FEATHER & BONE | FOOD REVIEW
Westgate Street, Cardiff. 029 2064 4208 / www.facebook.com/featherbonebar
When you’re tuckered out after a long day reading people on the internet’s views about the ‘dirty food’ trend tailing off after a few fruitful years in London, why not visit Cardiff’s brand new Feather & Bone and dive into their gourmet fried chicken, steak burgers, pulled pork and slow-cooked ribs? This is the natural order of things for the UK’s 10th biggest city (eighth, should Scotland vote Yes this month): being behind the curve on fodder fashion is nothing to fret about. The question is whether the inevitable new places, keen to clean up while Welsh diners catch up, can live up to expectations.
Feather & Bone was until recently Pica Pica, a well regarded tapas bar open for the best part of a decade. Atmosphere-wise, apart from a few cosmetic fripperies like the 1950s cheesecake erotica papered in the gents’, it’s same as it ever was for the visitor. We’re given a window seat and some complimentary beer nuts, Samuel Adams and Anchor Steam the tenuously-billed craft beers with which they’re paired. My pal orders a cheeseburger with smoked bacon and I get four pieces of fried chicken, with a view to having enough to share. This proves judicious, as F&B’s burgers are conspicuously undersized – about as big, its recipient notes, as something you’d be served at a British barbeque. The cheese isn’t melted, either, which compounds the comparison.
The fried chicken is a sight better. Marinated in buttermilk, F&B justifiably emphasise, it’s outwardly crunchy, supple and not too dirty, with passable fries and, as an extra, decent mac’n’cheese. Not £4 decent, for a pot that size, although prices are largely sensible here: a full rack of beef ribs for £16.90 is easily the most expensive main, and our meal, with two beers each, weighed in at about £34. I hope Feather & Bone can iron out its inconsistencies and locate its strengths in the coming months: competition for this kind of greasy guzzling is likely to be locally fierce.
words NOEL GARDNER
