The Cottage, Cardiff

Dating back to the mid 1700's, this traditional Brains house on the city's main boozing strip is reportedly one of Cardiff's oldest pubs. It has a similar deep but narrow layout to several other older pubs in the city centre, with a porch leading into a light front seating area with plenty of standard tables and chairs under the attractive latticed front window. The servery appears mid way into the pub on the left hand wall and has a nice dark wood counter and bar back, with the latter boasting a rather grand integral clock on top, flanked by some interesting ceramic pieces. High tables and stools run opposite the bar whilst further along there are some plush padded banquettes, including a snug little booth to the right. A couple of steps lead up to the rear, bare boarded area where more standard tables and chairs and a single curved banquette round out the seating options, with bell pushes still in-situ at certain points. A hatch on the rear wall allows a peep into the kitchen and the area is brightened considerably by a large stained glass skylight. There are loads of black and white photos on show throughout the pub, including many depicting local scenes and various mirrors enhance the traditional décor, although this is somewhat countered by the presence of numerous blackboards promoting various nights and TV screens showing muted daytime shows whilst music was quietly piped throughout. The bar offered a broad selection of Brains ales, with the options on this visit comprising Bitter, SA, SA Gold, Dark, Reverend James, Oat Natural and Bread of Heaven. I decided to try the ever reliable Dark, which went down very well and was served by a very chipper barman. This is a pretty solid city centre pub with no real outstanding features other than it being a respectable presence in a part of town where drinking barns prevail. It's probably the best place in the city centre to sample Brains beers if that's your thing, but there are more interesting places just a short walk away.

The Cottage is a decent looking pub that has a narrow frontage,the pub is situated on one of Cardiff's main shopping streets. Once inside there was a single room which which ran quite a way back. The pub is a Brains tied house,there were four real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Brains Dark which was a very nice drink,the other beers were Brains bitter,SA and Rev James. The pub was fairly quite on my early Saturday dinner visit,i was quite happy having a drink in this pub. Pub visited 28/5/2005

Fine City Centre drinking den, quite near station. Full range of Brains beers and a food menu. Long pub with bar along one wall, bigger than you think from the outside. Upright drinking perches opposite the bar and a more loungey feel towards the rear end. Lots of mirrors in black frames make it look wider. Very nice. Modern background music

A very interesting exterior, painted back with intricate leaded bowed windows makes the place look enticing but in reality the long rectangular interior isn’t much to write home about. An abundance of mirrors gives the impression of it being much bigger than it actually is and there’s a lot of dead floorspace given over to vertical drinking. A Brains outlet, the range and quality of said brewery’s ales were good. A case of not judging a book by its cover…it was OK but I felt a bit disappointed in all honesty as I’d built it up to be more. Perhaps worth popping in to see if there’s a Brains beer you haven’t come across elsewhere in the city, the Dark seems to be a regular fixture in here.

Now just called The Cottage. A handsome and striking black exterior leads into a long narrow single bar pub with a polished wood floor and a traditionally decorated, but somewhat chainy feeling interior. Bar stools run down the right hand wall opposite the bar with a ledge for drinks. There’s some interesting photos of old Cardiff and Welsh icons such as Aneurin Bevin and Anthony Hopkins. A more comfortable area towards the rear of the pub doubles up as a restaurant area at lunchtimes. A few high tables and perches at the front of the pub by the window indicate a desire to attract the younger circuit crowd. 5 Brains beers were on, including Reverend James. The Brains Dark - £ 2.45p – was an excellent pint. The pub is listed in the CAMRA 2011 Good Beer Guide. This is a reasonably attractive pub in the City Centre to sample Brains beers

Used this classic pub to avoid christmass shopping!!