Blue Jay Bar and Kitchen Mary Ann Street, Cardiff CF10 2EN

"I went here with my boyfriend the other night. First of all I would like to say that the place looks amazing! It has lovely decor which looks very new and modern and it had drawn us in straight away. I found out about this place on Groupon which is an app I regularly use, they had a tapas deal on which was 4 tapas for 2 people. When we walked in and I noticed that there was only one front of house staff member working which is crazy for such a huge Venue! We were stood for about 10-15 minutes before being seen to as the waiter was obviously very busy on his own but then were finally seated. We sat for another 10 minutes with the menu and then our drinks order was taken, we waited for our drinks for another 20 minutes and then our food order was taken. So far we had been there for 30 minutes and only had our drinks without our food order taken. when ordered our food, it took about 35 minutes to come and the food was okay but not worth the wait unfortunately. The waiter we had was very friendly and I think he did his best with the situation he was in being the only front of house staff member. I ordered the Mini stuffed Naan which you can either get stuffed with lamb mince or cheese. I asked if I could get it with both lamb mince and cheese but apparently that wasn't possible for some reason?! Not sure why? I said I would pay the difference so I wasn't too impressed with that, I think it isn't very good customer service. I chose to get lamb mince but I was very disappointed with it. The lamb mince wasn't lamb mince it was more like a paté and you get hardly any filling, it didn't have much flavour either, very bland and disappointing. The sauce that comes with it is nice though but quite spicy so it's good if you are into spicy foods. The other dish I ordered was the pulled pork fries which were by far the best dish that we ordered. They were lovely, the pulled pork was gorgeous so I highly recommend that dish! My boyfriend ordered the Chicken dumplings but we weren't overally impressed. I love dumplings, they are one of my favourite foods but they weren't very warm and the sweet chilli sauce didn't go very well with the dish, they weren't overally flavourful either. I think if they had a soy sauce and sesame oil dip with some sesame seeds on the top then it would give the dish a much better flavour Asian flavour. The other dish my boyfriend ordered was the lamb koftas, which came with peppers and onions which were lovely, and a Poppadom which was freshly fried and tasty but again the sweet chilli dip didn't go with the dish and the lamb koftas needed more seasoning because they were a bit bland. Even though the food seasoning and quality wasn't great the presentation was very good! I won't be coming back until this place makes some changes, I think this restaurant needs to hire more front of house staff and make some changes to the menu and food (mostly more seasoning and better quality ingredients) but I think this place could be a great restaurant with the right changes."

"The food here is very good. The problem is the slowness of service. Only 6 tables occupied when I was there on the last 2 occasions. 2 bar staff and 3 waiting staff but it took about 10 minutes for 2 bottled beers and a glass of wine to arrive, each time with ordered the wine with a dash of lemonade (I know, horrendous) and each time no lemonade. We went in a Groupon deal and they are missing out on further sales as they did not come back to see if all was ok with the meal or if we needed any further drinks. It's a big place and has the potential to be great but they need to get the service better."

"Fantastic food and drinks. Had 6 tapas dishes, all so well cooked and fresh! Not the quickest service bit the food made up for that! 2 cocktails for £12, bargain! Again took a while to arrive but they were lovley!. Friendly staff."

"Excellent food. Menu is extensive and varied to a particularly high standard. The ambiance is very welcoming and charming. Staff are extremely knowledgeable and make great recommendations. Highly recommended!"

"We really enjoyed our meal such a large selection of dishes. Excellent quality food. Lovely welcoming staff. The decor was beautiful we will definitely return 5* restaurant"