I tend not to like to be too preachy on the blog (bar from about wine pour sizes – serve dry sherry in a 50/75cl pour and expect to see me outside setting up a pulpit for the purposes of raging against the injustice of it all), as why would most people care what I think in a food and drink blog about the current de riguer social issues.

I have no interest whatsoever in being a social justice warrior, but I do have a lot of admiration for people (with better hearts than my ice cold “devil’s advocate” one) who look out for those less fortunate than most of us.

Lots of us think times are hard these days, which undoubtedly they are, but in reality there is always someone worse off (and often a whole lot worse off) than us average Jo(e)s. Such people include those who have been forced (for numerous reasons) to live on the streets.

This brings me to Boomerang Lounge, a newish place (having taken over the unit from Uncommon Ground), by Cardiff’s Victoria Park. It is part of the wider Boomerang charity in Cardiff, whose stated aims centre around: 

• Homelessness/Prevention of Homelessness
• Poverty, In work poverty/Critical Living Conditions
• Community Engagement/Education
• Social Isolation/Loneliness
• Health/Physical Wellbeing

in terms of Cardiff.

The café serves a dual purpose of (hopefully) generating revenue for the charity and a “pay it forward” operation whereby people can buy a drink or meal for someone else (less fortunate) to benefit from.

In effect you can pay for something you don’t get, which doesn’t at first blush sound great, but which gets someone something they probably sorely need.

System is probably open to abuse (I assume there is no “Homeless/in desperate need” card you can flash to access the board, but you would have to be an almighty shit to abuse it), but name me one that isn’t.

Mrs. SF had ordered me to the barber as my usually shiny, bald pate was becoming somewhat dispoiled by whisps of patchy hair and the beard was looking a bit John the Baptist. As the barber is just down the road from Boomerang, I thought I would give it a go. Mrs. SF did say she wouldn’t have been surprise if they had pointed me to the “pay it forward” board had I gone in in my pre hair and beard trim state.

The menu is quite simple (nothing wrong with that), with a sort to trad. greasy spoon vibe to it, other than the seemingly compulsory smashed avo (never quite got the appeal of it outside of guacamole to be honest).

There are also specials

and cakes

on the counter.

All seemed pretty good value. 

I understand a menu revamp is on the way, which will expand out the offering, but I was happy enough with what was on it (although I do feel “the curler” does rather needs a rethink name wise) and ordered an all day breakfast for me and one for the board (£7.50 each).

Decent sized plate for the price tag I thought.

Nice slice of black pudding (always a plus), a good crisp hash brown, caramelised mushrooms, decent quality bacon,  sausage and a properly runny egg. Only (pedantic, well it is me) issues were the bacon fat could ideally have been crisped up a tad more, the tomato quarter could have been roasted/grilled for just a bit longer and the beans (never a huge fan of these for breakfast or otherwise) would have benefited from being in a separate receptacle.

I actually didn’t mind that the toast was bog standard placcy white bread as it makes a change from the nigh on ubiquitous sourdough (which is holey – sic- unsuitable for spreading butter on).

Condiments on the table included brown sauce,

which I much prefer to the overly sweet tomato crap.

All in all a decent breakfast,

with me having had pricier ones that I certainly enjoyed less.

Drinks wise, I had a pretty good latte.

It also came in a good sized cup (all too often we seem to have coffee cup shrinkflation, with size of them getting progressively smaller) for the £3 price tag.

The verdict

If you are looking for good value, nothing fancy, decent grub you could do a lot worse than this place. It is dog friendly too, which is a plus for me (although I didn’t have Dick the dog in tow this time – I call him that, but wouldn’t be without him).

I imagine for the people who are able to take advantage of the “pay it forward” board this is exactly the sort of food they want (it being hot and filling).

With the “pay it forward” I like the directness of the donation. It goes straight (in its entirety) to a person who needs it in the form of a hot meal.

It may not be a trendy, all singing and dancing, funky new place (that does Mongolian Buuz just like the ones in the restaurant in a ger just off the road between Ulaanbaatar and Altai that Hugo and Jacinta went to last year – you know the one where Hugo got the tapeworm), but (as the name suggests) I will undoubtedly come back.

The details

Address: 1 Victoria Park Road West, Cardiff,  CF5 1EZ.

Website: https://boomeranglounge.co.uk/