Cardiff has always had an interesting South East Asian/Fast East food offering (no doubt driven by the significant Asian student population) and Cathays is a hotbed of these places  (and by that I mean places other than your bog standard westernised Chinese or Indian takeaway) to eat.

One such place is Elements Cafe on Woodville Road, just down the road from the very good Jianghu,

which has very much a homely vibe to it.

The menu suggests the mainstay of the offering is Chinese desserts (with a focus on Kong Kong, where the owners originate).

Whilst these looked interesting, I am more a savoury person (despite me, according to Mrs. SF, being a rather unsavoury character) and it was the daily specials that I was drawn to.

After some prevarication as to what to go for, one of the couple of Taiwanese dishes or the Japanese Pepper lunch beef, I decided on a bowl of the Taiwanese beef noodle soup (£12.80)  As my visit was during  Great British Beef Week,  it seemed rather apt.

When the bountiful bowl of beef arrived, gently steaming, I was rather pleased with my choice. Looked and smelt the absolute business.

Big chunks of spoon tender beef (a mix of brisket, shin and tendon, the latter very much underrated and underused over here) luxuriated in a richly flavoured beef broth, with pleasing globlets of fat floating on the silky, nicely seasoned, sea.

Fat flat noodles lurked in the depths, having adopted the flavours of the meaty broth (as had a rather fulsome chunk of carrot).

A pleasing pop of acidity was provided by salted and pickled Chinese cabbage.

There was a touch of pepper and chilli heat, without any chilli burn, and a nice fragrance and subtle spicing to the dish. This all added to rather than detracted from the main event beef. This was rightly the star of the show, both in terms of the flavoursome fatty chunks and how it had imbued the broth with a delightfully meaty savouriness.

A few more fresh herbs in the mix wouldn’t have gone amiss, but this was a dish that really brought a smile to my face and if I had had the time I would have happily had another bowl/a trough of it.

On the drinks front, you really are spoilt for choice

and I decided to go Hong Kong style with the rather intriguing boiled coke with ginger and lemon.

Quite weird, being piping hot coke without any remaining carbonation,

I actually rather liked it.

Difficult to pin down taste wise, I thought it a bit like a cola cube in flavour. The ginger adding a touch of warming spice and acidity (along with the lemon), which was needed to temper the 55 tonnes of sugar that go into a can of coke. Apparently it is used as a cold cure in Hong Kong and is a lot better than lemsips that is for sure

The verdict

I really enjoyed my meal here. Lovely flavours and a generosity of spirit portion wise.

The owners came over to ask me how my meal was and what followed was a nice chat about things food. They are clearly very passionate about their food and, on the basis of what I had, rightly so. Desserts may be the focus, but they cook a mean beef noodle soup.  It was one of the nicest things I have eaten to date this year.

The specials are updated every week and are posted on their instagram page.

Both eat in and takeaway are available.

The details

Address: 82 Woodville Road, Cardiff, CF24 4ED

Website: https://www.elements-cardiff.com/

Opening hours: