Kegbelly, Penarth fried chicken pop-up review

Since Mrs G and I are supposed to be training for a big hike later this year, my current favourite category of restaurant is “places we can stomp to for something tasty to eat before meandering home at a leisurely pace”.

So, anywhere in Penarth, is pretty much ideal. And our previous endeavours have taken us to Tom’s Smashed Burgers at Crafty Devil Cellar.

This time around, on a sunny Sunday, it was the turn of Kegbelly’s pop-up on Penarth seafront.

After all, on a sunny day, things don’t get much nicer than a pint of beer, a plate of fried stuff and a view out to sea.

Kegbelly, a collaboration between Cardiff craft brewery Flowerhorn and street food vendor Mr Croquewich, has a permanent home in the Cardiff suburb of Whitchurch. Their Penarth pop-opened on the Esplanade at the start of April 2026 and is scheduled to run for six months until the end of September.

Alongside outside bench seating, Kegbelly have kitted out the interior with their distinctive neon pink and anarchic cartoon artwork. Its offbeat feel is a nice contrast to the traditionalism I normally associate with Penarth.

On the booze front, there’s a range of Flowerhorn’s craft beers on tap as well as alcoholic slushies, wine and spirits. We kicked off with very gluggable pints of Flowerhorn’s Yawn mosaic pale ale (£6.30) and I then moved onto enjoyably crispy Hofbrau German lager (£6.50).

When it comes to scran, on offer is a range of Mr Croquewich’s classics including grilled cheese sandwiches, parmesan fried chicken burgers, and hot dogs.

Once we’d placed our order at the bar, there wasn’t long to wait for food.

First-up were five pieces of golden crumbed, parmesan dusted, buttermilk marinated chicken thigh (£12.50) that were commendably crisp and juicy. Whilst they weren’t the biggest pieces of meat, you still got a heck of a lot of bang for your buck.

Included in the price were two accompanying pots of sauce. We chose garlic and soy rich Korean barbecue sauce and creamy and smoky baconnaise, which were excellent accompaniments for the fried chicken.

A good-sized portion of house fries (£4.50) were well herbed and salted.

We also ordered a Glamorgan grilled cheese sandwich (£8.50), one of the OGs from Mr Croquewich’s Riverside market days. Bronzed sourdough with a crispy caramelised cheese crust oozed out the edges with a mix of sweet leeks, creamy bechamel, cheddar, mozzarella and a warming thrum of Dijon mustard.

One of our mates ordered the Italian Job (£9), and as they struggled to finish it, I snaffled half myself. I thought this was even better than the Glamorgan. This time around, the crisp cheese-skirted sourdough was laden with melted cheese, tangy nuggets of goats cheese, sweet sunblush tomatoes, and fragrant basil pesto.

In the absence of any homemade desserts, I made do with a tasty tub of Sidoli's salted caramel ice cream. At least it felt very fitting enjoying an ice cream by the seaside. 

We had a great afternoon drinking craft beer and guzzling delicious street food at Kegbelly’s Penarth pop-up. If you’re looking for somewhere to spend a sunny afternoon by the seaside then I can highly recommend a visit. Whilst I understand the seasonal nature of seafront trade, I hope business booms and they stick around longer than September - it’s certainly an asset to the local area.

The details:

Address -  Kegbelly, 5 The Esplanade, Penarth Seafront, CF64 3AS 

Web - https://www.instagram.com/kegbellypenarth/

Nok and Roni's Kitchen, falafel and Thai cooking, Cardiff review

*Update - Nok & Roni's Kitchen has now relocated from Cardiff to Monmouth*

It feels like it’s been a very long and wet winter.

It must have felt even longer for outdoor-centric businesses like Nok and Roni’s Kitchen in Canton’s Boneyard.

Whilst they’ve got covered seating to take shelter from any inevitable downpours, this is a place where you’re acutely aware of the elements.

So, on the first sunny day in Cardiff in what seemed like months, we decided it was time for a long overdue visit to Nok and Roni’s.

For keen followers of Cardiff restaurant lore, Roni is the former owner of Crwys Road’s Falafel Kitchen, home of the best falafel that I’ve ever eaten in the city.

Having closed in 2018, Roni started a Mediterranean and Thai street food stall with his wife Nok. Hence the name Nok and Roni’s.

