It is often said that if you want to eat out down Cardiff Bay you are in pretty “dire straits” (a band I loathed with a passion, in my teens, as the epitome of 80s bland, bland being something that sums up much of what is on offer down the Bay’s food wise), but I have heard that (located in the rather fine Big Windsor building) the Sultan’s worth a swing by as it bucks the somewhat dispiriting trend food wise down there.

As happens most months, I (with a mate) was down the Bay in need of repast cprior to a Mystere Club wine (blind) tasting rather grandly titled the Judgment of Cardiff Bay, being an ode to the rather seminal Judgment of Paris (which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year).

The building has some history

and is a nice enough space inside (if a touch Ballamory).

The food

The menu is one of those large ones that often raises alarm bells with me and I  rather regretted I could not take advantage of the shorter and seeming very good value lunch menu

but timings dictated an evening visit and time restraints meant we were not on for a 3 courser and this thus limited the choice somewhat.

Now in a Turkish restaurant, whilst there was here much more on offer than kebabs, on a first visit not having a kebab is like going to Istanbul and giving the Hagia Sofia a miss. The question was thus which kebab to order? 

After some deliberation, I decided on the adana (I always think the fattiness of lamb lends itself more to a ground meat kebab than chicken).

Before our mains arrived we were presented with a bountiful basket of  warm, chilli infused, flat bread.

Really nice flavour to the bread which came with feta style cheese cheese dip (bit hard, so probably straight from fridge, but nice none the less).

In terms of my adana (£18.90),

this was a fulsome beast.

The kebab was nicely flavoured, with a good fat content, nice seasoning, a touch of warming spice and a lick of smokiness. Texture wise, it had a good exterior crust and a pleasingly yielding interior (rubbery kebabs are not nice). It sat on a thin base of flat bread, that had soaked up the juices from the kebab. A rather inspired addition I thought.

The accompaying rice was plentiful and  generously seasoned (under seasoned rice is bland, bland, bland). The accompanying medley of salads was both generous and properly dressed, with the star of the show the pickled red cabbage which has a good level of acidity that complimented the fatty richness of the lamb. Only slight criticisms would be the tomato and pepper which, whilst having a bit of char to the skin, were a bit undercooked (the tomato quarter was hard and cold once I got past the charred skin).

My mate had the mixed shish (we shared so I had a taste of both the chicken and the lamb) which was (not unreasonably) a bit pricier (at £21.90than my adana.

The chicken was very good with generous, juicy, well flavours chunks. The slight disappointment was the lamb, which was a bit too chewy verging on the tough.

The mains came with

bowls of a tomato and chilli (bit underpowered I thought) and a garlic yoghurt (nicely garlicy and the better of the two) sauces.

The Drinks

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the wine list,

with it not being overly pricey (lots in the £20 range, which is increasingly rare these days).

Also it is nice to see some Turkish wines on there, with a narince and an okuzgozu. The latter would have gone well with our kebabs, I think, but alas was not available by the glass.

Looking more at pricing, the Schmitt Sohne riesling retails at around the £11 mark so the price here of £21.90 is very fair. On the reds, the Kyra Okuzgozu goes for about £18 retail so the list price here of £35 is again very fair.

As we were in for tasting 10 wines later it seems wise to pass on a full bottle.

Do think it is a shame the Turkish wines aren’t available by the glass, with the online description of the okuzgozu wine

certainly sounded like it would have paired nicely with our kebabs.

Whilst the homemade lemonades did sound nice (in particular the mint one) as we were drinking later anyway we decided on a beer,

with the Turkish Efes (£5.90) being the obvious choice.

Decent, refreshing, beer this. Not too fizzy, with a pleasant malty taste.

The verdict

We both thought (tough lamb shish aside) that the food here was tasty, bountiful and good value for money. This is a combo that is a bit of a rarity down the bay.

The bill for our meal for two, all in with drinks and service, came in at just under £58.

which I think for the quality and quantity  was pretty good.

Definitely adding this to my list (still regrettably quite a short list – Chans Noodle Bar is also good, not got around to trying  Tiger Yard as yet) of places to go when down the Bay. The lunch menu, in particular, looks a steal at £15.90/£18.90 for 2/3 courses.

The details

Address: The Big Windsor, Stuart Place, Cardiff, CF10 5BU

Website: https://www.thesultancardiff.com/

Opening hours: