BBQ Xiang, Cardiff city centre Cantonese roast meat review

I’ve got a hell of a lot of love for roast meat.

Whether it’s Cantonese siu mei, a Sunday roast, spit-roasted souvlaki and shawarma, or Spanish suckling pig, a pile of tender caramelised meat is pretty much as good as it gets in my book. 

So, it’s good to see the proliferation of Cantonese style roast meat specialists in Cardiff. 

The latest to join the fold is BBQ Xiang on Caroline Street, located in the tiny former site of Malai Thai. With a hyper-specialised menu, you can have whatever you want as long as it’s Cantonese roast meat. 

On offer is roast duck, crispy pork, char sui pork, soy sauce chicken and steamed chicken served with a choice of rice, soup noodles or stir-fried noodles. A handful of other specials includes dumpling noodle soup, vegetables with garlic and fish with pickled mustard greens. 

As is customary for siu mei specialists, they've got their wares on display in the kitchen window. I've got a lot of time for transparency and pride in product and those golden-skinned ducks and chickens looked cluckin’ tasty.

To drink, a bottle of ice cold roasty oolong tea (£3.50) provided perfect refreshment.

On my first visit, the meats were all superb. Tender, juicy and well-rendered of fat. Pork belly was crispy AF, off the bone duck breast was impeccably juicy and best of all, the char sui pork, had an addictively good, sweet marinade. They were served hot too, which is more my bag than when it’s served at room temperature. 

I ordered my triple roast meats in laksa (£13.80) with ramen noodles. The thin broth had a lovely chilli heat, fragrance and creamy coconuttiness. In its depths bobbed crisp beansprouts, tofu puffs, lettuce and coriander. A family-sized portion of noodles were pleasingly bouncy with a little chew.

On a second visit, my pick of the triple roast meats (£13.80) from the first visit turned out to be the weakest link.

Char sui pork still had its beautiful, sweet glaze but the meat was a little bit dry. In contrast, thin skinned bone-in roast duck and crunchy crackling pork belly were both bang on.

An accompanying mound of rice was nicely cooked and drizzled with sweet soy. Steamed lettuce provided token greenery whilst a dollop of chilli oil delivered a kick of spice.

BBQ Xiang most certainly know what they’re doing when it comes to Cantonese roast meats and when they’re on form they’re definitely up there with the best I've had in Cardiff. Coupled with their fast service and fair pricing, it makes for a great cheap addition to Cardiff city centre. 

The Details:

Address - BBQ Xiang, 33 Caroline Street, Cardiff CF10 1FF
Web - https://www.instagram.com/bbq_xiang/
Telephone - 07412 972271

Summer Palace, Cardiff Chinese restaurant review

I’ve got a lot of respect for any hospitality business that manages to survive for more than a year in the current climate.

So, it’s remarkable that Llandaff’s Summer Palace has been in the hands of the Chim family for almost forty years.

Located in a rabbit warren of grade II listed buildings close to Llandaff Cathedral, Summer Palace was buzzing on the wintry Saturday night we visited. Every table was occupied with generations of families and friends, and a steady stream of people arrived throughout the evening to collect takeaways.

It also says a lot about the popularity of the place that we booked three weeks in advance of our meal and had to slightly adjust our preferred time to secure a table. The well-oiled front of house team was clearly used to the crowds too – we had swift and friendly service throughout the night.

Summer Palace’s menu mainly comprises of British Chinese restaurant classics but a few notable points of interest in the chef’s specials include stuffed three delicacies (£15.95), mapo tofu (£13.95) and steamed seabass with shredded ginger (£19.95)

We mostly kept it old skool with our ordering.

Crisp prawn crackers (£4.50) were accompanied by a sweet chilli sauce with a good honk of garlic and throat tickling warmth.

Ice cold bottles of Tsing Tao, of course hit the spot.   

There was no doubting the freshness of lettuce wraps (£8.95) – the iceberg lettuce leaves were as crisp as you can get.

Their filling of pork mince, crisp vermicelli, diced carrot and spring onion was a bit light on flavour, so I made good use of the spare sweet chilli sauce from the prawn crackers to pep it up a bit.

