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Submitted on Friday, 22^nd August 2025
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The Golden Cross, Cardiff

283 Hayes Ridge Road
Cardiff
CF10 1GH

Correct details

Served areas

Cardiff Central

Reviews of The Golden Cross (Average Rating: 5½ of 10) Add Review see review guidelines

David Walton left this review about The Golden Cross

Visited 21/08/25. Visited previously 14/02/24.

No cask. Keg offering of Moretti, Carling, Stowford Press, Brooklyn Stonewall Inn IPA, berries & cherries cider from Old Mount, Guinness, Coors, Brains Bitter Smooth and the series of flavoured Thatcher’s ciders, Thatcher’s Haze and Peroni.

This is an impressive venue with a lot of internal features retained, particularly the glazed ceramic tiling on the walls and the frontage of the bar counter and the leaded windows. Boarded interior with some banquettes to sit at regular tables in the initial bar but then largely ledge standing in the main bar in a boarded interior. There is a stage on the rear wall of the main bar. Beyond the main bar is an area with tall tables and glitzy artwork on the walls. Feels like a good bit of the original features retained in this space such as the fire grate. An upstairs VIP area was closed off on my visit. There is an outside area, partly covered at the rear with patio style furniture in a paved and boarded area. The initial bar on entry has a fitted banquette around the exterior wall serving regular tables. Decent patterned wallpaper throughout and unexpectedly quite a few arcade machines in here. Have regular cabaret at the weekend.

On 7^th December 2025 - rating: 5
[User has posted 897 recommendations about 891 pubs]

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about The Golden Cross

Interesting-looking Brains pub with some bold exterior tiling and a little stained glass in the main windows. Inside, it retains three main rooms: a fairly uninteresting corner bar, the somewhat faded glory of the main bar - with its feature tiled picture of the castle and the imposing tilework beneath the counter - and a small pool room in the other corner with a smaller (but still impressive) tiled picture of the town hall. Otherwise, it is very plainly furnished. On the beer front, there were only reversed clips on the various handpumps, so I made do with a half of Smooth (£1.75) whilst admiring the various interesting features (and ignoring the rest).

On 30^th July 2017 - rating: 5
[User has posted 8958 recommendations about 8958 pubs]

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Pub SignMan left this review about The Golden Cross

The Golden Cross was built in 1903 for the Brains brewery and is generally regarded as having the most impressive pub interior in the whole of Wales. The exterior can't be ignored either, although the beautifully tiled façade is certainly looking a little worse for wear, with plenty of damage visible in passing. Entering through the right hand door, you start to wonder what all the fuss is about, as this brings you into a modernised corner bar with floor tiles, brightly painted walls, modern art prints and plush curved banquette seating. The lattice leaded windows with stained glass Brains inserts give a hint that you are in a special pub though and this is confirmed by making your way into the central room, where an amazing ceramic bar counter takes pride of place in the middle of the back wall, with a repeated dragon head motif. The dark wood bar back has been spoiled somewhat by replacing the centrepiece clock with a modern device and covering sections of the bar back with a large TV screen and a rainbow flag. The room is bare boarded and boasts further fine tile-work, many with intricate relief patterns. A row of high stools stand under a ledge that runs the length of the front windows, but otherwise seating options in this room are virtually non existent. A stage area can be found to the left under an incredible tile painting of Cardiff Castle - another extremely rare surviving feature. Amazingly, another tile painting can be found in the left hand room, this time depicting Cardiff Town Hall. The room has modern laminate flooring and a pool table, neither of which is really in keeping with the pub's look. There also seemed to be another bar behind the servery, but this was in darkness on my visit, so I didn't explore further. I was the only customer for the entire duration of my stay and the barman decided to celebrate my arrival by putting on some very loud pop music.
I'd not expected to find any ale on the bar, so it was a pleasant surprise to see Brains SA and Bitter both available. I tried a mediocre half of the Bitter, although it's fair to say this isn't the most thrilling beer at the best of times. Other than that, it was standard mainstream keg options and not a great deal else.
There's no doubting that this is a genuinely exciting pub survivor and one that should be safeguarded from loss or damage, especially given the sad demise of the Vulcan a few years ago. The current owners seem to have made several changes for the worst which have detracted from the pub's aesthetic appeal and whilst real ale might have been re-introduced, such thoughtless modifications are off-putting. I'm really glad I got to see this pub before things go too far and would urge others to do likewise.

On 18^th April 2015 - rating: 5
[User has posted 3387 recommendations about 3387 pubs]

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