Locke & Remedy Cardiff Review

The latest addition to the restaurant scene in Cardiff is Locke & Remedy. As part of their opening weeks, they invited me to review their new venture. As part of this, the food and drink mentioned in this post were free, all opinions are genuine and my own (or my sisters, who I took with me).

Location

Locke and Remedy is set in the refurbished old City Library in the Hayes at Cardiff centre. It's close to St Davids Hall so perfect for pre/post concert food. It's also very close to the shopping arcades in Cardiff so great for a break from the retail therapy! Being positioned on the side of town slightly closer to the train station, is also a bonus.

Ambience

The original building was built around 1882 so it has a sense of grandeur and authority. The decor inside is respectful to the era of the building but still modern, which is perfect. There is plenty of room for different sized groups, be it a couple, a group of friends or a party. In fact there were birthday celebrations going on the night we ate there.

Food and Drink

I must admit, when I discovered Locke and Remedy was part of the Marstons group I was a little disappointed (OK I admit it, I'm a bit of a food snob). I had seen posts on social media, and the website looked fab, so it didn't tie in with some of the local Marstons restaurants in my area. And I'm glad to say, that despite my reservations, Locke and Remedy Cardiff did not disappoint!

It felt authentic and well presented.

Craft beers, gorgeous cocktails, good wines, a pizza oven, juicy burgers and fab desserts- it ticked all the boxes! I took my sister, who is a vegetarian, so dining out can sometimes be a bit of a nightmare and even she was impressed.

We started off with two cocktails from their fabulous cocktail range, they were so pretty we couldn't stop photographing them!

As we were reviewing, they wanted us to try a variety of the food they had on offer. So we each had a burger and we shared a pizza. My sister went for the crumbed portabello mushroom burger, which she loved. She admitted she usually hates vegetarian burger options as they are often just a limp offering of non-descript vegetables mashed together. So she was very pleased at the juiciness of the mushroom burger and polished off the whole lot.

I faced a dilemma when it came to choosing my burger. I'd narrowed it down to a choice between two - the glazed short rib or the buttermilk chicken burger. But couldn't decide! So when the waitress came over to take our order I asked which she would recommend, and she suggested an outside runner - the maple glazed bacon burger.

She told me it was their most popular and also her favourite as she loved the sweetness of the bacon. I nervously decided to go with her recommendation, as truth be told I never order bacon burgers because I'm never happy with the quality of the bacon inside and find myself pulling it all apart. Plus, I may have never ended up picking a winner between my two originals, or more than likely I would have ordered both!

As it turned out, I'm so glad I went with the waitresses recommendation, the bacon was perfectly cooked at that crispy stage where the fat is crispy not chewy, and she was right, the sweetness of the bacon really added to the flavour.

We kept it simple for the pizza and went for the Margarita pizza (marinated buffalo mozzarella and sun-dried tomatoes). This was thin, crispy and delicious. I love pizza, and I love proper pizza cooked in a pizza oven even more. And to top it off, the side order of fries were top notch too.

Not quite full yet (I know I'm a gluton). We HAD to have dessert.

The waitress informed us that the only home-made dessert in the kitchens was the chocolate brownie, which she recommended. This was a big deciding factor, plus her recommendation served me well earlier in the evening, so I had the warm chocolate brownie and my sister had the chocolate brownie sundae. No word of a lie my sister declared the brownie as the best she's ever tasted! And when it all got too much for me she even polished it off, after eating her own ice-cream sundae too!

Service

Service was without a doubt superb. We left a decent tip as you could not fault it. The waitress was informative, attentive and well-mannered as were all the staff we came across. I always make a point of seeing how they are with other guests too, as sometimes when you go to 'review' I appreciate it may not always be an accurate indication if you just judge how they are with you. But I am happy to report that the level of service seemed consistent to all diners there that night. They even grouped together to sing happy Birthday to the Birthday boy in a large group.

Value

I would say the price is fair compared to other restaurants in the area. The sides are separate, which in a way is good as if you don't want chips you can save money. The average burger or pizza with chips will set you back between £12-£17 all in, and the desserts are £5 which is reasonable even compared to Swansea, which isn't as busy as Cardiff. The cockatils aren't cheap at an average of £7.95, but that is across the board in every bar you go into so I would say is well placed.

The big question: Would we go again? - Definitely. Just looking back at the menu online is making me hungry!