The Castle is the reason most visitors are standing on High Street. We are the reason to stay on it.
Most of the restaurants near Cardiff Castle are either on Castle Street facing the walls, or in the arcades and the Hayes a few minutes further on. Chai St sits in between, at 15 High Street, on the pedestrian stretch that runs from the Castle gate down to Cardiff Market. It is close enough that you can leave the Castle grounds, cross the road and be sat down with a chai in under five minutes.
How to walk here from the Castle
Come out of the main Castle gate onto Castle Street. Turn left, and left again almost immediately into High Street, the pedestrian street with the arcades off it. Walk down for about three minutes. Chai St is on your left at number 15, a few doors before the covered Market, with almond-pink walls and brass lanterns in the window. If you reach the Market you have gone twenty metres too far.
From the Bute Park side, leave the park by the Castle Street exit, cross at the lights, and follow the same route. From Cardiff Central station, walk up St Mary Street for eleven minutes; it becomes High Street and we are near the top. From Cardiff Queen Street station, about eight minutes along Queen Street and through the Castle Quarter.
Before the tour: lunch from twelve
Castle tours run through the middle of the day and the grounds take an hour or two to do properly. Eat first. On weekdays from twelve to three the Lunch Thali is £12.90: one kari from the day's board, rice, roti, dal, raita, pickle and poppadum, on one brass plate. The express lunch is two courses for £14.90 or three for £18.90, served in forty minutes, which is enough time to eat well and still make a two o'clock tour. The kitchen opens at twelve on weekends too, with the full menu.
After the tour: chai, sweets, the bar
Mid-afternoon is the quietest time in the room and the best time to see it. Order the chai flight (three masala chais on a board), a plate of dahi puri or samosa chaat, and a gulab jamun with ice cream. If the walk around the walls has earned it, the bar opens at twelve: a Maharaja Old Fashioned, a Bombay Bloody Mary, a cold Welsh lager. Nobody will move you on.
With children
There is a Little Ones section on the menu, with dal and rice at £5.50 and paneer and rice at £6.50, and plenty of mild dishes on the main list. Thalis share well across a table. High chairs are available. Lunchtime and mid-afternoon are easier with a pushchair than Friday and Saturday evenings.
If it rains
It is Cardiff. The room is warm, the chai is bottomless at brunch, and the full menu runs all afternoon. The Castle is still there when it stops.
Parking and practicalities
There is no parking on High Street itself. NCP Cardiff St David's and Westgate Street car parks are both within five minutes on foot; Castle Mews and Sophia Gardens are a little further on the Bute Park side. We are open from twelve every day: until 9pm on Sunday, 9.30pm Monday, 10pm Tuesday and Wednesday, 10.30pm Thursday, 11pm Friday and Saturday. Brunch runs Friday to Sunday from 10am. Walk-ins are welcome; booking is sensible for Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings and on international match days.
Other places nearby, honestly
If you want Welsh food, The Potted Pig is in a former bank vault a few doors up and The Welsh House is on the corner. For steak, Pasture is at 8 to 10 High Street. For Italian, Cafe Citta on Church Street. We are the Indian restaurant on the street. If that is what you want, you will not need to walk any further.