Qamariyah, Four Elms Road, Cardiff: restaurant review
On August 10, 2025 by The Plate Licked CleanSo often, restaurants are where we make important memories. Several local places I’ve loved have changed hands recently, and it’s hard to walk back through those doors without the past tugging at your sleeve. Take the newly opened Qamariyah: when this was the city’s only Persian restaurant, Mowlana, it gave me my favourite memory of
The Flora, Cardiff: revisit review
On July 27, 2025 by The Plate Licked Clean‘The Flora? Seriously? Are you sure? The…Flora..?’ Less than two years ago that was a common reaction, chiefly from Cardiff University graduates who knew the Cathays pub in their pomp. You couldn’t blame them, I suppose. Now, though? Things have changed. A new direction. It’s a decision which seems more and more inspired as the
Legacy Indian Cuisine, Wellfield Road, Cardiff: review
On July 13, 2025 by The Plate Licked CleanI’ve got an ulterior motive for buying you dinner tonight, he says. Alan is a regular here. Wellfield and Albany are his home patch, and hardly short of Indian restaurant alternatives, but it’s here, to Legacy, he keeps coming back. This is his seventh or eighth visit, he reckons. I get it. There’s something reassuringly
Coquina, Hastings Contemporary: restaurant review
On July 1, 2025 by The Plate Licked CleanIt is a beautiful evening for a walk down to dinner. Coquina (styled with a small ‘c’) is easy to spot from the top of Hastings’ West Hill, near the foot of the East, and next to the darkly looming Net Shops on Rock-a-Nore Road. The bright, welcoming space they have taken upstairs in art
Cuisines Negombo Sri Lankan restaurant, Canton, Cardiff: review
On June 14, 2025 by The Plate Licked CleanCuisines Negombo sits where the interesting but short-lived Rasathi did. Unlike Rasathi, though, you can now eat in on a solitary table: so there is no need now to eat your Sri Lankan order in Victoria Park, though its demise means I never got to pitch them my ‘Patty in the Park’ idea. Named after
Sumisu Ramen, Stooge Coffee, Trinity Street Hastings: review
On May 20, 2025 by The Plate Licked CleanI seem to spend my time in Hastings in little rooms eating lovely things. There are worse ways to spend your life, I suppose, and here’s the latest: the twice-weekly Sumisu Ramen popup from husband and wife team James and Ai. The town library, the Grade II-listed Brassey Institute, seems to looms over Trinity Street
This blog is a very simple thing.
I won’t try to sell you any hand lotion, exercise programmes, coffee syrups or Patagonian nose flutes. You won’t find tips on dating, ‘wellness’ or yoga mats.
I write because I love it (and food, as indicated by my increasing girth). Greed happens to be my Deadly Sin of choice, but at least it is never shy of providing me with subject matter.
A simple thing, then: all you get is me wittering on semi-coherently about places I’ve eaten at; hence a ‘restaurant blog’ rather than a ‘food blog’, although there are a few recipes scattered throughout.
From mezze to Michelin ‘fine dining’ and all points in between.