The story
In the quiet Cardiff suburb of Pontcanna, Gorse brings a distinctly modern Welsh perspective to fine dining. Chef Tom Waters, a South Wales native, returned home after years in some of the UK’s most celebrated kitchens — including stints at The Square under Phil Howard, Bonhams in Mayfair, and Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck — to open his own restaurant in May 2024. Just over eight months later, Gorse became the first restaurant in Cardiff to earn a Michelin star.
The cooking is driven by the abundance of produce that Wales and the wider UK offer. Waters and his team work closely with local fishermen, growers, farmers and artisans, letting pristine ingredients speak for themselves. The result is thoughtful, flavour-centric Modern British food, built on exacting technique but served without pretension.
The restaurant itself is relaxed and unpretentious, welcoming guests for both lunch and dinner. Sample menus suggest a range of options — from a four-course lunch to a more extensive signature menu — though the actual offering changes daily according to what is freshest and finest. Dietary requirements can be accommodated with advance notice, though vegan and dairy-free menus are not available.
Gorse has quickly become a destination for anyone seeking cooking that is both precise and deeply rooted in its Welsh landscape.
Recognition
Ambience
Details
History
High quality cooking
Tucked away in the pretty suburb of Pontcanna, where chef-patron Tom Waters previously hosted a series of wildly successful pop-ups, this is a fine-dining establishment with friendly neighbourhood vibes. Waters has three years at the Fat Duck under his belt, as well as stints at The Square and Odette’s (among others), and brings both a sense of theatre and a quiet perfectionism to his cooking. The small dining room, with its neutral, calming grey walls and big windows, runs straight into the open kitchen where you can watch Waters and his small troupe of young chefs tweezering microherbs onto, say, an earthy but delicate mushroom tartlet with pickled juniper and lovage. It's all about tasting menus here, culminating in a 10-course bonanza – a succession of intricately designed and exquisitely presented dishes showcasing the best of Welsh produce, especially seafood. Start with a tiny bowl of cleansing laverbread broth, follow with a glistening scallop under a drift of wafer-thin slices of celeriac and ghostly white strawberry with smoked cream and pine, or perhaps a meaty blowtorched hunk of monkfish seasoned with a salty, vibrant and delicately crunchy sauce of pike roe, roast yeast and squash. Our autumn visit also yielded pink slices of fallow deer dressed with blackberry, spiced beetroot and blackcurrant, before concluding with an intensely delicious pear sorbet in toffee sauce. Down-to-earth service from the waiting staff (as well as the chefs) combined with a soundtrack of 90s rock and pop ensures that the atmosphere never becomes too reverential, while reminding everyone that they are here to have fun. Ask the impressively knowledgeable waitress for advice when it comes to the serious, grown-up wine list.
3 Rosette Award for Culinary Excellence
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