Around Cardiff in 25 snacks
Or, the best things to eat your way around the city for under £10.
So, the newsletter has been on a little bit of a break. I’ve been a little busy with work and a few short holidays, but they’re just excuses. They shouldn’t have stopped me writing, really.
In short, it’s hard to feel inspired by anything when the world has gone to shit in a kettle. I’ve had ideas and articles I’ve desperately wanted to write, but mustering enough energy to do anything more than just survive mentally, yet alone do something creative, is a struggle at the moment.
Nonetheless, with an extended weekend at my fingertips, there was no better time to get back into it. Especially with prices rising for everyone across the country, it felt natural that this was the next piece to come out.
So here’s my favourite snacks to eat around Cardiff, part one.
I despise the overbearing pretentiousness exuded by food media around cheaply available quick eats. Fast food is not without its issues, but to negate it entirely of merit is frankly elitist, and in many cases, classist. It serves its purpose well; feeding the masses for relatively little with a rugged dependability and comfort. Nobody should feel judgement about the food they consume, regardless of price, cultural context or otherwise.
That being said, I fucking love Greggs. It’s the apex predator of snacking. Yet, despite Cardiff continuing to be the testing ground for a number of expanding American chains, all of whoms menus offer a substantial range of easy and quick snacks for under £10, the king remains untouched.
There is, in fact, absolutely nothing wrong with a Greggs sausage roll. Buttery, flaky, loyal — they are the one true neutral of the fast food world. Except when they’re cold. Then they’re a pisstake. But you don't read a list like this to recommend Greggs. Just go and buy one.
It’s very easy to rely on fast-food to fulfill the carnal desire to snack, especially when there’s one on every corner. But Cardiff is home to a world of great food available to ready to eat that doesn’t rely on large corporations for whom the sale, or lack thereof, of a few items won’t alter their destiny. The same cannot be said for many local businesses anymore.
So, inspired by the Vittles piece released a few months ago (paywall, but a Vittles subscription is worth every penny), here’s a list of the best small bites that money can buy from Cardiff businesses right now.
From almond pastries, to glorious hash browns or pre-meal snacks of bread and jamón butter, here’s part one of my top choices for eating your way around the city without breaking your bank account.
Aside from the five Greggs situated in the central shopping district alone, there’s a wide range of options for eating in the city centre. To pick up and go, Fresh’s baguettes are still the uncontested king of the office lunch. Queues are long but thoroughly deserved, especially for its daily specials (1), the likes of which range from slow-roasted beef with truffle mayo to Malaysian chicken satay inspired ensemble. There are no bad choices from its blackboard — all are great.
A short walk away, you can stay entirely within the realm of sandwiches with a visit to New York Deli. After closing and reopening just a few doors down in Duke Street Arcade, this shop lives up to its name, serving American-sized portions for little money. Get a bagel suffocated in cream cheese, or a ridicuously sized hoagie filled edge-to-edge with cold cuts (2).
Another short walk and you can find yourself on the doorstep of three of the best Spanish restaurants in the country. At Bar 44, grab a plate or two of its croquetas, fresh off of its weekly production line (3). At its sister restaurant Asador 44 a few doors down, snack on a portion of its bread with jamón butter (4) ahead of a full meal of aged ex-dairy Galician steaks and sherry vinegar saturated tomato salad.
On a parallel road, take a wander into Curado bar, and graze on its range of pintxos (5). Whether charred and salty padron peppers or sardines on toast, working your way through the little bites, alongside its extensive list of vermouths and sherries, is a true delight. Grab a basket full of Spanish provisions before you leave too.
A wander into Cardiff’s market will find you at centre-stage of a delicate balancing act. On one side, its the epicentre of a food renaissance, with a stream of Cardiff’s street food acts now finding permanent residence there. They’re delicated balanced by all of the charm of assorted bric-a-brac stalls that are staples of the markets of old Britain.
This is reflected in its food, too. Downstairs, you’ll find everything you’d expect from an old school covered market; delis, butchers, greasy spoon-esque caffs. Upstairs, you’ll find Anand George’s Tukka Tuk, the home of one of the city centre’s best snacks: the mutton roll (6), alongside its Kerala fried chicken.1 Beneath the crunchy exterior, each golden cylinder is brimmed with a cumin-heavy spiced ground mutton mixture, paired perfectly with a tang of a tamarind-sour dipping sauce. I’m slightly ashamed that I’ve been caught numerous times in a row getting my mutton roll fix by one of the city’s best food writers here, but it quickly eroded as it was clear they were there for the exact same reason too.
