by bloggers Lydia, Chloe and Beth @platter.queens
City of Arcades asked us to put together a guide to Cardiff’s top cocktail bars so last Friday night we headed down to the capital to try some new places.
If you follow us on socials you’ll know that we LOVE a cocktail or ten and we won’t say no to a night out in Cardiff so this was right up our street! It also gave us a chance to try some new cocktail bars we haven’t featured yet and have been meaning to try.
The Cocktail Club – St Mary Street
Our first stop of the night was The Cocktail Club which is one of the newer bars on St Mary Street. We were just in time for the 2 for 1 cocktail offer which is between 4pm-8pm each night. This was the perfect place to start our night with great music and vibes as soon as we walked in. Our cocktails made in minutes which was even better. We went for:
• Bramley apple smash – beefeater gin, bramley apple sauce, elderflower, citrus and mint
• Reggae rum punch – Rumbar Ovenproof, grenadine syrup, pineapple, juice, orange juice and lime juice.
• Beverly Hills cocktails – Grand Marnier, vodka, gin, vanilla and Prosecco.
Our favourite cocktail was the bramley apple smash. It was super tasty and even had a biscuit on top for extra sweetness, which was great with the bitterness of the apple.
The Cocktail Club has the coolest décor and lovely seating areas to enjoy a few cocktails with friends. They also do 00’s bottomless brunch and cocktail master classes, definitely one to check out!
Platter Queens ratings:
Lydia – 5/5
Chloe – 4/5
Beth – 3/5
Lounge 94 – St Mary Street
Lounge 94 was our next stop – a basement level speakeasy on St Mary Street. We choose two classic cocktails which were part of their 2 for £12 offer. We went for:
• Sex on the Beach – cranberry juice, orange juice, vodka and peach snapps
• Cosmopolitan – Vodka, cranberry juice, Cointreau and lime juice
Both cocktails were incredibly tasty, however the cosmopolitan was a hit with all 3 of us! We really liked the decor and music and though it was a great place to relax with a drink in hand. We will definitely be returning ❤️
Platter Queens ratings:
Lydia – 2/5
Chloe – 3/5
Beth – 4/5
The Dead Canary – Barrack Lane
Our third bar of the night was another speakeasy called the Dead Canary on Barrack Lane which is near St David’s. It had a great atmosphere and we thought it would be a perfect place for couples as well as friends. Their cocktail menu is inspired by the stories of dragons and we went for:
• Y Ddrigig goch (the Welsh Red Dragon) – this was our favourite cocktail which was packed with grapefruit vodka, dragonfruit grenadine, blood orange Cointreau, lemon and cranberry 🍋
• The Apep (Egyptian Serpent) – it had Rose spritz, pistachio, lychee soda & lemon 🌸
• The Voritigern’s Dragon (the White Dragon) had Turmeric infused Gin, marmalade syrup, lemon & foamer 🍯
If nothing on the menu takes your fancy then you can request a personalised cocktail which we thought was great! The service was really friendly and they couldn’t help us enough when picking our cocktails.
Platter Queens ratings:
Lydia – 4/5
Chloe – 4/5
Beth – 4/5
Lab 22 – Caroline Street
We then headed to Lab 22, a modern cocktail bar on Caroline Street – known as Chippy Lane to some of us! It had a brilliant atmosphere and is somewhere that would be great for all kinds of groups. You are given a guide to decide which cocktail is right for you depending on whether you like sweet or sharp tastes for example. We ordered:
• ‘Make me famous’ – a drink for gin lovers, with Tanqueray Gin, Passionfruit Wine Vanilla, Disco Dust 🍸
• ‘Casual loop’ again another one for anyone who loves a Gin! This had Hendricks Gin, pressed watermelon, Bandarra Rose, Soda 🍉
• ‘Convergence’ was packed full with Bombay Bramble, Vanilla, Sour Cherry Tea (this was a sharp one but the sweetness from the vanilla came out too so a good balance) 🍒
We love the names of the cocktails and the staff were very good at recommending drinks which suited our tastes.
Platter Queens ratings:
Lydia -4/5
Chloe – 3.5/5
Beth – 4/5
Tonight Josephine – Caroline Street
Our last stop of the night was the lively Tonight Josephine. This is the perfect place to end a night out in Cardiff with music that everyone loves and a photo booth to snap a memory of the night! We had:
• Peach pie – southern comfort, disarrono amaretto, pineapple, white peach and citrus juice 🍑
• Strawberry and watermelon martini – watermelon gin, strawberry, watermelon and lime, probably our favourite 🍓
• Ab Fab – watermelon vodka, strawberry juice and watermelon. Perfect if you have a sweet tooth!
We loved that the cocktail menu was separated into gin, vodka, and tiki cocktails. We also noticed that they do themed bottomless brunch and a happy hour between 4:30pm – 8pm everyday except Saturdays.
Platter Queens ratings:
Lydia – 2/5
Chloe – 3/5
Beth – 3/5
Dead Canary and the Cocktail Club scored the highest with us, tying at an overall score of 12/15! But we would honestly recommend all of the places we went to and we will definitely be checking what events they have coming up as many places have live music and bottomless brunches on certain days of the week.