Sesame prawn toast (£6.95) was a bang on iteration of this naughty classic. Crisp fried bread, sweet minced prawns and toasted sesame seeds were all on the money.

Onto mains, and textbook crispy chilli beef (£12.95) was the standout of the meal. Crisp as you liked batter-coated beef slivers were coated in a sweet, sticky and zingy chilli flecked sauce.

Sizzling lamb satay (£18.95) saw a spitting hot skillet laden with tender nuggets of meat and crisp vegetables coated in a spice-thwacked thick and nutty sauce.

If it wasn’t for the high seasoning, then Singapore vermicelli (£9.50) would have been an unmitigated success. The mountain of comforting curry spiced noodles was flecked with sweet prawns, roast pork, fresh vegetables and omelette pieces.

So there we have it, we had a very tasty meal at Summer Palace with fair prices and excellent service. Is it reinventing the wheel? No, but with nearly 40 years of history, it’s more likely that Summer Palace invented the wheel.

The Details:

Address - Summer Palace, 2-4 High Street, Llandaff, Cardiff, CF5 2DZ

Web - https://www.summerpalace.co.uk/

Telephone - 02922 973055 / 07368 231281

Crown Kitchen, Roath, Cardiff Chinese restaurant review

I’m a sucker for a superlative.

In fact, one of my mates takes the piss of out of my tendency to regularly declare something to be the “best” I’ve eaten in Cardiff. The best pizza. The best kebab. The best burger. The best ham in aspic. The best turducken.

What can I say, I’m in the hype game. And people don’t want to read about the seventh best birria tacos in Caerphilly or the fourth best pulled pork bun in Cardiff.

So, when an Instagram connection who knows a lot more about Chinese food than me declared Crown Kitchen on City Road to be the best Chinese restaurant in Cardiff, I promptly dug out my elasticated eating trousers and booked a table.

Crown Kitchen has only been open for four months and is owned by a wife and husband team who hail from Shanghai and south China respectively. One half runs front of house with fabulous warmth and enthusiasm whilst the other, who previously worked as a private chef at the Four Seasons hotel in London for over twenty years, runs the kitchen.

The bright and simple dining room was quiet when we first arrived at 7pm on a Saturday evening. But, it swiftly filled up with a massive group who spread themselves over three tables and tucked into a procession of excellent looking dishes.

As often seems to be the case, Crown Kitchen serves two different menus. One offers westernised Chinese cooking for diners looking for sweet and sour pork and chicken chow mein, the other features traditional Chinese food that draws influences from across the country.

Handily, all the dishes are photographed. So, if you’re as clueless as I am then it gives you a very good idea of what to expect.

I’ve eaten a lot of potatoes in my lifetime but none like the shredded potatoes in chilli sauce (£10.80) from Crown Kitchen. Finely shredded, slippery spuds with a lovely bite and no starchiness whatsoever were served as a warm salad lightly dressed with vinegar, oil, coriander and a potent kick of dried chilli. For such a simple dish, it delivered a huge amount of flavour.

Salt and chilli squid is one of my favourite Chinese restaurant dishes and here it took the form of crunchy tentacles (£16). The pile of tender Cthulhu-esque tendrils were coated in a super crisp and light batter that was aggressively seasoned with salt, chilli and garlic. It was seriously moreish stuff and perfect with an ice-cold beer.

Beef ho fun in black bean sauce (£13) was another belter of a dish. A mound of beautifully tender beef was bathed in deeply savoury black bean sauce and piled on top of thick ho fun noodles with a compellingly savoury wok smokiness.

A lightly dressed cucumber salad that was dotted with roasted peanuts brought some freshness and lightness to the meal. However, at £10.80, it was perhaps the only dish which was questionable value for money.

Crown Kitchen’s dry fried organic cauliflower with pork (£12) transformed an all too often dour vegetable into something exciting. Florets of cauliflower had just the right amount of bite and were stir fried with nuggets of tender pork belly, peppers and onion in a savoury and spicy sauce.

Sichuan spicy boiled fish (£22) lived up to its billing. A vast cauldron of intensely flavoured, spicy, lip-tingling broth was the home to plentiful meaty pieces of white fish and a heap of beansprouts. Autumn is my soup era and this hit the spot.  

