The Prince of Wales

This has to be the worst pub in cardiff!!!
Every stereotype you can think off when it comes to a welsh night out you will find here!
I cringe and even contemplate ending friendships when someone suggests going here I can’t tell you enough how much I dislike it!
You get the all day drinkers who are quite happily spending their hard earned benefits, then the s… l…o…w…e…s…t possible service where unless you maintain eye contact with a member of bar staff some muscle bound valley freak will barge in front of you and take your place in the non existant system they bar tenders use to ensure everyone is served fairly!
Please unless your a mindless moron do yourself a favour and enjoy cardiff in another pub… Don’t judge us by this!

I was in Cardiff from 9PM to 2AM, just stopping through from Liverpool, waiting to catch a bus to London. In this small amount of time, I visited the outside of Cardiff Castle, grabbed a bite to eat at The Price of Wales, and danced the night away at 10 Feet Tall.
I know that The Prince of Wales is basically a J D Wetherspoon restaurant but that didn’t really matter to me since I’ve never really been to one. I guess for my American brethren, it’s pretty much their Denny’s. I wonder which American visitors did not make the Reese Witherspoon joke. Anyway, I don’t know if all J D Wetherspoons are like this, but this was my experience at The Prince of Wales.
They served dinner until somewhat late so this is how I ended up here (everywhere else was closed, except like McDonalds). I honestly don’t remember exactly what I ordered but it was under the Welsh section on the menu. It tasted good probably because I was very hungry but it didn’t blow me out of the water. With that said, I think it’s acceptable to come and grab some food here but you won’t be talking about it later on.
The thing I liked the most about this place was the atmosphere. The fact that the United Kingdom is a drinking culture was apparent here with lots of folks drinking and being merry. There were also lots of people in club-​gear probably going to a club after pre-​partying here. There were lots of security guards so people must get rowdy sometimes. There were lots of the slot machines things along the wall – I put in 5 pounds into one of them and got 0 back (whoops).
So, come here for the atmosphere, drinks, and food. Nothing is going to be the craziest/​best experience you’ve had in the UK, but it’ll be a jolly old time being immersed in British culture.

To preface this review, I never came here to experience the pub atmosphere at night. Instead, I came here in the morning for breakfast.
Atmosphere:
The Prince Of Wales seems a lot larger and way more spacious than most other Wetherspoons I’ve been to. However, the décor is just the standard traditional pub look that you would expect.
Customer Service:
The employees were very friendly and attentive. My breakfast also came out at a decently reasonable time. For those unfamiliar with the system in place at Wetherspoons, you make all orders at the bar, including food and give them your table number. The food then gets delivered to your table. I quite like this system because since Wetherspoons gets typically busy, no need to fail at flagging down a waiter or waitress.
Food:
I had the Large Breakfast meal, which came with fried eggs, bacon, sausages, baked beans, hash browns, mushroom, tomato, slices of toast. To be honest, it was just okay — decent but probably not something I’d order again. Essentially the meal tasted a bit stale and forgettable. To be fair, if I was working as a chef I wouldn’t put in my all first thing in the morning either and I’m definitely willing to give this place another try, but ordering something else next time.
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Overall, you get a typical Wetherspoons from this place. Cheap food, but nothing to write home about.

To be honest, I didn’t realize that this was the pub I was in. It’s a good place to be though. It’s massive and open, which is a little bit different, and has sort of a casino feel to me. Apparently it used to be a theater or something, and the stage and some of the balconies are still present. They pour decent beers, and if you come in during the day their food is fairly well priced and the traditional breakfast is pretty tasty. The Prince of Wales is in a good location, and I can’t say anything bad about it but it just isn’t an incredibly amazing pub by any means. I’d recommend checking it out more for the breakfast than in the evening though.

After a tour of some of the castles in Cardiff and the surrounding area, I checked out a local pub called The Prince of Wales. Sticking with the «Welsh Classics» section of the menu, I ordered the Welsh Rarebit and Lamb Cawl. Never having had either of these dishes before, I wanted to see what Welsh food. The Welsh Rarebit, described as «two slices of toasted bloomer bread, topped with hot Welsh rarebit, made with Oldshire vintage cheddar and brown ale,» was essentially cheese sauce on toast. Nothing revelatory, though moderately satisfying. The Lamb Cawl was essentially a lamb stew studded with carrots, potatoes, and onion. Nothing to write home about, either, as the few lamb chunks that I got were tough and chewy with very little distinct lamb flavor. All in all, a very mediocre meal that left me with a middling impression of Welsh cuisine.

