Food to write home about

Ignore the piffle about Pontcanna being "a sort-of Fulham of Cardiff" and somewhere that "feels a safe place to stretch your legs" -  very much the words of a Telegraph writer venturing nervously out into the provinces and discovering it's not all working men's clubs, hoodies, crime and grime. When it comes to describing the food, William Sitwell's review of Heaneys is bang on the money.

Having eaten there for a second time in January, I can personally vouch for the quality of the lamb - though the trout dish we had was arguably even better. Unlike Sitwell, we made the sensible decision to go for the nine-course tasting menu rather than the mere six - who wouldn't want as much of "heavily tattooed Northern Irishman" Tommy Heaney's cooking as they could get? - but I entirely understand his two year old's eagerness to spoon the trademark Marmite butter straight into his mouth rather than bothering to put it on bread first. Such behaviour would probably be considered a bit uncouth of a 45 year old, though.

Meanwhile, Observer critic Jay Rayner - who, lest we forget, once upon a time slagged off the city's gastronomic offerings - has paid us a second visit in less than a year. Last time, he left raving about the Heathcock, and also found space to plug Heaneys, Uisce, Nook, Milkwood and Thomas; this time, he's been bowled over by Matsudai Ramen's "bowls of deep care and thoughtfulness". The quality of James Chant's Grangetown restaurant already felt like no secret around these parts, but it's a measure of Rayner's clout that they received 1,000 bookings in just two days following the publication of his review.

With all this and the premises formerly occupied by La Cuina set to be the new home for Antonio Simone's Poca, Cardiff - or at least our little part of it - certainly can't be written off as a culinary backwater any more.