Q Bao, Cathays, Cardiff restaurant review

Q Bao in Cardiff’s Cathays area certainly lives up to its name. When we visited at 2pm on a Saturday lunchtime it was pretty much a full house and we had to briefly queue up to get our bao hit. 

With a menu focused on Chinese cooking with a few Japanese, Hawaiian and Thai influences thrown into the mix, there’s a lot on the menu which caught my eye. 

Processing from the kitchen we saw chilli oil laced bowls of noodle soup, crisp plates of battered squid, chicken katsu curries and claypot stews with rice.

As the restaurant’s name incorporates bao, it would have been rude not to put some to the test.

A five spiced pork bao (£4.80) was generously stuffed with warming-spiced tender shreds of pork. It was made with a flatbread with a crisp-exterior, which was reminiscent of a toasted pitta bread. Whilst it was tasty, I have to admit that I'm a bigger fan of the more ubiquitous soft steamed Taiwanese bao.

Better were a portion of mini steamed pork bao (£9.80) which were anything but mini. The huge portion of soft steamed dumplings were stuffed with pork and spring onion patties, which were nicely balanced by a bowl of dipping vinegar.

The star of our lunch was a dish that had caught my eye on someone else’s table, which didn’t appear on the English menu but rather a separate Chinese menu. Wide slippery noodles were coated in a belting chilli oil with plenty of heat, a citrusy zing and a lip tingling hit of Sichuan peppercorn. Nuggets of slow-braised beef, coriander and spring onion completed the excellent bowl of noodles.

We had a really tasty lunch at Q Bao. With so many more dishes on the menu to work my way through, I’m sure I’ll be back soon. 

The Details:

Address - Q Bao, 90 Salisbury Rd, Cardiff CF24 4AE

Plaza Khao Gaeng, London Thai restaurant review

One of the major conundrums when solo dining is choosing which single starter, main and dessert to order.

With a whole menu on offer and no-one else to steal food from, it always pains me to try such a limited range of a restaurant’s wares.

It’s why I’m a huge fan of Plaza Kao Gaeng’s Deep South Menu, which offers a selection of dishes from their menu for £35 a head. Handily it’s available for just one person, meaning it’s surely one of London’s cheapest tasting menus.

Tucked away on the mezzanine of Centre Point’s Arcade Food Hall (just a rapid eight minute tube ride from Paddington on the Elizabeth Line), Plaza Khao Gaeng serves Southern Thai cooking which delivers an onslaught of chilli, herb and spice.

It’s headed up by Luke Farrell, a chef who set up his own nursery in Dorset to grow Thai herbs and vegetables for his restaurant, and it’s a partnership with JKS restaurants (a group with the Midas touch who are behind restaurants like Bao, Lyle’s and Hoppers).

Despite being located in a modern and swanky food hall, Plaza Khao Gaeng’s interior manages to recreate a Thai street cafe without descending into pastiche or cliche.

Miang Phuket was a ferocious statement of intent. Fresh betel leaves were the vehicle for a fiery, citrusy, nutty, crunchy, sweet, savoury and sour concoction of cashew, coconut, lime peel, coconut, and onion.

Much needed refreshment came in the form of fragrant iced green tea (£6) with the sweet and creamy comforting hit of condensed milk.

Beef shoulder massaman curry was everything I love in a bowl. Extremely beefy, fall apart tender slow-cooked pieces of meat and soft bits of spud were bathed in a mild yet warming spiced thick and creamy sauce.

An accompanying bucket of sticky Jasmine rice was an essential mop for every drop of sauce.

A tender squid, white fish and plump mussel orange curry was gloriously hot and sour. It reminded me more of a soup than a curry but that’s not a criticism.

Deliciously creamy yet spicy Southern curry was laden with sweet king prawns, which teased out of their shells with ease, and unique sator beans, which were reminiscent of slightly bitter unripe avocado.

Stir fried morning glory was an unexpected stand out. The toothsome greens were dressed with a seriously savoury and meaty fermented soy bean sauce.

A frilly laced fried egg lent richness to the other dishes. But I steered clear of a bowl of chilli oil which looked capable of causing serious harm.

Described by a waiter as a Thai take on chip and dips - cucumber, pineapple, lettuce and leaves of pungent herbs were accompanied by a potently savoury and spicy shrimp relish.

I had absolute belter of a lunch at Plaza Kao Gaeng. With its huge spicing, it's easily some of the most exciting Thai cooking I've eaten in the UK.

Whilst there's no dessert on offer I popped downstairs to the food hall and had one of Flor's famous brown butter cakes. Toasty, buttery and soft crumbed, it was a delicious couple of mouthfuls.

The Details:

Address - Arcade Food Hall, 103-105 New Oxford St, London WC1A 1DB

Web - https://plazakhaogaeng.com