Ninian Park

If the arty blue portraits on the walls aren’t clues, or the sign depicting Dan Lewis fumbling the ball into his own net in the 1927 FA Cup Final, then the name will give it away. The Ninian Park’s blood runs blue with Cardiff City-​ness.
I don’t know why but I’ve always been a little bit scared to go in to this place. I assumed that it would be filled with members of the Soul Crew. The exterior does it no favours either. But inside is quite a nice pub, even if it has a Sixties social club vibe about it. It has some nice touches, suede covered stools, pool cues lined up of the table and is very clean (indeed the toilets properly smack of cleaning products).
You’ll find a dart board, a fruit machine, Sky Sports but no It-​Box. They’ll do you an 8oz rump steak for £4.49, a Sunday Roast for £4.99 and they have a two meals for £7.99 deal that runs most days. Brains SA and Bitter are the cask ales available. There is a large, comfy looking lounge with large windows letting in lots of light, but the bar was closed on that side on my visit. The «Garden» is very much for a quick puff only.
I imagine it is completely different on match days, but it was a perfectly pleasant pub when I popped in.