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Pub Of The Month - April 2026 with Bucking Fastard on the Pub Forum

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Submitted on Wednesday, 20^th December 2023
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The Cottage, Cardiff

25 St. Mary Street
Cardiff
CF10 1AA

Correct details

Served areas

Cardiff Central

Reviews of The Cottage (Average Rating: 7 of 10) Add Review see review guidelines

David Walton left this review about The Cottage

Visited 04/04/26. Visited previously 05/04/18.

Cask here was SA and Dark both from Brains plus Butty Back from Wye Valley. Keg offering was Brains IPA Smooth, Brooklyn Stonewall Inn IPA, K1664 and the AF version, original SB, Guinness, Madri, Thatcher's Haze, Carling, Murphy's Irish Stout and rarely spied by me on draught Sapphoro.

This is an old, leaded glass window fronted venue on St Mary's St, what would be regarded as bar street in Cardiff these days. There are some tables and chairs out the front but inside it is bare boarded with the bar counter on the left-hand wall mid venue. There is a banquette under the front window serving regular tables plus a drinking ledge down the right-hand wall with tall seating. Beyond the bar counter on the left-hand wall, continuing up a step into the rear left-hand corner is a leather studded banquette serving regular tables with some booth tables occupying pride of place on the right-hand wall to the rear right-hand corner. Pleasant lighting, lots of original features and the music, a series of banging crowd pleasers, dominating the sound as there were no screens showing live sport here unlike many of the venues around here at this time on an early Saturday evening, the screens all switched off other than the one showing a roaring fire in a somewhat over styled fire grate!

On 5^th April 2026 - rating: 6
[User has posted 1590 recommendations about 1565 pubs]

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Blackthorn _ left this review about The Cottage

Reputedly one of Cardiff’s oldest pubs, it certainly looks the part with it’s black wooden frontage, curved leaded windows and gold lettering. It was then perhaps something of a disappointment on getting inside, to find that it’s clearly been “renovated” at some point, and whilst it’s not unpleasant, it certainly does have any of the cosy olde worlde ambiance that I had hoped for.

Internally it consists of one long and relatively narrow room, with sanded wooden boards on the floor and red painted embossed wallpaper on much of the ceiling. White wood panelling was on the lower part of the walls which lent it a slightly elegant feel perhaps, with plain plasterwork above. A few mirrors and bits of artwork were dotted around as well as a ledge for vertical drinking opposite the bar counter, whilst the lighting was some quite old fashioned looking globe style fitments. A raised area up a couple of steps at the rear was perhaps a little cosier, with fitted and padded banquette seating, pale green paintwork, varnished wood panelling on the ceiling and an attractive stained-glass roof window.

Beers on tap were Doom Bar, Butty Bach, Brains Dark and Wainwright’s Gold. Ciders meanwhile were Aspall’s, and Stowford Press in both the regular and Dark Berry varieties.

On 21^st December 2023 - rating: 6
[User has posted 2113 recommendations about 2011 pubs]

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Will Larter left this review about The Cottage

This pub has been well described by PSM below, and its conflicting styles, caught between traditional old pub and modern city bar, are what make it just miss the "must visit" category that it might otherwise have attained. It's still an attractive old building, with its incredibly narrow frontage emphasised by the fact that there are two doors (one disused); the bar is also an attractive one, and the row of hand pumps featuring Brains beers is impressive. Like so many bars in city centre shopping streets, there's a lack of character about The Cottage. I wouldn't mind calling in again, though, as my half of Brains Dark was in very good condition and at a pretty reasonable £1.45 too.

Date of visit: 5th October 2017

On 18^th October 2017 - rating: 7
[User has posted 4733 recommendations about 4337 pubs]

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