Chan's Noodle Bar, Cardiff Bay independent restaurant review

Whenever I’m asked to recommend an independent restaurant in Cardiff Bay, it’s always a bit of a head scratcher.

Whilst we’ve visited a few good places over the years, including Zaika, the Duchess of Deli and Yakitori #1 alongside more recent openings such as the Yorkshire Wrap at the Norwegian Church and Tiger Yard’s line-up of street food vendors, it’s still a part of Cardiff which is dominated by the blandest of chains.

So, Chan’s Noodle Bar in the heart of Mermaid Quay is a place which piqued my interest whilst walking past it on one of our regular bird spotting strolls around the Bay.

With its bright and functional dining space, their menu features Chinese takeaway classics, noodle soups, build your own noodle boxes, tray meals and Cantonese roast meats (sadly unavailable during our visit). On the weekday lunchtime we visited the place was full with office workers making the most of their lunch breaks.

There’s a cheap meal to be had as Chan’s meal boxes offer a choice of dishes, boiled rice and broccoli for £8.95 and their noodle boxes weigh in at a similar price point. But, it was their pricier Chan’s specials which sounded the most interesting, with dishes including salted egg yolk king prawn (£12.65), beef brisket and preserved bean curd stew (£12.65), and special pork chops with honey chilli sauce (£10.95).

We ordered a couple of smaller dishes and a pair of Chan’s specials to share and it was a heck of a big lunch.

I was told that crispy duck buns were unavailable after I’d ordered and paid for them and so chose chicken satay buns as an alternative. Strangely enough, the duck buns turned up at our table. A pair of soft and squidgy bao (£7.35) cosseted a classic combination of crisp and tender aromatic duck, cleansing cucumber and spring onion, and sweet and sticky hoi sin sauce. They were very tasty, if a little light on filling.

A quintet of thin-skinned dumplings (£7.35) were filled with tightly packed minced beef. They were pretty good, but slightly one note in their savoury seasoning, and so were elevated by a lovely dipping sauce with a nice balance of chilli, sweet and savoury.

Beef ho fun (£10.95) was the standout of the meal. The colossal portion of thick rice noodles, which were flecked with plentiful pieces of tender beef and crisp beansprouts, had an excellent smoky savouriness from the wok.

King prawn fried rice with XO sauce (£11.95) was just as generously proportioned but less successful on the flavour front. Whilst seven whopping sweet and tender king prawns were delicious they were let down by the fried rice, which was rather bland and almost totally lacking the compelling savoury hit of XO. It’s fortunate we had some chilli sauce leftover to pep the dish up a bit.

Overall, we had a good lunch at Chan’s Noodle Bar that wasn’t without its faults. I’d certainly go back for another bowl of their beef ho fun and would be interested to try some of their more keenly priced meal box options.

The Details:

Address - Chan's Noodle Bar, Unit 20, Mermaid Quay, Cardiff Bay, CF10 5BZ

Web - https://chansnoodle.com/
Telephone - 02920482688