Oh The Albany! Right, I'm going to go right out on a limb here (yet again) and say that this is the…read morebest backstreet boozer in the whole of Cardiff. I'll pop off in a minute to buy a gigantic beery rosette to slap on the side of the building but first I'll explain my decision. Firstly, it's in a proper back street location, to this day I still get lost when ambling up to it and wobbling away from it. It also scores points for its slightly misleading name (see The Gower, The Roath Park etc.). It's kind of near Albany Road, but not quite near enough. It has cracking, and I mean cracking, cask beers. The marvellously moustachioed chap behind the bar knows his beer and he knows how to keep it and serve it. The lounge is a beautiful setting to get nicely sozzled in, all stained glass windows and low lighting. There's the beer garden that is, again, a beautiful setting to get nicely sozzled in. It has also has the bar where the lager drinkers are safely contained, content with multiple screens and two sky boxes. It even has a skittle alley. It has everything. The Albany is, quite frankly, a brilliant pub.

The Albany Hotel is a pub in Roath, just off Albany Road. The main problem I have with the…read moreestablishment is finding it! I can always vaguely remember where it is, but end up turning down a few red herring streets before I eventually stumble across it. It needs a homing beacon. The best thing about this pub is its beer garden, and it's worth pottering down there just to try it out for a sunny afternoon. There is an undercover area and heaters for those people who forgot to bring warm jumpers for the evening. Due to its location, this is a pub mainly populated with locals, rather than your standard student-filled pubs elsewhere in the neighbourhood. This means that it can be a little quieter, but is also more friendly, in my opinion.

The Clause is a huge diverse pub in Cathays. Built in 1890 the pub has been recently refurbished in…read more2005. Consisting of three areas, the Oak room a registered listed feature, the public bar for all the students and a pool area. A huge pool area I may add, it's great as you don't have to wait 5 days for the 3 people hogging the machines the entire time. Drink is cheap. Sub £3. The demographic here is as wide of range as I've ever seen in the pub. Locals, oldies, students, oiks, youngen's. You name it, it comes and drinks from the lake here.

The Claude is a massive pub on Albany Road in Roath that is popular with students, locals and…read morevisitors to the area... there's always an interesting mix of people in attendance. I quite like this cavernous pub, and am willing to forgive it it's Sky Sport and plasma screens, (although I do avoid it when there's a match of any description on, as I value my hearing), but the opposite is true for the live music, which usually takes precedence over the sport anyway. This, of course, is likely to get louder than the rugby or footie crowds ever will, but I have learned a really invaluable alternate use for toilet paper, a little bit of which goes a long way to avoiding perforated eardrums... (I'm never organised enough to carry earplugs around). I've witnessed plenty of live music in my time as I used to put on music nights in Bristol, and have been an avid gig-goer all my life. Stuffing something in your ears, that can easily be retrieved later, is advantageous for several reasons. Not only will you preserve your hearing to continue enjoying live music at a later date, but it also improves the quality of the sound by cutting out the interference, and the snare drum trill of badly maintained reverberating speakers etc... this is very useful to know if you go to small venues, where the PA is often not as good as it could be! The sound at The Claude is okay, but can sometimes be a tad noisy if you get to close to the speakers... you've been told... I don't need to labour the toilet roll thing! They reckon they're the best live music venue in South Wales, which is probably not entirely true, but they do put on a good night, and very regularly. They also claim to do great food, have a massive beer garden, internet room and all kinds of other stuff, including open fires in the winter. Again, everything has its foundation on truth, but the Sunday lunch is a carvery, and not my bag at all... if it's yours, you won't be disappointed. It's £5.95 a head!

This is listed as the Goat Major but is in fact reverted back to The Bluebell. Not many pubs…read moremanaged to keep its original feel as a true pub but the Bluebell has managed to do it. The food was excellent along with the service, the bar staff were engaging and professional which added to the welcoming ambience. Located right across from Cardiff Castle well worth a visit.

One minute walk from the front of Cardiff Castle, this is military related pub is traditional as it…read moregets. It's a proper old man's pub ideal for everyone above the age of 18. Here is a bit of history the name is taken from the Mascot of the Royal 41st regiment of Wales. They carried a live goat on the Russian front line in the Crimean War. The goat survived the War and was introduced to Queen Victoria back in England. Originally simply called the Goat, the pub was renamed the Bluebell in 1813, and finally the Goat Major in 1995. To this day when the Royal Regiment of Wales names a new goat as its mascot they get several column inches dedicated to them in the Welsh press. I've never eaten here - nor would I want to as it strikes me a strictly drinking pub with lots of real ales on the menu and wall to wall dark wood panelling. Wednesday is Welsh night by the way and apparently the pub offers a range of Goat Major memorabilia - I can't say I'd noticed.