After stints at Roath and Riverside Markets, a short-lived cafe on Trade Street, and a spell at McCarthur Glen in Bridgend, Nok and Roni relocated to the Boneyard in early 2025.

I’ve always thought the Boneyard is a bit of a funny location. Hidden away at the end of an industrial estate alongside other shipping container creative companies, it’s the kind of place which has almost no passing trade.

So, unless you’ve planned a visit to Nok and Roni's, it’s very unlikely you’re going to stumble across them. It’s a shame because Nok and Roni’s menu of Mediterranean and Thai street food classics is the type of food that deserves to be stumbled upon.

Having ordered at the counter and following a short wait for everything to be cooked to order, we were in business.

Mrs G ordered the falafel wrap (£8) and its main component was every bit as good as I remembered. At least half a dozen golden falafel were beautifully crisp and grease free with light, soft and herb-flecked centres. They were stuffed into a whopping soft flat bread alongside thick hummus and fresh salad. On the side was a generous pile of skinny, paprika-dusted fries. For £8 this was a hell of a feed.

Despite also wanting to order falafel, I thought it would be churlish to not give Nok’s Thai cooking a go. I was very glad I did.

A tofu pad Thai (£9) was excellent. A generous portion of slippery noodles with just the right amount of bite were coated in a tangy, sweet and savoury sauce that was lifted with a good squeeze of lime. The crunch of smashed peanuts, fresh spring onions, a dusting of chilli flakes, caramelised omelette pieces and a scattering of squishy tofu puffs completed the delicious and well-priced dish.

I was worried about having FFOMO (falafel fear of missing out) so I ordered a side of falafel and hummus. Six of those brilliant chickpea fritters were sat in a bowl of thick and smooth tahini rich hummus. I was very glad I ordered them but at £6.50 I’d question their value compared to the wrap with chips that costs just £1.50 more. Next time I’ll skip breakfast and order a wrap and a pad Thai.

We had a belter of a lunch at Nok and Roni’s Kitchen and it’s great to see Cardiff’s falafel king still reigns supreme.

At the end of our meal, when I asked Roni how things were going in their new home, he told me that they’d struggled with the wet weather and so are potentially looking at relocating once again to a bricks and mortar space. I totally understand their dilemma. Wherever they’re based, Cardiff is very much better off with Nok and Roni’s cooking.

The Details:

Address - Nok and Roni's Kitchen, The Bone Yard, Paper Mill Road, Canton, Cardiff CF11 8DH

Web - https://www.instagram.com/nokandronikitchen/?hl=en

Telephone - 07400 522233

Waroeng Nona, Indonesian street food van, Cardiff city centre review

 

There weren’t many good things to come out of the pandemic, other than the rise in popularity of birdwatching, the move towards more flexible homeworking, and the demise of certain self-serving politicians.

Another positive was the arrival of exciting home delivery businesses that were run by people looking to find alternative ways of making a living whilst bricks and mortar restaurants were closed.

One such business was Waroeng Nona, an Indonesian home delivery that was founded by Nona (Sindy) Spiesz. Originally from Indonesia, Nona moved to Cardiff in 2012 and had worked as a chef in restaurants, hotels and street food stalls. As the first Indonesian food business that I’d encountered in Cardiff, it was exciting to try a different cuisine.  

Since the pandemic, Waroeng Nona has run the occasional pop-up until a few months ago when they opened a dinky street food van at the back of the Queen’s Arcade on Working Street. Open six days a week from 12pm to around 4.30pm, except when they’re doing pop-ups elsewhere, the van offers a compact menu of six dishes, including beef rendang, jackfruit gulai and vegetable crispy rolls.

I ordered two of Indonesia’s most famous dishes, beef rendang (£10) and a side of chicken satay (£8).

Rendang, which I was told means reduced in Indonesian is named after the slow cooking process rather than a specific recipe, which varies according to the country’s different islands. Nona’s recipe belongs to her mum, a street food vendor on the island of Java, and it’s a real labour of love that requires a six-hour slow cook.

It was an absolute belter of a dish and as good as any rendang I’ve ever eaten. Massive fall apart chunks of slow-cooked beef were coated in a thick reduced sauce that was heady with coconut and warming spice. I kept on coming across pieces of whole spice, which I may or may not have correctly identified as included nutmeg, cinnamon, lime leaf, and pandan leaf.

