This is one of my favourite Indian's in the Roath/Cathays area, it's always relatively quiet and…read moreI've never found myself waiting long and the food is generally excellent. I'm always edging towards Chinese as takeaway of choice but every time I go to Light of Bengal I remember just how moorish an Indian can be. Many Indian takeaways can hide tastes or be a little heavy handed in their approach to stronger dishes but Bengal have mastered bringing out some of the more subtle flavours. Although there are those Indian food fascists that claim you can't order something like Korma, or Butter Chicken, I disagree. It is often good to compliment a stronger dish with a coconut based sauce, but unfortunately many takeaways put much less effort into these kind of dishes. Not Bengal. The tastes and flavours of dishes such as Lamb Passanda are excellent and worth an order.

These guys are nothing if not staid. They open at 5.00pm on the dot every day of the week, and then…read morethey close again at midnight, without exception. I like that! You know where you are! It means that you don't have to rely on your memory too much, which in my case is a god thing I'll tell you! But that's where they leave convention behind. When it comes to mixing things up, their approach has to be considered pretty darned novel. They do a number of Thali options, which bare no resemblance to the Thali's I used to eat in India. A regular Thali is served on a large steel dish with various indentations allowing it to be used to serve up several small portions of differing food without the risk of unwanted cross contamination of flavours. There are a couple of must have items in a Thali, and these are Sambar (which I loath), and rice. They more often than not come with a Papad and coconut chutney, (which I love, and have been known to come close to sulking when I have ordered a Thali only to discover that they have run out of chutney). Anyway... what these guys do here is classify their meal deals as Thali's, that comprise of a three course meal, which to be fair, does give you a good selection of different dishes... but.... but... these set meal options are just NOT a Thali!!! If you can get over these quarrelsome little pedantic details, you'll more than likely really enjoy your take out from here!

We came by the Purple Poppadom on a family visit and it was far and away the best food we had in…read moreour four days in Cardiff. It serves elevated Indian cuisine that is beautifully made and creatively presented. This isn't your standard Indian take-out. The dining room is casual but stylish, the cocktails were terrific and the food top notch. Service was very welcoming and efficient. Had we been hungrier we would have gotten the tasting menu with the wine pairings. Highly recommend.

This is easily one of the best meals I have ever had, anywhere in the UK. This is Indian dining…read moredone well! Go as hungry as you can so you can try everything! For starters, we had the Aloo tikka chat (5*), the Bombay chat (5*) and the creamery (4*) plus poppadoms with the trio of dips. For mains our table had: Chicken Nawabi - easily the best dish I have ever tasted. The chicken bhuna in this dish is NEXT level. 5 stars does not do this plate justice! 5* Tiffin sea bass - their signature dish and also delicious! 5* Nadal khozi curry - fragrant, deep flavours. Probably one of the best curries I've ever had but it had tough contenders in the other plates! 4* Raman Akhbari - the lamb leg with mash. Amazing. 5* For dessert we had chocomosa anand and the grilled pineapple dish. Do not think you can share played as the portions are small. The little choc filled pastry delights were melt-in-the-mouth crispy parcels filled with warm melted chocolate, on a bed of caramelised banana. These guys are outstanding. Do not let the exterior and street fool you. This is memorable.

Punitha's specialises in South Indian cuisine, using traditional recipes incorporating the region's…read morearomatic spices and plants. What I love about this place is the fact they actually serve authentic Indian desserts, instead of those hideous pre-prepared ice cream sundaes you get in most Indian restaurants. Most Indian desserts tend to be very, very sweet - and the syrupy Gulab Jamun fits this description perfectly. I'm getting ahead of myself here, though, talking about desserts. Back to the savoury stuff. Each chef is from a different region of South India, and their collective knowledge of the cuisine makes for an interesting menu of distinctive regional dishes from Tamilnadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. There are plenty of vegetarian options on offer - try the Sambar Idly for starter (mini rice and lentil cakes with dhal) or the pancake-like Dosai served with chutneys, and for main there's a HUGE choice of veggie food as well as chicken and mutton (the latter never appeals!). They even have a couple of Indo-Chinese noodle dishes on the menu. A good way to try plenty of variety is to go for the taster menu They're not a bog standard Cardiff curry house, and their prices are higher than many Indians in this area, but this is definitely justified and I'd say it's well worth the little extra.

