When I worked in town (seems like eons ago) I used to love a cheeky lunch time deal, with the likes of Asador 44 and Malai Thai

(both excellent value even with their entirely understandable increases in price over time since my respective review pieces on those places) leading the way.

Now, no longer working in town, I rarely go into Cardiff City Centre. If I am honest, parking is a pain in the posterior and just for lunch use of the generally woeful public transport is not really time effective. As such, my lunch time forays tend to be in the car and to the burbs where there is a surprising amount of interest of a lunch time.

A need to get the final few bits and bobs presents to finish off Mrs. SF’s Christmas  stocking meant I had to take on the unabated horror that is Christmas shopping – a land of utter misery where people abruptly stop in the middle of the street for no apparent reason, faffing around at the till becomes an Olympic sport and shops vie with each other to sell you no end of shxte neither you nor the people you buy it for need nor want (tis the season of ka – ching).

On the buying stuff for Mrs. SF front, I am surprisingly organised this year much to the likely displeasure of the local Esso garage shop (whose 2023/24 business plan is now presumably in tatters) and I am rather pleased with my efforts  That elation is only likely to be deflated by Mrs. SF’s reaction on the day to any deviations from the prescribed list she gave me. I live in hope she may one day actually like one of my surprises!

Anyhow, after the emotional trauma of shopping, I was in dire need of sustenance.  Rather late to the party, as ever, I have been wanting to try Chinese Fast Street Food (the name is a bit of a monthful isn’t it) on Charles Street (in the City centre) for a while. Trusted sources suggested it offered the perfect trifacta of value, volume and virtuosity, with reviews offering up the promise of big bowled (not a typo – these will follow later or indeed already present) flavours and thus a perfect fit for my lunch time mid – shopping requirements.

The menu provides pictorial description of the dishes on offer, which normally fills me with dread.

Common in the East it is not usually a sign of quality in the West (I mean who isn’t drawn in to a place, on the strip in Benidorm, by a picture of a Full English).

There is a special board, with this perhaps reflecting the predominance of Chinese students as the place’s clientele.

I saw it too late to impact on my decision, although Google Translate helped (well sort of) to show me what I was missing out on in my haste to order.

The top wonton soup number seems remarkable value, with Google Translate indicating that it serves 120,000. I mean this makes Jesus (with his mere feeding of the 5,000) look like a rank amateur!!

Sticking to the pictorial menu, I was initially drawn to the pork and beef lunch plates, but on enquiring as to what they entailed was told one element was tofu soup. I am happy to eat most things, but I have a hearty dislike of tofu. People tell me that it is a flavour sponge, but I (more often than not) find it has the flavour and texture of a sponge. Don’t get me started on the silken muck, which is to me the food equivalent of being waterboarded. J and I once got a plate of it free at a place due to an order mix up and I would have happily paid them to take the wobbling blob of bleakness away (preferably to drop it into a black hole that erased it from time and space).

With the tofu, it was a hard pass on the beef/pork set meal so I defaulted to the noodle dishes.

I am a big fan of duck and it works really well with Chinese flavours. As such the crispy duck noodle soup rather appealed.

Bearing in mind the cost of duck and the £10 price tag I was expecting a relatively modest sized affair.  I was, therefore, rather taken aback by the size of the bowl that arrives (more cauldron than bowl) and the amount of duck in it.

This was a big (duck’s) arsed bowl, with a whole (big bugger too) duck breast I would say.

Said buxom breast was nicely flavoured, with tender meat, but was lacking (for the most part) a crispy skin. Not a problem for me, but I suspect it would disappoint those anticipating a bit of a Peking duck skin job.

The noodles were silky and glossy from the broth clinging to them, as well as bountiful in nature. 

You can have a fork, if you wish, to dig out the duck and noodles, but I prefer slurping up the noodles with the aid of chopsticks (work really well in guiding the noddles, as you slurp, up into the gob). At the time I was spotting a rather unruly beard and a soup strainer (that Groucho would have admired) and they certainly both had a good duck soup shampoo that day.

Spring onions provided a bit of greenage and a mellow alium hit, but I would have preferred a tad more of them.

The broth itself, the foundation of this dish, glistened enticingly with fatty globules. Full on flavours, with star anise, cinnimon, cumin, clove, chilli, sichuan pepper, citrus (was there lemon grass in the mix?), ginger and bucket loads of coriander (probably loads of other stuff in there too), as well as duck to the max.

Absolutely delicious bowl of food this, with me savouring it to the last flavour packed drop

At a mere tenner it is remarkable value for money and one of those meals that leaves you beaming on the outside and fit to burst on the inside.

On the drinks front you can have the usual soda suspects or you can be a bit more adventurous

I had a really nice sour plum number (£3 for a large bottle), which worked very well with the duck. Nice fruity tang to it, without it being too mouth puckeringly sour. Much nicer that cola to my mind, with duck and plum having rather an affinity with each other (especially in the context of Chinese food).

The verdict

This place manages to pull off the trick of offering stuff on a cheap as chips basis  without compromising on either quality or quantity. In these inflationary time that is some trick!

To be frank I have no idea how they do it, perhaps they have a portal back to 2018 in the kitchen, via the tofu obliterating black hole perhaps, but I hope they keep on doing it!!

I am often disappointed with Chinese meals in Cardiff,  with the majority I have had being pretty bland and expensive, but this place and Jianghu in Cathays really hit the spot. Positively restores my faith in what is one of the world’s great cuisines

The details

Address:  11 Charles Street, Cardiff, CF10 2GA.

Website:  Can’t find one!

Open hours: