Mexican trader, Cosmo's Kitchen.
"We thought we'd bring something to Cardiff, which, I'm not aware of, has ever happened in the city before," added Tudor, who said that bibs would be readily available for the notoriously messy and fun eating experience which originated in the southern states of the US where crawfish would be caught by the tonne. There will also be some southern-style cocktails to go along with the boil, like the Alabama Slammer, Vieux Carré and Mint Julep.
"The whole thing with street food is approaching something with an open mind and trying something different and that's the ethos of the restaurant - bringing exciting cuisine to Cardiff and not your run-of-the-mill seafood. The response has been huge, people are excited this is happening in Cardiff."
Find out more about the Neighbourhood Crawfish Boil, or book , here. See our review of a hidden Yemeni gem in Grangetown, here or our check out Riverside's top indie business, here.
