Two days after Chris and Christine’s visit to Cardiff, our friend, kw, came all the way from Leeds to visit us in Cardiff. So here we go again, this time being more skilled and experienced in guiding friends around Cardiff.
A souvenir shop which is located across the Cardiff Castle.
Since our friend was craving for Chinese food, we decided to visit Happy Gathering as many friends have recommended this restaurant to us. We read from their website that the restaurant was voted as Britain’s number one Chinese restaurant in year 2007 by The Times. The restaurant is located in Cowbridge Road, it takes about 15 minutes walk from the Cardiff Castle.
A photo of a statue taken at the entrance of the restaurant.
The interior of the restaurant was clean, pleasant and comfortable. A piano can be seen from the left corner of the photo. The restaurant has 250 seating capacity, as seen from their website.
Our turnip cake (XO酱萝卜糕) arrived shortly we placed our order. Priced at £2.50, we find this fried carrot cake rather delicious. The outer layer is nice and crispy and it was pillow soft on the inside. The turnip cake would have been perfect if it is less oily.
We hardly have dim sum without having pork dumplings (鱼子蒸烧卖). Priced at £2.50, we find this shaomai rather delicious, it was large and generously filled with sweet and juicy pork meat. A highly recommended dish!
Priced at £3, the har gao aka prawn dumplings (相逢虾饺皇) were as good as the pork dumplings. The fillings were dense and rich in fresh and crunchy prawns, it was juicy and succulent. The skin a little too thick to our liking but nevertheless tasted delicious overall.
The rice noodle roll filled with pork (蜜汁叉烧肠粉) was quite good too. Priced at £3.30, the Hong Kong style chee cheong fun was generously stuffed with delicious char siu. Having the same problem as the har gao, we found the skin of the rice noodle roll a tad too thick.
We also had steamed glutinous rice in lotus leaf wrap (糯米鸡). It tasted rather decent, filled with Chinese sausage, chicken, pork and etc. But then again, it was on the oily side.
Kw had a braised beef noodles (牛腩汤面) for £6.50. We were quite surprise to see the serving of this noodle this large. Though kw had a great appetite, he couldn’t manage to finish it. Large chunks of beef slices were served and our friend claimed that the main course tasted nice and authentic.
The serving of the char siu rice (叉烧饭) which ys had was also enormous. The roasted pork was moist and flavourful and it went well with the rice. Priced at £6.50, we think that it was a good order.
The fried yee mee noodles (干烧伊面) which was priced at £6.50 was value for money. The large serving of noodles was soft and full of flavour and the shredded mushrooms complemented the noodles very well. We were too full to finish the noodles and the proprietor of the restaurant was really nice and friendly and gave us a box to pack the leftovers home for supper.
Overall, food was very good in the restaurant. It is hard to find authentic Chinese restaurants in the UK and we’re really grateful that we have found one in Cardiff. Service was extremely good and the staffs were nice and polite. We would definitely go back for more!
Restaurant Information
233 Cowbridge Road East
Cardiff CF11 9AL,
United Kingdom.
Tel: 02920397531
though the char siew looks rather artificial red.. hehe