Bangkok Cafe
Bangkok Cafes are the younger, hipper offspring of Cardiff's respected Thai House restaurant. The Swansea unit is a stark, charcoal-grey box broken up by vividly coloured banquettes. My food arrived on a square pink plastic plate. Luckily, that is where the wackiness ends. All the flavours were present and correct in a sample beef Panang: the savoury peanut base note, an almost caramelised sweetness in the sauce, that distinctive coconut creaminess, hints of lemongrass, lime leaves and fish sauce. Yet, it is still hot enough to leave a tingle on the lips. For £5.50 (lunch menu), it's a steal. The staff are affable and efficient, too.
• Lunch mains £5.50; dinner mains from £7.50 (noodle soup dishes or complete meals with rice and a side included). 46 The Kingsway, 01792 463220, bangkokcafe.co.uk
Brunswick
Football fans seeking a civilised pre-match pint would do well to wander out of Swansea town centre to the Brunswick. It serves several real ales, including one gravity-dispensed straight from the barrel behind the bar. Those used to a creamy head on their pint may balk at from-barrel beer, but a sample pint of Otley's Colombo 04 (£2.90) was full of fresh, flourishing hop flavours. Food-wise, this busy, convivial boozer prides itself on honest, home-cooked pub grub. The menu runs to things such as fajitas and sweet 'n' sour chicken, but you are probably better sticking to the simple stuff: that week's pie or curry, the chilli or bolognese. A plate of goulash (£4.99) served with a huge mound of perfect rice delivered the required fruity paprika and tomato flavours, the beef was tender and plentiful, and there was a little pot of sour cream on the side to add that stir-through unctuousness. It may not have cut the mustard in Vienna or Budapest, but on a Friday night in Swansea it was perfectly satisfactory. The Brunswick offers unfussy, tasty food. Something many gastropubs often fail to deliver at twice the price.
• Sandwiches and snacks from £1.99, mains £3.95-£5.99. 3 Duke Street, 01792 465676, brunswickswansea.com
One Shoe Cafe
Holbrook's, in Swansea town centre (28 Union Street, 01792 477797, holbrooksonline.co.uk), makes a lot of fuss about its coffee. However, I found a sample espresso a little thin and its "infamous" ham and scrambled egg breakfast toastie (£3.85) OK but unremarkable. It's a useful place to drop in for a brew and a Gower Cottage Brownie (£1.45), but if you're after breakfast or a lunchtime sandwich I'd advise you to divert – it's a 10-minute walk – to the tiny One Shoe Cafe. Housed in a former cobblers, on the corner of a residential street with a few tables spilling out onto the pavement, it's a lovely spot. Moreover, it serves decent coffee – rich, winey espressos, magnificently creamy cappuccinos – good bacon butties at breakfast, great homemade cakes (Friday's limited-edition brownies fly out of the door), and interesting panini, such as its "Pablo", filled with chorizo, olives, red pesto and cream cheese.
• Breakfast items from £1, sandwiches from £2.20. 1 King Edward Road, 07543 439595
Swansea Pie
Who knew? That Swansea has its own pie? An individual, deep-filled creation of minced beef and onion in a rich, beefy gravy. It is just the thing to fortify you before 90 freezing minutes at the Liberty Stadium in November. Indeed, there is a traditional baker's near the stadium, Saunders – which I didn't get to (85 Pentre Treharne Road) – that reputedly does a good Swansea. Of the two I tried, Reed's (£1.10, 231 Oxford Street) had the meatier, chunkier filling – a serious lava flow of salty, beefy flavour – but slightly greasy pastry, while a sample from the Gower Pasty Company (£1.95 Bryn-y-mor Road, Uplands, gowerpasty.com) had a better, crisper pastry and, possibly, the more refined flavour. The filling, though, was a little thin. As the name suggests, the Pasty Co (so popular I had to go back next day, having found it largely sold out on Friday afternoon) also sells upmarket pasties from producers around the country. Its signature lamb pasty – made in Newquay, to the shop's own recipe – was reasonably good, for £2.50. The rather scraggy pieces of lamb, however, failed to assert their flavour among a potato and vegetable filling seasoned with rosemary and pepper. The Pasty Co recently bought into a local flock of sheep, who will be shortly making an appearance in said pasties, and may well improve their flavour.
Swansea Market
These days, most indoor markets are sad, tatty places. Not Swansea's. It is packed with stalls doing a reasonably brisk trade. In one corner, you'll find an enclave of butchers, delicatessen and food stalls, including a cluster selling plump, briny Gower cockles and fresh laverbread. Samples from Carol Watts (both from £2 a tub; stall CR1 & 2) failed to persuade me around to the latter. Laverbread, a dark green seaweed mush, is iron-rich and vegetal to a quite confrontational degree. With all due respect to local tastes, Wales can keep it. The Welsh cakes from Karen Evans' stall (30p each; 55D) – half-scone, half-biscuit, still warm from the griddle, moist in the middle and dusted with sugar – are far more appetising. As are the curries (£3-£5; 58D) at Punjabi Tiffin. Its crisp, light, sweetly spicy potato and pea samosas (65p each) are fantastic.
