Cardiff

Pontcanna

★★★★★★★★★★4.9(132)$$$$Closed

Tom Waters' intimate, open-kitchen room earned Cardiff's first Michelin star within a year of opening, built on quietly confident cooking around Welsh produce and a kitchen that serves you itself.

Signaturea tasting menu built around whatever Welsh produce is at its best that week

Pontcanna

★★★★★★★★★★4.7(562)Closed

Tommy Heaney's small plates run from casual tapas-style grazing to an extended tasting menu in the same room, built on technical precision applied to bold flavour combinations.

Signaturethe extended tasting menu that can stretch to ten courses

Pontcanna

★★★★★★★★★★4.8(565)Closed

Tom Simmons returned to his home city after training in London, and the kitchen elevates British classics like fish and chips and shoulder of Welsh lamb with sauces too precise for a plain bistro.

Signatureshoulder of Welsh lamb

City Centre

★★★★★★★★★★4.2(1,336)$$Closed

Founded by figures from Welsh rugby and built around showcasing the national larder, its cawl is the dish regulars come back for.

Signaturecawl

City Centre

★★★★★★★★★★4.6(1,503)$$Closed

Set in a converted bank vault on High Street, it leans on seasonal Welsh produce and has built its name on cockles, laverbread and bacon on toast.

Signaturecockles, laverbread and bacon on toast

Pontcanna

★★★★★★★★★★4.4(648)$$Closed

Chef Anand George's reworking of Kerala and south Indian cooking has outlasted more than a decade of Cardiff curry houses on the strength of dishes like the signature tiffin sea bass.

Signaturetiffin sea bass

City Centre

★★★★★★★★★★4.8(2,870)Closed

A steakhouse built entirely around the quality of the meat, with a ribeye regulars rate among the best in the city and a kitchen that keeps sides simple so the beef does the work.

Signaturedry-aged ribeye

City Centre

★★★★★★★★★★4.6(992)$$$Closed

A Spanish grill and wine house doing open-fire cooking properly, with a bill that matches the quality of the meat and the wine list.

Signaturefire-grilled Spanish beef

City Centre

★★★★★★★★★★4.2(899)$$$$Closed

A nineteenth-century warehouse with an art deco fit-out and a fresh fish counter up front stacked with lobster, monkfish and mussels, picked to order.

Signaturewhole lobster from the fish counter

City Centre

★★★★★★★★★★4.6(1,751)$$Closed

An award-winning Portuguese kitchen on St Mary Street built around the Atlantic catch, with scallops and mussels that regulars rate above the steaks on the same menu.

Signaturegrilled scallops

City Centre

★★★★★★★★★★4.7(1,327)$$Closed

A steakhouse that quietly does seafood just as well, built a loyal following on consistency rather than hype.

Signaturemixed seafood grill

City Centre

★★★★★★★★★★4.5(6,674)Closed

A Victorian covered market still trading through its own roof restoration, where Welsh cakes come straight off the bakestone and traders sell the produce the city's chefs shop for.

Signaturefresh Welsh cakes off the bakestone

City Centre

★★★★★★★★★★4.5(261)$Closed

Regulars call it the best chip shop in the city, a straightforward fish and chips counter with nothing to prove.

Signaturefish and chips

Cathays

★★★★★★★★★★4.7(437)$$Closed

A Whitchurch Street counter doing big, punchy Thai wraps and small plates at prices built for students, not tourists.

SignatureThai-spiced wraps

City Centre

★★★★★★★★★★4.9(227)$$Closed

A Hare Krishna-run cafe on Queen Street serving thali-style vegetarian plates that have kept a loyal lunchtime crowd for years, with none of the polish of a restaurant and all the flavour.

Signaturevegetarian thali

Riverside

★★★★★★★★★★4.4(1,180)$$Closed

A family-run vegetarian Indian kitchen and takeaway on Penarth Road that has built a following on thalis and curries with nothing meat-adjacent about them.

