Edwards

They made me a Poutine which means they’re awesome in my books. Nice intimate atmosphere, nice wait staff.

This place was a hotel lobby in a previous incarnation, so the surroundings are fairly plush and spacious, but today it is a big late bar-​come-​club that’s part of a chain, serving food in the day and music in the evening.
Music-​wise you can expect mainly current chart sounds rather than anything vaguely alternative, most of it aimed at getting people on the dance floor.
Edwards seems to attract the weekend crowds, but not so much the mid-​week, after work clientèle, and so it is generally pretty quiet unless you’re there on a Friday or Saturday, when things hot up a bit. it’s open late — til 2am — so you could settle onto one of their sofas for your whole evening. I tend to avoid St Mary Street at weekends, but as bars in that area go this isn’t a bad one.

Edwards always reminds me a little bit of Wetherspoons, only not as busy and without the comfortable familiarity.
Whatever lunch time or night out I’ve come in here, it always seems to be empty. There’s the odd couple dotted about, perhaps a group of students usually in fancy dress and on their way to Walkabout, and that’s about it. Given the size of the bar and that there’s another upstairs, this has meant that I’ve never had to wait long for a drink, but there isn’t much in the way of atmosphere to be found in an enormous pub that’s practically empty.
The music’s pretty naff, the staff are all fairly young and usually grumpy and the toilets are all the way downstairs, and these things tend to dampen the spirit a bit.
Lunch isn’t bad. Again, it’s a tad Wetherspoons-​y, just more expensive. But, if Wetherspoons is packed, this is probably the closest thing you’ll find to a similar experience.

Edwards can be found half way down St Mary’s Street in the centre of Cardiff.
A great mid-​night bar, this is always a good place to go in between bars on your way to your final destination for the evening. With loud music and a consistently healthy turn out, this bar is a great place to soak up some quality Cardiff atmosphere on a night out.
With two main floors as well as a small dance floor in between, Edwards is always packed on a weekend. As such, it can and, more likely than not, will take you some time to get served at the bar which, although can be frustrating at times, is part and parcel of Cardiff’s nightlife. The atmosphere more than makes up for this fact and will likely make the time you spend waiting to be served go a lot quicker as a result.
They also serve up an array of food during the day for those who want a comfy seat, a good meal and a nice spot to watch the world go by. Conversely, in the night this an equally good place to stand around with a frosty cold one and socialise.
Great bar.

My remembrance of Edwards may be a bit hazy. It was my birthday and I was constantly fed the weirdest concoctions of booze.
As it used to be a hotel. the layout is pretty lavish, yet slightly condensed downstairs. The huge stairs take up a fair amount of the space, leaving a square around it to do whatever it is you do at bars.
Music is of the popular variety and always danceable, especially when you’ve been fed your third Long Island Ice tea.
There are couches sprawled about and behind the stairs is more of a seating area for all your resting needs.
Drink are your usual club prices, £3 for a pint/​bottle etc of beer. With cocktails nearer the £5+ mark. I would say, for myself that this is more of the inbetween bar. What I mean by that is that it’s our warm up act before we go onto a proper club to dance the night away.

We stopped by for beer and dessert, and the place was D.E.A.D. dead. The beer was good, and the dessert was great (horray for toffee sponge pudding!). Apparently this place is a hopping club much later at night. The food menu looked great and surprisingly inexpensive. If I ever end back in Cardiff, I’d go again for dinner. And perhaps for some dancing…

Rather a grand space as the former lobby of the Royal Hotel (where Captain Scott’s party last met before heading off to their Antarctic expedition.) Seems a bit of an odd space for a chain retail pub, but I can’t complain.
Had beer and toffee pudding that were both delicious, sitting on a very comfy leather couch, great service, clean space. The fact that I could see 3 TV’s in every direction playing music videos in sync may not exactly be my style, but I probably should have spotted that before heading in. Again, good food, good service. Looks like a happening place later at night.

AWFUL place. Went on a saturday night out with friends when I first moved to Cardiff not so long ago. The floors were sticky, the staff were slow and it played really poor dance music. The sort of place people go to get hammered and act like idiots.

Great atmosphere, can get packed at times, wide range of drinks available, great music