BBQ Xiang, Caroline St, Cardiff: Chinese roast meats restaurant review

Good things have a habit of happening in this little room in the middle of Cardiff.

It was once Malai Thai; you might remember their extraordinarily good value set lunch a few years ago, although it’s almost quaint now to think of a city centre meal, fresh from the wok, served on an actual plate at an actual table, for £6.99. With a drink, too.

Its successor Basil and Curry didn’t last, so when local hospitality legend, Steve Bennett of The Flora, told me of new signs going up, my antennae twitched.

So here is BBQ Xiang, and its Mandarin legend over the door. And yes, we’ll come back to that. The headline? Roast meats- siu mei– with rice or soup noodles. There is a punchy list of specials- fish with pickled mustard greens, fried noodles, dumpling soup, chicken in chilli oil- but the focus is on those meats. They beckon to you, in all their bronzed, lacquered glory, from the window between kitchen and dining room.

There’s no earthly reason I wouldn’t order all four meats with rice. There’s a more expensive ‘without rice’ section aimed at sharers, or those who have a family to feed.

Roast duck, served on the bone, as it should be; char siu roast pork; chicken with a sweetish soy sauce glaze; all hit the brief with room to spare.

Best of all?  The sweet music your teeth makes as that brittle, well-rendered fat of the crispy pork shatters under your molars.

I go for the char siu soup. My server, Ping, who is utterly charming, recommends the hot and sour base. It arrives quickly. Bow your head. Breathe it in. Stir it all together- the fat, slippery hor fun noodles, the beansprouts, the peanuts, the potent chilli seasoning, the unmistakable herby punch- and get to work.

It’s hearty and life-affirming: come here after a long day, realise that nothing else matters for the next ten minutes, and savour these moments.

Food like this always makes even more sense as days shorten, so I find myself back here for cod- and plenty of it, too- poached with pickled mustard greens, just wilted enough but still tart and snappy, in a bracingly tangy soup. It all has that depth you associate with bones slowly releasing their gelatine into the stock, the richness spiked with dried red chillies and brightened with coriander. It’s compelling stuff, and perhaps even better the next day.

Here are two words to make anyone happy: curry laksa. Here are two more: roast duck curry laksa. A bowl of rich coconutty warmth, with shrimp paste giving the soup a gently insistent background funk. Throw in some silky ramen noodles and you have a bowl to soothe away the dampest and dreariest of Cardiff evenings.

Something interesting for your city centre appetite, a much-loved site brought back to life, and an appealing independent menu on chain-saturated streets. Open all day from late morning, too, seven days a week.

These are all Good Things, of course. And that legend over the door? Ping smiles. ‘The good smells linger in our kitchen’.

And if that doesn’t move you somehow, you should seek urgent help.

33 Caroline St, Cardiff CF10 1FF

Open 1130-930, every day