The Halfway, Cardiff

Another Brains pub that does have some interesting features, including a map of over 200 Cardiff pubs and bars around the back of the bar on the way to the toilets. It is interesting to work out which ones you've been to! The room wraps its way around the large bar, despite not connecting at one end. TVs were showing 2 different European football matches. Although nobody seemed to be too interested. The 3 Brains beers are Bitter, SA & SA Gold. Having had enough Brains beer for one day, I reluctantly ordered an Aspalls cider. I agree with Pub SignMan about the interior. It does have a nice feel to it. However, it's a shame that the ale range has dropped off a bit since summer 2013.

The Halfway page at the Brains site - www.sabrain.com

The Halfway page at the Brains site - www.sabrain.com

Located in the pleasant area of Pontcanna, a good twenty minute or so walk from the city centre, The Halfway is a large U-shaped, street corner pub. The main bar area has bare floorboards with a few patches of carpet here and there, standard seating around a raised fireplace and some sofas and low stools near to the corner entrance. Several TV screens were showing live cricket and moving past the right hand end of the servery, there is a raised seating area with a few partitioning screens with glass inserts and a much larger screen also showing the cricket. The other side of the bar has mostly standard seating and looked like a decent spot for those wanting to eat from the reasonably priced menu, although having said that, it was full of drinkers on my Friday afternoon visit. I believe the pub also has a skittle alley somewhere, but my wanderings failed to locate it. A collection of pump clips works its way across one of the beams above the main bar area, and several banks of hand pumps pleasingly had plenty of pump clips on display as well. This is a Brains house and it had probably the most comprehensive range of their beers I found across four days in South Wales. On my visit, the choice was from Brains Bitter, Dark, SA, SA Gold, Rev James, Touch Paws Engage, and Boilermaker, with St Austell Tribute as a guest. I gave the boilermaker a try and thought it was an interesting departure from traditional Brains brews. This place had a nice feel to it and although it has been opened up, it still feels like it has distinctly different areas and it retains some character through its traditional fixtures and fittings. There are a few pubs worth looking out for in this part of town and this one is up there with the best of them.