On ys’s day off, we had a dinner with ys’s friends. One of his friends suggested that Noble House is quite a place for good Chinese food. Since we haven’t been there before, we decided to give this place a try.
Christmas is around the corner. On the way to the restaurant, we took photos of the Christmas decorations in the city centre.
Although the weather can be depressing at times, the beautiful lightings made things up.
A photo taken at St Mary Street.
Dazzling Christmas light up in Cardiff.
After a short walk, we arrived at the restaurant. Noble House is located across Cardiff Central Station. It is one of the few restaurants in Cardiff which serves both Chinese and Japanese food.
The restaurant was nice and cozy with dimmed lightings. It was rather quiet during the night of our visit.
We decided to go for their well-known Szechuan cuisine (四川菜) since it was highly recommended by our friend. Szechuan food is generally spicy, so be ready for a numbing sensation of Szechuan pepper. We ordered 5 main dishes and steamed white rice to go with the main dishes. We had a spicy deep fried chicken (辣子鸡) for £7.80. The chicken, moist and tender, was absolutely delicious and fragrant with the unique flavour of Szechuan peppercorn (花椒). Definitely something that one should order in this restaurant.
Priced at £7.80, the stir-fried water spinach aka kang kong with garlic (蒜茸空心菜) were quite good too. Despite a tad oily, the vegetable was crunchy and aromatic.
Recommended by our friend, we also ordered a sautéed pig’s kidney (火爆腰花) priced at £7.80. The dish might be a little uncommon for some people and to us too. We were quite careful when we took our initial bites, but fell in love with it instantly. The pig kidney’s taste was not too overwhelming and it was nicely suppressed by the chili oil and peppercorn. It was very well stir-fried as the pig’s kidney was moist and soft, every bite was sinfully delicious.
Also priced at £7.80, we had a spicy pork trotters (香辣猪手). The pork trotters were quite good too. Aromatic, fatty and juicy, the pork trotters were rather spicy as evidenced from the photo.
Priced at £14.80, we also ordered one of the most well-known dishes in Szechuan cuisine – shuizhu yu (水煮鱼). Shuizhu yu literally means water boiled fish. This way of cooking maintained the tenderness of the meat and the freshness of the vegetables. We enjoyed this dish thoroughly.
Overall, food was good in this restaurant. But do bear in mind that some of the dishes might be over spicy for some people and they might be a little oily too. Service was average. Nevertheless, we would still recommend this place to anyone who would like to try out authentic Szechuan cuisine in Cardiff.
Restaurant Information
St. Davids House,
9 – 11 Wood Street,
Cardiff CF10 1ER,
United Kingdom.
Tel: 02920383317
