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As i’ve mentioned previously on the site, Park House is a well kept secret close to the city centre but off the beaten track of those scouring the streets of the Welsh capital following their the scents wafting around the bustling arcades and side streets that are the usual suspects for filling hungry bellies.

I’ve sampled the 7 course taster menu but yet to dine at Park House for the afternoon tea but after stumbling upon this great offer of afternoon tea for 2 for just £29 instead of the usual £50 so it’s nearly a half price discount.

They don’t just have Dave whose just done his level 1 BTEC in food behind the kitchen churning out plates of cheese and onion sandwiches and a wedge of stale Victoria Sponge here, oh no!

A little bit about the accolades of the hidden gem and the man behind the sorcery being concocted behind the flames in the kitchen.

The 2-AA-Rosette restaurant is “one of the most enjoyable places to eat in Cardiff”, according to The AA Restaurant Guide 2016.

Head chef Iain Inman, who has worked with the likes of Jean-Christophe Novelli, gained experience at the 2-Michelin-star The Square Restaurant, and was later appointed head chef at the 5-star Pennyhill Park under the mentorship of 2-Michelin-star chef Michael Wignall.

Park House has won multiple awards, including the South Wales Echo’s Restaurant of the Year 2013-2014, and the Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence 2015.

So why have I never been to this contender for best restaurant of the year in Wales before? Well you’ve only got yourself to blame for that one but fear not if you jog on over to Travelzoo right now you can sample some of the magnificent creations that are being expertly crafted to meet the high expectations of Park Houses dinners for a fraction of the normal price of the afternoon tea.

This Park House afternoon tea discount is a time limited offer and are only usually available to buy for a couple of days and maybe a week on the Travelzoo website so be quick before they are all gone. You can get a discount voucher for the afternoon the for either 2 dinners for £29 or 4 dinners for just £50 getting it half price. Once you’ve purchased the vouchers from Travelzoo you can use them between 12-4pm Wed-Sat until 31 Oct.

I would say Science Cream is one of Cardiff’s greatest secret’s as most of my friend’s i’ve mentioned them to haven’t heard or seen the crazy scientist at work in the frosted cloudy kitchen concocting oodles of velvety smooth ice cream to sooth your throat like a whole packet of tunes on the head. If you want to try the freshest ice cream know to man then it’s impossible to get it fresher anywhere else as it’s made fresh to order… in front of your eyes within 60 seconds!!

How do they do this?? Liquid nitrogen of course! The cream and flavour pairings are placed into a kitchen aid, powered up then doused in liquid nitrogen that sets the liquid to ice in a matter of seconds but as the process of freezing is super quick then the ice particles are minute meaning it’s probably the creamiest ice cream i’ve ever shovelled into my greedy mouth.

I’ve tried Science Cream a couple of times with their residency at a few of the Depot events in Cardiff last year but i’ve been wanting to take my younger sister to sample the expertly crafted icy flavour bombs they have churning away in the kitchen aid’s plus i want to try the ultimate homemade chocolate on the menu at the ice cream parlour as they haven’t unleashed that to the pop up food fest fans just yet.

science-cream-salted-caramel-ice-cream

My first batch of Science Cream ice cream was the salted caramel topped with nuggets of salted peanut brittle drowned in rivers of salted caramel sauce…mmmm I can still remember my eyes lighting up when I exchanged my shrapnel for my tub!

If you’re not into your food festival pop up’s or just looking for somewhere to take the kids in half term that is sure to keep them quiet for 10 minutes then Science Cream are offering customers a liquid nitrogen fuelled ice cream tub with a sauce of their choice then to get the internal temperature of your mouths and throat back up to room temperature a cup of their famous hot chocolate for just £4 with Livingsocial.

Don’t fancy going alone? They are also offering 2 customers the same for £8 or 4 customers for £16 dinning at the same time.

Based in 28 Castle Arcade, Cardiff, CF10 1BW that’s just opposite the arcade by you’ve guessed it Cardiff Castle and just off St Mary Street so you can’t get much more central in town.

Use the Science Cream discount voucher against ice cream and hot chocolate over half term with the kids or if not then it can be used up till 30th April 2016 and valid Wednesday – Saturday 12-6pm or Sunday 12-5pm.

If like me you’re struggling to get back into some sense of reality after gorging yourself on a weeks worth of calories in a single sitting after Christmas, then you will be glad to hear you can actually have a breakfast that will leave you feeling fulfilled without needing an immediate course of liposuction to suck the gallon of grease straight out of your hips!

Step forward Pure Kitchen in Cardiff Bay on the doorstep of the Wales Millennium Centre offering hearty, guilt free, flavour bombs for breakfast and lunch from 4 egg omelettes with grilled chicken, chorizo or steak breakfasts, full english breakfasts, toasted muffins or pancakes topped with fresh fruit.

Pure Kitchen offer breakfasts, fresh smoothies and juices, salads and freshly cooked lunches with the leanest of meats you could ever have adorning your plate to eat in or packed tightly into a takeaway box to eat at your leisure.

You’ve probably walked past one of Cardiff Bay’s most rated breakfast eateries, which managed to chart on Buzzfeed’s top 16 places to grab breakfast in the Capital recently as it’s parked in between the roads directly outside the Wales Millennium Centre and opposite your route from The Red Dragon Centre to the Bay.

