Restaurant Review: The Wharf

To celebrate the completion of the big 10k, Eliot said he would take me to any restaurant I wanted. Well, that restaurant (the Thai House) is not open on Sundays...apparently. Because my legs were already aching (and the swans were calling), we settled on The Wharf (warning: neither a good nor easy-to-find website), our local pub/restaurant/event destination. Our area of Cardiff is called Atlantic Wharf because of the 1.2-mile lake that is essentially in our backyard. The Wharf restaurant sits on the lake (alongside a large decorative boat/pirate ship) and is a good-sized, multi-story building/atrium with outdoor seating -- perfect for a sunny day like yesterday. It's very popular for watching football/soccer, which will start again this weekend (really? I swear we *just* cleared our TiVo-like apparatus of La Liga games).

After a failed experiment with the tougher-than-nails chicken burger on our first visit, Eliot and I both ordered The Wharf Club Stack (£6.25). This seems to be very popular here and it is for good reason -- nice pieces of chicken breast (although mine was a little tough this time) and bacon layered between thick "bloomer" bread. The bacon here is different -- people don't eat the thin, crisp strips of fatty bacon ("streaky bacon"); they eat more meaty pieces ("back bacon") and this makes for a better sandwich I think. The sandwiches come with a healthy (well...large) serving of chips (fries) and a small green salad garnish. We both had pints of Carling (£2.50?) to round things out.

Aside from the MAJOR flaw of having tiny, individual serving (for who?) ketchup packets, which forced us to hide some of our 13 packets on the bench next to us so that the server wouldn't judge us when he delivered our food, we had a lovely evening. So, The Wharf, save us from our potential embarrassment (and reduce waste while you're at it): buy ketchup bottles!

Just as we were finishing up, the swan family swam in from the canal. The babies are HUGE. I don't even think you can call them babies anymore; they are larger than the ducks. So, Ma, Pa, and their adolescent offspring preened and shimmied their tails (?) while I forced Eliot to take more soon-to-be posted pictures.

The Wharf: B (the food isn't super awesome, but the location is A+).