Chai Social, Whitchurch Road, Cardiff restaurant review

The closure of Mint & Mustard on Cardiff’s Whitchurch Road earlier this year perhaps didn’t get the attention it deserved.

Whilst the Penarth branch of the restaurant still remains, its original base on Whitchurch Road was one of Cardiff’s most influential restaurants when it opened back in 2007.

It’s where Anand George started his culinary journey in Cardiff before leaving to open his critically acclaimed Purple Poppadom. The refined Southern Indian style of cooking which he pioneered at Mint & Mustard can now be seen in myriad restaurants across Cardiff.

Whilst Mint & Mustard’s Whitchurch Road branch is no more, it’s been replaced by Chai Social, a Mint and Mustard stablemate and the sibling of Cardiff city centre’s Chai Street.

What makes Chai Social particularly interesting is its billing as an all day drinking and dining destination. It certainly looks the part, with half of the space retaining a restaurant feel and the other adopting more of a colourful and casual cafe-bar vibe.

Mrs G has already visited Chai Social for a boozy night out. With their good range of punch, cocktails, craft gins and beers, it sounds look a fun place to have a session and something to eat.

Chai Social’s whopping menu offers something for every time of day with both classic Indian and fusion dishes available depending on your persuasion.

On the brunch and lunch section of there’s a full Indlish, kati rolls, loaded naans and even a bottomless brunch option for £30.

For lunch or dinner there are small plates, including tandoori cauliflower wings and slow-braised meatballs with kashmiri chilli sauce, as well as a selection of clay pot curries and larger dishes such as Ceylon devilled beef, a Social burger and Amritsari fish and chips.

We were drawn towards Chai Social’s express lunch menu, which is available from 12pm till 4pm from Monday to Friday, and offers a range of main dishes for a very well-priced £6.95. For research purposes (sheer greediness) we ordered three to share as well as an additional small plate.

Excellent thick and ice cold mango lassis (£3.50) had bags of tropical fruit and a creamy tang of yoghurt.

An onion pakora scotch egg (£6.95) was every bit as delicious as it looked; the golden crusted and light textured pakora surrounding a fudgey-yolked scotch egg. Whilst a slightly runnier yolk would have been preferable it was still a cracking bit of comfort food. It was accompanied by a delicious sweet and tangy spiced tomato relish and tasty yet run of the mill McCain-like chips.

The other stand out of our meal was a plate of okra fries (£5.60), which reminded me more than a little bit courgette fritti, one of my favourite beer snacks. A tangle of tender okra ribbons were coated in the lightest of batters. They were delicious scooped up by the fistful and dredged through a bowl of sweet chilli sauce.

A loaded naan bread (£6.95) certainly lived up to its billing. A mountain of very tasty things were piled onto a crisp and soft naan bread - coriander and tamarind chutneys, melted cheese, chargrilled paneer, crunchy pakora and poppadom pieces and crisp peppers.

It would have been rude not to put a curry through its paces and a chicken makhani’s (£6.95) spicing was bob on; the thick and creamy tomato sauce was fragrant with fenugreek and a good chilli heat. Plentiful chicken pieces could certainly have been a touch more tender but it was still a lovely curry accompanied by a mound of fluffy rice and poppadoms.

We had a very good lunch at Chai Social and it’s the kind of place I could genuinely see myself visiting any time of day. Whilst Mint and Mustard’s original home may be gone, it’s exciting to see the place start its next chapter as Chai Social.

The Details:

Address - Chai Social, 134 Whitchurch Road, Cardiff CF14 3LZ

Web - https://chaisocial.co.uk/

Telephone - 029 2062 0333

Good World, Cardiff Chinese restaurant dim sum review

Going out for dim sum as just a pair always feels like a busted flush.

With so many tasty morsels on offer, usually with at least three mouthfuls per portion, having to make do with just two appetites’ worth of food is a missed opportunity.

It was in this sticky situation that Mrs G and I found ourselves on a sunny Sunday at the Good World Chinese restaurant, tucked away above the Les Croupiers Casino in Cardiff’s Leckwith Retail Park.

We’d previously visited for dinner and enjoyed dishes of pan-fried three treasures, king prawns with garlic, and fillet steak with black pepper and macadamia nuts.

Now, we were back to try their dim sum, about which we’d heard good things and which is available every day of the week from 12pm till 5pm.

With an almost full dining room, we were surrounded by large groups of families and friends enjoying basket after basket of dumplings. It was a constant reminder of what we could have won.

With a selection of 70 dishes on offer on their tick list menu, we picked three dim sum and a larger plate to share.

A generous pot of fragrant green tea arrived first and lasted us for the duration of the meal.

Everything else followed in quick succession.

Triple roast meats, one of my all time favourite dishes was a good example and very well sized for £13.90. Better than our last visit, the star of the show was pork belly with hyper crisp crackling and well-rendered fat. Sweet-marinated char sui pork, bronze-skinned bone-in duck, soy-dressed fluffy rice and two token pieces of bok choy completed the delicious plate.

Crispy squid (£5.80) reminded me more of Chinese crispy beef than versions of the dish I’ve eaten elsewhere. It was still tasty. Thin fronds of grease-free crisp-battered squid were accompanied by a reassuringly day-glo sweet and sour dipping sauce.

Shanghai dumplings (£4.40) had sadly lost most of their meaty soup filling (their major selling point) but were still very tasty - the thin dumpling casings containing a well-seasoned pork mince filling.

They were lovely dressed with fiery chilli oil.

Last up were the best of the bunch, grilled pork buns (£4.50); crisp-edged, light, soft and squidgy buns filled with minced pork and chives.

We had a really tasty dim sum lunch at Good World. With fast and friendly service and so many more delicious sounding dishes on offer, we've already booked for a return visit with a large group of mates to do the menu justice.

Update - 01/02/2023

Since the above review I've had a few more meals at Good World and had some cracking dishes. 

A whopping portion of cumin lamb was packed with tender meat that was spiced with earthy cumin and plenty of ferocious chilli heat. 

Uber-crispy prawn dumplings were absolutely stuffed with sweet crustaceans.

So too were king prawn cheung fun. But this time, the crisp exterior was replaced with a soft and glutinous rice noodle coating.

Singapore vermicelli had a really good hit of curry spicing and was flecked with plenty of roast meat, egg and prawns.

Crisp cubes of turnip cake were coated in deliciously savoury XO sauce and dotted with crisp veggies. 

Sizzling fillet steak slices (£14.80) topped with buttery macadamia nuts were bathed in a thick sauce thrumming with black pepper.

Pan fried three treasures (£10.80) lived up to its billing - charred green peppers, soft aubergines, and creamy tofu pieces were each stuffed with sweet minced prawn patties and coated in a thick soy-based sauce with a good hit of black bean and garlic.

The Details:

 

Address - Good World, Capital Retail Shopping Park, 8, Leckwith Rd, Cardiff CF11 8EG

Web - https://goodworldrestaurant.co.uk/

Telephone -  029 2022 8866