Black Lion Hotel

You'll find yourself on Cardiff Road in Llandaff, where this corner pub sits exactly where it should be — unpretentious, reliable, and genuinely welcoming. The Black Lion pulls off something increasingly rare: it feels like a proper local without being self-consciously retro about it. Real ales rotate through the taps, there's proper food (their Sunday roasts are worth the trip alone), and the crowd is refreshingly mixed — families early on, then the after-work crowd, then anyone who fancies a proper drink without the posturing you get elsewhere in the city.