This corker of a curry was sat on top of distinctly grained turmeric and coconut scented rice and topped with crispy onions, fresh coriander, cleansing purple pickles, and colourful crunchy kroepoek crackers.

Whilst the rendang was an ample meal all by itself, I couldn’t say no to a side dish of chicken satay (£8). If you’re less greedy than me then it’s also available as a main with rice for £10.

They were superb and up there with the best satay I’ve eaten. The gloriously tender marinated meat skewers were nicely caramelised around the edges and drenched in a mildly spiced peanut sauce. Layers of additional flavour and crunch arrived from crispy onions, fresh coriander, spicy sriracha and sweet and savoury kecip manis.

Word has clearly spread quickly about the quality of Waroeng Nona’s cooking as Saturday Kitchen TV presenter Matt Tebbutt arrived halfway through my lunch to film for an episode of his new TikTok street food series.

I had a killer meal from Waroeng Nona and it’s great to see them take up a more regular spot in the city centre. It’s street food businesses like these which make Cardiff an exciting city to eat in - not the latest pan-Asian restaurant chain which has received a disproportionate amount of airtime due to the number of free meals that they’ve given out.  

The Details:

Address - Waroeng Nona, Queen's Arcade, Working Street Cardiff CF10 2GB
Web - https://waroengnona.co.uk/
Telephone - 07749 172139

Ffos Caerffili, Caerphilly street food market review

Chris “Flamebaster” Roberts’ new TV series Chris Cooks Cymru is one of the best Welsh cookery shows we’ve seen in years. It was so addictive that we binged it in two sittings on iPlayer.

Chris, a former care worker from Caernarfon, is a natural presenter who knocks up delicious looking fire food and clearly loves guzzling Welsh food and drink as much as I do.

Each episode focuses on the food scene in a different Welsh towns or city. Watching the series immediately made me want to pack my bags and set off on a gastronomic tour of Cymru.

Fortunately, Caerphilly, the focus of one the episodes, is just up the road. So, we got off our backsides and headed to Ffos Caerffili, a shipping container street food market and retail court.

Ffos Caerffili is home to a range of retail outlets including a butcher, fishmonger and off licence. But we were there to nosh our way around their compact selection of six street food vendors, which includes Bab Haus Mex, Acme Burgers, Estraneo Pizza, and Bao Selecta.

Whilst Ffos Caerfilli is primarily an outdoor set up, it's useful to know that there’s plenty of undercover seating. The upstairs seating area is the lightest and has the best views of the always impressive Caerphilly Castle.

Ffos Caerffili’s beer selection is better than any other street food market I’ve visited in Wales. With two beers on tap from Caerphilly-based Dark Element, arguably the most exciting new brewery in Wales, we knocked back half pints of their hoppy and easy drinking Earthbound and Nostalgia pale ales. There were also a couple of beers on tap from Cardiff’s ever reliable Crafty Devil.

 

Food ordering takes place via QR codes on tables and service was impressively speedy, even on a busy Saturday lunchtime.

Leyli Homayoonfar’s Bab Haus are bona fide street food royalty with outlets in Newport Market and Barry Goodsheds as well as a Smoke Shop HQ just up the road in Bedwas. Leyli’s whopping flavoured Mexican, Persian and American flame food always packs in so much flavour.

On the menu at Bab Haus Mex are loaded nachos, burritos, tacos and burrito bowls. But, there’s no getting past their signature smoked beef birria tacos (£12.90) which are as good as any street food dish I’ve eaten in the UK.

A pair of meat juice-soaked corn tortillas were packed to the edges with shreds of super tender, meaty and well-spiced smoked beef birria that were coated with a golden rim of crusty melted mozzarella. Additional pops of flavour come from zingy tajin spice powder, fresh coriander, pink pickled onions, and an excellent haus hot sauce. The kicker was a pot of beef consommé, which was more reminiscent of a thick and spicy beef gravy that happened to be studded with even more chunks of beef.

Acme Burger is a sister to Cardiff stalwarts Dusty’s Pizza and their menu divides its focus between smashed burgers, buttermilk chicken sandwiches, and loaded fries.

This was the second bacon double cheeseburger (£12.50) which I’d eaten from Acme in the space of two weeks, and it was even better than the first one. It was a meaty mess that required at least three napkins. 

