Carib Vibes, Cardiff city centre Caribbean bar and restaurant review

When is a Wetherspoons pub not a Wetherspoons pub? 

When it's become a Caribbean bar and jerk grill. 

Located in The Crockerton on Greyfriars Road in Cardiff city centre, I reckon the interior of Carib Vibes must have hardly changed since its previous guise as a Wetherspoons pub. Because, well, it still looks exactly like a cavernous Wetherspoons pub.

There wasn't much of a vibe at 6pm on the Wednesday evening we visited. In fact, we were pretty much the only people in the place apart from someone watching Coronation Street reruns on their mobile phone. But, I bet it’s absolutely bouncing at 2am on a Friday night when they have one of their regular Dancehall, Reggae and R&B events.

Carib Vibes serves a range of Caribbean classics, including curry goat, brown stew chicken and ackee and saltfish. On the day we visited there were no wings or plantain available – a shame as we’d probably have ordered both.

To go alongside the Caribbean cooking, there’s a tasty sounding selection of cocktails. Mrs G enjoyed a totally tropical Pum Pum Rock (£8), a fruity and coconutty mix of vodka, Malibu, dark rum, triple sec, pineapple and cranberry. I swigged a pint of malty and slightly sweet Red Stripe.

To start, Stamp and Go (£4.95) were beautifully crisp, golden and grease free. The lightly chewy dumplings were well spiced and flecked with flakes of salt cod. The friendly member of front of house was aggrieved that the chef hadn’t cooked him some too… shortly after he gleefully re-emerged from the kitchen with his own bowlful.

Onto the mains, and tender, fat-rich pieces of oxtail (£15.99) fell off the bone with ease and were bathed in a meaty, warming spiced gravy alongside soft butterbeans. But, there wasn't that much meat once Mrs G had picked through the bones. The dish was accompanied by lovely coconut fragranced rice and peas and a slightly odd mango slaw, which was more like shredded cabbage topped with mango chutney.

Jerk chicken (£15.99) was served with the same accompaniments. The commendably tender pieces of bone in chicken thigh and leg were coated in an aromatic jerk-spiced gravy. Whilst it lacked the lick of barbecue smoke and fiery chilli heat that I was expecting, it was still a very tasty dish.

Overall, we had an enjoyable dinner at Carib Vibes and the front of house staff were super friendly. If you’re looking for Caribbean vibes in Cardiff city centre then it’s worth considering.

The Details:

Address - Carib Vibes Bar & Jerk Grill, Greyfriars Road, Cardiff CF10 3AD

Web - https://www.caribvibesbar.com/menu

Telephone - 029 2252 0413

Heathcock Bakery and Deli, Llandaff, Cardiff review

I’ve always got an eye out for a good deal.

It’s one of the upsides of paying for your own meals rather than reviewing freebies. It’s a lot trickier to judge the value for money of something when you haven’t paid for it with your own hard-earned cash.

So, it’s one of the reasons why I can’t stop talking about Bar 44’s bargainous set menu, which offers three dishes and a drink for £20. Oh look, there I did it again.

Another good value menu which recently caught my attention is the Heathcock Bakery’s meal deal, which offers a sandwich or a toastie, a coffee and a sweet treat for £10 between 8am and 4pm seven days a week.

Located on Llandaff High Street, the Heathcock Bakery and Deli is run by the same team behind the brilliant Heathcock pub. As well as serving freshly baked goods, cooked breakfasts, sandwiches and salads, there’s an excellent range of produce on offer from Welsh and further afield producers like Caws Teifi, Cacklebean and Rockfish.

On both my lunchtime visits, I ordered the £10 meal deal and service was super quick - I received my food within around five minutes of ordering.

A very good flat white, made with Hard Lines coffee, had no hint of any unpleasant bitterness whilst an iced americano ticked all the right boxes.

A BLT sandwich was as good an example as you’ll find in Cardiff. The thick sliced, soft crumbed sourdough was a fine vehicle for two rashers of top notch thick sliced bacon, perky lettuce and tomato and excellent yellow-hued silky homemade mayonnaise.

