Long Friday, West Jesmond, Newcastle restaurant review

It’s probably fair to say that I don’t I have the same taste in stuff as the typical premier league footballer.

For a start, I’m more likely to be found wearing a Decathlon raincoat, binoculars and walking shoes than a Stone Island jacket, AirPods and Off-White trainers.

And, under no circumstances would I consider booking out an entire branch of Nando’s for a Christmas celebration.

However, perhaps I’m being a bit quick to judge, as Newcastle United and England starlet Lewis Hall is clearly a man of extremely good taste when it comes to restaurants.

Because, when we visited Long Friday in West Jesmond for dinner over Easter weekend, Lewis and his mates were also tucking into a post-match meal after Newcastle’s miraculous 4-3 comeback against West Ham.

Owned by food writer Anna Hedworth, Long Friday opened in 2021 and is the younger sibling to Ouseburn’s Cook House. Described by former Sunday Times restaurant critic Marina O’Loughlin as a “a restaurant that puts you on the sunny side of the street”, Long Friday has a hip yet relaxed vibe.

Long Friday’s menu consists of eclectically influenced small plates, which much like Porthcawl’s Cosy Corner, could more accurately be described as medium plates. When it comes to portion size, I’ve never been disappointed at a Northeast restaurant.

Alongside their medium plates, Long Friday has a belter of a booze list. There are creative cocktails, including a cherry mezcal old fashioned and EVOO martini, beers from Wylam brewery, and a big selection of wines by the glass with a focus on the natural.

During the meal, I enjoyed a fresh and sharp rhubarb spritz (£10), a can of Wylam Lush hoppy pale ale (£7), an easy drinking hazy Tule Bianco Cattarrato (£5.50), and a complex Dhron Hofberger 2006 Auslese Riesling (£6.50).

Superb soft and airy crumbed Northern Rye focaccia (£4) was drizzled with grassy olive oil. We’d walked past their Ouseburn bakery earlier that day and seen queues down the street – I can see why.

Excellent salami (£9), from Berwick upon Tweed’s Hammond Charcuterie, was made with a mix of wild pheasant and free-range pork fat. Spiked with green and Szechuan peppercorn, it left a lovely tingle on the palate.

A hake fillet (£12) was dressed in butter with a lovely poke and spice of kimchi. It perhaps would have benefited from crisper skin and some garnish, but it was a beautifully meaty and well-seasoned piece of fish.

The first standout dish of the meal was a whopping pair of pink lamb chops with mouth melting fat (£12) that were dressed with a vibrantly herby and meaty lamb fat chimichurri that really packed a punch.

Crusty, knobbly, caramelised pieces of earthy roast celeriac (£10) were topped with a coarse mushroom XO, which had a really good savouriness but not quite the complexity of its seafood equivalent.

Bavette steak (£11) was tender with a nice beefiness, whilst a delicately punchy wild garlic butter sauce and crisp breadcrumbs provided extra layers of crunch and seasoning. Eleven quid for a well-sized steak was a fine example of the generosity on show at Long Friday.

Smashed pink fir potatoes (£8), which sat on a bed of savoury miso twanged mayo, delivered on the gnarly crunch which I hoped for.

A bowl of cacio e pepe beans (£9) was the cleverest dish of the meal and one which we’ve already emulated at home with great results. Soft white beans luxuriated in a thick, savoury and creamy parmesan and black pepper enriched sauce. Fried breadcrumbs once again provided welcome texture contrast.

For dessert, a pile of warm, golden light and squidgy ricotta doughnuts (£8) were cannily sat in a pool of thick caramel fragranced with candied peel and a light whiff of rosemary. It’s a dessert which could have tasted like a roast dinner, but it was exceptionally well balanced.

Rather rustic looking sharp rhubarb jelly (£8) was perched on top of creamy panna cotta that was delicately scented with cardamom and served alongside the shortest of buttery buckwheat hobnobs.

We had a superb meal at Long Friday with its inventive medium plates, delicious booze and friendly, relaxed atmosphere. I really should try and tap up Lewis Hall to find out the rest of his Newcastle restaurant recommendations.

