The Mount Stuart - JD Wetherspoon

You're walking down Stuart Place in the city centre and you need a drink that costs actual money—this is where you land. The Mount Stuart is the kind of straightforward local where you won't find craft cocktails or sourdough toast, and that's precisely the point. It's a proper Wetherspoon: spacious, busy, and packed with the sort of people who actually live and work in Cardiff rather than just visit. The menu's the familiar one you know, but prices are what keep regulars coming back—pints well under a fiver, and food deals that make you wonder how they're turning a profit.