It sits just a few doors down from longtime residents Ffwrnes, whose nationally recognised pizza endeavours have done little to stifle its desire to feed Neapolitan pizza to Wales, without the gentrified and unjustified price tag of the modern restaurant landscape. Get there early before they sell out, order a Jiawl Bach (7), perch on its communal seating overlooking the bustling market, and dig into its leoparded crust and cupped salami, each retaining a pool of chili-infused oil.
They are also recently joined by the Pierogi, whose dumplings made freshly on site are another new great option for a lunchtime bite. Its offerings include duck with plum sauce, or a range of other vegetarian options. Go for the duck (8).
Before you leave, take a trip downstairs, cash in hand, and grab a bag Welsh cakes from Bakestones (9). Watch as the veterans of the assembly line pump out the best versions of the country’s eponymous snack, floury hands akimbo, carving chunks out of the mounds of margarine folded gently into the sugar-coated discs.
Escaping the centre, Cowbridge Road East, better known as the Canton Food Mile, is a snackers paradise. But, none is better than Ji The Chicken Shop. Outside of Cardiff, Ji has acquired a cult-esque following for its Taiwanese fried chicken, with generated buzz resulting in huge queues and big praise. In Cardiff, it’s never quite reached anything remotely similar for reasons beyond my comprehension. It probably is a little over-hyped in other cities, but still significantly under-hyped in Cardiff. Buy a bag of crispy chicken skin (10) coated in any one of its various spices and come to your own conclusions.
Take a break further up the road, and pop into Hard Lines’ American diner-inspired cafe. Get yourself its brecwast bap — a brioche roll with a layered deep-fried potato hash topped with melty industrial American cheese and doused in hot sauce (11). It’s a crunchy, messy delight as the acidity of the hour sauce emulsified into the escaping egg yolk. It may be a breakfast item, but it’s great at any time of the day. Breakfast is a social construct after all. Wash it down with a cup of filter coffee, refuelled ahead of the next stop.
The other end of the road is home to Nook, an adventure by Phill and Deb Lewis, owners of Dusty’s Pizza, and now Kindle. With a focus on small plates and natural wine, almost everything on veg-heavy the menu is under £10. Get whatever is recommended and in season, whether tenderstem cooked over fire and topped with cured egg yolk, or burrata with fermented chilli with dukkah and lemon (12).
If you’re still in need of a snack, go next door to Pettigrew Bakery for one of its sausage rolls (13). It’s not reinventing the wheel, but why would you when the wheel already works so well?
A short walk across Canton’s borders into the eeriely different Pontcanna gives you a whole new range of breakfast options.
Ground Bakery is home to one of the citys best breakfasts. Its ‘Fully Ground’ option on the menu is a true all-day breakfast, with a well composed balance of all ingredients. The star of its show is the ‘overnight bacon,’ though.
It is effectively a slab of pork belly, with all of the textural properties of moorish braised pork, combined with the saltiness and satisfaction of bacon. The plate of the overnight bacon with the mushrooms (14) tied together with a poached egg and herby oil on thick slab of bread is probably the best breakfast in the city for under £10.
I’ve never met anyone excited about hash browns. Their very nature is shrouded by indifference.
You won’t feel this way about Milkwood’s. Each one visibly layered; golden-brown and viscerally crunchy, flaking away at the mere thought of applied pressure. I once read somewhere that the chef takes pride in their hash browns. They should.
Get the breakfast bun, stacked with Oriel Jones’ best sausage patties underneath one of the potato marvels (15). Order a side portion of them too, for good measure.
If you’re in the area in the afternoon or evening, take a stroll into the bar area of Tom Simmons’ flagship venue, Thomas, and snack on its bread with mushroom butter (16) as you make your way through its accomplished cocktail list. Go back for a full meal at some point.
Across the Taff, there’s also a stretch spanning from Heath down to Roath that argaubly rivals the Canton Food Mile. From the top of Whitchurch Road down to base of Wellfield Road is an almost straight walk that’s easy to lose a whole day, if not more, in. It isn’t quite as defined as the Food Mile, but it’s definitely on the rise.
The start of this voyage is particularly strong, centred around Whitchurch Road, as new businesses increasingly move in to the newfound hub of good food. Your first stop should always be Longa, a modern and charming Turkish cafe, run by a family willing to enlighten and feed the city the best breakfasts their home country has to offer.