The Details:

Address - Long Friday, 46 Brentwood Ave, West Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 3DH

Web - https://longfriday.co.uk/

Telephone - 0191 281 5626

Heaney's, Pontcanna, Cardiff restaurant review 2024

It only feels like yesterday since we last visited Heaney’s for dinner during our post-pandemic reunion tour of Cardiff’s best restaurants in 2021.

Sure, we’ve been for a fabulous Sunday roast since, but it was high time we checked out their tasting menu to see what the kitchen is capable of when it’s at full throttle.

I’m pleased to say that the cooking at Heaney’s is better than ever and its certainly at the level of many Michelin-starred restaurants we’ve been to.

Their technically precise food was pitch perfect across the board with a strong emphasis on fish, smoky barbecue notes and Asian ingredients.

Whilst there’s a very good value set lunch on offer at Heaney’s (seven courses for £35), we went for the full-blown 8 course tasting menu (10 courses for £80).

On the day we visited it was the Ellis Barrie guest chef night later on, so we were slightly apprehensive that the kitchen would be more focused on prepping for dinner service than lunch. We really shouldn’t have worried at all.

Snacks set the tempo. As neither Mrs G or I eat raw oysters, we requested a cooked alternative (£4 supplement) on the fly, and it was an absolute corker. Panko crumbed with a dollop of comforting katsu curry sauce and crispy seaweed, it had all the comfort of the Waga’s classic with an extra level of refinement. Apparently, they’re a mainstay of the menu at Uisce so we’ll be heading there for a plateful sharpish.

An aged comté cheese and onion tart saw the most delicate of pastry cases filled with sweet-caramelised onions, a light cheese foam and flurry of aged comté cheese.

Dainty mushroom macarons were sandwiched with decadent chicken liver parfait and the sweet sharpness sanbaizu jelly.

Heaney’s sourdough with Marmite butter needed no introduction. The soft crumbed bread with its toasty caramelised crust and the creamy umami rich dairy are pretty much a dream combination.

Our first proper dish was my pick of the meal. If Tommy ever opens a sushi bar then I’ll be first in the queue. Sushi rice topped with cubes of oily chalk stream trout sashimi was elevated by soy, citrusy yuzu, crunchy puffed rice and a clever dash of coil oil, which imbued the whole dish with a barbecued smokiness.

Another delicate tart was filled with barbecued green and white asparagus. Accompanied by creamy smoked ricotta, a vivid wild garlic sauce and crispy chicken crumb, it was another cracking combination of flavours and textures.

Lightly cooked scallop slices, twanged with meaty beef fat in which they were cooked, were sat on blobs of intense smoked cod roe that were contrasted by tangy rhubarb and a light yet flavour-packed scallop and ginger dashi.

Another standout of the meal was a fillet of Cornish bass with the crispest of skin, accompanied by Jersey Royals and sweet-savoury teriyaki shitake mushrooms. What really made the dish sing was an iberico pork velouté – I mean what’s not to love about a porky and creamy sauce.

BBQ Welsh lamb was the only meat dish of the meal but what a dish it was – a big hunk of blushing pink smoky loin was joined by a fat rich slab of crispy belly. Purple sprouting broccoli, compressed pear, a sweet and sharp pear and wine vinegar puree, and the glossiest of sauces all complemented the meat beautifully.

A riff on rhubarb and custard was a belter of a palate cleanser. To be fair, you can put rhubarb on pretty much any dish and I’ll be very happy indeed. I think there was a light yoghurty custard, tart cubes of poached rhubarb, a fruity Sauternes ice cream, and a fragrant blood orange granita.

For dessert, a bar of silky dark chocolate delice had a good level of bitterness. Sweet banana puree with the savoury twang of miso, earthy Jerusalem artichoke ice cream with crisp artichoke skin crisps, coffee cream, and a crunchy biscuit disc all provided pops of contrast and complexity.

Post meal treats were an ice cream filled riff on a Ferrero Rocher and a thick salted caramel filled chocolate.

We had a brilliant meal at Heaney’s and it’s somewhere I’d always be happy to recommend without hesitation. At the top end of the market, Cardiff has never had such strong options, but it’s great to see the team at Heaney’s constantly pushing on.

The Details:

Address - Heaneys, 6-10 Romilly Cres, Pontcanna, Cardiff CF11 9NR

Web - https://www.heaneyscardiff.co.uk/

Telephone - 029 2034 1264