Purple Poppadom

Purple Poppadom is the Canton-district flagship of chef Anand George — a Keralan-born, UK-trained chef who trained in Goa and London before setting up in Cardiff. The restaurant opened in 2011 and has been cited in the Good Food Guide as the best Indian restaurant in Wales in nearly every year since. It is the most awarded modern Indian restaurant in the country.

The menu is modern Indian with strong Kerala-and-Goa roots. A signature is the Tiger prawn moilee — a coconut-milk, green-chilli and curry-leaf South Indian curry. The slow-cooked Welsh lamb biryani — using a Brecon-Beacons-farm lamb shoulder — brings Welsh produce into a specifically Indian technique with genuine success. A tandoor-grilled Pembrokeshire monkfish is the signature seafood main.

The wine list is designed to pair against spice — an Alsace-heavy white section, a strong German Riesling run, credible Rhône reds, and a well-chosen short Champagne list. The cocktail bar is particularly strong on Indian-spice-forward drinks — a cardamom-and-lime gimlet is a signature. The tasting menu (£55) runs seven courses and is the easiest way to taste across the range.

The dining room is modern and warm — deep purple tones, linen-lined walls, soft lighting — and seats seventy-five across two connected rooms. Service is confident and welcoming. The restaurant is a 15-minute walk or 5-minute taxi from the city centre; parking on Cowbridge Road is limited but residential side streets absorb overflow.

For a team dinner in Cardiff, Purple Poppadom is a strong room — the seventy-five cover capacity handles twelve-to-twenty-person parties, the tasting menu format simplifies ordering for a group, and the wine list gives every member of the table something to order. The Canton location reads slightly less corporate than the city centre rooms and tends to be quieter midweek.