Cardiff restaurants - are there any good ones?
Discussion
City centre - Le Monde on St Mary Street. Relaxed busy atmosphere and great for steaks and fish. They do fantastic sea bass in rock salt. Massive wine list.
Just outside I'd recommend the Purple Poppadom for Indian. Went last weekend it is fantastic. More fine Indian dining than usual curry house. 5 min taxi from the city centre. There is another similar place called the Mint and Mustard which is a little further out.
Other than that it's really just the usual suspects, Prezzo, TGI etc.
Alternatively head to Cardiff Bay which is a 5 min taxi ride from the centre. There is a very good Chinese called The Pearl of the Orient, The Bayside Brasserie (Very similar to Le Monde) and a Cote French restaurant.
My favourite place in the Bay is Woods. A modern bistro Brasserie which is very good. A few ok bars there for a drink first.
Some ok others but they are further out of town.
Hope that helps.
Just outside I'd recommend the Purple Poppadom for Indian. Went last weekend it is fantastic. More fine Indian dining than usual curry house. 5 min taxi from the city centre. There is another similar place called the Mint and Mustard which is a little further out.
Other than that it's really just the usual suspects, Prezzo, TGI etc.
Alternatively head to Cardiff Bay which is a 5 min taxi ride from the centre. There is a very good Chinese called The Pearl of the Orient, The Bayside Brasserie (Very similar to Le Monde) and a Cote French restaurant.
My favourite place in the Bay is Woods. A modern bistro Brasserie which is very good. A few ok bars there for a drink first.
Some ok others but they are further out of town.
Hope that helps.
Madeira is good. La Lupa (sp?) and further up the road is a half decent Chinese, Cowbridge road east (??). There used to be a few good uns, Positano did a reasonable meal last I ate there. St Johns Street. The food hall by John Lewis is sort of OK but OK in the "working late, quick eat, bed" nothing more.
Just to clarify, i live in Cardiff, but am very unimpressed with it's food offerings!
The Potted Pig is heading in the right direction, and i like the atmosphere, the food is ok, but could be better. It's also impossible to get tables there now (probably due to it getting good reviews, and there being few alternatives).
The Woods Brasserie in the Bay is good, but the Bay isn't really somewhere i venture all that often.
I will be trying out Bully's tomorrow night.
The Potted Pig is heading in the right direction, and i like the atmosphere, the food is ok, but could be better. It's also impossible to get tables there now (probably due to it getting good reviews, and there being few alternatives).
The Woods Brasserie in the Bay is good, but the Bay isn't really somewhere i venture all that often.
I will be trying out Bully's tomorrow night.
There used to be two cracking restaurants, but both now gone, Le Gallois and Le Cassoulet (which is now Bully's). The Madeira is nothing special IMO, just standard fayre. Decourcey's in Pentyrch was known for fine dining, not heard much about it recently though. The Old Custom House in Penarth is supposed to be very good.
Hoover. said:
There used to be two very nice fish restaurants (fish on ice which used to choose from the bar and then they would cook it for you) owned by the same family.... probably gone now as this was 95/96
Suspect that was Le Monde (still there), the Brasserie (gone) and Champers (gone).There is also La Fosse next to St David's Hall which does very similar food.
If you're willing to wander out of the centre of town I used to enjoy a couple in Pontcanna: Ana Bela's and Patagonia http://www.patagonia-restaurant.co.uk/
AlfaPapa said:
If you're willing to wander out of the centre of town I used to enjoy a couple in Pontcanna: Ana Bela's and Patagonia http://www.patagonia-restaurant.co.uk/
As above, we're trying out Bully's tonight (it's just up the road from Patagonia). It still amazes me that i grew up in the countryside on the border of Herefordshire/Worcs/Glos, and the restaurants around there are much more impressive than in the city of Cardiff!
Plotloss said:
Champers has gone?
What a shame, that was a corner stone of Cardiffian dining.
Riverside Chinese has been very good for a long time.
Davey, is the Taurus still there? (Not saying it's good by any stretch but if that's still there and Champers is gone, someone wants stringing up!)
Taurus is now Kiwis Matt!What a shame, that was a corner stone of Cardiffian dining.
Riverside Chinese has been very good for a long time.
Davey, is the Taurus still there? (Not saying it's good by any stretch but if that's still there and Champers is gone, someone wants stringing up!)
They moved from the arcade a few months ago.
Champers and the Braz are now both bars. The Braz one is a chavvy looking sports bar.
SwanJack said:
Taurus gone for quite a while. There is a Taurus steakhouse in Pontyclun but i don't think it has any connection to the old one and anyway, it could never be the same 
Only memories of that place were the bills to prove I had been there....Edited by SwanJack on Saturday 25th February 14:32
Born and bred in Cardiff, but I have to say, all of the restaurants without exception are pretty dire across the whole city with maybe the exception of Happy Gathering in Canton if you want decent Chinese food in the city (and even that isn't as good as it was 10-20 years ago). I'd rather eat in The Louis on St. Mary Street (but that is only because of fond memories from childhood, plus trying to add up the total age of all the other punters is always worth a laugh - I get to about 2,000 and give up). Has anyone who runs a restaurant in town / in the Vale ever done any market research / ever been to another restaurant outside of Wales - doesn't seem so?
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