A large Wetherspoon’s near the main station in Cardiff, I tend to pop in here for a bite and a pint when I’m in the ‘Diff for football or whatever. The downstairs is a bit of a zoo but the upstairs is fine for a quiet sit down when taking fuel on board. Service was rather slow on my last Sunday lunchtime visit, with just a single girl serving the queue: more staff please! The Sunday roast prices seem to have taken a hike lately furthermore, plus I wasn’t that impressed with the racist graffiti in the gents (Kill everyone not white!). By the way, the place purports to be a converted theatre and the décor plays on this claim throughout. But I lived in Cardiff in the early 80s and it wasn’t a theatre then, it was a porn cinema. Overall though, not bad.

Wetherspoons is what it is, but this place is worth visiting for the décor and discovering hidden balconies and the much quoted upstairs bar

I was once told that the Prince of Wales pub used to be a XXX cinema. After going in there and having a proper look around, I can see that the story I was told may be true. Again, this is part of the Wetherspoons branch so you expect decent cheap food and drinks. What stands out most about this pub is the architecture.
You would think that after being a cinema they would knock it down and start again. No! This is what they haven’t done and have built the pub over the cinema. You can still see the side curtains that go in a cinema and even some of the seats right at the back on the top floor. This may seem lazy to people but I like how the kept the design because it is totally different to any other pub I have been in. Whilst you sip on your drink whilst eating some of their fine cheap food you can admire the whole structure of the building.
Prince of Wales is a unique looking pub that is always filled with people when there are football or rugby games on but it’s also filled with families at lunch time to have their food. A pub for all

I know this is a Wetherspoons, but this is one of their better examples and the interior is definitely worth a look.
Obviously, cheap drinks, especially real ales, and cheap food are the order of the day, and you won’t find any music here. What you will find is an adventure.
The Prince Of Wales was evidently once a cinema or theatre. Good old Mr Wetherspoon, in his infinite wisdom, decided not to rip the interior out, but just build spaces within keeping the original interior. If you enter through the main front door, the huge glass doors, then you’re straight into a large open space. There is a bar to the left and a huge, spiral staircase in front. Unfortunately it is one of those stair cases you wouldn’t want to tackle in a mini skirt!
Once upstairs you can appreciate the original beauty of the cinema. The stairs take you onto a cat walk, raised above the ground floor. To your left is a large mezzanine in place of the theatre balcony. A lovely touch is the preservation of the boxes either side with theatre seats that lead to the toilets.
To your right is the preserved proscenium arch, complete with curtains. The thin catwalk takes you to a second mezzanine that would have been above the stage for a completely separate area. It really does have the wow factor, and is a much nicer environment for a cheap beer than most bargain booze outlets.

If all you out for is a cheap drink then this is the place. — its a couple of pence away from an offy. I’m probably being a bit cruel here but I guarantee that most of its regular clientele (I use that word loosely) have more tattoos than A’Levels and I say that in a nice way ;) In the daytime you will see an endless procession of people going to and from the bookies hoping subsidise their drinking with a win on the gee gee’s. Another plus is that it’s quite a popular haunt of Cardiff City Football fans.
What more can i say? If this sounds like heaven to you then where have you been all its life? Get your shiny shell suit wearing, eyebrow pierced, tattoo’d body down there!

It’s a Wetherspoons, you know what you’re getting. Situated near the train station and bus station, this is an ideal pub if you’re gasping after being stuck at a broken signal for four hours between Bristol and Cardiff — yes this has happened to me.
This is one of the finest Wetherspoons in Cardiff, back in the day it used to be a grand theatre and they have kept some of the original features, like some of the side boxes, which makes this place a pleasure to drink in. This building can be a little dark, not being much light, because obviously it used to be a theatre, but you can sit upstairs and if you’re lucky enough get a window seat overlooking the tramps of Cardiff gathering to drink their gin.
This pub does open from 7am, which is massively handy if you fancy one of their amazing breakfasts. I love a good olé Wetherspoons and this is as good as it gets.