A golden squidgy steamed challah bun was home to a pair of smashed patties that had a really good beefiness, two types of oozy cheese, crisp smoked streaky bacon, a sweet and savoury onion relish and whipped bacon cream cheese.

It’s been a long while since I’ve eaten a bao from Bao Selecta, who also have a permanent home in Cardiff Market, but their vegan crispy beef bao (£10) were still just as good as a remember them.

A pair of soft steamed buns were loaded with crisp pieces of battered seitan coated in a sweet, sticky and spicy chilli ginger glaze as well as richness balancing pickled cucumbers and onions. The meaty chew of the seitan meant this vegan dish did a very impressive job at imitating Chinese takeaway crispy chilli beef.

On the side, a pot of kimchi slaw (£3.75) was excellent. Crisp, cleansing, delicately spicy and funky it was a lovely bit of freshness in contrast to all the other rich dishes we ate for lunch.

On our walk back to the car we popped into Fablas ice cream parlour, who also have branches in Cowbridge, Penarth and Porthcawl. Their range of creative flavours, which includes lemon curd, Ruffles, crème caramel and jaffa cake, is a refreshing change from the bog standard.

Both flavours in our double scoop tub (£4.75) were enjoyably smooth, thick, creamy – excellent rum and raisin and Dubai chocolate, which combined pistachio ice cream topped with crisp shreds of kataifi pastry and shards of white and milk chocolate.

We had a corker of a lunch at Ffos Caerffili. With its small but well-curated line-up of street food vendors and excellent selection of craft beer, it’s a lovely spot for a bite to eat. Next time we visit I’m definitely going to get the train so we can make more of a dent in the Dark Element beers.

As it is, I had to make do with a few cans to take home from the Lockup Bottle Shop downstairs in the market.

The Details:

Ffos Caerffili

Address - Cardiff Rd, Caerphilly CF83 1FN

Web - https://ffoscaerffili.co.uk/

Fablas 

Address - Unit 31, Castle Court Shopping Centre, Caerphilly CF83 1NU

Web - https://fablasicecream.com/

Kegbelly, Whitchurch, Cardiff craft beer and street food review

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

Web - https://www.instagram.com/kegbellycardiff/

Fire & Flank, Tiger Yard, Cardiff review

Steak doesn't seem like the best idea when it comes to street food.

Typically requiring ‘à la minute’ preparation, there's nowhere to hide with how precisely it’s cooked or how well rested it is. 

With orders to churn through at a rate of knots, the last thing you’d want to do is serve something overcooked and resembling a piece of shoe leather. Or something so badly rested that it exsanguinates all over the rest of the dish. 

So, it's a testament to the ingenuity of the team at Cardiff's Fire & Flank that they've adopted a technique which means that they can consistently knock out beautifully cooked steaks time and time again. 

Initially cooked sous vide in a 57˚C water bath, Fire & Flank’s flank steaks are then finished on a griddle (or with a blow torch depending on health and safety rules). The result is a steak with a beautifully pink interior and a golden, caramelised crust. 

Despite setting-up shop in 2021, I only tried Fire & Flank for the first time earlier this year. However, I've been craving their steak and mash ever since. 

Fire & Flank currently resides at Cardiff Bay’s Tiger Yard as well as Kong’s Bar in Cardiff City centre; although the latter seems so lightly publicised that I keep on forgetting it exists, much like the fact that Kong’s has one of the best craft beer selections in town. 

Both times I’ve tried Fire & Flank have been at Tiger Yard in Cardiff Bay, a rather nice street food venue with a mixed bag of vendors. Fire & Flank is undoubtedly the standout of their residents.

Winner of the best main course at the British Street Food Awards in 2021, Fire & Flank’s steak with cheesy garlic mashed potato (£12) is a corker of a dish. Thick slices of their blushing pink, deeply beefy and well-crusted steak are served on a giant mound of smooth, garlicky, butter slicked, and cheese twanged mashed potato. It’s everything you want mashed potato to be, but it so rarely is. The dish’s richness is somewhat offset by a vibrant chimichurri that’s packed with fresh herbs, a zip of acidity and hint of chilli. 

