Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Cardiff
Hardens guides have spent 15 years compiling reviews of the best Cardiff restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 121 restaurants in Cardiff and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Cardiff restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Cardiff Restaurants
1. Bar 44 Cardiff
Spanish restaurant in Cardiff
15-23 Westgate Street - CF10
Some feel it’s “not as good as its Cowbridge sibling”, but this “busy Spaniard” in the city-centre nevertheless wins praise for its “interesting selection of authentic tapas, different Spanish wines and large range of sherries”.
2. Asador 44
Spanish restaurant in Cardiff
14 - 15 Quay Street - CF10
Positive but still-limited feedback on this dim-lit Spanish yearling in the city-centre – the new flagship of Tom and Owen Morgan’s ‘44’ group – which comes complete with wine-cave and cheese room. Meats from the Asador are the main event.
3. Bar 44 Penarth
Spanish restaurant in Penarth
Windsor Road - CF64
The Bar 44 Group of Tapas Bars are all slightly different with their own unique menus and ambience. There is, however, one common theme which runs through them all....the passion and desire to bring t...
4. Mint and Mustard
Indian restaurant in Cardiff
134 Whitchurch Road - CF14
It’s “always a treat” to dine at this pioneer of new-wave Keralan and South Indian cuisine, whose “exciting” and “imaginative” menus include a focus on seafood. Founded in 2006, the Cardiff original wins consistently high ratings and has now spawned a small regional chain.
5. Purple Poppadom
Indian restaurant in Cardiff
185a, Cowbridge Road East - CF11
Ignore the drab setting next to a Cowbridge Road East butcher’s shop, and take refuge in this vibrant dining room, where chef and author Anand George delivers “brilliant Keralan cooking” with nouvelle Indian flourishes; early-bird thalis are a new innovation.
6. Wallys
Sandwiches, cakes, etc restaurant in Cardiff
38-46 Royal Arcade - CF10
Royal Arcade icon with a bursting deli on the ground floor and a first-floor Viennese café turning out an “amazing selection of coffees, open sandwiches and cakes”.
7. Cafe Citta
Italian restaurant in Cardiff
4 Church St - CF10
The home-cooked dishes and pizza win solid ratings at this small and unflashy family-run Italian in the city centre. It has an enthusiastic local following, so be sure to book.
8. Casanova
Italian restaurant in Cardiff
13 Quay St - CF10
In the “culinary wasteland” that is chain-plagued Cardiff, this authentic Italian indie has gathered quite a local following and regulars applaud its hospitable approach. Your treatment can depend on how well you’re known however: one first-timer observed “the owner doted at length on certain tables while we were frequently passed by and made to wait”.
9. Vegetarian Food Studio
Indian, Southern restaurant in Cardiff
115-117 Penarth Rd - CF11
Despite the “simple surroundings” (complete with naïve wall murals) by the Taff, the vegan Indian food – ranging from northern Gujarati curries to southern dosas – at this humble spot “can be superb”.
10. Shake Shack
Burgers, etc restaurant in Cardiff
St David's Shopping Centre - CF10
NYC star-restaurateur Danny Meyer’s global operation was founded as a hot-dog cart in a New York park in 2001 and has found success in London, as elsewhere. “Admittedly the burgers are pretty good”, but ratings support those who feel “they are not that amazing versus others” and likewise that “there’s nothing in the decor to make you want to hang around”. Recent openings include Cannon Street and a new outlet is scheduled at Boxpark Wembley in late 2018.
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