Lilo, Kebabs, Food, Blog Review

Lilo's Kebab House is one of many Middle Eastern restaurants on Cardiff's City Rd but is one that I have been back to many times. The restaurant is a mass of people and noise just like in a bustling souk, jostling waiters and noisy managers shouting out instructions, organised chaos that appears to work. Lilo's has been full each time we have been and this Monday night was no exception. Yes, a Monday and they were full, not many restaurants can say that in Cardiff. We have booked on a couple of occasions but they never check and just give you the next available table. This can be 20-30 mins after you arrive depending on when you go!

We were greeted at the door by the manager who was dressed in a suit and appears to mainly greet and say farewell to customers. We were hurried to our table and given menus. We knew we needed to order our drinks quickly as they take time to make. Lilo's is a non alcoholic affair and do freshly made fruit cocktails. There always seems to be plenty of staff around but just one poor guy squeezing the life out of all the fruit. Hence your drinks quite often turn up after your food has arrived! A little frustrating so always order as early as possible.

I love the fruit cocktails (£2.50), I think they are a really good effort at trying to provide an alternative to a coke which is what most restaurants offer. My favourite tipple is the Pineapple, Orange and Mint Juice. Part of the fun is getting a massive brightly coloured curly straw - when I was a kid this is all that was needed for it to be an awesome meal out whatever the food was. Sometimes I feel that not much has changed! Yes, dating myself there a little but hey - each to their own!

The main event though is obviously the food. We ordered a first course of Baba Ghanoush, Hummus, Tzatziki and a plate full of freshly made naan breads to share, half eaten plate above!. This is the sort of food I love. Ripping apart a warm freshly made naan bread and mopping up a trio of dips is a relaxed and friendly start to any meal. The Baba Ghanoush (£2.95) is made from mashed aubergines that have been  roasted and mixed with olive oil and various seasonings. The smokiness of the roasted aubergine comes through perfectly. The Hummus Beruity (£3.25)is made from cooked, mashed chickpeas mixed with tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and garlic and was lightly dusted with chilli powder for a bit of extra kick(not sure if that's a pun on Beruit's turmoiled past). Tzatziki (£2.95) is made from yoghurt mixed with cucumber, garlic and salt. Tzatziki has always been a favourite of mine having spent the summer working in Crete when I was younger, there is nothing better than a gyros topped with tzatziki. This Greek starter in a Middle Eastern restaurant fits perfectly and although it didn't have enough garlic in it for my liking, although it  would probably suit most palates.

Unfortunately I forgot to take proper photos of the starters as we devoured them on sight!As you can see out of four naaan breads (£2.00) only one has survived for a photo call. We had to order another round of nana bread - bad idea - as you fill yourself up on bread but they're so good we couldn't help it.

For mains I chose Chicken Shawarma (£6.50). Shawarma is meat that is put on a stick and turned over heat or in layman's terms a kebab. Our chicken shawarma's had been well marinated and seasoned before being cooked over flames and were quite simply delicious. I always have mine with rice as I find eating them with chips a little offensive, although my wife seems to have no problem eating her Lamb Shawarma (£6.80) with chips and I always end up stealing some anyway. So not really that offensive! The meat on both of the shawarmas was succulent, tasty and perfectly cooked.

My mother in law chose Chicken Biriyani (£6.25)which was an unusual choice I thought in a Kebab House, but proved to be a winner. The rice was well seasoned and the flavours that came through really were top notch. Biriyani is an Indian dish that is made from rice, numerous spices and has various meat or vegetables in, and is usually accompanied by a vegetable curry on the side. The biriyani was lovely and spicy and might just be my next favourite dish on the menu.

Having absolutely stuffed ourselves on naan breads and two courses there was absolutely no chance we would be getting dessert. Desserts are not really something I think about when going out for a kebab and I couldn't even tell you whether they offer any.

Lilo's Kebab house is a Middle eastern restaurant that offers cheap, simple food in a fun and relaxed environment. I see the organised chaos and managers shouting at staff over the heads of their diners as an authentic Middle Eastern experience and that's fun! The staff don't have much personality and really are just plate bearers and order takers and if they forget something confusion comes first but you do get what you asked for in the end. I value it for the comfort food it provides me with, which comes at great value and am therefore happy to recommend it for that. Four of us ate a two course meal for £48.20.

