Pica Pica

15-23 Westgate Street, Cardiff [map]


This is not, to be fair, the most alluring of facades.

Really, Cardiff just doesn't lend itself to the sort of continental tables-on-the-pavement-framed-by-casually-abandoned-scooters vibe that Pica Pica is going for.

Still, it flogs beer and that's good enough for us… we shrugged in a somewhat Gallic fashion.


To the bar. And ye gods: the horror, the horror. Or, more pertinently: the prices, the prices.

It's so expensive here that it's enough to make you abandon the whole concept of drinking booze altogether in favour of just going home and having a nice cup of tea instead.

The tariff is so steep it's almost vertical. A pint of lager is - brace yourselves - £4.20. But then, covering the front of your bar in acres of mosaic tiling doesn't come cheap.


The Photographer's cameraphone is on the blink, so these shots are imbued with an underlying note of sadness and regret.


There's a bit more action round by the second bar on the right-hand side.

Have we inadvertently stumbled upon a phalanx of actual young people having fun? Or are they, like us, just sitting around grumbling about the bar prices?

It's so hard to tell these days.