Hard Rock Cafe

The Hard Rock Café was one of our planned stops. We make it a point to drop by each country’s HRC to see what they’ve got. Lots of guitars and pictures and outfits all over the place which adds a different type of flair to the place. We were on vacation and saw the HRC and dropped by. It so happened to be during the World Cup so we were there for a little longer. It was one of those times where you take one bite, look at the t.v. for 10 minutes (and repeat). Food was pretty solid and we had no complaints. I only have one complaint about this spot and it was the absurd amount of flies. I felt like I was at a TGI Fridays back in the US. I assumed it was because there were no fruit covers at the bar. As soon as they get that situated I’m sure that will make it much more exciting. That was my only gripe as I hate trying to watch t.v. and eat, while swatting at flies. Overall, decent experiencde.

Hard Rock is a family favourite and preferred choice of venue for my brother’s birthday meal (and coming from Swansea for it.) Or at least it was. I was very dismayed to see that on my last visit home, Hard Rock International have chosen to close down the Cardiff restaurant. I have many happy memories of our visits here and only ever had two complaints — there was no Lostprophets memorabilia, as a huge fan I was quite surprised by that, and on what turned out to be our last visit to celebrate my brother’s 21^st birthday, there was a distinct lack of hot fudge sauce on my sundae. But other than that, I loved everything and I certainly will miss it very much.

The Hard Rock Café is one of a kind. I like the whole atmosphere of the place and the music they play. I have been there twice. The first time I went was for a drink with some friends and I didn’t think much of it. The second time I went to an 18^th birthday where we had a group booking and that was a much better experience than the first one.
For this birthday I had the food they serve and was impressed because it looked and tasted great. After the food we were all sitting and having drinks whilst listening to the music and watching the videos they play on the screens. I loved the whole décor of the place filled with old vintage guitars that were signed by some legends in rock music. It had a very ‘cool’ atmosphere to it, which makes it unique and very cool. However, I do have a problem with Hard Rock because it is very expensive. I spent a lot of money for my meal and a few drinks and felt that it wasn’t really worth the price they were displaying. It is a shame because I would rate it higher if the prices were lower because I had a good time.
Hard Rock Café is great for social gatherings and food service. Just be warned that you will have to dig deep in your wallet.

Autographed guitars, pictures and tour outfits are mounted on the café walls — a tradition first started by Eric Clapton when he gifted his lead Fender II to the London outlet where it all started, back in 1979. To this day, this particular outlet is considered the best branch of this highly popular chain, and its diners are a mixture of tourists and locals who seem prepared to queue all day if necessary, to gain entry.
All branches are brightly lit and well ventilated and have walls decorated with photos, guitars, other instruments, clothing and costumes, platinum and gold LPs, posters and album art, bringing people closer to the world of rock and roll. The café’s newest exhibition named ‘The Vault’ at London, displays around sixty of the most precious pieces of rock and roll memorabilia the world has ever seen, including John Lennon’s hand amended lyrics to ‘Imagine’ and ‘Instant Karma’.
It has a separate bar and restaurant area, a live concert stage and a rock shop to pick up exclusive merchandise. Many look at this as one of the reasons behind the café’s popularity.
You could order from an endless menu of starters, entrees, burgers, sandwiches, salads and desserts. The attractive jumbo combo, with an assortment of Santa Fe spring rolls, hickory smoked wings, onion rings, potato skins and tupelo tenders is a perfect mix of chicken and vegetable starters and goes down well with draught beer.
For mains, the famous fajitas with a choice of grilled chicken or beef, served with pico de gallo, shredded jack and cheddar cheese, fresh guacamole, sour cream, shredded lettuce and hot flour tortillas is ideal. Other choices include grilled sirloin steak, twisted Mac, chicken and cheese and grilled wild Alaskan sockeye salmon.
The ten-​ounce burgers are meals in themselves and are best for those wanting to order fast and spend longer gazing at the walls or catching up with friends. There are sandwiches and salads too. The dessert menu features Haagen-​Dazs, the café’s premium ice cream as well as shakes and sundaes.

Ok, shamefully I have been here once and that was for a blind date for my student magazine, otherwise due to the prices, I don’t think I would have stepped foot in here. Due to this being for the magazine, my meal was free but I had a quick look at it is pretty darn expensive, I think they justify this with the pop and rock memorabilia hung on the walls.
You can get balloons with your table which is nice, something to play with while you wait. When I went here it was very quiet and hardly a soul was there luckily. However this made the giggling staff more obvious, clearly tittering at us sad gits on a blind date — I did it for the free meal I tell you!
I really enjoyed the food here, it’s nothing super special, but my burger was nice and hearty. I like American dishes so of course this menu is just my thing, if it were not for the price, I’m sure I would go here a lot more often, but to be fair, once you’ve seen the memorabilia once, who needs to go again.

This restaurant truely does rock!
I love Hard Rock partly for the great food and partly because it has an electric atmosphere!
I try and visit the Hard Rock in every city/​country I go to and so far I have souvenirs from the café’s in Sharm, Hong Kong, Singapore, America, London and now the almighty Cardiff!
The food here is pretty much the same as you would find in any of the Hard Rock’s across the globe. Typical American dishes all served with chips! Portion wise they are huge and most of the desserts they offer are big enough to share!
The restaurant is fantastically decorated with amazing music memorabilia which is fascinating to stop and stare at!
Put everything I have mentioned above together with live music and that pretty much sums Hard Rock up to a T!
A must to visit in Cardiff of where ever you happen to be in the world!

