Now, where I come from a roastie is a roast potato (generally, but not exclusively, eaten with a roast dinner of which we will all have a surfeit of in the coming week) and the one thing that you won’t see on the menu at Roasties in Roath is anything involving a potato (taro root doesn’t count, being closer to a houseplant genetically than it is to a spud).

Being a Far Eastern (with a pan Asian spread of dishes going down as far as the Malay Peninsula, with reference to Ipoh) roasted BBQ meats place, carbs at Roasties come from noodles or rice, with not a chip, jacket or any other potato derivative in sight.

It is (unlike many standard Western Chinese venue of old where gold paint is still de rigour) quite spartan inside.

This was the place chosen for a Friday lunch, with J and Mrs. SF (having been out on the town together, with much carnage, the day before) to assuage their post booze munchies.

The menu includes a range of far eastern dishes encompassing curries, noodles and sweet and sour numbers

as well as daily specials

and Chef specials

It was, however, the roasted meats that I was after,

with a rather enticing selection on offer.

I always think the Chinese are the masters of duck cookery (a far from foul fowl which seems to be increasingly shunned on restaurant menus, outside of Chinese ones, in the UK – not sure why to be honest) and we therefore decided first off on half a duck (for a seemingly very reasonable £15). Also, when a place has a duck as its logo, you would be foolish not to order it (although I do think there is more than a touch of  Shoebill about the logo).

To this, we added some crispy pork belly (few things are better than bits of crisped up pork fat) and some soy chicken.

The half duck came roughly chopped up, all on the bone,

and thus may not appeal to those more use to the ease of eating of your standard Peking/crispy duck. Very much a case here of getting down and dirty and picking/ gnawing the meat off the bone, which I love.

Nice crisp skin, with the fat properly rendered down and good flavour to the tender yielding meat underneath. None of that dryness that is the downfall of many a generic crispy duck dish in the UK.

We got given a complementary plum sauce, which was pleasingly tart rather than saccharine sweet and works very well as against the fatty richness of the duck.

The duck sat in a nice sauce predominantly made up of the meat juices,  but with five spice (I would surmise) in the mix (including a fair whack of the always lovely star anise) which I assume was heavily applied to the skin pre cooking

Good portion size this, for the £15 price tag, and as such provided that much sought after combo of flavour and value.

I had spied the pork belly (£10.20 with rice and veggies) coming out of their nuclear reactor looking oven (a traditional Chinese BBQ oven apparently).

(before it went back in for a second stint to crisp up further) as we arrived and knew I was having a bit of that.

Again a good size portion, with a pleasing meat to fat ration and a lovely crisp crackling skin.

Good flavour to this, with that sought textural contrast of soft meat to crisp crackling.  The rice was fairly regulation and could have done with a touch more seasoning, as could the Chinese cabbage which made up the veg element.

Soy chicken (£10.20) was again a big ole portion of meat,

with a good flavour heady with ginger and star anise. The skin was a touch flabby, but this dish was very nicely flavoured.

We went (to break up the rice) for the option of crispy noodles with the soy chicken, which were ok (bit burnt in places and a rather sparse portion)

Personally, I don’t think the extra £2 as against the standard price was worth it.

J wanted the prawn and pork siu mai (£4.90 for 4) and these came steaming hot (hence the rather misty photo) in a  bamboo steamer basket (presumable straight off the wok).

I found these a touch bland on their own, but they were pepped up no end by being dipped in the chilli oil we had belatedly ordered.

Drinks wise, there are the standard soda options (which J and Mrs. SF went for)

as well as some more interesting tea and coffee options.

I went for the Hong Kong style milk tea (cold – I rather like cold tea, much to Mrs  SF ‘s chagrin),

made from black tea and condensed milk.  Interesting stuff, which I quite liked. The tannins in the tea being balanced out by the sweetness of the condensed milk.

The verdict

Empty plates testified as to both our hunger and the tastiness of the dishes we ordered.

This is something a bit different to your standard Westernised Chinese takeaway/eat in joint and it is none the worse for it. It reminded me of the BBQ places in Chinatown in Kuala Lumpa.

Be prepared to get your hands dirty and if you hate getting hands on with your food (with the need to pick meat off of bone and gristle) then this is probably not the place for you. I, on the other hand, love digging in and sucking on bones et al, so it is right up my street. Mrs. SF and J approved too, with it being a rare thing indeed for us to all agree on something (they usually join forces to gang up on me, due to me being right all the time).

On the value front, the all day combo special looks particularly good

and I think that would definitely be the default option on a subsequent visit.

I bought Mrs. SF a wife cake from there,

which I thought was quite nice but proved to be a mistake as she was having none of it and on trying it it turned out to be one of the blandest things I have ever eaten. I mean totally and utterly devoid of any discernible flavour! Perhaps palates more discerning and refined than mine will get these, but it was lost on me I am afraid. Went in the bin (only £1.90 though)

As an aside, if you position yourself by the window (looking out) you get the added entertainment factor of watching why the junction outside this place is commonly known as Death Junction. Some mind bogglingly bad driving on display!

The details

Address: 6 MacKintosh Place, Cardiff, CF24 4RQ.

Website: https://www.facebook.com/roastiescardiff