Our final stop of the evening was the Cardiff Arms, a venue clearly designed more for younger people given the volume of the music playing. There was a friendly welcome from the doorman though and I was eyeing up the outside seating area as being more peaceful, which is where we ultimately sat.
Although the venue has been designed to look like a late Victorian pub, it is only a couple of years old and has taken the place of a Chinese restaurant which was here before. This whole area has been really smartened up over the last couple of years, I hadn’t realised until looking at relatively recent views on Google Streetview.
The beer selection wasn’t entirely decadent, but there were a couple of interesting keg options there. There are sometimes real ales available here, but it’s usually primarily keg.
I went for the Cwtch from Tiny Rebel, a very decent red ale. The temperature outside was moderate (so my friend Susanna would have considered it as freezing) and it was all rather pleasant.
I have to give the venue opposite credit for their Christmas decorations. It would be wrong of me to gossip here about Ubergate, so I’ll note that in a separate post.
The online reviews of this venue are broadly positive for drinks, but it seems that they might be struggling a little with the food. It’s going to be a challenge for them given the number of food options in Cardiff, but maybe it’ll all settle down.
Anyway, it was a bit loud for me now that I’ve reached the age of 30, but the team members were all friendly, it was clean and provided us with a suitable space to think back about the highlights of the weekend so far.