Restaurant Review: Urban Tap House

I went to the Urban Tap House in Cardiff last Friday night on a work night out. They claim to 'serve the best burgers in Cardiff' on their website... I was very keen to verify this ambitious statement!

We got to the venue at 5:30pm and it was already pretty full. The atmosphere is very relaxed and there's no loud music so you can actually have a decent conversation. I know this makes me sound like an old lady, but I hate going to places where I have to shout to make myself heard and also have to pretend that I can hear what everyone else is saying. You know those embarrassing moments where you're just nodding along because you can't hear a word, and the other person is actually waiting for you to answer a question? I experience those moments a lot.

We congregated upstairs as there were so many of us, and we pretty much took over half the upstairs bar. The little bar upstairs has lots of rustic round tables (and dangerously high plastic chairs), and there's also a private room called the 'Cwtch'. For those of you who don't know, 'cwtch' is the lovely Welsh word for 'hug'! Coincidentally, the Urban Tap House also sells a variety of beer called 'Cwtch'.

I'd been thinking about what burger I was going to order for about three weeks, so it didn't take me too long to decide on the Big Welsh. This beast was made up of a beef burger, Welsh cheddar, bacon and pan fried leeks. The meal also came with chips and coleslaw, and cost £7.50 in total. I've never had leeks in a burger before, but no harm in trying something new!

Wow. Just wow. I loved the meal and finished every tiny little bit of it, down to the last smear of coleslaw. Yes, that purple concoction is coleslaw... some people commented that it looked like purple strips of chicken! The chips might actually have been the highlight as they were so beautifully crisp and salty, but the burger was pretty good too. It definitely wasn't a 'plastic' burger like the one I had in Frankie and Benny's last year! I don't usually bother to eat the bacon in cheeseburgers as it's never cooked properly, but this bacon was cooked to perfection. Oh, and leeks in a burger taste really good. Who knew? I've had a lot of good burgers in my time, and this one was definitely in my top ten. 

I'll certainly be going back to the Urban Tap House as I thought the food was very reasonable and it was a nice relaxing place to spend a few hours on a Friday night. I've also seen a few photos of their mouth-watering specials on Twitter which make me want to hop in the car to town there and then!

Have you been to the Urban Tap House? What did you think?

My Harvester addiction...

I seem to be slightly addicted to eating at the Harvester. I wrote a restaurant review on the Harvester back in June 2013, and I must have been about twenty times since then. That is not an exaggeration.

We had yet another busy weekend last weekend... I hope our lives are a bit calmer after we get married! We had lots of wedding matters to sort out and were also busy with the new house, so we thought we'd reward ourselves on Saturday afternoon with a meal at the Harvester. After staring at the menu for much longer than was necessary, we both decided to choose items from their £9.99 meal deal. Unlimited salad, main meal (with sauce and side), refillable drink and dessert. Who on earth would say no to that?

I filled my salad bowl with pasta, pineapple, onions, crispy onion and bacon bits, potato salad, coleslaw, carrots, thousand island dressing, a white bread roll... don't judge me, I hadn't eaten for six hours!

I chose the gourmet bacon and cheese burger for my main course, with chips and chilli, ginger and spring onion sauce. I have never ever had a bad burger in the Harvester and I was absolutely ravenous, so I thought it was an apt choice. Chilli, ginger and spring onion sauce might seem like a strange choice to accompany a burger, but it's just so good. It's also a good sauce to dip your chips into... please take my word for it, you won't regret it.

It's safe to say that I was very full after polishing off my massive burger and chips, but I still had to fit in my dessert. I say that as if it was a chore... it definitely wasn't. You can have a Sundae Best with the £9.99 meal deal, or you can pay £1 extra for one of the gigantic sundaes. I decided to be greedy and go for the Chocolate Supreme Sundae with Munchies. I'd already blown my calorie allowance for the day so I thought I might as well go all out! It's not as if I need to stay slim for a wedding dress or anything... ahem. 

This massive sundae was made up of whipped cream, ice cream, warm chocolate fudge brownie, Munchies, crushed Munchie pieces, Belgian chocolate sauce, fudge pieces and a wafer. The chocolate fudge brownie was very rich so I couldn't quite finish it off, but that wasn't for want of trying! Possibly the best sundae I've ever had at the Harvester, closely followed by the Lemon Blizzard. 

Needless to say, I didn't eat another thing for the rest of the day. Yet another successful visit to the Harvester!

Have you been to the Harvester lately? What's your favourite meal there?

Restaurant review: Ed's Easy Diner

Ed's Easy Diner has been on our list of places to eat for months, and we finally ventured there last weekend. For those of you who aren't familiar with Ed's Easy Diner, the Cardiff branch is situated in the St David's 2 food court. We went at around 4pm so it was pretty quiet and we were seated straight away. I was practically drooling as I read the menu... I wanted to try everything! I was torn between having a hot dog or a burger, but I finally settled on a Chilli Cheese Burger Combo Plate. This consisted of a chilli cheese burger (obviously), chips, onion rings and coleslaw for £10.45. I've heard amazing things about the milkshakes at Ed's Easy Diner so I was tempted to have one of those too, but I decided not to succumb to the temptation of adding even more calories to my already hefty meal.