74 City Rd
Roath
Cardiff
CF24 3DD

Tel: 02920 450089

Unexpected lunch at Bar44 Cowbridge - food blog, restaurant review

On our way to Southerndown for an amazing coastal walk with my Mum and wife in tow (I am a lucky lucky man, they actually like each other) I tweeted asking for a suggestion for lunch and Bar 44 in Cowbridge came back. Initially we were heading to The Pelican in Her Piety but I've been wanting to try Bar44 for some time now as I love tapas, having been to Granada and Cordoba in recent years. Granada was a fantastic trip and the fact they give you free tapas with your first drink in most bars makes it even better.

Bar44 is located above Tesco express on Cowbridge high street, which is rather unfortunate, but has obviously overcome this on street presence as they have recently opened in Penarth.

As we were driving, alcohol was off the menu, which is a shame as the cocktail menu appeared to have a comprehensive list of classics, as well as their own interesting concoctions. We started off with just some simple bread and oil (£3.50). The olive oil is some of the tastiest I have ever tried and the addition of rock salt made it even more moreish. Soon to follow came seven dishes between three of us, as we chose off the menu del dia, which gives you a bargain 3 dishes for £10 or 6 for £18. Alternatively, you can choose off their normal menu or even the specials.

The chorizo in cider (£4.25) was just lovely. Thin slices of tender paprika pork sausage covered in reduced cider and oil - yum.

Lamb meatballs in tomato sauce were tasty but not quite as good as I've had elsewhere.

Fresh anchovies (Boquerones) in vinegar not oil (£4.25) allowed them to remain soft and milder in flavour and damn tasty. We love them but not everybody likes cold fish!

The classic Manchego cheese (£4) had a firm buttery texture and creamy sheep's milk tang to it and came with quince jelly and lightly toasted olive bread.

The pimento padrons were a request of my mum, not something I would have chosen. Apparently her favourite when on holiday in Spain. These are mini green peppers that have been pan fried and sprinkled with rock salt. Not my favourite but I did seem to eat quite a lot of them.

The cecina croquetas were stunning; crispy on the outside with a smoky air dried beef and creamy cheese filling. Some of the best we've ever come across and my wife's favourite; I was only allowed one!

Our last tapas dish came half way through ,the hake in San Miguel batter and saffron aioli. Unfortunately we devoured it before I could take a photo. Highly recommended as the batter was wonderfully light and crispy, the hake meaty and succulent, the saffron aioli delicately flavoured and not overpowered with garlic. Delicious!

Believe it or not we had desserts for lunch as well, much deserved I thought after a two hour walk. The Almond and Lemon cake served with lemon syrup and creme fraiche (£2.95) reminded me of eating marzipan a little but was delicately flavoured and definitely "a good bake". The deep fried mint leaf garnish was completely beyond me. Looked foul and should never have been allowed on the plate. The only real let down of the whole experience. For some reason it really annoyed me, more than it would do normally.

The cinnamon dusted churros with Pedro Ximenez (an amazing sweet dark dessert sherry) chocolate sauce (£3.95) were definitely the best I have ever come across. The doughnut batter was incredibly light and just melted in the mouth. I would personally have preferred a dark chocolate sauce as it would have contrasted wonderfully to the sweetness of the churros.

The service was polite and friendly although initially we weren't sure whether we were meant to order from the bar or our table, they did come and do table service. The rather poor stairway entrance to Bar 44 could do with a spruce up as could their toilets, as they let down what was a thoroughly good experience. If I hadn't known about them before I wouldn't be tempted to walk up that staircase to find out. Our bill came to £42.90 which included three coffees (£4.50) and a tea (£1.50). I felt that this was absolutely amazing value for the quality of the food and ingredients that we were served, and look forward to trying Bar44 in Penarth in the future.

