I was expecting wooden cladding and  grandeur with chandeliers as it’ was touted as a Viennese Coffee House.

But it was modern and light which was a bit disappointing as the mrs had talked about coffee houses in Austria (as her mother is Austrian) and I was expecting the works with Kaffee und Kuchen.

But never-mind what it looks like.. it was lunch we went for and the open sandwiches were very impressive – I thought a bit pricey.

but when it arrived they were massive & they were very filling and I left stuffed but happy.

I went for the Tyrol (the sandwichs are named after Austrian Towns/Areas) As the family who own Wally’s – came to the UK from Austria just before the Second World War.

- Roast Chicken Breast and Chorizo with Shaved Manchego Cheese and peppers – it was served on sourdough bread and with a brilliant potato salad with crushed pistachios which added so much .

to be honest it tasted fantastic – with black olives and rocket with a garlic mayonaaise – highly recommended and a filling lunch.

MrsUW had the Baden – which had pears and German dark smoked ham on seeded bread – she did not share, but said it tasted very good.

I was expecting more cakes (which we did not partake)but they are open for breakfast, so if you are in arcades pay it a visit.

anyway its only 2 hours (going up via the Welsh borders) away and it’s is a different wold (sorry world).

The Cotswold stone buildings are lovely and the way that the architecture has been kept modest is a great example of , if the ultimate chocolate box was asking for pictures then I am sure a scene from Stow-on-the-Wold or the ultimate village Cotswold Broadway would make it every time.

We stayed at Grapevine Hotel – an 17th Century hotel that has had a boutique type makeover with 22 individually styled bedrooms- it was very nice – if you like coordinate wallpaper and comfy chairs (which MrsUW does) – the staff where very friendly but be warned the car park is tiny at the back.

We only stayed for one night, and had an evening meal & bed & breakfast for a very good price.

Dinner in the Conservatory Restaurant I had

Pressé of local game, red onion marmalade – this was lovely but it was served with some Brioche, come crackers or homebacked bread would have been better

Roast rump of lighthorne lamb, gratin potato & Ratatouille – a wonderful gravy (Jus if you will) – succulent lamb from over the border in Warwickshire.

Assiette of desserts: poached pear, vanilla cheesecake and a white chocolate pannacotta – slightly disappointing the vanilla had sank to the bottom of the pannacotta and the cheescake was a bit dry

MrsUW had

tian of salmon and crab

pheasant breast with savoy cabbage
a lemon and rhubarb tart with raspberry sorbet – she said the pastry was lovely.

but overall it looked and tasted great and was worth every penny.

Breakfast the next day – was traditional English – but with lovely Gloucester old spot sausages and bacon and the best black pudding I have had in years… we bought some old spot sausages & bacon to take home from the brilliant local butchers Lambournes – it was very tempting not to buy their great pies.. as well – there were some great small shops in the town – the chocolate shop is worth a visit, also it’s home of Scotts of Stow as well – they sell everything you thought you would never need.

onions goggles or pork crackling knife anyone

Some great little pubs in Stow – The Queens Head – a traditional boozer with dogs in serving a local pint donnington Brewery BB

and the White Hart a gastro type put but with decent Arkells beer – but empty on a sunday early eve.

anyway there were a few more pubs we did not make it to in the town, but we will be visiting the area again soon – as its a beautiful part of the country.

Food writer Stephen Nottingham thankfully reports that it’s just temporary – great news for Cardiff & snack fans.

A spokesman from First Cafes, who own the snackbar, reassurred me this afternoon that The Hayes Island Snack Bar was merely being refurbished.

Hopefully Stephen will tweet the first roll served on reopening.

Recently featured in Cardiff’s top ten lunch spots at the guardian

I was walking past it today – and shock horror the shutters where up and replaced with a posh burger fan.

The famous tables locked up .

* Kitchen & BBQ apron that instantly turns you into Slave Leia
* Great way to make cooking dinner or making burgers more sexy
* Alternative: Great way to let your significant other know they are Jabba
* One size fits all, 29″ long
* 100% polyester, machine washable

The death star cookie jar is another great product – no if only I can get moon sized cookies nom

The food was not cheap , but once I got my smoked ham and brie (I know sorry) toasty I evaluated the price – it was well worth it.

It has the thickness slice of Welsh ham that I have not see since my nan used to try and feed me up when I was a boy.

It tasted great… and I even had to share some with mrsuw.

They had a great selection of I assume home-made cakes and lots of posh teas (from those teapigs lot) and the obligatory shiny coffee machine – in fact everything was shiny from the bespoke designer chairs to the lamps on the tables there was ironic indie covers of rubbish pop songs in the background, maybe they need to get some Richard Cheese on as well.

The cafe looked great design wise (sorry for the photos there was a lot of chrome) – a bit fancy for me – but will be popular with trendies and ladies that lunch, if only they can find it as there are no signs on top of St Mary Street or by the arcade to say their is a new cafe open..

If you are of the Fashionista type and are too stuck up for the costa’s, starbucks etc that are littering every high street round the country, then bring your man bags here, but watch out a for bearded tramp like bloke in the corner snacking on a doorstop of ham it maybe me.

As you would imagine its mainly photos of Beer and Sheds, but what would you expect from me, but there are some photos of Torchwood filming in Cardiff, holidays in West Wales, Paris, Portugal & Venice, me singing with the Punks Not Dad and the Great Welsh Beer & Cider festival features a few times along with the Otley arms

My muckers including James,Neil, Arfur turn up along with Sprout my lovely Parson Russell Terrier, Mrs Uncle Wilco & the associated kids don’t feature once – mainly as they don’t like having their photos taken, but at least I have my beer!

It’s quite hypnotic

If you love queuing then you will love this festival, no honestly it was very busy and was a bit difficult to see the stalls (and take photos) but if you have more than a couple of hours then its a good day out, one tip if you need to buy a day band for Sunday, then pop near post office as the queues were shorter.

They run loads of workshops and demonstrations and they have lots of events around the festival such as poetry and food related conferences, but most people just go for the grub * drink – some great local companies and a lot of the familiar faces you see at the other food festivals around Wales.

Beer & cider knowitall ArfurD & mate of mine was “helping” (ie tasting lots of it) on the Gwatkin stall and kindly got me a half of the always good Norman cider, my only drink of the festival.

Otley brewery had a stall selling their bottles and I saw quite a lot of people walking around swigging from O8 bottles, they will know it tomorrow.

Next year I think I may give the Sunday ago with hope that its not as busy (yea right)

It has Prawn, chicken & chorizo on sun dried tomatoe bread, and even has rice in the filling (for filling!), it’s not bad for a at the desk snack, but I dont feel like popping my feet into the Taff and opening a cold San Miguel.

They seem to have filled it with thin chorizo which is always welcome than their nasty chicken, but to be honest I wont be having it again, as its all wrong.

I wonder what their foodboffins will do next a Welsh Cawl sandwich, Moussaka or even Moules-frites (mmm belguim beer)

Some great food and drink to be had, we managed a glass of one of the new Neath brewery ales – Green Bullet which was a 6% IPA that was very drinkable on a hot day.

Otley were there in force again this year & I really enjoyed their new O7 Weissen style beer, was lucky to have half on the saturday, as it had sold out by the my return on the Sunday..

The other beer I had from the Ponty brwer was the O5 which I have not had before, but seen it all over the shop and the O-garden went down well with my better half, hopefully they will have more of the Weissen at their Golden Ale festival this weekend.

I also had a taste of new brewers Untapped and their lovely Eclipse which I may get a few bottles in to add to my Dark collection.

Also had some tasters of the excellent Gwatkin Cider (and bought a bottle of Norman to take home) but not sure about their bar staff anyway ArfurD has a more in depth review of the beer and brewers that were in attendance.

of course the day was not just about Drinking (boo) but we had plenty of free samples of food and managed to spend a bomb on things such as a Wensleydale & cranberry Scotch Eggs

Cockles from penclawdd and other seafood

some great value Venison sausages and the best pastry on any pie I have had in a long time and two massive cakes.

The atmosphere was great and of course this was helped by the brilliant weather, some great music (which I can’t remember what they were called)

It’s one of the Cardiff brewery Brains, modern pubs which they have changed a lot over the last year from the no nonsense pub I remember from my youth (ok 20s) to a open plan pub that serves good food, and for the better, maybe its a middle age thing, but sometimes you do want to have a good pint of ale and a good meal, They say they try and source a lot of the ingredients locally “Changing daily, our menu offers great, honest pub food where quality rules over fanciness!”

As it was an early tea, I had a couple of pints of the excellent Brains Up and Over which is well worth getting in bottles if you can not get to a Brains Pub to have it on tap.

anyway down to the food.

The Mrs had asparagus, chicken and date terrine to start, which was very moist and served on a bit of slate as the style is nowadays.

I did not have a starter as I was keeping room for the pudding.

For main course she has Poached salmon, rocket and dill salad, which was massive and the salmon was dressed with creme fraiche, it was very tasty.

I had a welsh rip eye steak and great homemade chips (looked overcooked but were not, not fat not thin but very moorish) served with a poncy little jar of bearnaise sauce.

It’s strange that I have tend to have steak when I go out as there were some great things on the every changing menu, Iam a good cook myself but rarely cook steak at home, maybe its my chef training in my youth that I like to see how good a place is, by the quality of the steak, and I was not disappointed its was a lovely cut and a big chunk and good to perfection (Medium rare).

For pudding we shared a Basil and raspberry creme brulee, that is another dish I tend to favour , it can from range from the wonderful to the stodgy, well not quite being the latter it was the only disappointed of the meal, it was just over powered by the basil taste, and even after a Greek lager later in the evening I was still getting basil aftertaste.

anyway if you are in Llandaff or in Cardiff then pop over it’s a great pub