Heathcock, Cardiff

Official site of Heathcock - heathcockcardiff.com

Facebook page of Heathcock - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of Heathcock - www.facebook.com

Official site of Heathcock - heathcockcardiff.com

Visited 22/11/24 Good cask range of Cwrw Gorslas, Wye Valley HPA, a blonde from Bluestone called Bedrock Blonde and Cheltenham Gold from Goff's Brewery. Keg range was Amstel, Moretti, Neck Oil, Welsh Lager from Glamorgan Brewing, Gamma Ray, Brixton Coldharbour lager, Guinness and Inch's and Orchard Thieves cider. Smart pub of two halves (at least inside). The bar counter is in the entrance side off the main road and was stupendously busy on our arrival at 6pm on a Friday. Regular tables and some bar stools. The restaurant is the other side and formally laid out tables. We had a booking at 6pm in a v busy venue. There were some tables out the back and the dining capacity was increased by another block of basic wooden construction out the back shared with the gents lavs! This is one of my favourite pubs in Cardiff and was the venue Jay Rayner returned to Cardiff to eat at and laud, a few years after he pilloried the dining scene in Cardiff doubling down after saying there was only one place he found worthy of review that the best food in Cardiff was at Central Station.

This pub appears to be more of a gastropub now. Although, as food is not served on a Monday or Tuesday, it doesn't open until 5pm for drinkers on these days. I'd planned our trip around Cardiff to arrive here for 5pm to cater for this and actually arrived 10 minutes before opening. At 4:50, the lights were on, but all doors were shut. We waited 15 minutes and despite calling several times on the telephone, with nobody answering, we eventually gave up at almost 5:10 and moved onto the Black Lion down the hill. A call was eventually answered and they confirmed that they were open on a Tuesday evening. In fact, there was a quiz on. We headed back up the hill to find an already busy pub, with all tables reserved for the quiz. There were also several male staff members wandering around, which made me wonder why they couldn't open up on time or why they couldn't answer the telephone! Nevertheless, the real ale selection was good, with 4 ales on. There were 2 Wye Valley beers - HPA & The Hopfather, with a couple of others - Glamorgan Cwrw Gorslas & Bragdy Twt Lok Cymryd Y Pyst. I ordered the latter, which turned out to be a very murky brown ale that was significantly past its best. I would have returned it, had we not had another bus to catch to move back closer to the city centre. The ale range here is certainly of interest. But I'm not sure the beers are rotating as quickly as they need to and the whole place had a bit of a pretentious feel to it. Somehow, it is in the Good Beer Guide.