I do like a good pub; if you can go in after a long day, sit down in the warm and have a nice slow…read moredrink with some friends then it's a winner for me. This pub is great for all of those things. It has a really friendly atmosphere and the prices are reasonable. They do serve food (as you'd expect really...) but I've never eaten here. Instead, this is normally where we would go for a few drinks for heading on to elsewhere. It is a little too far from me for me to want to go there just for one drink and come home again but it really is a nice place to go to otherwise.

Te first thing you notice about The Roath Park (apart from it being no where near Roath park) is…read morethat its chunky hunk of a building somewhat attractive in a sturdy stone block kind of way. It has a quite a bit of history attached to it and saw army officers staying in the hotel rooms above during the war - which are no longer used. As with all pubs it has a full range of beers, wines and spirits plus a cracking pool area where friendly rivalry is the order of the day. I played here with a mate. It was winner stay on and we beat 11 other teams in a row. By no way of an excuse by the time we'd got to the 11th game our optical judgement had been a little hindered by our optical choices at the bar. It's mainly frequented by locals and students - and local students.

Wellfield Road. Dark wood floors. Terracotta walls. Rustic wooden furniture. Boardgames…read more Highchairs. Chalkboard with specials on. Slightly unusual beer on tap. Black and white pictures on the wall. The murmurs and whirrs of polite conversation and coffee machines. I've been here before but it only opened yesterday? How could this be? Then it hits me. It's like déjà vu all over again. Juno Lounge. Can you copyright a pub? If you can then Juno should have done it because Brains have made no secret where they got their inspiration from. To plonk it on the same block shows some cajones. So you get free wi-fi and a selection of warm filled focaccias. The beer is in the three pound ballpark - Amstel, 45, the elusive Brains Black, the increasingly common Stowford Press, Brains Bitter and a guest called Grumpy Landlord on pull with Peroni clocking in at £3.95. They have nuts and olives in huge jars rather than in packets. There's a patisserie display and a fresh orange juice and smoothie machine. Service is a bit slow and awkward, but they'll gel with time. Knick-knacks, bric-a-brac, give the (guide) dog a bone. Arcane books that will never be read. A spiral staircase that ascends to a quieter seating area and descends to the toilets. Big plants and a candle on every table. Lamps, lamps and more lamps. The Pear Tree is for sophisticated students, for young families for whom a Harvester doesn't cut the mustard, for the twitterati, for anyone for whom Moon Safari is a cornerstone in their collection. This is the new drinking culture according to Brains. Bow down or bog off.

Ooh, look at Brains going all café-bar-tastic!…read more Sam E has summed up this brand new establishment perfectly. It fits in very comfortably in an area that's home to trendy students, young families, and yummy mummies with time to lunch with their friends. There's wi-fi, a choice of board games, a freshly squeezed orange juice machine, plenty of lush plants, and jars of olives by the bar. All very respectable. It's not the type of Brains drinking den where you'll find Curry & A Pint promotions - more 'Tapas & A Drink' (for £7.95 between 5pm and 7pm from Monday to Friday). But I think it's a shrewd move on the brewery's part to open up this type of hybrid café-bar establishment where you can enjoy a good cup of coffee OR a pint, take small children if you want to, and have a decent conversation over lunch and a glass of wine.

I think the best time to visit this pub is when there are rugby matches on. It stays busy a lot of…read morethe time but during matches is when it really comes into its own. It gets absolutely chock-a-block, but full of friendly people who all just want to have a good time, and a few drinks with the rugby. Other than during these days, there is plenty to keep you going. A skittle alley, a pool table, darts, sky sports on the television, karaoke... what else could you really want? AGAIN, it's a Brains pub. The bar staff are really friendly and there's a pretty good community spirit which comes from the mingling of locals and students. They do also serve food, though I have never eaten here.

