The Guardian
Grace Dent undertook a six-hour round trip for lunch in Swansea, where locally born chef Jonathan Woolway has returned to open a restaurant in a converted Victorian dockside warehouse after a long stint at London landmark St John. Yes, it’s a long way to go for lunch, so Grace advised anybody holidaying in Wales this summer to make a detour on the way.
But, she said, don’t expect a St John replica. “The Shed is essentially 16 years of Woolway’s homesickness on a plate, complete with a laverbread garnish.” So in place of whole roast suckling pig or Eccles cakes with Lancashire cheese, there are “offally, mysterious faggots with sides of chips and greens or a salad of Cae Tân leaves”.
This is definitely “a place for farm-to-fork lovers keen to eat every mooing, baa-ing tasty thing from across the Gower Peninsula, the Brecon Beacons, Herefordshire, and the lush farmland of West Wales and the Monmouthshire borders”.
It’s also a top spot for Welsh rarebit – “oozy slabs of cheesy heaven [which] come with a bottle of Lee & Perrins so you can add it to taste.” And leave room for the Welsh cakes as dessert.
The Daily Telegraph
William Sitwell ate very well indeed at a “proudly industrial chic” refurbished warehouse on the Swansea docks where Jonathan Woolway, a locally born “prodigal son without reproach”, has returned to open his own place after 16 years in London at Fergus Henderson’s influential St John, where he rose to chef-director.
The St John ‘nose-to-tail’ approach was in evidence throughout an excellent meal, starting with cider-pickled sardines “almost bleak” in their plainness but “fabulous” in taste. Warm and gooey potted Câr-y-Môr crab with hot flatbread was “simply epic”, while roast pork collar with sour cabbage was a work of genius – “pink, with charred edges, so steak-like, but bursting with rich earthy flavour and tempered by the cabbage. It was wholesome and magnificent.”
The meal ended on magnificent note, too, with a list of 10 puddings and cheeses – “such a large number and I love it”, purred William. Puddings and cheese are not essential facets of life, he said. “We don’t need them, but without them life is hollow, lived but not experienced.”
William Sitwell - 2024-12-08
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