Address: Bar 44, 44 High St, Cowbridge, CF71 7AG

Tel: 01446 776488

Website: www.bar44.co.uk

Closed on Monday nights

The New Conway, Pontcanna, food blog and restaurant review

The New Conway has established itself very well over the last four years as a good local gastro pub in Pontcanna and has certainly filled the void that is gastropub dining in Cardiff as a whole. So well done to its owners the Knife & Fork Ltd who also own Woods Brasserie (Cardiff Bay), The New Pilot (Penarth) and The Old Swan (Llantwit Major). I could probably list on one hand those pubs that truly live up to the title of gastropub in Cardiff, which is a shame considering the number of pubs we have. That's probably down to Brain's hold over the pubs in Cardiff, who I admit do good beer but on the whole do run of the mill food, although I understand that they are trying to change this at the moment as they have finally recognised that serving up bog standard pie and chips is no longer good enough across a diverse range of pubs in a multitude of socio-economic areas. Anyway I will be entertaining myself at a Brain's establishment in the near future to see how they are getting on!

Back to the New Conway. Its set in in the heart of Pontcanna for those of you who don't know it and in my experience normally hits the mark when it comes to the food. It is the only pub in Cardiff to gain an entry into the Michelin Pub Guide so they are definitely getting it right. After working a long stretch of night shifts I really couldn't muster the effort to get in the car and schlek across town to eat so decided on walking around the corner instead. I'm always a little hesitant to eat at the New Conway as sometimes I struggle to find something I want to eat and have sometimes been disappointed with my choices in the past. I put this down to the fact that they run a small kitchen with locally sourced ingredients and only prepare a limited amount of food for a small dining area and are always trying to experiment. So yes that is a good thing! Tremayne Haines, the Head Chef, can sometimes be a victim of his own experimentation, but on the whole produces great food at a good price.

The pub itself is small. The dining area is simple and modern, but at the same time cosy and warm just like a good pub should be. There is no table service so one orders everything at the bar and you choose what you are going to eat from a blackboard on the wall, slightly annoying but forgivable unless the bar is busy in, which case its really annoying. The New Conway rarely seems to have enough staff on to make your visit feel smooth and the manager (Phil Newbould) always seems to be running around, in a professional and hospitable manner. I do feel that he is a shining example of a hospitable and knowledgeable host and the New Conway are lucky to have him. No I don't know him, but have merely observed him ply his trade.

It took my wife and I a while to choose from the menu as it always does, the dishes never really jump out at me and I do have to think about what I want, that's probably a good thing though. We didn't try anything particularly adventurous but we wanted good ingredients, cooked well and ultimately provided comfort food, and I'm happy to say that is exactly what was delivered. Being exhausted we decided on no starter but dessert was definitely happening.

I chose the Calves Liver (£12.50) with bacon, onions, mashed potato and red wine jus. The calves liver was cooked to perfection, firm on the outside and a juicy medium rare on the inside - delicious and certainly put a smile on my face. In fact for me the whole dish was pretty much perfect and I don't say that very often. I can't remember the last time I ate mashed potato that was perfectly seasoned and suitably mashed. The butter, the seasoning and the smoothness of the mash just left me beaming and very much in food heaven; we don't really eat mash at home - not allowed the butter or the calories for that matter! I try to leave that for eating out. The calves liver came with two rashers of perfectly crisped streaky bacon, flavourful lardons, onions and red wine jus and a couple of pieces of kale. My only small criticism would be that I would have wanted more veg and really just seemed a poor token gesture. It would have been better altogether just to have left them off the plate and the bartenders recommend a side order of veg, which we had ordered. Just as well it turned out, lovely fresh vegetables perfectly cooked.

My wife went for their  special of the day BBQ pork ribs and chips (£9.00). Oh yes! They were fabulous. On arrival at the table my wife and I just smiled and said"Wow! They look great". We were hungry, and a pile of ribs smothered in BBQ sauce with chunky chips just looked like happiness on a plate. Fortunately they tasted as good as they looked. Plenty of ribs, good meat (although they could have been more tender) and spicy BBQ sauce, yum yum yum! The chips were good quality thick chunky and heavy and really hit the spot. My wife being the garlic fiend that she is ordered some aioli (garlic mayonnaise) to go with the chips and I have to say that for us it was rather lacking in garlic so for me was little disappointing, there again my wife pointed out that we do like more garlic than most. If a recipe asks for two bulbs we normally double it at least!



