Cardiff Council’s “Economy & Culture scrutiny committee” this week released a report digging into Cardiff’s night time economy, putting forward some recommendations that will go to the council’s executive meeting later this year. – Calls for a clear strategy and management of the night time economy – Better enforcement of licensing and other rules in the city centre by officers – Business signing up to a ‘standard’ for customer services – Investment in opening up the city centre at night [...]

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 [...]

TGI Friday’s are celebrating their 25th birthday this year, and Dan from Clic and me were invited down to help them to celebrate in style. Our top tip from the night is to seek out a bartender called “Dan” (pictured above with oranges in his hands) and get him to make you an Old Fashioned. Made of dissolved sugar with bitters then adding whiskey and a twist of citrus rind,  I have sunk many of these whiskey cocktails while on my [...]

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 [...]