A toasted sandwich was made with more of that lovely sourdough, this time grilled to a golden crisp and filled with a generous ooze of tangy melted cheese and thick slices of baked ham. A minor quibble, but it wasn’t made with the air-dried Carmarthen ham that was advertised on the menu.

Onto the sweet stuff, and a chocolate brownie was light and gooey all the way to the edges with a good chocolate intensity and a topping of a mix of white, dark and milk chocolate buttons.

A jam doughnut was a shade darker than I’d have liked and could have been a bit more squidgy, but it had a fresh crumb and a filling of proper thick jam. On my return visit, the doughnuts on display were a better colour. 

For the quality of the food and drink on offer, the Heathcock Bakery’s £10 meal deal is cracking value. If like me, you’ve got your eye out for a good deal, then it’s a Cardiff café which should definitely be on your hit list.  

The Details:

Address - Heathcock Bakery and Deli, 48 High Street, Llandaff, Cardiff CF5 2DZ
Web - https://www.instagram.com/heathcockbakery/

Buds, Radyr cafe and patisserie review

Opening a good restaurant, bar or cafe in an underserved suburb of Cardiff appears to be a recipe for independent hospitality success.

With the number of restaurants now competing in areas like Pontcanton, Roath and Cathays, it’s on the fringes of the city where there are still gaps in the market.

Mesen has built up a great reputation in Rhiwbina. Dusty’s looks to have settled in well at their new home in Llanishen. And State of Love and Trust in Lakeside has quickly established itself as one of the city’s best wine and craft beer bars.

Radyr is the most recent Cardiff suburb to have an exciting new independent hospitality business open on its doorstep in the form of Buds. 

Billed as serving “brunch, small plates and patisserie”, Buds is co-owned by Andrew Minto, an acclaimed patisserie chef who won Bake Off: The Professionals in 2021, and Kate Parsons, the chef behind the excellent Nomad Kitchen.

The first thing that strikes you about Buds is the ridiculous number of delicious looking cakes and pastries on offer. Their macarons, cookies and cream layer cake, cinnamon buns, lemon meringue tarts, Biscoff cheesecake and s’mores pie would keep me occupied for a very long time. 

But, we were here for lunch, so it would have been rude not to eat something savoury first. 

On Bud’s menu there’s a selection of brunch dishes such as a fried breakfast (£13), steak benedict (£13) and French toast with bacon (£10) as well as a few really good sounding lunch dishes, including a bacon cheeseburger (£13) and fried chicken sandwich (£13). There aren’t currently any small plates on offer so I wonder if these will arrive with a possible evening opening in future?

Having been advised by a good friend that Bud’s breakfast bun (£10) was the best they’d ever eaten, I couldn’t really order anything else. It was really bloody good. A golden, light, soft and slightly sweet house baked milk bun was a first-class vehicle for a bevy of fried treats – good quality sausage, crisp streaky bacon, a fried egg, and a golden slick of melted American cheese. Saucing came in the form of a schmear of thick and sweet chilli jam. It was a very good condiment but it perhaps lacked the crucial acidity that ketchup or brown sauce provide.

On the side was a crisp cube of excellent hash brown. I’d gladly eat a whole stack of them.

Miso mushrooms on toast (£8) was a much more straightforward affair but every component hit the mark. Soft crumbed, buttered granary toast was piled high with golden mushrooms twanged with the savoury hit of miso.

We decided to share a market salad bowl (£9) so that we had a bit of greenery to go with our meal. I agreed on the proviso that we could order it with fried chicken (£4) on top. I’m glad we did, because it was top notch – the meat was impressively juicy due to its buttermilk marinade, and it was coated in a rugged grease free crumb.

The rest of the salad was very good – a sweet and earthy beetroot pickle was the standout whilst I also really enjoyed a crisp celeriac remoulade and mixed leaves topped with a fruity vinaigrette. A disproportionately large pile of mange tout was the only component that I wasn't fully sold on. 

Whilst the savoury dishes were delicious, I couldn’t wait for dessert.

