City Salt Beef, Charles St, Cardiff

Like you, I have so many happy memories bound up in simple, unpretentious meals. That bag of fish and chips you shared in the sea front's briny air, sheltering from the spray and breaking apart the still-steaming battered cod with your fingers as she nestled into your chest; that beery late-night lamb shish with your best friend where you missed the last Tube but it didn't matter. Or the day you consumed your body weight in lechazo adaso and vino tinto, and fell asleep for two hours on the bench outside that church in Segovia, for that matter.

These count, just as much as the times you scrub up to swan around some pricey gaff and shell out the equivalent of Luxembourg's national debt. Last year's trip to the iconic and alliterative Beigel Bake of Brick Lane would be one of these; it just hit the mark so brilliantly, that the memory has lingered. There, the shop never shuts and huge amounts of freshly brined beef are deftly sliced apart in full view of the constant queues, ready to be piled into bagels fresh from the kitchen, needing nothing more than a sinus-clearing dab of Colman's English.

So somewhere dedicated to this simplest of pleasures, and on our doorstep to boot, is bound to get those juices a-flowin'. 

A rebranded branch of Coffee A GoGo, City Salt Beef enjoys a prime central location at 41 Charles St. However, it's the people who work around this place I feel sorry for. The smells that waft out of this kitchen  are the kind to get your engine revving in anticipation, even when you are subject to the short wait while your order is assembled. Imagine being at your desk at 10am when City Salt Beef opens, and having to endure three hours until your lunch break. That smacks of the kind of thing which is normally the subject of an emergency United Nations resolution.

Thankfully, Charles Street is home to a number of counselling services, which no doubt are being forced to cope with unprecedented demand for their services.

Proper chunks of grilled chicken breast, and rashers of thick-cut bacon: none of that limp, lank travesty leaching milky water into the pan here. (The absence of the usual club sandwich accoutrements is down to the vicissitudes of my youthful companion, rather than any austerity measures on CSB's part.)

The salt beef is served sliced thinly- no slabs of the stuff here, which results in a much more manageable sandwich and is doubtless kinder to lap and cuff. Crucially, they have it delivered from Henson's, suppliers to none other than Beigel Bake, which means this is as close you're going to get to the authentic Brick Lane experience without leaving the postcode.

The pastrami was another instant winner. A thick layer of thin-shaved meat- this is not a time to be niggardly- topped with Swiss cheese and melted on the press. The bread is impeccable, too, with a faintly nutty chew, with sauerkraut and Thousand Island making for a true home run of a sandwich.

All said and done, if you measure your estimation of a restaurant by how quickly you plan to return, then the fact I marched straight back in and asked for another sandwich probably tells you all you need to know. Don't judge me. Your lunchtime sandwich options just got that little bit better; that little bit more enviable, you lucky people. 

City Salt Beef
41 Charles St
Cardiff
CF 10 

Mon-Sat 10am-6pm

I was invited to City Salt Beef and as such all food and drink was complimentary. I write 'em as I find 'em.