Three years ago I attended a food festival in South Wales called The Welsh Menu. It was the first of its kind in my area and it was just four months after I’d started writing my food and family blog. I remember being amazed when I had an invite to the launch dinner – a pretty swanky affair where I sat with food journalists and other far more established bloggers. I felt lost and totally not one of the gang..although everyone on my table was lovely. Their stories and funny anecdotes made me feel I was a little mad for thinking I could do this. The following day I attended the actual food festival and it swallowed me up. The food, the flavours and the atmosphere. Although the festival is now probably one of the smallest I’ve been to, I look back on it fondly as that day made me realise that I could do it. Even if I only ever had 100 page views per month .. I would write it. For me.

In my review of that festival I mentioned a new ( to me ) street food type burger van called Got Beef. They had an amazingly cool van ( sadly no longer with them ) friendly staff and THE best burgers I’d tasted in .. well forever I think. I wrote about them in this post here.

Me munching away..a good stone or two heavier here I think! Baby weight obviously…

A lot has changed in three years. Aside from the fact that personally I have another baby now, my little old blog that I wrote just for me is viewed by tens of thousands every month. Over five thousand of you loyal people follow me on Twitter me and seem to enjoy what I do – thanks for that.

A lot has changed for Got Beef too. Three years on they aren’t just hopping in and out of food festivals in a van. They have a restaurant which has just celebrated it’s one year anniversary and we have just paid them our first ( won’t be last ) visit. The restaurant is a MUST visit if you are in the area. It’s thriving and bustling with full tables and the buzz of happy chatter on a road which is literally full of restaurants and takeaways. With a multitude of choice people are continuing to choose Got Beef and it’s easy to see why.

To find out more about the Got Beef story click here.

Above image courtesy of Got Beef.

Let’s start with the restaurant, it’s simple in decor but cool, hipster even. There is an open kitchen – which I always love. It’s a foodie thing I’m sure but seeing and smelling my ( always ) fresh food being cooked is a definite winner for me. The staff are friendly, chatty and eager to advise on what you should eat, I questioned one staff member on the heat of a certain burger ( Dirty South) and was answered ..”Well it didn’t make my nose run or my eyes water so you should be good” and he was right. There was heat but the right heat. They have a great selection but not an enormous menu and this is typically a good thing – a menu three pages long often means that items aren’t always fresh or are pre cooked. Here it’s cooked to order and everything from the brioche rolls to the accompanying mayos & sauces taste so good.

This is what we ordered:

For me:

Dirty South Burger with Sweet Potato Fries & Wyldwood Pear Cider

My burger contained…6oz Welsh black beef patty, Cajun Mayo, BBQ sauce, jalapeños, Cajun onions & American cheese.

For him:

Bombay Burger with Dirty Chips & Ginger Beer

His burger contained ..

6oz Welsh beef patty, curried bacon, coriander & lime mayo with curried haystack potatoes.

For Izzy:

A Bacon & Cheese Burger served with fries & Elderflower Cordial

Izzy of course deconstructed her burger 😉

My burger was cooked to perfection, there was hit of fire from the jalapeños but nothing I couldn’t handle and left a lovely tingle. The sweet potato fries which are so hard to get right were absolutely awesome – so awesome in fact that my three year old stole most of them. The brioche buns were soft and sheeny and just doughy goodness.

I loved that as much care and attention was put into Isabelle’s food as ours. Served just as ours was and she devoured most of it which considering her new thing is that she just doesn’t like burgers is an achievement in itself.

Andrew had a Bombay burger which was so full of flavour and left a perfect spicy taste in your month – yes I stole some. He also had dirty fries which were a revelation. I’m torn between getting these next time or asking if they could do a version of this with the sweet potato fries because they were great.. Topped with cheese, bacon, jalapeños and ..sauce. Oh My!

Their drinks menu is another huge pull for me.. They serve Wyldwood cider which I love as well as various wines, lagers and beers..ooh and San Pellegrino which is one of my favourite soft drinks.

They also sell ice cream tortes on their dessert menu but to be honest we were a little too full and Izzy was a little too tired to attempt it. The flavours sounded great though – I definitely could have tried to squeeze a bit of cherry bakewell in.

It’s all about the burgers at Got Beef so don’t go there expecting a steak or curry. But I would say even if you don’t think burgers are your thing it’s worth a whirl. You may just be a convert.

Above image courtesy of Got Beef.

To Cai and all the staff at Got Beef I can’t tell you how thrilled I am that you are doing so well and I see so many great things going forward for you. It was an absolute pleasure to visit and please open one a little closer to us!!

* Our meal was provided free of charge for the purpose of a review.