It’s no underestimation to say that a chocolate and salted caramel tart (£4) was the best example of its type that I’ve ever eaten. Gloriously rich, it combined a thin and hyper crisp chocolate pastry case filled with thick salted caramel, a layer of silky-smooth chocolate ganache and nod towards lightness in the form of a piped cloud of chocolate mousse. If you’re into chocolate and caramel, then this an essential Cardiff dessert.

A funfetti cookie (£3.50) was a proper chonky boi. Crisp on the outside with a soft centre, it was flecked with lightly caramelised white chocolate chips and multicoloured sprinkles. It’s the kind of cookie which people queuing down the street for if it was peddled by a vibey Soho establishment.

We had a cracking lunch at Buds and it’s great to see it so busy after just five weeks of opening. If I lived closer, then I’m sure I’d be down there regularly to guzzle their sweet treats.

I’ve no doubt Buds will be another Cardiff suburban success story. I wonder what the next one will be… are Thornhill and Pontprennau set to become home to exciting independent hospitality businesses?

The Details:
Address - Buds, 7-9 Park Road, Radyr, Cardiff CF15 8DF
Web - http://budscafe.co.uk/

Ostuni, Lakeside, Cardiff Italian cafe review

 

A stroll in the sunshine and a sandwich. Life’s simple pleasures are the best ones.

One of our favourite walks in Cardiff is along the entire length of the green corridor from Waterloo Gardens to the recently reopened Llanishen Reservoir. It’s a beautiful place where we’ve seen little grebes, whopping carp, and rare birds like the northern diver.

But, enough about ecology, you’re more likely here for the sandwichology.

On our most recent visit to the reservoir, we stopped for a quick bite to eat at Ostuni. It’s located just a ten-minute walk from the edge of the reservoir, and you might well know it from one of its previous incarnations, the iconically named Bgetti Junction.

Ostuni is a café, bakery and event catering business, which is named after the Puglian town in southern Italy where the owner’s family originally hail from. Their original branch can be found in Newport Market whilst their Cardiff site opened in August 2023.

Whilst Ostuni serves filled baguettes, panini, ice creams, milkshakes and coffee, their centrepiece is undoubtedly a fridge overflowing with custard slices, cookies, cheesecakes, éclairs and choux buns.  

We arrived just after midday and grabbed one of their outside shaded tables which take in a panoramic view of the busy roundabout.

Iced lattes (£3), one with dairy milk and the other with oat milk, were generously portioned and refreshing on a baking hot sunny day.

Both our baguettes were well-stuffed and tasted very fresh - the bread was crusty yet soft.

One sandwich (£5.95) was well filled with big hunks of chicken breast, salty streaky bacon, lettuce, tomato and a good slather of mayonnaise. It was my pick of the two.

The other (£5.95) was loaded with salami, thinly cut baked ham, mixed leaves and a good sprinkling of savoury grana padano cheese. I think it could have been improved further with a drizzle of olive oil and vinegar.

It was difficult to choose from Ostuni’s cake selection. I’ve previously heard good things about their slab like custard slice but it appears to be a meal in itself.

A pistachio éclair (£3.50) was a naughty old skool treat. The whopping choux pasty bun was loaded with thick and wobbly custard and topped with sweet and sticky pistachio flavoured icing studded with the crunch of a few nuts.

A cannoli (£3.50) was my pick of the bunch. Filled to order, the crisp and brittle pastry case was filled with sweetened cream cheese studded with chocolate chips. It was a great example of one of my favourite sweet treats (as an aside, I remember travelling all the way to the most famous cannoli place in Boston only to be underwhelmed).

We had a very tasty lunch at Ostuni and I’d recommend it for a pitstop if you’re ever out for a stroll near Llanishen Reservoir. With the number of people pulling up to grab a bite to eat whilst we were there, they’ve clearly already built up a loyal following during their first twelve months in Cardiff .

