The Grape and Olive

The Grape and Olive, Wedal Road, Cardiff.

Mmm, feta stuffed peppers, roasted garlic cloves squished out onto fresh bread, fava beans, artichokes in olive oil, delicious pancetta, buffalo mozzarella, fresh olives dipped in sea salt, I could go on but memory fails me, largely due the several bottles of a lovely red I can't remember the name of, and a couple of Drambuies, and a pint or two to start. Haven't even got on to the the main course yet.

Yes, I have friends (Yes, I have friends) moving to a house round the corner from the Grape and Olive so they were keen to try it out, I suspect they'll be trying it a lot. Not that they need to, Ana is a fantastic cook and perfect host, with the willing assistance of Jem, and I'm looking forward to their move if only for the housewarming they'll no doubt be having. And all just round the corner from the allotment so I can easily pay my way. Ana loves my french beans, the Purple Queens, particularly the way they morph from goth to standard green on cooking.

But back to the Grape and Olive. Formerly Charlie Chuckles fun factory, or some such rubbish, it has recently been renovated and turned into a beautifully light and airy restaurant (though I'm told it is still officially a pub). It has two outside patios, one atop the other, which are surrounded by trees to the point where it would be easy to believe one was up on Caerphilly mountain somewhere. Hard to imagine that the A48 is about 30m away and the Wedal road tip is in throwing distance.

Inside is simple and spacious, white walls, white lamps, waiters and waitresses all in clean white aprons. Well, apart from our waitress who'd had a mustard related disaster which she seemed needlessly embarrassed about. All the waiting staff, well the two that served us, where very friendly and easily able to cope with Ana's innuendos, which can be relentless, but always amusing.

The food was universally perfect, there was nothing that wasn't at the very least tasty and well prepared. Most of it was delicious, I was half way through my main course when the waiter turned up with an apology and a steak knife, neither of which were required. The steak was excellently cooked (maybe slightly over done for rare, but still just pink enough) and the knife, and my teeth, met no resistance as the juices flowed onto the plate and over my taste buds. Drooling now.

And the chips! Properly cooked, the right side of brown and a perfect combination of crispy softness. I got the impression they were cooked from scratch on the premises, not brought in frozen, I will ask next time I'm there.

For possibly the first time in my life I didn't have a dessert. Everything before was so good that I didn't really have enough space. Instead I had a Drambuie and a thick foamy double espresso, oh and a taste of everybody else's dessert. The pecan pie was just the right side of sweet with big chunks of pecan to get ones teeth into perfectly offset by a vanilla ice cream as was the chocolate torte (was it a torte? not sure) a solid slice of dark truffle density chocolate, washed down with espresso and Drambuie.

I have to stop now, hungry. So, quickly, the downsides....well, the ice machine was broken, so the white wine was a little underchilled and they didn't have any Amaretto ....and that's it.

Lovely, £45 a head and worth every penny, I just hope they can keep it up!