As a fully-fledged fried chicken fiend and a card-carrying Carhartt-clothed craft beer nerd, Whitchurch's Kegbelly is a new Cardiff opening that I’ve been very excited about.
It seems like I'm not the only one. Because by all accounts, they’ve been rushed off their feet since they opened in the middle of August. On social media, there are regular photos of the venue being standing room only with people spilling out onto the street. And soon after opening they sold out of their own Yawn house pale ale, such was the demand for the stuff.
Kegbelly is co-owned by Mr Croquewich, local street food veterans, and Flowerhorn Brewery, an Ely-based set-up with psychedelic branding. I’ve had a number of their beers since they first opened in 2019 and they’ve got better and better every time I’ve tried them.
As Kegbelly is walk-ins only and I'm always keen to avoid the crowds, we visited on a weekday lunchtime.
Kegbelly has a very good selection of beers on draft with hoppy beers, stouts and sours from Flowerhorn as well as a permanent guest lines from Caerphilly’s Dark Element (arguably Wales’ hottest new brewery) and house lager from Munich’s Hofbräu. In the unlikely event that there isn’t something to your taste on the 13 taps then there’s a fridge full of beers from the likes of Verdant, Vault City, and 3Fonteinen.
We started off with Flowerhorn’s super crushable Yawn pale ale (£5.70 a pint) and their thicker and danker Limbzilla NEIPA (£7.50 a pint) before moving onto an excellent pale ale from Dark Element (£6.30 a pint).
Mr Croquewich is a local street food legend and over the years I’ve enjoyed many of their grilled cheese sandwiches and fried chicken burgers. So, it’s understandable that they're the focus of Kegbelly's menu as well as chicken wings and foot long hotdogs. It’s the ideal kind of food to soak up a few beers.
A Crocker’s club (£15) was top drawer. A golden crumbed and juicy brined chicken thigh was dusted with savoury parmesan cheese and filthed up significantly with the addition of crispy prosciuitto, funky truffle mayo, sweet and spicy chilli jam, and some token iceberg lettuce. It was all stuffed into a sturdy yet soft crumbed Pettigrew bakery croissant scrap roll and on the side was a pile of very good crisp fries.
I’m a big fan of the Cubano sandwich and I think Mr Croquewich’s version (£12) might now be the definitive one in Cardiff. Gorgeously cheese crusted toasted sourdough cosseted a big ooooze of melted smoky jack, mozzarella and cheddar cheeses that were layered with shreds of pulled spiced mojo pork, slices of tender ham, and a sweet and warming honey mustard sauce. Pickles and sunblushed tomatoes went an inch towards balancing the richness of the excellent toasted sandwich.
We had excellent lunch at Kegbelly. Their combination of craft beer and indulgent street food is very much my vibe and it's clear to see why the people of Whitchurch are flocking through their doors.
The Details:
Address - Kegbelly, 12 Park Road, Whitchurch, Cardiff CF14 7BQ
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