Punitha's invites you to 'wine and dine in South Indian style', which is the way I like to do it if…read moreI opt to eat Indian food, 9although, I have to admit to being rather partial to a few of the North Indian dishes as well, some of which are available here... perfect!). I love Southern Indian food! It's not that I'm biased either... I used to live in South India... it's just that they do amazing things like Dosa, Puri and Idly as well as the world famous Thali meals, that allow you to try all sorts of different dishes and flavours as one meal without having to spend a fortune. The other thing about South Indian food is that they use a lot of coconut. The South of India is sub-tropical unlike the North, and so it's ideal for growing these beautiful nuts, which inevitably have influenced their style of cooking. The South Indians use the whole of the fruit including the flesh, the milk and the oil from the flesh in their cooking (they also use the oil to give their hair a healthy sheen, and they use the other bits of the nut as well, making serving spoons, jewellery and other practical and ornate items from the hard shell, as well as coir string and matting, amongst other things, from the coarse hair of the nut... The Indian people are genius when it comes to making good use of everything!) I love coconut chutney. It's delicious! Although Sambar, (which I don't like), is more readily available in the UK based South Indian restaurants, it is just as common to find coconut chutney alongside Sambar in the Southern India restaurants. Both can be eaten with pretty much everything if you like, but the coconut chuney is best served with things like Puri, Dosa or Idly in my opinion. Punitha's do a fine chutney... in fact they do everything pretty well! They are a little pricey, (but then again, I'm used to paying 15 Rupees for a a Masala Dosa (about 20 pence), and less for Idly and Puri!) The service is certainly a lot slower in the UK than you would expect from an Indian located restaurant, but somewhat perversely, the busier the place is, the better the levels of service... I think they just get into a rhythm!

A while back, a group of my friends lived in a house on Llanishen Street, just around the corner…read morefrom this tiny take away, which is on Whitchurch Road. We often used to end up getting take away from here, and it was consistently good, and by far the best Indian takeaway we knew of in the area. I don't spend a lot of time in the Heath area any more, but last time I drove down Whitchurch Road I spotted Monsoon and remembered how good it was, so we stopped off for a take away. I was made up to find the food is as good as ever - good value, tasty, and served with a huge smile. If you're a Heath local and you haven't tried Monsoon yet, give it a go - they also do home delivery.

I really love the guys that work in Monsoon. They are super friendly and laid back, with a bit of a…read morecheeky sense of humour going on there too! Actually, to be more accurate, it's the owner, (Mr Shar), that has the cheeky sense of humour, and it's his long time friend and manager that generally takes the brunt of it! But it's all good fun and makes for an interesting aside when you go in person to place your order. This is an Indian takeaway that is well into its stride. It's been going for over ten years and so it's not surprising that everyone is as chilled out as they are. Business has been better, but they are doing okay, so this is one fast food establishment that is sure to survive the recession. Monsoon is a great place to get your food at the moment if you are in a large group. They have got a 3 for 2 deal going on which means that there's some significant savings to be had!

Salt N Pepper Grill is a modern fronted corner restaurant on City Road, with a reasonably plush…read moreinterior compared to a lot of the other kebab houses found a little further up the road. This is what I find odd about the city centre end of this fabled street: It somehow looks more dilapidated than the other end of the road, but some of the most lavish eateries, like Cla Zaman and Mirchi, and some of the most renowned and upmarket salons in Cardiff, such as Guy Christian and Coray & Co. are based here. This seems to contradict the appearance of the place, which is a little baffling! Salt N Pepper Grill, as the name would suggest, concentrates its efforts on charcoal grilling a pretty impressive range of kebabs, some of which are vegetarian. They have an 'all you can eat' option for £8.99, offering forty different items to choose from. Students, who get a 10% discount on normal menu prices, can enjoy the 'all you can eat' offer at £6.99. The food is well prepared and the service is good, but I wonder how adversely affected this restaurant is now that Cal Zaman has opened its doors... they're difficult to compete with in terms of scale and luxuriance, and priced similarly they present pretty stiff competition.

