Zi's Cafe

Head down to Woodville Road in Cathays and you'll find Zi's doing the kind of Chinese food that makes you wonder why you've been ordering from anywhere else. It's unpretentious in the best way—the sort of place where regulars are regulars because the food's genuinely good, not because it's fashionable. The menu's got all the classics done properly: wok-charred vegetables, sauces that actually coat rather than drown, and a cooking style that respects ingredients rather than just coating them in cornstarch. Prices are dead reasonable too, which means you're not paying Cardiff city centre markup for proper food.