Cardiff’s new steak house slash art gallery on Churchill Way is a lovely restaurant that serves great food, albeit for one hell of a price tag (£30 for a mixed grill is an amount I’m not used to having to cough up). Made up of a series of themed booths – a Dalek, hot air balloons, Roald Dahl, Rugby etc – you’ll eat steak and posh chips, drink decent wines and beers and marvel at your surroundings (and the light-up toilets). It’ll only be when you get home that you’ll start wondering if it was worth the money (Answer: Not really, but it’s a special occasion, so…) and, if anyone saw you in there, how do you justify your presence and convince them you’re not a massive hipster who will pay £30 to eat a plate of BBQ meat in a second-storey hamster-wheel (Answer: You can’t. It’s unjustifiably ridiculous). All in all, it’s a great novelty venue with some genuinely amazing steaks, but you’ll have to pay for it, in pocket and pride.
Twelve Angry Men at the New Theatre, Greyfriars Road (I think the play’s run has now finished, unfortunately) is a triumph! Tom Conti leads a wonderful cast in this well-known show and together the men bring heavy, passionate drama to a claustrophobic stage. As tempers rise and emotions get the better of our titular Men, the tension becomes dizzying (literally; watch that table closely!) and the audience is hurtled head-long into a slowly unfolding tale of justice done or not done. It is wonderful. A shame, then, that the New Theatre was so stiflingly hot – there were complaints all around the room about the lack of air-conditioning. So hot was it that, when Conti pushed the fake window of his fake jury room open in Act II, there was an audible sigh of imagined relief. But, just as a fake breeze can’t cool a boiling audience, a hot room didn’t detract from a top class show. Thrilling!