The Discovery — Restaurant in Cyncoed

A brief post-meal word with one of the management reveals that The Discovery steadfastly considers itself a pub, as opposed to a restaurant. This is hardly surprising – taking the alehouse from the equation would probably remove the (presumably) Lakeside locals, drinking in number in the bar. The dining room is even busier, mind, especially for a Wednesday. The latest project of the Knife & Fork company, The Discovery relaunched in March, and has evidently got off to a flyer. Having squinted at the blackboard where the menu is written, my dining partner and I start. His prawn and leek fritters with Marie Rose sauce work in a cocktail party-meets-chippy way; my goats’ cheese bonbons are rolled in gingerbread powder, successful lateral thinking as it goes.

While the appeal of arranging food on slices of tree continues to puzzle me – you might even say that, when considering serving vessels, I’m incapable of ‘getting’ wood – my appetite for alliteration draws me to the main course, the plank of pig. Fillet, belly, tenderloin, crackling, a pulled pork scotch egg (the clear highlight) and black pudding with the consistency of breadcrumbs (pointless, didn’t work) are served with decent veg and a baked apple. Across the table, chicken breast spars with chorizo mash; my small sampling suggests the latter bullies the former into the background, taste-wise, but I’m assured this isn’t the case over the whole meal. A white chocolate bread and butter pudding with marmalade has a similar issue – the preserve dominates to the point where we’re left merely assuming chocolate is actually in there – but the Snickers tart, which comes with salt caramel icecream and peanut brittle, is excellent, and deserves to pay off a few dentists’ mortgages. Topped off with a decent bottle of Chardonnay, bringing the total to about £50, the only reason I’ve ever had to go to Lakeside proves...

Went today for Father’s Day, been on our list of places to try, start off by saying the young girl serving us was very lovely she’s my positive, however when we were sat waiting and the carvery was not being watched one of the customers from the beer garden went picked at the meat on the carvery and then walked off munching away then came back a second time time and filled his hand up. I told the lovely waitress and as I said it was off putting as we were about to have that and she said she would tell someone. So the carvery server came and apologised and said he would have a word as he was fumming about it, and it did look like he went to have a word, he apologised again when we went up he seemed lovely, however when we were sat eating he then walked outside with food from the carvery in a piece of foil, so this customer was rewarded for picking at the meat people were to eat and was then also given free bit of food which we had to pay. Our mains we were asked if we were ready for but the deserts we were not and as we had ordered the kids deserts in with the meal deal that didn’t give us chance to order any adult deserts so we didn’t bother. The bar manager was also rude didn’t apologise that was left to the kitchen staff and told us the bar was closed and had to go all the way round to the other side even though we had 45 mins left on our table and wanted to pay the bill. Also wasn’t any soap in the toilet had same problem in April when I came...

Me and my family came to the discovery on Saturday night, we entered the establishment, my daughter was talking to her friends on the dance floor, one of the bouncers came over and told her to get out because she was drunk, which she wasn't as she had been drinking water that she got from the bar, she asked why and he told her to get out, I tried to speak to the bouncers who was very rude started shouting at me, I then asked to speak to the manager, but he was deputy manager, I explained what happened and he basically told me that he couldn't do anything he has to do what he was told, he didn't seem to care that I was trying to explain then walked off. My daughter had gone outside and realised ahe left her bag inside when she came in in to get it the bouncers pushed her by the shoulders and told her to get out, he was absolutely vile to us woman, I spoke to the manager again because of what he done he didn't seem to care was just leaning on the bar not saying anything, I have never been treated so disrespectful in my life and will not be going there again when we were outside waiting for a taxi there were alot of people complaining about them and there attitude, I will also be contacting croesus about this as well...