This month the budgets eats bandwagon that is my gob rolled into Cardiff as I went in search of superior scran in the Welsh capital's cafes, pubs, takeaways and curry houses. The deal - as you may know if you have seen any of these pieces - is that I'm looking for affordable venues in various British cities, places where you can eat and drink something of quality from a snack to a main meal, for under a tenner a head. Or thereabouts.
You will find my Cardiff top 10 which includes the likes of Chai Street, Trade Street Cafe, Vegetarian Food Studio, Cafe Citta and Gwdihw, over on Travel, but this is where you get to have your say, not just on the places I've included, but, more importantly, on the places that I didn't.
Sadly, I missed Cafe Minuet because, just after 4pm on a Friday, it had already closed. How's that for work / life balance? Meanwhile, there just wasn't time to get to Kemi's, or Ffresh at the Millennium Centre, where the eminently sensible / seriously talented chef Shaun Hill is consulting, Kurt Fleming is cooking and the lounge bar menu is offering good looking sharing platters, sandwiches and attractively priced mains like confit duck hash with fried egg, triple cooked chips and HP sauce. Did I miss any gems there?
As for Cardiff Arts Institute. I went, I ate - a middling plate of calamari - and much as I liked the place (an arts and music venue; a rather sanitised take on the kind of chaotic bar you might find in east Berlin) and my pint of Brain's SA Gold, I couldn't really justify including it. Did I just make the wrong choice on the menu? Is it normally a good place to eat? And what of CAI's sister operation, Milgi Lounge, does anyone out there rate their fodder? As a venue, it seems to divide online opinion.
Elsewhere, should the pizzas at Bar Cwtch, The Plan or the lunch deal at the Thai House have made this list? And what of Madhav, a simple cafe in rather brilliant Asian supermarket? Would you have listed that above (trendier, better known) Chai Street? Let's hear it, Cardiff - which are the city's best budget eating options?