As Weatherspoon’s pubs go this is one of the most grand examples that I’ve experienced. The Prince of Wales was a theatre once upon a time and you can still see some of the balconies, boxes and backstage areas here, all you have to do is look up.
The décor is pretty impressive then, and in reliable Weatherspoon’s fashion the food and the drinks are good and affordable too. There are several bars here that are all well stocked and well staffed, there’s plenty of seating up or downstairs and if you’re just coming in for a drink there are sofas to lounge on and standing tables where you can perch your pint while you chat.
The toilets in particular are very good here too. The staircase in the middle goes up as well as down and if you descend you’ll find extensive and very clean tiled bathrooms for both genders that make you feel like you’re in a posh hotel rather than just a pub.
I’ve come here on various occasions and have always enjoyed the place, but the time that sticks out is when I was here to watch the Six Nations a few years ago when Wales were in the final. The place was rammed as it always is on match days, and it’s a great place to watch sport if you can get in (the queues tend to get very long so be sure to get here early). There are extra bars set up in lots of the smaller alcoves to cope with the large crowds that come for the several TVs and projector screens that you can watch the match from, and the atmosphere here was absolutely brilliant that day and didn’t feel threatening at all, even when a an opposition supporter walked through the crowd wearing a French flag. He survived though so good for him.
The Prince of Wales is in a really good location too. It’s right by the Brewery Quarter which has loads of restaurants if you fancy them, and if you’ve just watched a match and fancy some take-​away then just pop to the infamous Chippy Lane. There are also plenty of cashpoints about the place and enough taxi ranks to cope with a sizeable crowd, and since the Prince of Wales is right next to the Central Station it’s a great place to come for a quick one if you’re waiting for a bus or a train.

Cheap drinks cheap food… cheap everything!
This more the Primark end of the pub scene. The floor is generally sticky and the toilets could do with an almighty scrub-​a-​dub-​dub!
I am by no means a regular in this particular pub. The cardboard looking food pictured on the windows does not appeal to me. To me if you can get a drink and a meal for under a fiver the quality of both needs looking at!
This is more a drink as much as you can pub rather than a savour the atmospere kinda bar!
If your looking to get jollied quickly and cheaply this pub is right up your alley! If you are looking for a bit of class… I would suggest you walk on past and head to Mill Lane!
I know where I’ll be!

As part of the Whetherspoon’s chain, the Prince of Wales is the bargain bin of Cardiff’s pubs, with low-​cost food, cheap drinks and cut-​price cocktails.
However, despite its bargain prices, the Prince of Wales quite often gets a bad rap from the majority of Cardiff’s general population. Its early 7 a.m. opening time means that, on entering the pub at any time of the day, you are likely to find a drunken wreck lurking somewhere in the vicinity, probably propped up against the bar. Also, it isn’t the cleanest of pubs and if you leave your feet in the same spot for longer than a minute you will likely become part of the floor.
While it’s not the kind of pub you would take a partner on a first date, it is a perfect venue to sneak in a few cheap beverages in between bars on a night out with your mates. Located not far from the Millennium Stadium, it’s also the perfect setting for a pre-​match warm up if you’ve got tickets and want to soak up a bit of match day atmosphere.
Despite its varying reputation, the Prince of Wales is a good place to watch sport and have a cheap pint if you are taking care of the pennies. Just like the man it shares its name with, the Prince of Wales may never be seen as the King, but it’s sure to always have a few loyal followers.

I will not hear a single bad word about the Prince of Wales (the pub not the man), it is for all intents and purposes a Wetherspoons but it’s always one you can rely on. Need to somewhere to start of an evening? Go the Prince of Wales, want something cheap to eat but can’t make up your mind? Go to the Prince of Wales. Seriously I have been here many a times and sometimes its rowdy, sometimes quiet but I always know exactly what I’m getting; cheap drinks, friendly staff, a big spacious area and decent enough food is always there if I want it.
The Prince of Wales has become a steadfast default option for us in any situation in fact a friend of mine recently launched an election campaign (as he did at short notice) and the staff were really happy to accommodate our party. Although there is one gripe I have on that particular occasion. I ordered Guinness and the girl serving me was pouring it wrong (any Guinness drinker knows what I’m talking about) and when pointed by her colleague that she was pouring my pint wrong she just shrugged it off. I’m not a very confrontational person so; I did the same although I wish I had complained as I was left with a Guinness with no head.

