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The 'eating out in Wales' thread...

L

llantwit


OK - lets be having your thoughts on restaurants/take-aways/general chow-downs that you've experienced recently in the 'diff (or its general environs), or even in other places in Wales, for that matter..

Anything food-related goes - recommendations, reviews, warnings or whinings - scribblings about cheap chips or paradisical pizzas, posh nosh or inexpensive gems - whatever you feel would be useful to your fellow Wales forumite gastronomes.

:)
 
To start the ball rolling:

My favourte pizza place in Cardiff is undoubtedly Zio Pierro's just off Cowbridge Road East on Severn Road.
I've been going there since I was 7, and have never ben able to ween myself away from their excellent pizzas - good base (although not a crispy as I'd normally go for), nice ammounts of tomato and toppings, and the perfect quantity of mozarella cheese. I always go for either a pepper-sausage and asparagus, or a prawn, chilli, and garlic - both of which will stay with you for days in the form of garlic oozing out of your skin - but the experience is well worth it.
The rest of the menu is not so divine, but is perfectly acceptable 'Family Italian Restaurant' fayre - decent (but not spectacular) pastas, a very good and nicely meaty lasagne starter with a good tomatoey sauce (big portion), nice enough whitebait, Very good Garlic Mushrooms with Cheese (recommeded), some nice meat dishes including great veal or pork escalopes(don't know about the veggie side of things - sorry). Deserts are, as is so often the case with UK Italian restaurants, mainly of the pre-packaged frozen ice cream in an orange/a coconut variety, although they do a perfectly passable home-made cassatta, or a very good tiramisu. The house wine is a very drinkable Montepulciano D'Abruzzo - and isn't too expensive.
The staff are VERY friendly, and will always remember you and have a chat and a laff or exchange a few words.
The decor is cheesy in the extreme, as it should be. The walls are lined with all manner of memorabilia from Italy including those wicker-lined chianti bottles, bad oils of sultry looking women with guitars, and postcards that people have sent the restaurant from all ofver the world. Pavarotti is often played.
Well worth a try - and perfect for a romantic candle-lit dinner with the one you love.
 
Italianos on city Road.

i mean, were else can you get a....
16 inch pizza
Garlic Bread
Chicken Wings
Loaded potato skins
Bottle of coke and a large tub of haagen daaz delivered to you for 13 quid virt any time of the night.

A drunken rabbles saviour.
 
as I'm vegan I don't get to try much of the menu in most places, but a place i went last month with a good choice and AMAZING food was the Indo-Cymru resteraunt in Canton (I think cowbridgege Rd,). The name sounds a bit crap and it doesn't look too special but it was the best curry I've ever eaten out. I had the Dhansak.
 
Discovered on Monday that Izakaya, the Japanese resteraunt down Cardiff Bay has closed. Fucking tragedy.
 
But there's always the Japanese restaurant at the top of City Road. Nice sashimi on top of rice, good noodle soups, and pretty good Bento type stuff. Near the death junction.
 
Oh, and welcome to Chilinmink!
[passes joint so s/he can get warmed up for one of those combos from Italianos;) :D ]
 
oi! I was giving chillinmink free beer on the lurkers thread, which you put a stop to, and now you're handing around free spliffs! The duplicity of it. :rolleyes: :D
 
llantwit said:
But there's always the Japanese restaurant at the top of City Road. Nice sashimi on top of rice, good noodle soups, and pretty good Bento type stuff. Near the death junction.
Click to expand...

I think it's called Tenkaichi, been there a few times and in my experience was v.good when it opened but rapidly went downhill......people have asked questions about the freshness of the produce, not good when your talking about raw fish. Apparently Ichiban on Cowbridge Road is super good but I've not been there yet.
 
Oooh - another Japanese place. Nice. Ta for that. Willl try Ichiban.
On Tenkaichi - I went there a few tiimes from when it opened until late 2004 and it was always pretty good - never had a bad meal. I haven't been back since as I've been away.
 
Tell ya somewhere that went downhill with a fucken bump is the Thai place on Four Elms Rd, just off Newport Rd (behind Roath library), before it becomes Broadway at the traffic lights. We went there about three times after it opened and it was absolutely heavenly, really amazingly good food, delicate, well-cooked, sumptious flavours. Then the last time we went there, after being away for a while, the food tasted like it had been microwaved out of a tin from the Asian supermarket on City Road. My g/f actually asked the waitress "have you changed chefs recently", but the waitress wasn't tuned in to what we were trying to say and just nodded and pissed off. Shame, cos their grub was amazing at the beginning.

