I like Cardiff Bay. I lived there for a while and it was pleasant, but lacking in community – but I guess that’s what you get when you build 10,000 plaster of Paris carbon copy apartments into a new area that’s inhabited solely by chain restaurants. Cote Brasserie opened in November 2010 to little fanfare, taking over the spot previously filled by the “The Bay”, a Chinese restaurant which – despite being right on the “Sunset strip” of the Bay [...]

In a previous post I noted that Cardiff does not have a single Michelin starred restaurant, and this is still true – Le Gallois comes close, with three AA rosettes – and in my opinion it should have been handed the award; it certainly fits the criteria. We have only eaten out together once since Tristan was born last year, and that was when a large group of us went to a tacky chain restaurant, so to make our first [...]

I can sometimes be hypocritical in my musings, but I think that’s only human – as long as it doesn’t happen too often. I advocate  local business over chains, especially when it comes to eating out. The food at chains is usually daudry, plain and shipped in frozen – but on this blog I have still reviewed places like Ruby Tuesday. Don’t get me wrong, I like Ruby Tuesday – and I think it may even be an exception to [...]

“You must hate the commute” they say to me, my friends. “I walk 5 minutes to the train station, sit on my arse in a semi-comfortable seat for an hour, I get off and walk 10 minutes to the office” I reply, “It’s not exactly strenuous”. I left the company that I started in May 2009 to experience more new things, that and the working relationship between me and my business partner had become strained through all the late night [...]

Old Orleans in Cardiff Bay has never been a place I would have said to go to if someone asked me for restaurant suggestions. The last time I went there I still had long hair and my parents paid for my meal. From what I remember, the food was not up to much and I hadn’t felt an urge to go back since. This was 7 years ago. The company that own the Old Orleans brand, Punch Taverns, selected 6 [...]