A big slab of roasted lamb ribs (£22) was one of the dishes I was most looking forward to. And they very much delivered on their promise, with their combination of crisp skin, stupidly tender flesh and a liberal dusting of just the twenty different types of spice (I bet chilli and cumin were a big part of the mix). Unfortunately, the pretty platter they were served on was stone cold, meaning that within a few minutes they were tepid and had lost their mojo. I refried some of the leftovers the next day and can confirm they were just as good as the first mouthful.

The last dish of the night was Hainanese chicken curry (£18). With its plentiful chicken off the bone in a creamy and fragrant coconut sauce, it was very reminiscent of a Thai curry. Whilst it was very tasty, it was probably the only dish which I wouldn’t be in a rush to order again.

We had a superb meal at Crown Kitchen. With its immensely friendly front of house and deliciously big-flavoured cooking from a talented chef-owner, they serve some of the best Chinese food I’ve eaten in Cardiff. Oh look, there I go dishing out another superlative.

The Details:

Address - Crown Kitchen,120 City Rd, Cardiff CF24 3DQ 
Telephone - 07551 037509

Janet's, Pontypridd, Korean and Chinese restaurant review

“Joey doesn’t share food” is one of the abiding principles I’ve followed in life when dining out in a big group.

All too often I’ve been out with a load of mates and shared dinner only to end up with a single mouthful of the particular dish I wanted to order. Also, people often end up skirting around the food out of politeness so you don’t get to eat anywhere near as much as you’d like.

In contrast, by only sharing with Mrs G, we know exactly what’s ours and we can divide it up between the two of us with no fuss.

However, I’ve clearly been doing it wrong all this time. Because last week when we visited Janet’s Korean and Chinese restaurant as a group of eight, we ordered so much food and doubled up on so many dishes that there was absolutely no risk of me being left hungry.

It’s been almost five years since we’ve visited Janet’s and in that time, they’ve been named champions at the British Street Food Awards in 2021 and transformed from a market stall into a cosy restaurant located in Pontypridd town centre.

Having grown up in the Yanbian region of China that borders North Korea, chef and owner Janet Wei’s menu primarily draws influences from both countries. But, there’s also Vietnamese noodle salad, Malaysian laksa and other South East Asian dishes that feature too.

It’s good to see local Welsh influences on the booze selection and I knocked back a couple of very good bitter-sweet Dabinett ciders (£5.50) from Gwynt y Ddraig, who are located just down the road in Llantwit Fardre.

With the menu divided into dim sum, mains and sides, we ordered around 14 small plates and 10 larger dishes between the eight of us. Despite it sounding like a heck of a lot of food, we still managed to clear the lot.

Dishes were brought out in a staggered approach as and when they were ready, so there was nice pace to the meal and we were able to pile in on the dishes when they were at their freshest.

I was most impressed by the dim sum and I’d gladly devour any of them again.

A plate of pork and kimchi gyoza (£8.90) had compellingly crisp skins that were filled with a juicy mix of minced pork with a delicate spice and funk of kimchi.

A vibrant cucumber salad (£5.90) combined crunchy pieces of cleansing cucumber bathed in a savoury and spicy gochujang and garlic-based dressing that was flecked with coriander and crunchy peanuts.

Prawn and pork sui mai (£8.90) saw a quintet of delicate steamed dumplings stuffed with a tender and slightly sweet mix of minced prawn and pork. They were accompanied by a fiery hot chilli oil dip.

A crisp edged scallion pancake (£8.90) was topped with soft omelette and a hit of allium and funk of kimchi. It was a lovely bit of moreish comfort food.

Kimbap (£8.90) was a clean and light dish that well balanced the fried stuff. The super fresh Korean rice rolls were filled with crunchy raw and pickled vegetables and omelette and drizzled with the delicate chilli kick of a gochujang dipping sauce.

Finally, soft and airy homemade steamed buns (£9.90) were filled with hot shreds of sticky hoisin duck and the crunch of peanut and spring onion.

Whilst the mains were delicious, I don’t think they quite hit the highs of the smaller plates.

Cumin lamb (£16.90) was one of the standouts. A generous portion of tender lamb pieces were bathed in an addictively earthy cumin-laden spice blend. It had more of a saucy vibe going on than the dry stir fry at Zi’s Café and I thought it made a nice change.

