The Castle Arms

Castle Street, Cardiff [map]

The Castle Arms, tucked below the Angel Hotel, has been shut for years but was reopened for two nights only during this year's Swn Festival. They must have known we were coming.

We head inside furtively, the staircase down into the gloom not really made any more inviting by the presence of a single Swn-branded balloon.

Man, is this guy pleased to see us. He's been stuck here since the place was last open about a decade ago, having survived the intervening years on a diet of KP nuts, Malibu and extremely pickled eggs.

To be honest, he's as surprised as anyone to learn that there's an indie disco taking place here tonight.

His bar skills haven't deserted him though - like riding a bike, you never forget how to pull a pint - and a round of Carlsbergs is swiftly dispensed.

We are unable to deny the fact that a disused, underground pub soundtracked by mid-period Pulp is not, for most folk, the obvious destination for a Saturday night out.

We have no idea who these people are. The Photographer just starts taking snapshots of them on the basis that even if the bloke nearest us does object to having his picture taken, he's wearing such tight trousers that he lacks the necessary freedom of movement to do anything about it.

Callaghans

Castle Street, Cardiff [map]


This Irish pub is actually part of the adjacent Holiday Inn (a corridor links the bar with the hotel reception).

But step inside and you'd never guess as much - there's nary a garish green-and-yellow logo in sight.


Good to see the barman doing his best Pub Landlord impression.

A fine array of drinks on offer, although there is something of an emphasis on (predictably enough) Guinness and (less predictably) Beck's.

Having recently endured the comically overpriced Pica Pica, we were delighted to discover that a pint of the pale German lager is a mere £2.


Look at all that lovely, recently polished wood. Doesn't it just make you want to lie down on it and roll across the floor?

Or is that just us?


There are loads of little cubbyholes around the place, including this risibly undersized seating area.


Head down the steps to the outside area and you'll find a discomfiture of punters guzzling pear cider.

How very 2008.

Revolution

9-11 Castle Street, Cardiff [map]


This self-styled 'party venue' is the most recent addition to Cardiff's ever-growing assortment of soulless chain bars aimed at idiots.

When we meandered past on a recent Saturday night, we were stunned to observe people joining a queue that must have been at least an hour long. "Wow, that place must be amazing," we didn't think.


Still, a couple of weeks later, we nonetheless decided to pop in early enough on a Saturday evening that there was no queuing or, indeed, hardly anyone else in the vast alcopop emporium - although we were later joined by a gaggle of camouflage-clad women on a hen do.


Revolution may give the pretence of being a 'prestige' hostelry that also happens to double as an 1100-capacity club. The reality is that it's about as classy as a DVD boxset of Totally Jodie Marsh: Who'll Take Her Up The Aisle?

That said, the bar staff are attentive. We'd barely have time to finish one of our £5-a-go cocktails, which were more ice than booze, before they would scurry over to our table to offer more.

Dempseys

15 Castle Street, Cardiff [map]


Now this is a pub. It sells 45, it smells funny and, plasma TVs aside, it looks like it hasn't been updated in at least 20 years.


As such, going here during the day is just wrong, wrong, wrong - unless you enjoy hanging out with rheumy-eyed pensioners babbling to themselves. But as the pub with the latest closing time in the centre of town, it's the ideal spot for finishing off a serious session.


They don't seem to mind too much if you're visibly inebriated and the music - which is heavy on the indie-disco classics - will sort you right out even if you're starting to flag.


Best of all, the last time that we were here till chucking out time, they let us leave through the side door (you can just see it on the left) with our remaining drinks in plastic pint glasses.