• Oxford Street, 01792 654296, swanseaindoormarket.co.uk
Rose Indienne
First, a public information announcement. The £5.95 business lunch listed on the website is no longer offered. Perhaps Rose Indienne – a smart modern curry house with capable cooking to match – should reintroduce it. I was the only person eating here at 1pm on a Friday. No matter. You can still eat for under £10 a head from the main menu, particularly if you stick to the chicken and vegetarian dishes. A sample rogan josh was full of toothsome, yielding lamb in a deeply savoury, tomato-sweetened sauce, enlivened by fresh herbs and bursts of aromatic, freshly ground spice. When I passed Rose Indienne on Friday night, it was much busier. Justifiably so.
• Mains from £5.50, rice/naan bread from £1.70. 73-74 St Helens Road, 01792 467000, roseindienne.co.uk
Govinda's
"The killing of animals shows a great lack in spiritual awareness," insists a pamphlet at this vegetarian/vegan Hare Krishna-run cafe. Govinda's veggie burger is unlikely to persuade the committed carnivore to the path of righteousness (it's too mushy), but the eggless mayo is surprisingly good, as is the house tomato chutney, and the lentil and nut burger has a pleasantly mushroomy flavour. Elsewhere, the short menu includes daily hot vegetarian dishes (moussaka, aubergine bake, vegetable pie, pasta dishes), kofta and hummus wraps, dahls and pizza. The canteen space is a little dated but, fittingly, tranquil.
• Snacks £1.50-£2.99, mains £3.75-£5.99. 8 Craddock St, 01792 468469, govindasswansea.co.uk
Verdi's
In and around Swansea, Joe's ice-cream is an institution. The Cascarini family has the local Italian gelato scene locked down. However, from this trip's one-off taste-test, I have to say I prefer Verdi's gelato. A sprawling glass beachfront cafe-complex further around Swansea Bay, in Mumbles, Verdi's also comprises a takeaway coffee and ice-cream kiosk. The coffee is unremarkable, but the numerous sorbets and ice-creams, made fresh each day using local milk and cream, are great. A sampler of lemon sorbet was sound, a little too ingratiatingly sweet, perhaps, but the apple crumble ice-cream was sensational: lustrously thick and creamy, yet light, its flavours true and clean. None of which is a slight against Joe's, particularly. Joe's ice-cream is perfectly nice, but it didn't, for me, quite hit the heights. Do the taste-test yourself: there's a Joe's parlour just a couple of hundred metres from Verdi's (526 Mumbles Road, joes-icecream.co.uk).
• Ice-creams from £1.35. Knab Rock, Mumbles, verdis-cafe.co.uk
The Kitchen Table
Housed in a former pottery shop, and decorated with artsy-crafty bric-a-brac, Anna and Adam Robertson's Mumbles cafe-restaurant is a firmly on-message modern foodie experience. Its menu is founded on great local and Welsh ingredients, from Halen Môn sea salt to Tomos Watkin's beers, brewed in Swansea. It's well-known for its vegetarian dishes, but meat-eaters are ably provided for, too. The Welsh beef steak burger is of reasonably good quality, but it is really lifted by the accompanying red onion and tomato salsa, and an unusually interesting side-salad topped with a luxuriously creamy dollop of homemade coleslaw. At £7.80, it might sound toppy, but good ingredients cost and it comes with a generous portion of skin-on sautéed potatoes. It is a full meal. While the Table is open at night, it is more expensive, two courses costing £14.50.
• Breakfast £1.50-£7.50, (daytime menu) sandwiches/salads, £3.50-£6.80, mains £7.80. 626 Mumbles Road, 01792 367616, thekitchentablecafe.co.uk
So Cocoa
As a listing in a budget eating feature, So Cocoa is of limited practical use, but, blimey, it tastes good. A gourmet chocolatier, hidden up a side street in Mumbles, it also has a sideline in superb homemade and local, artisan-produced cakes. The pastry on its citron tart doesn't so much melt as magically evaporate in the mouth. There are whopping whoopie pies, great brownies and, a little less impressively, serviceable carrot cake. My advice? Buy some cakes, grab a takeaway coffee elsewhere, find a bench down on the seafront, and enjoy. And if you're not hungry, buy a cake for later. Mouthful for mouthful it may the best £2 you spend in Swansea.
• Cakes from £1.50. 28 Dunn's Lane, Mumbles, sococoa.co.uk
• Tony travelled from Manchester to Swansea with Arriva Trains Wales (arrivatrainswales.co.uk). Morgan's Hotel & Town House (01792 484848, morganshotel.co.uk) has doubles from £65 a night B&B. For further information on Swansea and Mumbles see (visitswanseabay.com) or for wider Wales (visitwales.co.uk)