Their steak and chips (£12) are just as good. This time a plentiful portion of their steak and chimichurri is piled on top of crisp paprika dusted fries. What’s particularly compelling is the mingling of beef juices and chimichurri oil with the chips, lending them a spicy beefy note. Some how they manage to remain crisp at the same time. 

However, Fire & Flank don’t just know how to cook a steak. Their burgers are excellent as well. 

Their Flank Burger (£12) is a proper five napkin job. A pair of seriously juicy and gnarly edged smashed ex-dairy beef patties have a real rich beefiness and savoury umami hit. Topped with oozy American cheese, a smoky house burger sauce, and more slices of that excellent flank steak, it’s only held together by the grace of all the juices which soak into the glistening brioche bun. 

I don’t normally write reviews of individual street food traders, but it’s worth singling out Fire & Flank for what they’re doing. They serve one of the best steak and chips in Cardiff for £12 and one of the city’s finest burgers too. Whether it’s Tiger Yard, Kong’s or wherever they end up next, Fire & Flank are most certainly worth seeking out. 

The Details:

Address - Fire & Flank, Tiger Yard, Plot A Porth Teigr Way, Cardiff CF10 4GA
Web - https://www.fireandflank.com/
Email - hello@fire@flank.com

Rascal Burrito, Cardiff, Mexican takeaway and restaurant review

Mrs G doesn’t like burritos.

She normally finds them a bit stodgy and bland in comparison to their lighter relative the taco.

Well, that was until Mrs G was converted by a visit to Rascal Burrito in Cardiff the other week.

When we arrived at this dinky Crwys Road takeaway, with just a few seats in the window for eating in, we planned to only order their tacos. However, a burrito evangelist in front of us in the queue rhapsodised about how good they are, and well, it would have been rude not to order one after that show of enthusiasm.

Rascal Burrito’s compact menu features burritos, tacos and nachos. If you’re veggie or vegan then there’s a vegan chicken substitute on offer instead of their beef, chicken and pork. On weekends there’s breakfast burritos available whilst on Friday evenings there’s a special of beef birria tacos.

Rascal's Venezuelan and Mexican owners make all of their salsas and marinades from scratch. One of the duo also owns the Venezuelan street food business Queen Pepiada, who make a mean arepa. So, they’re clearly well-schooled in Latin American cooking.

As Rascal Burrito doesn’t serve booze, I opted for a can of Remedy ginger and lemon kombucha. With a good warmth of ginger, hit of citrus, and zippy acidity, it was a lovely match for the spicy cooking.

An El Chapo burrito (£8.50), which was the approximate size of guinea pig, was a super combination of flavours and textures, which harmonised together rather than being disparate clumps of fillings. A soft wheat tortilla, which had been lightly crisped around the edges, due to a spell on the plancha, cocooned tender shreds of marinated chicken, distinct grained rice, creamy melted cheese, black beans with a nice bite, fresh salad, a vibrant pico de gallo, and a really good dollop of mild tomatillo-based salsa verde with a fresh fruitiness and acidity.

A trio of beef barbacoa tacos (£7) were probably my pick of the bunch. Double stacked corn tortillas were pleasingly soft and delivered on their corny complexity. They were loaded with juicy shreds of big flavoured spiced slow-cooked beef, more of that fresh and fragrant pico de gallo, white onion and coriander. 

Based on the showing of these beef tacos, we’ll definitely be heading back to try their birria beef taco special.

Pots of Rascal’s three homemade salsas were delicious poured over the tacos, adding extra layers of flavour. There was more of the perky salsa verde, a medium spiced salsa roja with a tomato sweetness and hit of chilli, and a fiery salsa macha, which wasn’t too dissimilar from the salsa roja but delivered a bigger wallop of chilli.

A trio of Al Pastor tacos were enjoyable (£7) but probably the weakest of the dishes we ate. Whilst the shreds of pork were nicely marinated, the meat was a little on the dry side.

By the time we’d finished lunch at Rascal, I was as well-stuffed as their burritos. We had a delicious, generous and great value lunch and I’ll definitely be adding Rascal to my rotation of places to visit for a quick bite to eat. In fact, the previously sceptical Mrs G has already mentioned going for another burrito soon.

The Details:

Address – Rascal Burrito, 98 Crwys Rd, Cardiff CF24 4NQ
Web – https://www.instagram.com/rascalburrito98/

Telephone - 07462 612298