YUM.

The food arrived quickly and I really can't fault any of it. The onion rings were just the right level of crispy, the chips were the best I've tasted for a very long time, the burger was cooked perfectly, the chilli was goooood and even the bun was toasted to perfection. I couldn't really taste the cheese on the burger but I'm not a huge fan of cheese so that was fine by me. I'm a massive ketchup fiend so I liked the fact that they put a little pot of it on my plate. Simple things! 

The atmosphere in Ed's Easy Diner is very informal and the staff were all very friendly and helpful. I like the American diner interior, and also like the fact that the kitchen is in plain view. Very authentic!

I would most definitely visit Ed's Easy Diner again and would highly recommend it to others. Our whole meal cost approximately £26 for two combo plates and two diet Cokes which makes Ed's Easy Diner one of the cheaper places in the St David's 2 food court. Just one tip... it always looks very busy in there between 6pm and 8pm, especially over the weekend, so you're probably better off visiting just before the dinner rush like we did. 

Has anyone else been to Ed's Easy Diner lately? What did you think?

Restaurant review: Harvester

I love the Harvester. Unlimited salad bar, amazing bread rolls, delicious meaty goodness and refillable soft drinks... what's not to like? I've been to the Harvester in Cardiff Bay twice in the last few weeks, and I seriously can't get enough of the place.

Let's start with the salad bar. You're entitled to help yourself to an unlimited quantity of salad with every main meal, and it isn't just any old salad. You can choose from potato salad, coleslaw, pasta, peppers, beetroot, onions, pineapple chunks, lettuce, tomatoes, onion bits, bacon bits, raisins, croutons, and a variety of different sauces. My favourite container at the salad bar is filled with warm fresh bread rolls. They are AMAZING, and I'm always at serious risk of filling myself up with bread before my main meal arrives. I also always eat a copious amount of the crispy onion and bacon bits. I should probably note here that I always fill my salad bowl(s) with the most unhealthy options from the salad bar... no lettuce or tomatoes for me.

One of my salad bowls!

I always take about ten minutes to choose my main meal as there's such a massive variety to choose from. You can either choose a main meal, side and sauce from the front few pages of the menu, or you can choose from the All Day Earlybird options on the back cover. If you choose from the Earlybird options, you get a set sauce and side rather than choosing your own. 

I'm a big fan of the skewers, burgers and fajitas, and usually choose the chilli, ginger and spring onion sauce with chips as my side dish. There's no point even pretending to be healthy when I visit the Harvester. Why on earth would you have a jacket potato instead of chips? 

Seeing as I've visited the Harvester twice in the last few weeks, I thought I'd post photos of both my main meals from these occasions as they were both spectacular as usual:

Steak fajitas from the Earlybird menu with sour cream and chive sauce and chips

Bacon cheeseburger with chilli, ginger and spring onion sauce and chips

The prices are very reasonable at the Harvester, especially as the soft drinks are refillable and the salad bar is free of charge. For example, the steak fajitas pictured above cost £6.99 for the fajitas, sauce and chips. Bargain! 

My only minor complaint about the Harvester is that they list the calories after every item on the menu. I'm well aware that I'm consuming twice my recommended daily allowance whenever I visit the Harvester, and would prefer not to be reminded of that. At least I'm always too full for dessert! 

Does anyone else love the Harvester as much as I do? Are other people also obsessed with the bread rolls?

New York #7: Food!

I love food. This is not news. Consequently, I was massively excited about sampling the food in New York. The food was amazing when I went to Florida last year, so I was expecting great things. My boyfriend was calling me the paparazzi as I took photos of all my meals (and desserts!), but it just had to be done for blogging purposes. I ate cakes I wouldn't dream of eating at home, and some mahoosive main meals too.  Thankfully we did lots of walking to burn off the excess calories.

So here's a summary in photos of what I ate throughout the week... don't judge me!

First night - Chicken and broccoli pizza slices at The Bread Factory

Breakfast at the hotel on our first morning - the bacon and the 

apple and cinnamon cake thing were especially tasty!

Cheeseburger and onion rings at Juniors - my favourite meal!

Carrot Cake Cheesecake from Juniors. It took me three days in total to finish this!

Hot dog from Frankie's in Grand Central Station. 

Baked beans, bacon bits and barbecue sauce.

Thai Green Curry from a little Thai restaurant in the Hell's Kitchen area

Cupcakes from the Crumbs Bake Shop - mine is the 

Cookie Dough cupcake on the left

American pancakes with strawberries from the Tick Tock Diner

Pepperoni stromboli from the Villa Kitchen in Times Square

Steak burrito from Chipotle Mexican Grill. My first burrito!

Giant chocolate chip cookie from The Bread Factory

Oreo Cake Tower on our last afternoon... Sadly, I couldn't finish it all

Don't panic, I (miraculously) didn't come back 5 stone heavier. My favourite meals were the American pancakes from Tick Tock Diner, the cheeseburger and onion rings from Juniors, and the carrot cake cheesecake from Juniors. Can you recommend any other restaurants in New York?