I have not been to the Hard Rock for a while but there was a time it seemed to be on our pub trail and so we’d find ourselves there every other week.
We had some great times there — even though we had no idea who the bands were its a nice change to see a live band perform rather than just hear some pop from a juke box. It’s an event whereas letting music wash over you from the sound system isn’t.
The food isn’t too bad either — it’s not high cuisine but what they do e.g. ribs and bbq chicken etc they do well.
I think I’ll start going there again as writing about it has reminded me of some of the good times I’ve had there. It’s funny how, without knowing it your night life habits change and sometimes not for the better.

Hard Rock Café is one of my favourite places in Cardiff purely because I’ll nevertire of the memorabilia on the walls even though I must have seen everything about 10 times each now.
The food here’s fantastic but be warned — it is pricey. They’ve got some great desserts aswell. I only tend to go here for food on special occasions though.
They have live bands playing sometimes too and they put up a proper stage inside. These gigs are sporadic though and so you have to ask inside if there’s anything going on on a particular night.
The atmosphere is pretty cool and there’s constantly music playing, with music videos on big screens too. I’d say it would mostly be radio friendly rock music (think Blink 182 rather than Pantera) that gets played here but I suppose that’s to be expected in a commercial restaurant.
The drinks here can be expensive but on a Friday every cocktail is £3. I’d recommend the Southern Rock which is a whisky based sour cocktail. Top notch though.
There’s a heated smoking area out the back with seats and this looks down over the rest of the Brewery Quarter onto Lava Lounge.

It all started with just one guitar on a wall…
Want a different setting to have your breakfast, to have a drink and something to eat in a different atmosphere? Somewhere that first started off as a joke, an idea that was a laugh amongst friends…
Something that you could even be discussing within this very café in the centre of Cardiff, in town. These days the Hard Rock Café holds more than 70, 000 guitars; drums, pianos, harmonicas, microphones, shirts, pants, scarves, shoes, handwritten lyrics, cars, bikes, a bus, and assorted rock memorabilia. Around the world there are over 163 collections in these Cafes, Hotels, and there are 52 countries with Casinos.
Pretty amazing stuff, hey? That information alone surely makes you want to visit it, doesn’t it? It certainly makes and made me want to go to the place. We had breakfast one, in one in Florida, but I didn’t like that much because it was an American styled breakfast and I am vegetarian. The Americans I have found don’t tend to cater food much for us.
However I have found that the café in Cardiff seems to cater more for the British taste even if it is an American company. I prefer having the meals for lunch and dinner there and particularly I prefer having just the average drink there which I have done once or twice.
I recommend the place to all…

I agree with Anna in that it’s really odd having a Hard Rock Café in your home town. What? You mean, people come and visit here? Why? I don’t understand?!
And, I will sadly hang my head with shame and admit that this is the only Har Rock Café that I’ve ever been to… sad, I know. Because it works the other way too, why would I go to the same restaurant in another city as I was familiar with in my home town? I’ve been there and done that.
The best thing about this branch of the chain is the hall that you walk through first as you head through to be seated. There is a central cocktail bar and a stage which very regularly has live music playing.
The problems with this place, however, are twofold. The first being the slightly tacky, American, over the top nature of the décor which just doesn’t seam quite right in Wales. The second is the service. It’s achingly slow wheather you order a cocktail or a burger,

It doesn’t feel right having a Hard Rock Café in your home town, somehow, because I’ve always associated them with far flung places on holiday. I never actually considered the notion that Cardiff might get its very own branch, and having been to this one once and felt slightly deflated, I think I’ll leave it for the tourists in future.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with the Cardiff branch, it’s just nothing special — and as is the case at all Hard Rock Cafés, except for the Nachos the rest of the food is fairly standard burger and fries type stuff that does little to attract me back — particularly with all the other tempting Brewery Quarter eateries just around the corner…

This is getting 4 Stars purely for the cocktails. I know its not a ‘manly’ thing to admit too, but we all know they are damn good.
The bar tenders are excellent and if you can’t decide what you want tell them what you like and they’ll come up with something.
I’ve never felt the need to eat here, as one of the other reviews says its mostly just burgers and chips though the portions looks massive!
Go for the £3 cocktails on Friday’s and a cool place to chill out with friends.

I don’t know what it is about this Hard Rock café the food for what it is tastes good, the staff are always full of life, they do the best milkshakes in the world (and I’m never taking that back) but there’s something about the Cardiff branch that just doesn’t sit right with me. Things that I’ve always enjoyed such as the dark lighting, and loud noise irritate me here, the memorabilia on the walls is not the best I’ve seen, and there definitely aren’t enough seats by the bar. However for all intents and purposes this is a good Hard Rock café, I think the real problem is with me. Before the Hard Rock Café came to Cardiff it was a novelty when I was abroad, now it has become the norm. Therefore I think this restaurant is great for tourists and newcomers to Cardiff, who I’m sure will find it fun.

You know exactly what to expect when you walk through the door of a Hard Rock Café. There is a great deal of noise at this one but it’s hardly the place for a romantic meal anyway.
The service is very good and the waiter was very attentive. There is a good range of dishes and a full bar.
The food, when it came, was hot and delicious. The only reason that I haven’t given this restaurant a higher rating is because the food is fairly standard. I don’t think that what is essentially a burger and chips (or some variation thereof) can really amount to a great meal gastronomically.
Having said that, the atmosphere is great, as long as you’re willing to get involved and be just as loud as those around you. It is definitely the kind of place to go for a birthday.