The Details:

Address - Ostuni, 312 Heathwood Road, Cardiff CF14 4HT
Web - https://ostuni.co.uk/
Telephone - 07853 383394

Little Kochi, Roath, Cardiff Keralan restaurant review

"Ooooh, haven’t they done a nice job with the place” we remarked as we crossed the threshold of Albany Road’s Little Kochi.

With its bamboo bedecked walls and twinkling lanterns, it’s unrecognisable from its previous incarnation as Bo Zan, a decades old Chinese restaurant.

It’s certainly one of the Cardiff’s most charming dining rooms, and one which is designed to look like the houseboats that navigate the backwaters of Kerala.

Despite the number of excellent southern Indian restaurants in Cardiff, Little Kochi has still managed to build up a big reputation in the two years since they've opened. 

We visited on a swelteringly hot Tuesday night when it was nearly a full house in their cool, air-conditioned dining room.

Nothing quite hits the spot like the first gulp of an ice-cold pint on a hot day. Their Cobra (£6.70) most certainly did the job.

Little Kochi’s expansive menu has plenty of eye-catching dishes, from dosas and biryanis to kingfish curries and pork shoulder peralan. If you’re vegetarian, then it’s worth noting that they have an impressive selection of seven different veggie mains and six sides.

Crisp poppadom shards (£2) were impeccably crisp and grease free. Accompanying chutneys were fairly run of the mill – a mint and garlic yoghurt, sweet chilli and mango chutney.

Little Kochi’s clay oven paneer tikka (£8.20) saw squidgy and creamy cheese triangles coated in an intensely spiced marinade and nicely licked with char. It was a very good dish.

I’m always a sucker for Indo-Chinese dishes and this chilli gobi (£7.90) was no exception. Big florets of tender cauliflower were coated in a soft and thin batter coated in a sticky, sweet, spicy and savoury sauce.

Despite the deliciousness of our two starters, I cast an envious glance at our friend’s paneer dosa (£8.90). The crisp pancake was larger than the size of his cross fit-enhanced thighs and filled with spiced mashed potato flecked with pieces of paneer. Its accompaniments brought extra dimensions – a fiery tomato chutney, creamy coconut and a punchy sambar.

 

Onto mains, and there was one particular dish which I’d heard rave reviews about – the Keralan roast beef (£15.60). It certainly lived up to its billing. A whopping cast iron pan was loaded with hunks of tender slow-cooked beef coated in a thick sauce with a good hit of chilli, coconut and curry leaf.

A milder and creamier fish molee (£15.50) was a good contrast, its sauce fragranced with turmeric and ginger and packed with big pieces of meaty king fish.

A pair of hoppers (£2.90) were lacy and crisp around the edges with a lighter and soft textured centre. The batter itself had a lovely delicately sweet flavour with a light fermented tang.

Kallappam (£2.90) were very similar, in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if they were made with the same batter. This time around it was used to make a thicker more uniform pancake, which was also a delicious vehicle for shovelling curry into my gob.

We probably didn’t need to order any vegetable sides, but I always seem to get carried away.

Cabbage and carrot thoran (£5.10) was the pick of the bunch – the light and fresh stir fried diced carrot and cabbage were nicely scented with coconut and Keralan spice.

I really enjoyed the soft and squidgy texture of a bowl of tempered potatoes (£4.90) but they probably could have done with a bigger hit of spice.

I was congratulated by the owner on my pronunciation of okra mezhukkupuratti (£4.90); it was well worth the tongue twisting required to order it. Stir-fried okra had no sliminess at all and was coated in a light tomato and ginger seasoning.

Absolutely stuffed, we bagged up a couple of containers of leftovers to take home and I can confirm they all tasted just as lovely the following day.

We had a delicious, generous and well-priced meal at Little Kochi. Even if you already have a few favourite southern Indian restaurants in Cardiff then it’s still well worth checking out. Next time there’s a heatwave I’ll certainly be heading back to their air conditioned dining room for a bowl of Keralan roast beef and a dosa.

The Details:

Address - Little Kochi, 78 Albany Road, Cardiff CF24 3RS

Web - https://littlekochi.com/

Telephone - 029 2233 8265