Saying that, we then went back to the Thai restaurant at the bottom of Windsor Place a month or so ago, and the food was really good there :)

Should this thread be a sticky? Cos we discuss this stuff on a regular basis, and that way we'd avoid repeating ourselves... cf my Vegetarian Food Studio thread a few weeks back.
 
that ichiban is Canton way nr (spit) greggs

no one mentioned VFS yet!?!! where's col?

the Vegetarian Food Studio on penarth rd is well good, pure veggie, nice/mad selection of stuff, nice canteen set up (not flash).
also funny and welcoming staff who answer any questions on the food etc.

when i was in there last week there were locals of a few nationalities in there and also some bona fide indians from india who loved it.

not eat out anywhere else much of note (some place in the brewery 1/4 and on mill lane) :oops:

chapter can be ok if you get there on time as are some of the trad caffs in Canton.

soooo, up for an outing to the VFS soon?
http://www.vegetarianfoodstudio.co.uk/
:)
 
I thought it'd make a good sticky. What do other folks think?
P'raps if it went sticky it could become an all-wales foodie thread?
Avoid excluding our gog/w. walian breathren, like.
 
ddraig said:
chapter can be ok if you get there on time as are some of the trad caffs in Canton.
Click to expand...

Chapter? Hmmm... we had grub there on Monday evening, and tbh, it never fails to disappoint me. I mean, it should be wonderful, what with the Pontcanna gliterati lending it that air of bohemian exotica, what with the fab beers, what with the setting & general artiness, but the food/experience never quite measures up, imvho. The actual grub wasn't bad as such, but, for example, the soup that my g/f had was carrot and coriander. I mean, it's the 21st century, ffs, "carrot and coriander". 0/10 for imagination. And then the pasta I had was nothing more ravishing than bagged ravioli boiled up with a homemade sauce, and fuck it, I can make pasta sauces like that when I'm asleep.

So, once we'd dealt with the mediocrity of the food, the napkins that the cutlery was wrapped up in were wet (it really is quite off-putting to unroll yer napkin and discover it spotted with damp patches. :(), and the kitchen didn't stretch to either ice-cream or whipped cream to accompany the (rather good) slice of Bakewell tart for dessert. And the lady behind the counter sort of apologised about the fact the the pouring cream that they did have was priced at 50p, which she thought was expensive. All in all a rather disappointing eating out experience.

I'll let Llantwit take over on the joys of the Turkish restaurant round the corner from Chapter tho :D
 
ok fair enough, praps they make more of an effort at lunchtimes?
had some stuffed peppers with feta i think, not too imaginative but tasty.
 
OK - as requested I have "stickied" this and altered the title slightly so as to included the whole of the principality ;) ....
 
got to say the Bayside brasserie (funnily enough down the bay) gets my thumbs up. Great food, good views, good atmosphere, good service and not overly expensive. well worth a visit if you ever head down the bay way.
 
^^Which one's that? It's not the Turkish one that sits out on a bit of a Pier? I've never been there but have always been curious to try it...
 
No it's not - the Turkish one in the Bay is called Bosphorus or something, and while the food isn't that bad, imho it's horrendously expensive for what you get, and not a patch on...

Seren - the Tyrkish/med. place opposite Tesco on Cowbridge Rd East in Canton. Very simply stylish decor - nice attentive service, and of course, most importantly, very good quility not too expensive food - thumbs up to it's stuffed aubergines, Hummus, spinach in yoghurt with garlic, excellent home-baked flat bread, as well as a load of other stuff that I can't remember. Decent veggie choices as the Col will no doubt attest. Ideal for a pre-theatre/pub snack with mates ;) .
 
Col_Buendia said:
^^Which one's that? It's not the Turkish one that sits out on a bit of a Pier? I've never been there but have always been curious to try it...
Click to expand...
its One of the standard units next to the italian resteraunt. Think it may be the same people that do the brasserie in town. Really good food and quite relaxed, kind of bustling atmosphere.
 
Before this thread is completely fucked (Principality, my arse) I would like to recommend Ruby in Menai Bridge. Gorgeous food in a converted church.
 
waterloowelshy said:
got to say the Bayside brasserie (funnily enough down the bay) gets my thumbs up. Great food, good views, good atmosphere, good service and not overly expensive. well worth a visit if you ever head down the bay way.
Click to expand...

Had a couple of good meals there however they committed a cardinal sin........I ordered monk fish and they tried to serve me pieces of plaice cut to look like monkfish! It was on the last night of the six nations and the place was rammed to the rafters but even so an establishment like that should have the balls to go and offer the punter an alternative when they can't fill his order. In the end they knocked 3 bottles of wine and my starter and main course off the bill but refused point blank to admit that they had served me anything other than what I had ordered.

In all fairness the other two meals I had there were fine, good quality meat (esp. the chicken kiev type thing - really good) and the South African manager really knows his stuff.

I think the 'Diff is getting a bit overrun with all these brassiere style restaurants mind, La Monde, Le Brazz, La Fosse, Champers, The Custom House - all owned by the same clique of people and all very similar (and all just a teensy bit cooler than thou, which fucking irritates me).
 
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