United Kingdom
Great club with three floors with different flavours of music on each. Big with the student crowd but it is fairly eclectic all round. Open past 1am at weekends. There's a small cover charge overseen by the most friendly bouncers on Earth(really) and the drinks are priced at a song compared to anywhere but Laos. A winner.
11 Womanby Street, Cardiff, CF10 1BR t:029 2023 2199
More steam trains and castles than anywhere else in the UK. A distinct culture and language. Space. Few crowds and little traffic. Beautiful green scenery, coastline, mountains and water everywhere. A much more interesting and varied region than SW England.
This is a wiki about Cardiff, which gives info on places to eat and drink as well as things to do and see.
Maintained (but not exclusively) by the capital's residents, so you might find something that's not included in your average guide.
This is a pub very close to the city centre, near the Institiute of Welsh Sport and Sophia Gardens cricket ground. It has a good choice of real ales, mainly from Wales. If you'd like to hear Welsh spoken, all staff are fluent and this is a popular pub among the Welsh capital's sizable Welsh speaking community.
Y Mochyn Du
Sophia Gardens,
Cardiff,
CF11 9HW
Tel: 029 2037 1599
The most fantastic Italian Restaurant in Cardiff, probably in Wales. Casanova is run by four young Italians who are passionate about their food. Finally an Italian restaurant without Spaghetti Bolognese and garlic bread on the menu!
The food is wonderful, superbly cooked, beautifully presented and top quality.The kind of place where the most important thing is the quality of the food! I can highly recommend a visit here.
Cardiff 13 Quay street
Tel: 029 2034 4044
I recommend Barfly to visit on 28th Aug 2006 as Jon Wilks' favourite Japanese band - Nanbanjin- are playing there. Excellent music from 1 Welshman, 1 English/Irishman and a mad New Zealander! Not to be missed.
Kingsway, Cardiff. Just around the corner from St Marys Street;
tel: 029 2039 6589
Good value, good atmosphere, friendly staff.
38 The Hayes;
tel: 029 2022 0077
Visiting Cardiff on business, I took the wife, and on a recommendation visited Cardamom Indian Restaurant on a Thursday night. What a little treasure this place is! Fantastic cuisine excellent service and a very contemporary feel. A night to remember. Thank you Cardamom.
442c Cowbridge Road East;
tel: 029 2023 3506; www.cardamom.org.uk
Its the best beach close to Cardiff - a real gem on the Glamorgan Heritage Coast.
www.bbc.co.uk/wales/southeast/panoramics/pages/southerndown_beach.shtml
Italian Restaurant in the shadow of the Millennium stadium. Friendly, good value, authentic Italian food - the sort of place which would be unremarkable in Cremona but helps it stand out amongst the pizza'n'pasta joints of Cardiff. Good value set lunch menu.
Quay Street which runs between St Mary St and the stadium
Not the place to stay if you want a quiet night's sleep. This part of Cardiff turns into party central over the weekend and the hotel is directly above one club and adjacent to others. Great if you want somewhere handy for the clubs - no good for families or those whose clubbing days are behind them.
Bottom of St Mary Street, not far from Central rail and bus station
The best restaurant in the Cardiff Bay area by some distance - in a nicely converted old dockside building with a rooftop terrace in summer. The food is modern British bistro food with lots of good fish and other local ingredients.
Stuart Street at the rear of the 'Mermaid Quay' development, which is dominated by forgettable chain catering
Five victorian shopping arcades which run off St Mary Street and High Street. The arcades are shopping centres as Jules Verne might have imagined them; beautifully ornate yet ever-so-slightly ramshackle. Full of interesting independent shops and cafes.
Walk along St Mary Street and High Street and you can't miss them!
A romantic, fairytale castle just outside Cardiff. Rebuilt from a medieval ruin, its gothic interior is crammed with ornate murals, lavish gilding and elaborate wood carvings.
If you like this over-the-top style, you might also want to visit Cardiff Castle in the centre of the city. Both were designed by William Burges.
On the A470 at Tongwynlais, about five miles north-west of Cardiff.
A new five-star hotel also in the Bay area. There are 132 guest bedrooms, all with private balconies and views across the bay, and 20 suites. Guests also have full use of the St David's marine spa, which claims to be the first health facility and hydrotherapy spa in Wales. Rooms from £260 - £550.
St David's Hotel, Havannah Street, Cardiff 02920 454045 www.thestdavidshotel.com/
A big fuss has been made about Cardiff’s first boutique hotel, Jolyon’s. The restored Georgian townhouse has six lavishly furnished bedrooms, with king-sized beds, wi-fi facilities, free-to-view television, tea, coffee and cafeteria, and views of Cardiff Bay.
Jolyon's, 5 Bute Crescent, Cardiff 02920 488 775 www.jolyons.co.uk/
This hotel, described on its website as 'super cheap but sexy-chic', was recently voted one of the 25 coolest hotels in the world by Conde Nast Traveller. It’s certainly intriguing: an ugly converted 1960s office tower block right near the train line which was opened when the actor John Malkovich, one of its shareholders, got into bed with 300 Welsh secretaries on live television. Rooms cost £45 per night for a standard room, and £85 for a penthouse.
The Big Sleep Hotel, Bute Terrace, Cardiff 029 20 636363 www.thebigsleephotel.com/
The restaurant in the Holland House hotel has received good reviews since it opened last year. The menu contains moderately priced modern Welsh cuisine.
Holland House, 25-26 Newport Road 0870 122 0020 www.hollandhousehotel.co.uk/foodanddrink/index.htm
Award-winning French restaurant that uses the best Welsh produce. A three-course dinner costs around £35 each excluding wine.
Le Gallois - Y Cymro, 6-10 Romilly Crescent, Canton 029 2034 1264 www.legallois-ycymro.com/
If you fancy a drive into the countryside, the Maenllwyd Inn in Rudry village makes a great place to stop for lunch. It’s traditional Sunday fare with great desserts, but be prepared to wait on a Sunday. Mains are around £7-16.
The Maenllwyd Inn, Rudry, Caerphilly 029 2088 8505 www.goodpubrestaurants.co.uk/show_restaurant.tpl?restaurant=150
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