If you fancy sampling some of the best breakfasts on offer in Cardiff then head over to Livingsocial and get a Pure Kitchen discount voucher offering you two breakfasts with a hot drink for just £9 up to the value of £21 or 4 dinners can get a paleo inspired breakfast fit for you Crossfit lovers on your next trip down the bay for just £18 up to the value of £42.

You can get this Pure Kitchen breakfast discount in Cardiff Bay for the next 5 days with the voucher then having to be used by February 26th 2016 between 9-11am.

Park House is a true hidden gem in the heart of Cardiff as it’s not on the normal trail whilst out shopping or hitting the bars on St Mary Street. The grade 1 listed building of Park House was built by none other than the Marquis of Bute the man behind many of Cardiff and the surrounding areas most prominent buildings such as Castell Coch and the additional buildings of Cardiff Castle with the help of his chief architect William Burges. With Cadw describing it as “perhaps the most important 19th century house in Wales” so you know not to expect modern design there as it sticks to it’s heritage and tradition.

I only came across the restaurant myself whilst browsing some daily deals websites with the 7 course taster menu jumping out at me I didn’t waste any time checking out the menu and had my card out within seconds of coming to the end of the expertly designed menu offerings. The didn’t last long as other viewers were quick to snap up the amazing deal.

I didn’t use the voucher up until about a month ago after purchasing it in April due to other commitments and getting a free weekend off with my fellow diner but we were mightily impressed with with what was presented to us. I love my macarons but not the biggest fan of crab so was in equal minds whether or not I would take to the crab macaron starter but i was pleasantly surprised how well the sweetness of the french macaron shell complimented the shellfish.

Also brought to us on the evening as part of the taster menu were the Roast Chestnut Pannacotta, Atlantic Halibut and my favourite New Season Scottish Moors Grouse for main course as I’m always a big game fan if it’s on the menu plus I got double helpings of the breast as my friend isn’t too keen on rich game meat although they enjoyed the leg & foie gras bon bon that accompanied it.

What I was most surprised at was the pain perdu, tonka bean brulee with spiced ice cream as I’d never ever fancied creme brulee as I’ve always thought it was quite old fasioned for my linking but was the best desert I’d had in some time plus I’m a sucker for spiced rum and all things christmassy and brought the Christmas feel out with this winter taster menu option.

The cocktails on offer looked amazing and they do a selection of matching wines for the meals but I ordered a bottle thinking it would be a while till we were seated but we were shown to our table within 5 minutes and the bottle was over £40 of a Bordeux so didn’t fancy paying another £40+ plus each on top so we stuck to two bottles of the red instead.

The 7 Course Taster Menu discount has just been re-advertised on Travelzoo Local for just £69 meaning it’s essentially two for 1 as that’s a 50% discount with it usually costing the same amount per person. When you add it up that’s 14 courses for less than £5 each and trust me you will not find anywhere in the capital serving morsels of pleasure on the tongue for that cheap.

This week Livingsocial Cardiff are offering a restaurant discount voucher for Chapel 1877 giving you a two course meal from the A la Carte menu including a glass of wine each for two dinners for just £35 up to the value of £71.50. If you fancy making it a double date you can get an £143 spend for 4 for just £68 saving at least a 50% discount at Chapel 1877 Restaurant in Cardiff.

I’d heard mixed reviews of the Chapel 1877, Cardiff’s latest fine dinning restaurant as you might of guessed in a converted Chapel on Churchill Way just behind the Motorpoint Arena, around the corner from St David’s 2 shopping centre and less than a 5 minute walk from Queen Street train station.

One thing i’ve learned about restaurants is you can’t please everyone and everyone has different tastes and preferences when it comes to eating so I thought i’d just have to find out about the food at the Chapel myself and was lucky that my works Christmas do was booked to go there for food last Friday night.

There were over 20 of us booked in for the Christmas lunch and I didn’t hear a bad word from anyone about the food they got served up and I thought it was delicious. I opted for Chicken Liver and Foie Gras parfait with chutney and toasted brioche to start, which was creamy but not too rich as Foie Gras sometimes is on it’s own and there was sufficient amount of bread to spread onto and not the one triangle of bread you sometimes get in restaurants with pate starter.

sea bass main course at Chapel 1877 in Cardiff

For main I opted for the Anglesey Sea Bass on crab, chilli and olive oil mash with a healthy drizzle of brown shrimp, samphire and chive butter to give the dish another level of flavour and moisture although the mash was creamed to perfection anyway. I was a bit worried i wouldn’t like the mash with the crab as I’ve never opted to try crab whilst dinning out before but it was scrummy.

I was a bit boring on the dessert and went for the cheese board as I’m a bit of a cheese monster and even though there was a good selection of cheeses on the plate, a mixture of breads and crackers I was a bit envious of my workmates chocolate torte sitting next to me.

These were being washed down by a good selection of cocktails from the bar and I made my was through a few different concoctions. I thought the cocktails seemed a bit steep at £7.50 a pop but there was a great selection of different cocktails i’d never tried before and after venturing onto Vodka Revolution after it I was paying exactly the same for quite average tasting spirit infused fruit juice served in a metal bean tin.

I’ll definitely be sampling the standard A La Carte menu after Christmas and making the most of the Livingsocial discount voucher for the Chapel 1877 as it’s not valid for the month of December probably due to it being packed out with Christmas work bookings but with the discount voucher you can use it up to 28th February 2015.