Cardiff eats like a port city that never lost its farm: Gower cockles and laverbread on a Victorian market counter, Welsh cakes off a hot bakestone, salt marsh lamb over Basque coals, and a craft beer scene led by Welsh breweries.
Grade II-listed 1891 iron-and-glass hall off St Mary Street, open Mon–Sat 08:00–17:30. Ashton's fishmongers (trading since 1866) sells Gower cockles and laverbread; upstairs balcony stalls do bara brith and Welsh cakes at 60p–£1 each.
Wales' oldest farmers' market, running every Sunday 10:00–14:00 along Fitzhamon Embankment facing the River Taff. Around 40 producers: Brecon lamb, raw-milk Welsh cheeses, Pembrokeshire seaweed, and hot Glamorgan sausages fried on the spot.
Cardiff's most food-dense residential street. Milkwood at No. 83 is a neighbourhood bistro-deli doing small plates built on Welsh growers; the row around it stacks up an artisan butcher, cheesemonger and coffee roaster within 200 metres.
Basement taproom on Llandaff Road from Cardiff's own Crafty Devil Brewing, opened 2015. Ten keg lines plus cask, heavy on Welsh independents, poured in a low-ceilinged room of mismatched sofas that fills with Canton regulars from 17:00.
Cardiff Bay bakery griddling picau ar y maen fresh all day, plus a hands-on Welsh cake making experience where you mix, cut and cook your own on a cast-iron bakestone and take the batch home in a box.
Fine-dining restaurant inside a working prison on Knox Road, staffed by serving prisoners training for City & Guilds catering qualifications. Two courses of modern Welsh cooking at prices no city-centre kitchen matches; lunch only, weekdays.
Housed in the castle's 1860s Gothic gatehouse lodge at the Bute Park entrance. Welsh afternoon tea swaps the usual scones for bara brith with salted butter and Welsh cakes, poured from a list of 20-plus loose-leaf teas.
Basque-style asador grilling over Welsh oak and holm-oak charcoal: aged Welsh Black beef txuleta sold by the 100g, salt marsh lamb, and Galician-cut chops carved at the pass. Sherry and Rioja list runs to 100 bins.
Copenhagen-trained bakery on Cardiff's most under-visited food street, laminating cardamom knots and rye sourdough from 07:30. The Whitchurch Road strip either side adds Turkish grocers, a Portuguese café and two independent butchers.
Long-running vegetarian kitchen and bar on City Road, Cardiff's multicultural food corridor — a single mile carrying Yemeni, Bangladeshi, Portuguese, Turkish and Somali kitchens. Milgi's yurt garden out back is the neighbourhood's living room.
Taproom of the Newport brewery that won Champion Beer of Britain in 2015, sat opposite the Principality Stadium. Twenty-plus lines of Welsh keg and cask; on international match days the street outside becomes an open-air beer festival.
A 100-metre lane of fryers between St Mary Street and The Hayes, working since the 1970s. Dorothy's Fish Bar is the institution: the local order is a 'half and half' — chips and rice under curry sauce, eaten from the tray on the kerb.