The Westgate

49 Cowbridge Road East, Canton [map]


That's what you want from the outside of a pub. Solid. Self-assured. Looks a bit like it might be made of Lego.


Have you ever seen a bar so gleaming? You could eat your dinner off it. (Disclaimer: don't.)


Indeed, it's possibly the neatest bar ever. Not an upturned pint glass or gaudy charity collection box out of place.

You know what they say: a tidy bar is a tidy mind.


Nice feature wall there. Laura Ashley wallpaper, if we're not mistaken.

It's a slightly odd touch to have an enormous portrait of the landlord positioned so prominently though.


The smokers' area out the back is so well appointed it even has its own plasma screen telly.

In other news, the woman on the left appears to have requested to have her pint served across two separate half-pint glasses.


But given that we'd just been openly guzzling beer tapas - three different ales, each served in a third-pint glass - who are we to judge?

The Foresters

181 Cowbridge Road East, Canton [map]


Before you even make it through the door of The Foresters, you're overwhelmed by entertainment options.

Sky Sport (just the one sport, mind), karaoke, disco, pool, darts… how much fun is it possible to have in a single pub? We're about to find out.


First things first though: lager.

A pleasing golden hue there, reassuring condensation on the glass, slightly foamy head but nothing to be overly concerned about, all speedily delivered.

But more importantly - how many sides does this bar have? A lot.


Hmmm, not sure that bloke facing us is entirely up for having his photo taken. Oh well, too late now.


No sign of the promised disco or karaoke, unfortunately. Although it is only 4.15pm - and even we're not ready to disco at that time of day.


One good thing about The Foresters is that they always put health and safety - if not spelling - first.


As billed, the back room does indeed feature both a dartboard and a pool table.

That said, how on earth did we manage to take an out-of-focus shot of a pool table? It's not as if it's going anywhere.

The Goscombe

160 Cowbridge Road East, Canton [map]


Despite being named after a sculptor who assisted in the restoration of Cardiff Castle, The Goscombe's exterior is wholly unremarkable, save for the 'Smith & Jones pub' motifs. 

We always did wonder what happened to Mel Smith.


You're met with a reassuringly long bar - the sort of bar that says, Even if we're dead busy, you'll still be able to secure a delicious pint of lager post-haste. 

Shame there's no handrail though, the sort of thing that always comes in handy for steadying yourself a few pints in.


Our prize: a pint of 45. Lovely job.


We always like a pub that has booths, even if they are festooned in a gruesome stripy material that evokes a particularly trippy optical illusion - especially if you've been at the booze all day. 

They're conducive to proper conversation and proper drinking (booths that is, not stripy fabrics).


Stripy booths aside, The Goscombe follows an entirely familiar chain pub template and, as such, has about as much character as a branch of McDonald's.

The Corporation

188 Cowbridge Road East, Canton [map]


What a magnificent building. It's like a cathedral of Carling. A shrine to Stella. A temple of tipsiness.


Unfortunately, the interior is slightly less impressive. The altar - sorry, bar - is all blandly familiar. There's even a kids' menu on it, which always makes us suspicious. Adults don't want children in pubs. Children don't want to be in pubs (they're pretty boring places if you can't drink or swear).


Despite the Wetherspoon template, it's good to see the inclusion of a couple of a pool tables and a dartboard.


There's even a jukebox - a sign that The Corporation takes pub entertainment seriously. Tempting as it was to stick a few tunes on, it didn't really seem appropriate to fire up the Ace of Spades on an otherwise quiet Saturday lunchtime.


A pub that's not just full of young people is always a good sign, we reckon. Anyone who's over the age of 50 and is drinking this early in the day clearly knows what they're doing.


This is the sort of thing that makes you want to come back again. Well, this and the choice of 18 different types of burger.

The Admiral Napier

239 Cowbridge Road East, Canton [map]


From this angle, The Admiral Napier looks like nothing so much as an outsize suburban house. That also happens to sell lovely booze.


It's a Brains-run joint, so there's the full array of local ales on tap. Good to see the bar snacks include McCoy's - the sort of crisp that you feel could really soak up some beer.

Weirdly, if you type McCoys into Google (no apostrophe), the top result is a guide to British massage parlours. We seem to have gone slightly off-topic here.


Everyone's welcome. Even the Invisible Man pops in every so often for a quiet pint.


The back room is the games area - there's a quiz machine, pool table and dartboard. Plenty to keep you entertained.


Back in the main bar, everyone's gearing up for the Grand National. Betting slip in one hand, pint in the other - it's the sort of beery optimism that Saturday afternoons are made for.