The Crwys is a popular local pub that sits on the edge of Cathays and Roath, and gets particularly…read moreheaving when there's a rugby match on (with plenty of big screen TVs). it also attracts quite a few on their regular quiz nights, and you see quite a few diners in there, too. It's divided into different areas, one of which is raised a bit and more geared towards people who are eating. Most of the customers seem to be mainly local residents and a few groups of students. To find it, walk to the crossroads between Woodville Road and Crwys Road and it's on one of the corners. In fact 'Crwys' actually means 'cross' or 'crucifix' in Welsh, and its position on the crossroads could well explains the pub's name - although of course the road itself also has the same Crwys name, so perhaps there's something else behind the meaning. This pub does a 'Famous Five' menu for £3.85 from Monday to Friday, but I've yet to find out exactly what this involves. Hopefully some other Cathays or Roathside Yelpers will enlighten us!

This is a really great pub, right in the middle of Cathays, so normally frequented by students…read more They are part of the chain of pubs to offer yellow cards, which you buy for a few pounds and then use to get discounts on your drinks throughout the year. My housemate and I went looking for tickets to one of the student club nights (because sometimes the union box office sells out before these places) but decided to stop for a drink. It was really sunny and hot and having a refreshing drink in the cool was just heaven. Unfortunately there isn't a garden, so far as I am aware, so if we had wanted to bask a little in the sun's rays we would have been disappointed. The prices are pretty standard for the pubs around here. However, that means that they are actually really cheap and you'll be surprised at how little a drink costs, especially if you've come from London.

The Royal George is known simply as The George by the people who regularly frequent this popular…read morepub, and being Scream pub since 1996, the people who regularly frequent it are somewhat inevitably students. Before it was taken over by Scream it used to be Clancey's Irish Bar, and although some of the old guard still use the place, the mood and tone have changed beyond all recognition. The George is one of two Scream pubs in Cardiff, with The Woodville being the other. I'm not too enamoured with the idea behind the chain as I'm none too keen on the whole sports pub thing. Scream pubs seem to feed students a diet of beer, burgers and sport at discounted prices, with a loyalty scheme that just keeps them coming back for more. Nevertheless, this is essentially what a lot of them want, and so they would naturally find these things for themselves if it weren't all put together in a tidy package for them by Scream. There's no denying the popularity of the place during term time!

The Pen and Wig is a favourite hangover haunt for myself and friends and is where I can be found…read morealmost every Sunday lunchtime, more often than not with Ham, Egg and Chips, a can of Red Bull and a palpable sense of regret. A great menu, with curry nights and steak nights and the like. There's a cheap section where you can get fish and chips, ham, egg and chips etc for just £3.99 but there are more substantial offerings aswell. Plenty of drinks too, and they will offer a varying specialist selection of beers and ales throughout the year. An example of this is when Neil Morrisey was in Cardiff for "Rain Man" in the New Theatre, they brought in Morrisey Fox Ale on tap. They always have different ones to sample though. On the whole, you don't begrudge the prices at the Pen and Wig, but nor do they strike you as being especially cheap. There is a great deal for Rose though and for £5 you can get a decent enough bottle. If low on cash, or just intent on getting hammered, a great deal all round. The decor inside is inside pretty standard fare, and, as mentioned previously it does tend to feel like you've been in this type of pub a hundred times before. Even though I must have been inside the Pen and Wig at least 50 times I cannot recall much of the interior decoration at all. I think of this as a compliment. If there is ever a traditional pub where I can remember specific features of decoration, it's usually been because I've been so bored that I've had to resort to staring at pictures on the walls. It tends to have gotten a little too busy for me these days, and, although it's got a great, large outdoor seating area, it's a rare occurence that one is available for long enough to be snapped up. For that reason, nowadays I mainly tend to visit the Pen and Wig for a mid-week drink and it is truly one of the best bars in Cardiff to enjoy a pint outside on a sunny day.

There is a distinct studenty / indie feel to this place but don't let that put you off as it has a…read moregood little beer garden, nice bar staff and the prices are reasonable. I've never eaten here but have seen other peoples food and frankly it didn't tempt me. Having said that a mate of mine says they do a good Sunday roast. There is a comedy on a Tuesday plus you can play board games supplied by the pub for a refundable deposit of £5. It's a little off the beaten track so if you haven't been here before it may take some finding its worth it and its a pub you would seriously consider being your local - if you lived local.

Dropped into the City Arms to get out of the rain. The last time I was in this pub was on…read moreinternational day. Just one drink no food --- no one else in the pub. Not a good experience.