Touted as an all you can eat "Indo - Pak cuisine" this restaurant has 40 different dishes to sample…read moreand at the very low price of £8.99 for the general population and £6.99 for students, students also benefit from a 10% discount on all deliveries costs for takeaways. If you always wanted to try every dish but haven't built the courage to try the hotter menu items this is a great opportunity. Get there early and claim one of the booth tables to have a more secluded dining experience. For larger groups this is an ideal curry place with some fantastic dishes for everyone's taste. The seating is very comfortable, with marble floors and some very attractive interior design it's a restaurant to put on the list.

Chillies is a long established Indian Restaurant and takeaway on Whitchurch Road in Cathays. In the…read moreten years that it has been open it has undergone a process of evolution that proves that they are as passionate about what they are doing today as when they first opened. These days they use olive oil and don't use any artificial colours when preparing their food. One of the things that hasn't changed since they opened is that they have kept their prices really affordable. They do an 'all you can eat' special on Sunday and Monday night, which at £8.95 is a great deal! (This does not include the king prawn dishes, but all of the other items on the menu are available). It's no secret that my favourite Indian dishes tend to come from the Tandoori oven, and if a restaurant doesn't have one I tend to lose interest in it pretty quickly. Chillies have a Tandoor, and so somewhat inevitably they also have my custom! They are open seven days a week until midnight.

Chillies is the kind of old-fashioned, good value curry house you end up in after a night at the…read morepub. The food is fine, but by no means gourmet fine dining, with large portions (as is the way with Indian restaurants) and special 'all you can eat' meal deals on certain quieter nights of the week (Sunday and Monday when I last visited) for around £8 including starter, main, dise dishes and even dessert! At that price, you wouldn't expect much in the way of quality - but actually it's all pretty tasty! They don't, however, do home deliveries. Finally, the staff at Chillies are always welcoming and friendly, which persuades me to give them four stars.

My wife and myself went out to the Mint and Mustard recently. Fantastic…read more Service superb. Food brilliant. Best curry I have had in years... truly amazing. Very distinctive Kerala cooking that gets the taste buds flying. Great night out for a special occasion. One thing décor needs an upgrade.

This place is heaven!…read more I think that Mint and Mustard is my favourite Indian restaurant in Cardiff... it's certainly up there in the top three! If it weren't for the fact that there are some other amazing Indian restaurants in Cardiff that employ the same visionary and innovative methods that Mint and Mustard have become known for, then they would be a clear winner! It's stiff competition, but Mint and Mustard are definitely neck and neck for the top slot! What inclines me to choose this restaurant and not the others is that I love the people that work here. They are so genuinely friendly and eager to please, (but not in an obsequious way), that it's really easy to relax and enjoy yourself here. It's no wonder that they have had awards heaped on them for their food. They create really imaginative, top notch nosh for the discerning palette, and the word compromise doesn't seem to be in their vocabulary! They use the best of the best ingredients, and everything on the menu is utterly deliscious!

I have a confession to make - I have only been here once and that was after imbibing a little more…read morealcohol than is recommended. So while my review maybe slightly tinted by drink fueled exuberance I still believe it to be fairly accurate. We entered the restaurant to be welcomed by a smiling waiter who seemed more than happy to accommodate our loud party of 8. It was one of those evenings that hadn't been planned and we were looking for the nearest Indian restaurant to the water hole we'd been refreshing ourselves at and Janata Palace was that restaurant. So we didn't expect much as none of us had heard of it nor had it been recommended to us. Anyhow I had Chicken Boona which was one of the best I can ever remember tasting. I wasn't the only one in my party who thoroughly enjoyed their meal - we all did plus the service was polite, cheery, swift and welcoming. I haven't been there since but I certainly intend to just to see if it lives up to my tipsy memory - i'm sure it will as one of our part did drink anything and he loved it.

Excellent food. Great prices. Some of the best Indian food I have had in the UK. Worth the walk…read morefrom city center.