It’s fair to say that since the Hellenic Eatery opened on Crwys Road in Cardiff in 2014, Cardiff’s Greek food scene has undergone a renaissance.
Nowadays, there’s nearly 10 Greek restaurants which can call Cardiff their home from Corfu by Night in Cathays and the Meating Point in Cardiff Bay to SouvLike and Saraztro in Roath.
Read more: The definitive guide to eating and drinking in Roath
The latest addition to Cardiff’s pantheon of Greek restaurants is Yamas on Wellfield Road, which rolled up its shutters a few weeks ago despite its arrival having been touted for over six months .
It’s a restaurant which fits a very similar mould to many of the city’s other Greek restaurants. On the menu there’s familiar dishes including gyros wraps, moussaka, kleftiko and kebab skewers.
The most eye-catching area of the menu is their range of meat platters which come in a variety of shapes and sizes and cost between £22 and £48. The gargantuan sounding Yamas special platter for four (£48) includes 12 kebabs as well as chicken and pork gyros.
When we visited Yamas on a Thursday evening, it was almost a full house. Whilst the front of house team were rushed off their feet, we didn’t wait long to order or for our food to arrive.
I’m a sucker for a niche continental lager and ice cold bottles of Mythos (£3.50) and Alfa (£3.50) both went down a treat.
Anticipating the meat feast ahead of us, we ordered a single starter to share from their compact selection of mezze. Saganaki cheese (£5) was a new one on me and it’s a dish which I’d probably file away under tasty but a little bit unusual. The slab of halloumi-like golden crusted cheese was drizzled with sweet honey and a tangy brown sauce, which tasted and looked very much like HP sauce.
Onto the main event, and a whopping Yiasou platter would have comfortably fed three people. And at £22 it was cracking value too.
Everything on the groaning wooden board was bang on from the fresh olive oil dressed salad to the soft griddled pitta bread and crunchy chips. Pots of feta and chilli spiked tirokafteri and light and fresh tzatziki were delicious dips for all the carbs and protein.
But it was the huge amount of meat which was the star of the show. Tender shavings of crispy gammon-like pork gyros and chicken gyros made with the flavoursome dark meat; skewers of oregano dressed lamb and chicken souvlaki; a dense and herby Greek sausage; and a minced beef kebab oozing with cream cheese all hit the mark.
We doggy bagged a good portion of the platter to take home but I of course still ordered dessert in the name of research.
Baklava (£5.50) was a bit fridge cold and the pastry was lacking in crispness but the chopped nut filling had a lovely warmth of cinnamon and I really rather enjoyed a couple of scoops of accompanying fragrant mango ice cream. It was a slightly unusual pairing but it worked.
We were very impressed by Yamas’ meat platters and I’ve been daydreaming about them ever since our visit. Whilst starters and dessert didn’t blow us away, I’d go back for a huge plank of meat any day of the week.
The details:
Address - 13 Wellfield Rd, Cardiff CF24 3NZ
Telephone - 029 2132 0940
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