The City Arms is perfectly located for a drink before a night at Clwb Ifor Bach (also known as the…read moreWelsh Club) - and, also being near the stadium, is handy (but rammed) when there's a match or concert on. It gets pretty packed out on any weekend nights, in fact - so there's lots of standing up rather than sitting down for most people. The place has a really sociable atmosphere, though - and you often find strangers striking up conversation with one another, which can make for a fairly random but interesting evening! It's a bit grubby, with fairly grim toilets and a rather sticky floor - but at least that probably helps stop drunk people from slipping over on the dancefloor! If your eyes are still able to focus, the walls on the lounge side of the bar are full of interesting photos of Cardiff's history.

I've not eaten at the Vulcan but I have had a few cheeky drinks and I have to say, the atmosphere…read moreis really great. Being smack bang in the middle of student central, the drinks are dirt cheap but the interior is not compromised and is actually really pretty. Somewhere between classic, dark and moody old pub and trendy bar it provides something aesthetic for people who like to drink in an attractive setting.

This place was classy even before it got classy... if you know what I mean? The fact that it's now…read morehad a reburb that shows it in its true colours is simply a case of a place fulfilling its promise! It'll come as no surprise to many that the people behind the Vulan Lounge are the same people that transformed the North Star into a shining beacon of contemporary style. Tim Rice, the illustrious Cardiff based designer responsible for the magnificent results out in Maindy / Gabalfa is now working his magic in Cathays. And that's not all... The winning formula that has made The North Star such a manifold success is being down-scaled and transposed onto this centrally located pub cum lounge. That means great food, live music and high levels of customer satisfaction! Rowan Liggett, one of the people behind MMP (Miniature Music Press), and responsible for the music nights at The North Star is also providing the entertainment here. So, for those of you without a car.. well... rest assured, they're bringing the good times to you, instead of making you hanker for something that is just a little too far out of reach... The Vulcan is still closed mid week until the work is complete. Here's what I wrote about The North Star: The North Star is a vast pub cum restaurant and music venue occupying a prominent position on North Road in the Maindy / Gabalfa area of Cardiff. It is an incredibly inspiring and important addition to the cultural wealth of the city. Opened in October last year, it is already the home to a cosmopolitan mix of locals, business people and students, as well as regular visitors from all over the city and beyond. When you walk into The North Star you can appreciate why it has such a draw. The old Victorian mansion-sized building has been lovingly refurbished with impressive style. The modern look, embellished with antique flourishes and an eclectic use of period furniture, has been created by Tim Rice, one of Cardiff's most successful designers, leading The North Star to be shortlisted for 'The Best Bar and Restaurant Design Awards' within months of its unveiling. It also scooped up another accolade when it was voted the fifth best 'cheap eat' in the UK by The Guardian. There's more to say about The North Star than I've got space here on Yelp. It's a multi-faceted business that offers a lot, to many. Managed by a brother and sister team, with Alex taking care of front of house, and her brother conjuring up epicurean delights in the kitchen. The food, organic and locally sourced wherever possible, is extensive in range and all homemade from scratch, including the relishes, dough's and even the Yorkshire puds! Dishes are predominantly Italian, but the menu frequently includes Welsh favourites like cockles and lava bread, Monmouthshire lamb and potted pig. With deals like '2 for 1' operating from Monday to Friday, customers are visibly increasing on a weekly basis. Specialty dishes are changed regularly, usually prompted by the advice of their local butcher, J T Morgan, who tips them the wink about all the best seasonal cuts on offer. Established in 1861, J T Morgan Butchers have occupied a position of importance at the indoor market, in central Cardiff, for more years than anyone can remember. A family butchers that have moved with the times, they are presently one of the most recognized purveyors of free range and organic meat and poultry in South Wales. Not surprisingly, The North Star makes the most of a good thing. As well as fantastic Sunday lunches, boasting the most succulent roasts in town, they're also hosting BBQ's on Friday and Sundays over the warmer months. Live music is on offer most days of the week, kicking off on Wednesdays with the Open Mic Night hosted by Rowan Liggett, who is also Co-Director of The Miniature Music Press, a really well produced A5 music magazine and 'What's On', that you can pick up for free at a whole host of places around the city. The North Star also has a sister pub worth mentioning; The Vulcan in Cathays on Wyvern Road, another haunt of the ubiquitous Rowan Liggett, who runs the Open Mic nights here as well. Frequented mainly by students, this is a cool live music pub, also designed by Tim Rice, that is equally well worth checking out.