The manager brought us extra napkins and a finger bowl for the ribs, which were definitely needed and a nice touch. As I said before the manager was running around the pub flitting from bar service to food delivery and really could have done with one more member of staff for a smoother experience. We did have to wait about 25 minutes for our food and the kitchen buzzed the floor staff three times before they were able to get off the bar to get our food and it was a similar story for other diners. Good food is worth waiting for, but not because they don't have enough staff on. This is usually down to the owners who  limit the payroll on a weekly basis in order to make sure they make enough money. On the other hand maybe they were just a little busier than expected on a Wednesday night. If they could just be a little more prompt it would make the experience more enjoyable, their again table service would then make the whole experience a more expensive one as well! You get what you pay for.

Anyway on to dessert. We shared a dessert as we were starting to flag a little. Sticky toffee pudding  (£5.00) with dates and vanilla ice cream is fantastic, when its made properly, and we were not disappointed. The dessert was well presented, although I initially thought to myself, I want more sauce I was wrong! This dessert was so well balanced, soft light sponge littered with pieces of date, not too rich, was sublime. The toffee sauce again wasn't overly sweet and the vanilla ice cream matched the sticky toffee pudding so well that it lasted about two minutes. I couldn't help myself and my wife sensibly marked out her half before I completely devoured it. I have been known to finish a dessert within minutes; I don't share desserts very well, she blinks and its gone!



I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this visit to the New Conway and its probably the best meal that I have had there. The total bill came to £36.80 and included two pints of beer(£6.80). I left a tip of 10% as the staff and manager worked hard to ensure everybody was being looked after. Well worthy of its entry into the Michelin Pub Guide.

The New Conway
58 Conway Rd
Pontcanna
Cardiff
CF11 9NW

02920 224373

Opening Times: Sun 12pm-10.30pm, Mon-Thurs 12pm-11pm, Fri & Sat 12pm-12am

Web: http://knifeandforkfood.co.uk/conway

Cafe Malaysia, Cathays, Cardiff, Food Blog Review

With all the snow we've been having we decided we needed a night out with some delicious hot and spicy food. I am often stuck when thinking of new Asian restaurants to try out, having been a regular diner at Bangkok Cafe, Ichiban and Mint and Mustard for several years now. We decided to try and find a Malaysian restaurant and resorted to the internet to see what might be out there. Why Malaysian I here you ask? Well, my wife and I went on honeymoon to Malaysia and had some great food whilst we were out there, it was about time we found some Malaysian food in Cardiff. We weren't  surprised to find that there are only two in Cardiff and plumped for Cafe Malaysia in Woodville Rd, Cathays.

We initially looked on their Facebook page and realised that this would very much be a true street hawker experience. No frills whatsoever when it comes down to the decor and appearance of everything in the Cafe, it really is all about the food. Think greasy spoon, without the grease and red and brown sauce - you do actually get a spoon!

 

 

When we were in Malaysia the restaurants looked exactly like Cafe Malaysia's interior so 10 out of 10 for authenticity on this. Bare walls with the odd picture or map of Malaysia, full on lighting (low energy bulbs a go go) and plastic checked table cloths. This interior's authentic look might put a lot of people off as it is a far cry from our social norm of what is expected in many restaurants these days in the UK. As I hinted at before it really is all about the food!

On entering Cafe Malaysia you are startled by how bright it is and the welcome wasn't exactly bursting with warmth and hospitality, but that was more down to the fact that the French girl who was serving that night can hardly speak English, which only made me think it made it even more authentic!!! She could understand that we wanted two Tiger beers and that's the important bit. We weren't here to socialise with the waitress but to sample some hopefully, amazing Malaysian cuisine.