Signaturevegetable thali

City Centre

★★★★★★★★★★4.8(1,107)$$Open now

Cardiff's biggest club, four rooms and a VIP space built from scratch in 2023, booking the bigger touring DJ nights the city gets.

City Centre

★★★★★★★★★★4.0(2,394)$$Open now

The bar-top dancing chain's Cardiff outpost, run as a loud, rowdy night out rather than a serious club.

City Centre

★★★★★★★★★★4.1(761)$$Open now

Pure pop and seventies disco on a packed dancefloor, the kind of night out that runs on nostalgia and cheap drinks.

City Centre

★★★★★★★★★★4.2(1,887)$$Closed

Two floors on Church Street topped by a roof garden strung with festoon lights and a fire pit, with a cocktail list built around garden ingredients.

City Centre

★★★★★★★★★★4.0(1,614)$$Open now

One of St Mary Street's few genuine rooftop terraces, as good for a daytime drink as for the brunches it is known for.

City Centre

★★★★★★★★★★4.7(940)$$Closed

An award-winning cocktail bar tucked down Caroline Street, built on precise, inventive serves rather than spectacle.

City Centre

★★★★★★★★★★4.5(1,160)

A three-floor Welsh-language club and venue on Womanby Street that has been the backbone of Cardiff's small-to-mid-size touring circuit for decades.

Grangetown

★★★★★★★★★★4.5(2,676)

A Grade II-listed former tram depot converted into a thousand-capacity room, now one of the city's main mid-size touring stops.

Canton

★★★★★★★★★★4.6(2,577)Closed

An arts centre running since 1971 combining a cinema, theatre and galleries with a bar that programmes live music alongside the rest of its bill.

City Centre

★★★★★★★★★★4.6(10,822)Closed

Holds one of the strongest Impressionist collections outside Paris alongside Welsh art and natural history, free to enter in the Cathays Park civic centre.

NoteAllow half a day; free entry

Western outskirts

★★★★★★★★★★4.7(13,025)Closed

An open-air museum of relocated historic Welsh buildings, from a tannery to a miners' institute, rebuilt stone by stone across parkland west of the centre.

NoteA full half-day minimum given the size of the site; free entry; a bus or taxi from the centre

City Centre

★★★★★★★★★★4.6(23,187)Closed

A Roman fort and Norman keep layered under the Marquess of Bute's Victorian Gothic apartments, gilded ceilings and all, right in the middle of the shopping streets.

NoteTwo to three hours for the grounds and apartments; book the apartment tour ahead on busy weekends

City Centre

★★★★★★★★★★4.7(16,819)

The national rugby stadium's roof is the largest retractable roof in Europe, and on a Six Nations Saturday the closed roof turns the crowd noise into something physical.

NoteTours run when there's no match on; tickets for an actual game are the real draw and sell out fast

Cardiff Bay

★★★★★★★★★★4.7(7,297)Closed

The Bay's performing arts centre, faced in Welsh slate with bronze lettering spelling out a line of poetry across the front, anchors the whole waterfront.

NoteFree to look around the foyer; book ahead for a show

Roath

★★★★★★★★★★4.8(30)Closed

An artist-led space off City Road that has given early platforms to Welsh artists since the late 1990s, with a programme that changes often.

NoteFree entry; exhibition-led rather than a permanent collection, so check what's on before visiting

Roath

★★★★★★★★★★4.8(13)Closed

A contemporary gallery dedicated specifically to Welsh art, run from a converted coach house in Roath.

NoteFree entry; small space, best as a thirty-minute add-on to a Roath visit

Cardiff Bay

★★★★★★★★★★4.5(16)Closed

An artist-led gallery on Bute Street showing Welsh and international contemporary work in a genuinely working creative space rather than a polished one.

NoteFree entry; worth checking opening days ahead as hours vary with exhibitions