Kongs Cardiff

You're walking into St Mary Street on a Friday night and the neon glow from Kongs is basically impossible to miss. This place isn't subtle, and that's entirely the point—it's a sprawling cocktail operation that takes up a serious chunk of Hodge House with enough plants and tropical vibes to make you forget you're in the heart of Cardiff city centre. The drinks are genuinely well-made (they're not messing about with the cocktails), and it attracts the kind of crowd that actually knows what they're ordering rather than just shouting for a vodka lime.