Tom Waters' Cardiff

It took almost 50 years, but Cardiff achieved its first Michelin star this year. And Tom Waters' Gorse is the icing on the cake of a food scene that is finally coming of age and getting the recognition it deserves

Words by Alex Mead.

This article was taken from the October 2025 issue of Food and Travel. To subscribe today, click here.

Perhaps it shouldn’t have taken Cardiff quite so long to earn its first Michelin star (the star system came to the UK in 1974), but when Gorse claimed that honour earlier this year, it cemented the city’s food-forward status, perhaps even nudging it beyond the ‘up-and-coming’ tag it’s worn for the past decade.

For those in the know, it was always on the cards once Tom Waters rode back into town, the Newport-born chef bringing with him credentials likely to attract those stars like a culinary magnet. He was fresh from The Fat Duck, but with Phil Howard’s The Square, Odette’s and a Welsh gastronomic education courtesy of London-based Bryn Williams under his belt.

‘The food scene in Cardiff had been going from strength to strength when I started to think about coming home,’ says Tom, as we chat before service in Gorse, set in the affluent Pontcanna neighbourhood. ‘My wife and I always planned to move back and Cardiff was the obvious place. I could have stayed at The Fat Duck, maybe even getting to be head chef, so it was a tough decision, but we wanted eventually to open our own restaurant at home.’

He’d be lying, he admits, if he said becoming the first to get a star in Cardiff wasn’t in the back of his mind, but the timing was tricky. ‘It was a strange time because covid was still in the public consciousness,’ he says of his return in 2021, ‘so we decided to test the market by launching Gorse as a pop-up.’

The Cardiff he returned to was very different from the one he’d known when he was younger. ‘We’d go out in Cardiff as a treat,’ he says. ‘It would be somewhere like Brava (a small café on Pontcanna St) or the Happy Gathering (a Chinese restaurant on Cowbridge Rd), and both are actually still there.’ What he’s too polite to say is that back then, Cardiff was about as far from being a gastronomic epicentre as you could get; it was chains, pubs and a few half-decent Indian or Chinese restaurants. Those handing out the awards seemed to bypass the city, heading instead to rural Wales for country hotels or ‘hidden gems’, or just turning off the M4 before it got to the bridge. If any hidden gems were to be found in Cardiff, nobody found them.

And then things started to shift. As has happened across the world, local people started to return home to Wales, having discovered a food scene elsewhere and wondered why on earth Cardiff – with this incredible surf and turf on its doorstep, and all those lush green lands – couldn’t have one of its own.

Gourmet pizza makers, craft brewers, cheesemakers and Scandinavian bakeries started to switch from market stall to high street, and with some seriously talented chefs gathering quality produce from land and sea, self-branded ‘foodies’ started touting Cardiff as a place to be. Pontcanna, the leafy spot behind the castle and Sophia Gardens, was the epicentre. Here they had Tommy Heaney (Heaney’s) and Tom Simmons (Thomas by Tom Simmons), cool brunch spots like Milkwood, ‘yards’ with delis and coffee shops, and every other restaurant was a ‘twist’ on something. In short, Cardiff had become cool – in patches at least – and Tom was ready to bring his own stardust.

The series of pop-ups he started with ran for 18 months, but from the beginning his concept was clear. ‘The ethos was always to use the very best of Welsh everything,’ he says. ‘The focus was on what we have, not what we don’t, and we didn’t just want to play a collection of the world’s greatest hits,’ he says. ‘The idea was to keep it small and intimate so people would feel like they were dining in my home. And the response was amazing,’ he remembers. ‘That gave us the confidence to make the leap. I saw 24 sites in my pursuit of the perfect one – and the 25th was where we currently are on Kings Road.’

Gorse is certainly intimate: it’s like the cool home of that friend who loves to cook, and the kitchen isn’t so much ‘open’ as part of the room itself – you’re basically eating in someone’s kitchen.