Ordering the menemen (17) brings you a silver bowl of eggs and peppers, sizzling and fantastically aromatic, alongside a basket of Turkish bread, ready to sop up any residual sauce left at the bottom of the dish. As interesting brunch options go, it’s high on the list.
Cross the road to Alex Gooch for a quick pastry refill or slice of pizza (18), all of which are plant based. Grab a loaf of bread on your way out, before walking a few doors down to the champion of the road, Brother Thai.
There’s a reason availability in this street-food-vendor-turned-restaurant remains challenging. After many years of dominating the street food circuit, Brother Thai proved that the business works just as well, if not better, in a restaurant format.
The restaurants is fantastically unauthentic. There’s no Pad Thai, rice noodles, or green curry here.
In fact, it’s a very short menu. But it doesn’t need to be any longer, really. Each of these dishes is a masterclass in honing the holy Thai flavour quadruple — a complex equilibrium of salty, sour, sweet, and spicy. It captures the flavour profile of the country, without playing into its stereotypes.
Stuffed rotis don’t exist in Thailand, or anywhere else outside of this small, modern, effortlessly chic venue. But going to Brother Thai and not ordering one would be like going to see the Rolling Stones, only for them to not play Satisfaction. It’s borderline sacrilege.
Get a the cult-classic sticky beef roti (19) if it’s your first time. Or second. Or third. Or seventeenth. But don’t sleep on the rest of the menu. The Thai fried chicken plate is just as symphonous as one could desire — juicy, crunchy and packed with all of the aromats of southeast Asia. Its further developed older sibling, the satay rice bowl, is one of owner Andrew Chongsathien’s greatest ever creations.
Order everything.
Cruise down Crwys Road, avoid stopping in Greggs for a sausage roll. Or do. Do what you want — I won’t judge you either way.
At the end, take the lefthand option onto Albany Road, pass another Greggs before taking a left down to Bruno’s. While Nata and Co often dominate the city’s Portuguese custard tart discourse, Bruno’s pastéis (20) may make you reconsider who deserves the top spot.
Each one holds its fantastically creamy filling, with an ever-so-slighty blackened exterior sitting atop a crisp layered shell. Grab a box of six to go and regret nothing.
If you’re still in the mood for something sweet, keep walking onto Wellfield Road, landing at the doorstep of Ty Melin bakery’s second shop. Whether it’s the signature croissant bomb or an almond pain au chocolat (21) (get the latter option), you’re going to be rewarded with some of the best pastry work in the city.
If you’re there at lunchtime, double-back onto yourself and take a stroll through the Globe Centre back onto Albany Road and grab a slice of Roman style pizza from Rome Eat (22). Topped with everything from proscuitto, spinach and ricotta, to potato and nduja, it’s hard to ask much more at the price point. Each square slice is a the perfect satisfaction balance between filling and crispy, and a refreshing change from the doughy apocalypse of modern “Neapolitan” pizza joints.
Speaking of bread, before you leave, go a few doors down into the Green Valley Food Centre. It’s an unassuming shop from the outside — the kind of multi-national store that carries almost all underrepresented food groups that you’ll never find in a gentrified area of a city, yet serves the people it aims to perfectly.
Shops like these are always a goldmine for various obscure ingredients that major Western supermarkets have no interest in selling, but are often sleeper hits. This is the case with Green Valley.
Within its walls, up a few stairs at the back of the shop, is a roaring furnace, where members of staff churn out fresh flatbreads everyday, neatly portioned into fours in opaque plastic bags (23). Each bag is £1, and surpasses any bread you’re going to find in any major shop or the local vicinity. Grab a bag, alongside one its hundreds of brands of imported dips, sit down, dip them, and enjoy the simple pleasures in life.
While you’re in the area, take a walk into The Wellfield, one of the best, and few chippies left in the city. Especially just for a snack, get a box of chips with its Irish curry sauce (24) and indulge on sheer nostalgic, greasy pleasure.
If you’re in the mood for something a little modern, walk a few streets down to Sibling — a brother and sister-owned coffee shop also specialising in natural wines and small plates. Take a browse of its changing blackboard and snack on everything from crisps topped with anchovies to Iberico sobrasada on toast (25).
The fried chicken is over £10 so can’t be officially recommended, but it’s worth every penny.