 

 

 

We kicked off with the only two appetisers on the menu Skewer Satay Chicken (£3.50) and Roti Canai (£3.50). Well my wife and I were speechless other than to say "Oh my god this is amazing!". I was immediately transported back to the Hawker market in central Malacca (if only), where we sat outside and watched the street hawkers ply there trade marinating small morsels of chicken before sliding them onto wooden skewers and char grilling them. Yes they were that authentic, and were succulent, flavoursome and should have been all mine, but in view of not having to sleep in the spare room I had to share! The peanut sauce wasn't amazing and I prefer it when it has a strong peanut flavour but that's just my personal preference and in terms of an authentic peanut sauce this was spot on. In Malaysia our Chicken Skewers were sometimes served with Ketupat (small sticky rice balls), as well as onion and cucumber.

 

 

The Roti Canai (an Indian influenced flatbread) were delicious and actually rather decadent. The dish came with a small amount of dahl and curry sauce for dipping and I have to say is the best bread dish I have ever had. It was soft and flavoursome, due to the amount of ghee (clarified butter) in it and reminded me why I love butter so much (a food stuff that I am banned from having in the house as its so unhealthy).

Our starters didn't last long and certainly went down well with the cold Tiger beer (£2.10). When it came to choosing our mains we already knew two of the dishes we wanted having eaten them before in Borneo and Melacca. We ordered the Beef Rendang, Chilli Spices Lamb and Nasi Lemak as we wanted a selection of mains to try. Two mains would easily be enough but we just had to try three!

The Chilli Spices Lamb (£7) was the definite winner. The lamb just melted in the mouth and the combination of spices was phenomenal, full of flavour and not too spicy at all; once again we were just sitting there beaming with our choice of restaurant this evening.

The Nasi Lemak (£6.50) is coconut infused rice served with turmeric fried chicken, hard boiled egg, sambal paste with fried anchovies and cucumber slices. It is widely considered the national dish of Malaysia and is often eaten for breakfast. We dived straight into the coconut infused rice only to find that it was steamed rice and a huge disappointment. Nothing wrong with the rice it was perfectly cooked but had no coconut flavour whatsoever. The turmeric fried chicken drumsticks were crispy, flavoursome and downright naughty. Anchovies are just like marmite, you either love them or hate them, we love them! The tiny deep fried fish went down a treat.

 

Our final main was the Beef Rendang (£7),  which is beef stewed in freshly ground spices, lemongrass and coconut milk with caramelised dessicated coconut. This was a truly spicy dish a lot more so than the Chilli Spices Lamb. The rice was perfectly cooked once again and the spicy coconut sauce overpowered any flavour of the beef but was delicious all the same.

No space for dessert, which was just as well as the dessert on offer only consisted of ice cream. I would normally have tried what was on offer as I love my ice cream but as I am trying moderate the amount that I eat I decided to try a Kopi instead. Kopi is Malaysian instant coffee with condensed milk and was a great dessert substitute, although some people will find it overly sweet. Even my wife who doesn't have a sweet tooth had a sip and cooed.

 

 

The bill came to £33.40 which I think is a great price for some good authentic Malaysian food. The chef and owner Shang Teoh is from the Penang region of Malaysia and really has brought some great food to Cardiff. Penang is well known for its food in Malaysia and thats why Shang Teoh is so proud to bring his regional cuisine to Cardiff. Cafe Malaysia has been open since April 2012 and is very much a small local business bringing something different to the Cardiff dining scene. As I said before, don't expect the best service in Cardiff but do expect some authentic tasty food. Their opening times reflect when they have their busiest trading periods and is common in businesses who are slowly developing and can't yet afford to have lots of staff. Working split shifts six days a week catches up with you eventually. I wish him every success and hope that this hidden gem; or perhaps rough diamond keeps its authenticity, as its popularity is bound to increase.

 

Cafe Malaysia

101 Woodville Rd

Cathays

Cardiff

CF24 4DY

 

www.cafemalaysia.co.uk

 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cafe-Malaysia/273352066053147?sk=photos_stream

 

Tel: 02920 235616

 

Open: Mon-Sat 11am-3pm and 5pm -8pm

Sun - Closed

 

Cash Only no cards

 

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