Purple Poppadom

Purple Poppadom is Anand George's restaurant on Cowbridge Road East, an upstairs dining room where the chef cooks what he calls Nouvelle Indian Cuisine — rooted in his native Kerala, but drawing across the subcontinent, with a technique that has kept it a fixture of Cardiff's serious eating for years. George has built a small independent group in the city, but this is the flagship, and it holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand for cooking well above its price. It is the kind of owner-chef restaurant that gives a neighbourhood high street a genuine destination. Book the upstairs room; the tasting menu is the way to go.