His success is more surprising, though, when you hear Tom was a late starter in the food world. He’d studied French and German, which meant a period abroad. ‘It was in Paris that I first started to enjoy eating out and then cooking in my tiny apartment,’ he says. ‘When it was time to apply for jobs, the only thing I wanted to do was go and cook.’

Despite being armed with zero cooking qualifications, he was passionate and that meant something – at least to some. ‘I wrote to pretty much every restaurant in London with a star or that featured highly in The Good Food Guide,’ he says. ‘I had responses from Rob Weston at La Trompette and Bryn Williams at Odette’s Being a fellow Welshman, I decided to go and work with Bryn for a couple of years.’

‘I went on to work at The Square under Phil Howard and Bonhams under Tom Kemble before spending three years at The Fat Duck.’ And having worked with the best produce the world has to offer, alongside the masters of that produce – including Heston Blumenthal – he understands the full potential of raw ingredients in Wales.

‘The quality is very good,’ he says. ‘The seafood and seaweeds are incredible, because we’re surrounded by a really varied coastline. The wild food is brilliant, from sea vegetables to wild bilberries.’

‘Obviously, there’s also Welsh lamb, which is the best in the world,’ he adds. ‘I think historically it’s been undersold due to poor transport links from West Wales to the rest of the UK. It’s hard for us even today to source the way we do. It’s pretty much a full-time job.’

Which is why, he says, you have to get a train to Cardiff to try the best. ‘It’s come on leaps and bounds since that famous Jay Rayner article [the critic once suggested if you wanted to get a good meal in Cardiff, you should get on a train to Bristol]. We have a really exciting food scene here now, ranging from places like Gorse to great noodle spots to amazing Pakistani restaurants. ‘Cardiff has always been strong in terms of diversity in its cuisine, but I think they’ve recently been rediscovered.’ Few who have visited Cardiff on a Six Nations match day would question its reputation as one of the best nights out.

You stumble out of the stadium and straight into the city centre; Cardiff Castle is right next door, backed by Sophia Gardens and Bute Park, which track the River Taff – you can follow it right up into the valleys. ‘I love starting the weekend with a coffee at Sibling in Roath and then heading to Longa on Whitchurch Road for breakfast,’ he says, outlining his perfect day. ‘After that, a stroll down the Taff Trail through Pontcanna fields. You could lunch at Thomas in Pontcanna and have a beer in Pipes Brewery in Kings Road Yard afterwards.

‘In the evening, you could either try Lahore Kebabish in Grangetown or go to Purple Poppadom on Cowbridge Rd. Parador 44, above Asador 44, is a great place to stay – and also serves the best breakfast in the city.

Why Cardiff? ‘I love its green spaces, I love that its restaurants are culturally diverse and that it has a sense of community despite being a major city.’

TOM WATERS' HOTSPOTS

LONGA

They do a great Turkish brunch – I love the beef keema and eggs. Warm and convivial. longacafe.co.uk

LAHORE KEBABISH

They do particularly delicious breads – spicy and generous; some of the best I’ve had. lahorekebabishcardiff.uk

THOMAS BY TOM SIMMONS

This is refined cooking using good ingredients – and they have a really good cocktail list too. thomas-pontcanna.co.uk

PURPLE POPPADOM

You can expect excellent Indian cooking, which is extremely consistent. I recommend the murgh lababdar and onion pakora, which are amazing. purplepoppadom.com

VOCO ST DAVID’S CARDIFF

If you’re looking for a bit of luxury, this is an interesting five-star hotel in the bay with great views. ihg.com

HATSU UDON

They prepare freshly made udon on site, which is fantastic for lunch. Personally, I always go for the curry udon. hatsu-udon.co.uk

FFWRNES PIZZA

This is where to get amazing Neapolitan pizza in the market; they use authentic bases and techniques but add a Welsh twist. ffwrnes.co.uk

PARADOR 44

A boutique hotel in a brilliant location above Asador 44 Spanish grill and wine bar – it’s worth booking for the breakfast alone. grupo44.co.uk/parador44