Beef bibimbap (£16.90) combined a big pile of rice, stir fried beef, wafer thin batons of sauteed carrot, gochujang, and a runny-yolked fried egg. It all mixed together to create a lovely combination of flavours and textures. But the stone serving bowl lacked its advertised sizzle, so the dish didn’t have the crispy caramelisation which arises from the various components sticking to its edges.

 

Tender battered pieces of Korean honey chicken thigh (£14.90) were very tasty but were slightly over-sauced so that the meat lost some of its crispness and I thought the sweet and sticky sauce could have done with a bigger kick of chilli.

 

A volcano rice bowl (£16.90) combined a big pile of fried rice topped with sweet, marinated stir fried beef and cleansing kimchi sat in a thin cheese topped omelette. Much like the bibimbap, it was another comforting rice dish.

Finally, tender pieces of pork tenderloin (£14.90) were coated in a beautifully light batter and drizzled with a sticky sweet and sour sauce. It was very tasty but perhaps lacked the excitement of some of the other dishes.

We had a great evening at Janet’s sharing a massive spread of her comforting, spicy and fresh cooking. It’s a little bit different to anything in Cardiff and handily just a 30-minute hop away on the train.

Going forward, I’ve revised my approach to dinner out in a group to, “If in doubt, over order.” I mean, what’s the worst that can happen? I’ll just have a bunch of leftovers to take home and eat the next day. However, knowing my appetite, the chances of that happening are rather slim. 

The Details:

Address - Janet's, 3 Church Street, Pontypridd CF37 2TH

Web - https://www.janetspontypridd.com/

Telephone - 07825 463685 

Tofu Vegan, Islington, Chinese restaurant review

It always amuses me when I see people ranting about vegan food as though it's a threat to their existence. Spoiler alert, eating a bit less meat, fish or dairy isn’t going to speed up human extinction…

Whilst I enjoy a steak, doner kebab or keema naan as much as the next glutton, I’m fully on board with trying to eat a bit less meat and dairy.

Which brings me to the utterly brilliant Tofu Vegan in London, which serves a menu dedicated to vegan Chinese cookery. As they explain on their menu, it all makes a lot of sense as China has a rich tradition of plant-based cooking with grains, vegetables and tofu forming the core of many people’s diets.

Regional Chinese influences, including Sichuan and Cantonese, can be found across their cooking, with compelling sounding dishes like cloud ear fungus salad with coriander and pickled chilli, Dongbei sweet potato noodle sheets in spicy sesame sauce, hot and fragrant fried cauliflower, and Peking d’ck. 

Okay, I’m not 100% sure about that last one. 

I visited the Islington branch (they also have outlets in Spitalfields and Golders Green) with my good friend Pete, who’s a regular and so could advise on some essential orders. Everything we ate was rammed with flavour and clever texture contrasts.

A bowl of delicately skinned wontons (£7.90) had a minced meat textured, mushroom funked filling. They sat in a deep flavoured and delicately fiery house special sauce.

Sprightly stir-fried water spinach (£8.80) was bathed in a light and savoury dressing with the occasional nugget of potent chilli.

In contrast, crisp battered meaty morsels of oyster mushroom (£13.80), crunchy cashews and fresh spring onions were coated in a comforting sweet and sticky gong bao sauce with a balancing delicate sourness.

Gorgeously crisp-edged and tender morsels of cumin ‘lamm’ (£13.80) were the star of the show. The uncannily meaty tofu pieces were coated in a wonderfully savoury and earthy cumin-based spice mix and flecked with crisp sweet onions and slices of chilli.

It was even better stuffed into a pair of pillowy bao (£3.80).

Finally, a plate of Sichuan stir fry noodles (£8.90) had an addictive smoky savouriness from the wok and were dotted with little pieces of tender pork-esque tofu and crisp beansprouts and onions.

I had a fabulous lunch at Tofu Vegan. If it helps me do my bit for the planet then I'd gladly eat there any day of the week. How selfless of me.

The Details:

Address - Tofu Vegan, 105 Upper St, London N1 1QN

Web - https://tofuvegan.com/

Telephone - 020 7916 3304