Cardamon (Pontardawe) — Restaurant in Wales

Booked for a Friday evening for an early anniversary meal with my wife. The service seemed to take a while at first but was excellent as the sitting progressed despite there being a limited amount of staff and it being relatively busy. The food was excellent. I had a kebab platter for starters and all three varieties of kebab were cooked superbly. My wife just had a poppadom chutney tray. This was nice too with there not being a shedfull like you normally get of the pickles and sauces (I've often wondered if they are just scared back into a container for the next customer). My missus had lamb korma and coconut rice. The lamb was tender and the sauce superb. We asked if the coconut rice had onions (she hates them) and they asked the chef to confirm that it didn't. It didn't. I had the Chicken Naga. The chicken was tender too and the sauce, although it could have been hotter, was tasty. The keema nan, lamb samosa and onion bhajees as sides could not be faulted. With 4 large glasses of Coke, the bill of £66 was more than acceptable. We will certainly return and would recommend Cardamon for a...

1st visit: The first visit was certainly five stars. Amazing food. Really good atmosphere from a family run business. A thoroughly enjoyable meal. Thank you to the staff for a really good evening. I would certainly recommend and will definitely be going back.

2nd visit - about 3 weeks later: After the enjoyable first visit with a friend I returned with my wife and son. Not so good this time I'm afraid. My wife ordered a paneer main dish. A few chunks of oven baked paneer, possibly pan fried, and lots of onion. I mean lots of onion. After she ate the few chunks, which lacked flavouring, she had the choice of filling up on onions. My meal, and my son's, were ok but not great. Sad to say, this second meal was disappointing. What a shame. 3-4 stars for a second visit I'm afraid with 5...

Ordered a takeaway from here last night at 19:15, arrived to collect it at 19:45 after being advised our meal would be ready in 30 mins and then sat waiting for 40 mins before my order actually appeared at 20:20. Appreciate takeaways are busier on the weekends, but there was only one table in the restaurant, and the length of wait was ridiculous. The Cardamon never has your order ready at the time they say they will, but last nights wait was a joke. Took staff about half an hour before acknowledging the wait, no offer to chuck in a freebie or offer of a drink while i was waiting. By the time I'd driven the food a mile up the road, the curries were cold and needed reheating. The bajhi's were also undercooked and sloppy in the middle, and the naan was burned. Won't be ordering...