Probably one of the most lavish Wetherspoons in all the land, the Prince used to be a theatre, then a cinema, before becoming the Prince in 1999. It’s a bit tragic really, as viewing some photos of the theatre, it really was a beautiful building. The history is very obvious inside and there are theatre boxes, lavish curtains and a massive, high ceiling. In fairness, it must have been pretty hard for Wetherspoons to remain respectful of the history of the place whilst advertising a beer and burger for £3.99.
Still, rant over, times change and all that…
The staff are decent enough. I can’t say they’re more friendly than average but nor have I ever had an impolite experience. So smack in the middle for that one.
The atmosphere can vary pretty greatly depending on which day you head down there. I’ve been in on quiet, lifeless Saturdays and absolutely heaving Saturdays too.
I’d recommend a visit to the Prince as it’s probably one of the most aestetically pleasing Wetherspoons pubs in the entire country. There’s also plenty of seating and a couple of nooks and crannies upstairs where you can watch the world go by on St Marys Street — always a laugh on a busy Saturday night!

Planted on the corner of St. Mary’s Street, next to the station sits this lumbering monstrosity of a building. Like the Great Western on the opposite end of the block, it’s clearly built as the first port of call for people exiting the railway station, serving as the match day pre-​match and post-​match drinking point.
For this reason, it can get a little hairy on match days with all the loud, shouty valley boys yelling orders at the bar staff, yelling curses at each other and yelling such sweet romance at any vaguely attractive women that have the misfortune of walking passed them.
If you avoid the match days though, The Prince Of Wales is a very adequate Wetherspoons. Good for a meet up, or a pre-​night out drink, with enough seats to accommodate everyone and drinks that are cheaper than most places in town. Like most things in life, if you dodge the valley boys, everything will be peachy.

I feel very much like I need to step in here and defend this establishment!
For years it has been one of my favourite pubs in Cardiff; it’s close to the station and the cinema and, yes, it’s a Wetherspoon’s. The service here has a tendency to be a bit slack, and they need to wipe down their bars more if they expect me to sign when using my card. But apart from that, I think there’s very little to complain about.
But, undeniable I think, Prince of Wales has the wow-​factor. I love bringing people here if only to have a gander at the architecture. I love the old boxes along the side, and the stage, and the upper circle… it’s just an amazing space.
Yes. This pub can be rowdy and packed, just like any other pub in Cardiff on a Friday or Saturday night.
Yes. You want to go upstairs away from the slightly seedy locals.
But yes, I think you’ll think it’s pretty cool.

I’m going to give this Wetherspoon’s an honorable mention for the most terrifying staircase in the entire world. It makes very little sense to me that a place that is so clearly built for binge drinking on match days would have a big transparent set of steps right in the middle of it.
It scares me because
a) Not only is it partly made of glass but it has gaps in it so if you’re scared of heights/​had a few drinks, it feels like a horrendous krypton factor style challenge.
b) If you’re wearing a dress you’re probably flashing your knickers at everyone on the ground floor.
If you factor in the drunk valleys boys leering at and grabbing you as you try and make your way to the (crowded) bar then the Prince of Wales experience isn’t a pleasant one.

I’m guessing everyone by now knows what to expect at a Weatherspoon’s. No music, cheap drinks and food. However this one, near Central station used to be a theatre and then a cinema, before becoming A pub in 1999.
As you can imagine it is quite a big place, with two floors. The downstairs looks pretty normal. But once you are upstairs, you are treated to the exact replication of the theatre. It’s quite a beautiful setting and houses a large TV screen behind the bars huge wall for sporting events.
Drinks are obviously cheap being a Weatherspoon and is normally my watering hole before we go somewhere with a bit more musical activity and unfortunately, more expensive drinks.
Food is also inexpensive and I can honestly say I’ve never had bad food there and quite enjoy their full English breakfasts there after a heavy night out.
It can get pretty packed at the weekends which means no seats if you come later on. It can also get quite noisy, despite having no music there!