AJs Coffeehouse

Excellent café with very polite and friendly service.

Came here for something quick before my hairstyling appointment and I’m pretty happy about the place. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to give one of their breakfasts a try but I totally would if I came back in the future.
~ Atmosphere:
The décor was of a nice cute breakfast café. Nothing inspiring, but it was well maintained. The one downside is that the arrangement of the dining tables were really inconvenient. Some tables were way too close to each other that after ordering at the counter and squeezing back to your table (with the flower-​in-​a-​vase they give you to indicate which table the food should be brought to) resulted in a lot of «excuse me“s and «sorry can you just adjust… yes, thank you!“s.
~ Customer Service:
Friendly and the food came out quickly as well. Like I mentioned, you order at the counter and take a flower-​in-​a-​vase with you to indicate where the food should be brought to.
~ Food:
I wanted something light, so I just got a green tea (they have plenty of specialty teas on offer) and curly fries with cheese, red onion, and red pepper topping. To be honest, I thought the fries would be the size of a side order given the price. However, what came out was a mega-​feast to share. I apologise to the restaurant, because I had to leave so much behind!
The food itself was delicious. The ingredients tasted fresh and the curly fries well cooked. My only gripe is that the ratio of toppings to chips were not so great. In fact, it probably would be better if they cut down on the number of curly fries and added more topping. After eating a few pieces with the toppings, these wasn’t much topping left for the gargantuan pile of leftover curly fries. Balance is key!
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Looking over to other tables, the breakfasts actually looked really tasty. I’m overall pretty happy with my experience at AJ’s. It’s nothing to go crazy about, but I would come here again.

On a drab Friday morning and having been let down by the very early appointment that never showed up I found myself on C
ity road looking for somewhere to feed me and give me shelter from the rain.
Along came AJ’s, a nice enough café with a handy menu in the window. Pancakes! Perfect! I was in that sort of mood so in I went. The inside is fairly standard. AJ’s is a café/​coffee shop that tries to ad a bit of style, and if you’re bothered about that sort of thing you’ll probably think it does fine. There are some funky chairs, a mix of sofas and tables, a splash of art about the place and a big telly at the end of the room showing a babbling brook screen saver thing. Goodness knows why. I found it fairly unremarkable but very comfortable despite the slightly patchy lighting.
What I like most about AJ’s though, aside from it agreeing to feed me at 8.30am, was what matters most in a café: service and food. The breakfast menu is great, there’s a very satisfying selection of breakfasts ranging from medium and large fry-​ups to eggs benedict, eggy bread, an egg-​in-​bread thing that sounds like what they make in V For Vendetta («eggy in a basket» if you like), and crucially there were 2 pancake options too, 1 with eggs and bacon and 1 with the pancakes on their own (with syrup of course).
The guy who served me was friendly and attentive and after I settled at a table with my pot of tea I only had a few minutes to wait before my pancakes, eggs, bacon and syrup came my way. And damn tasty they were too!
All in all this place was great, good food and service and a nice comfy place to go for a breakfast. The rest of the menu looks pretty good too.

Naff décor and always packed with students from the college across the road. I honestly don’t understand why any adult would go to AJs when there’s a much better (and much classier) coffee shop only a few doors down. On the plus side the guys who run AJs are very nice, and their coffee is cheap; but then I suppose you get what you pay for!

Aj’s is a breakfast bar and sandwich chop that likes to pretend it has a taste in style. While the food and beverages lives up to all expectations as much as can be expected from this type of food, there is nothing amazing here. If you are looking for a more discrete breakfast event, takes it here it’s far enough away from most of the city road madness of shopping.
The designer furniture hasn’t been thought through to not clash but considering some of the other cafes around this place is a much-​needed improvement and I thought the paintings were cool. The modern interior and refurbished exterior make it, frankly better than the competition. If you are a student that goes to the physics building it’s not that far away.
The all day breakfast menu is genius especially if you think the day starts at 1pm. The service is good and they do try so hard to be cool, I think they just about pull it off.
The artwork adorning the walls, commissioned from Super Furry Animals’ artist Pete Fowler, wow.

AJs let me down. It let me down and made me want to cry.
I was at a house party one Saturday night. There was entertainment to be had; drink was drunk and fun was funned. And then it rolled up to 8:30am and the hostess decided it was time for bed. Actually, she’d decided this three hours earlier, and got into her pajamas in anticipation, but when the party’s going, you don’t stop because of sleep. That’s cowardice! Anyway, the remaining four of us were cast out into the street to find our own way home.
All four of us being in lively sorts, we decided breakfast was the only thing for it. And I screamed «AJ’S!» thinking that wonderful little coffee and breakfast bar would be good enough to be open at 9am on a Sunday morning. So began the wobbly trek down to City Road from the top of Whitchurch Road. We got to AJ’s and saw it resolutely closed, the door remaining stoney-​faced and locked despite my pleading cries.
And that’s actually the only bad thing I can say about this place. The food is excellent (so much so that the thought of it can push all rationality out of my head at half eight on a Sunday morning). It’s not anything special and wonderful, but it’s one of those great little places that does what it does and does it damn well.

I have to admit, I thought Aj’s was some sort of DJ store from the outside, however I found it does my lifeline (Coffee) I decided to have a little wonder inside.
It’s er, how do I put this politely? It feels like someone had a five minute dash to Ikea whilst blindfold and then chucked it into the café. It’s a bit of a designers mess. Any thing remotely in fashion is chucked in there, different coloured garish walls, hanging lights, tall tables blah blah. It tries to hard.
However I came in here for the coffee and the coffee was good. Very strong, the way I like it and the service was very good. A good one for that morning pick-​me-​up.

I was a little disappointed by AJs but I think that this might have been mostly because it had been so hyped up. I’d heard that it was like an american diner (if anyone tries to tell you this, please ignore them. They are complete liars) but there was nothing remotely like that. There were some paintings of comic book heroes on the walls… cool (and for sale) but not exactly american-​diner…
The food, though, WAS good and the service was also good. I felt like the prices weren’t particularly brilliant but they weren’t outrageous either. Most of the positivity in this review comes from the food. I had a baguette with just salad and cheese but it came warm and all melty-​cheeseish… Oh, it was so much better than I was expecting.
This place is great; it really is. However, it’s not outstanding or exciting or innovating. So, if you want to go, go for the food and expect just a normal café.

Completely different from Shot in the Dark, which is just a few doors down, AJ’s has a completely different look and feel — more futuristic, urban and contemporary. Again, it’s a local business rather than a chain, which always inspires me. I used to work just down the road when they first opened, and remember how friendly the three lads were, and how determined they were to make the business work. The food is always good, and the atmosphere friendly. I would say that if you’re after a fairly quick lunchtime coffee and bite to eat with efficient service, this place is for you. If you want to linger, maybe you should try Shot in the Dark

AJ’s is a great little coffee shop on City Road in Cardiff. The prices here are very reasonable and there is much more than coffee on offer, the food is delicious and always freshly prepared. There are tables and chairs to sit and eat as well as comfy sofas for when you just want a coffee with some friends. If you’re looking for interesting and different activities, AJ’s has a noticeboard with lots of Cardiff based groups and events to try.