The Bee and Honey Deli Cafe

Whilst walking back from our favourite park today we passed a lovely little cafe and couldn’t resist popping in to check it out. The Bee & Honey is located on Clive Street in Canton, wedged between two great parks for some outdoor time with the kids – Victoria Park and Thompson Park. It’s small, with just three tables and two comfy sofa areas, but it’s airy, well lit and filled with greenery and positive artwork, which makes it cosy and inviting rather than cramped and claustrophobic.

The menu is lovely and something very refreshing to see in Canton. Before moving to this area of Cardiff, I lived in Pontcanna, which is possibly the most up and coming trendy area to be in Cardiff – with deli’s and restaurants (and hipsters) and modern hang-outs galore. Canton is a little bit of a sorry neighbour, but it does have a few hidden secrets and I think the Bee & Honey is one of them!

The focus is on healthy, home-made artisan foods – with freshly baked bread, superfoods, local and Mediterranean flavours galore. Chalkboards peppered about tell me about their specials and offerings, including vegan, gluten free, dairy free and allergy friendly options, as well as their ethos – biodegradable cups and their slogan “feed your soul.” Whilst I’m no longer a vegetarian, I do enjoy vegetarian and vegan meals, which you might have discovered when I previously reviewed Anna Loka.

I’m sorry my pictures aren’t very good quality – since this was literally a spur of the moment decision as we were passing, I hadn’t intended to write a blog post. But after having such a good experience here, I thought I would share this gem with my followers. They have much better pictures on their website!

I’d quite like to feed my belly as well as my soul – so what did we order?

We had the Deli Platter Sharing Board for 2 – which came in three options, Omnivore, Veggie and Vegan. If it was just me, I’d have ordered the veggie option, but with my husband the epic meat eater sitting next to me, the Omnivore platter it was. This came with two different meats, three different cheeses, chutney, vinegar dip, salsa, olives, tapenade and a veritable mountain of freshly baked bread. Everything was absolutely delicious and deceptively filling and at £12 for a platter for two, it was excellent value.

Because it was listed as an appetizer, we also both went for a soup of the day as well, with big appetites after our brisk walk in the winter weather. There were three special soups on so plenty of choice. At only £3.95 they make an affordable lunch any day.  We chose the broccoli and stilton, and mushroom and both were delicious. Afterwards, we agreed we didn’t really need the soup AND the platter for lunch as we were both stuffed to the gills. But it was very yummy, so no regrets! There were a lot of things on the menu I’d love to try, and the ladies at the other table both had a very scrumptious looking cheese on toast. I thought the teas and coffees were excellent value at £1.50 – £2.50 and I’d much rather support a local business like this than head to Starbucks.

We grabbed some takeout desserts as we were too stuffed to eat them there – all homemade of course, including a blueberry muffin (£2) and millionaires shortbread (£1.50). I’ve been dying to try some millionaires shortbread ever since caramel week on Great British Bake Off and I was not left disappointed.

We took William with us, and at 7 months he’s now a month into baby-led weaning which means everything goes in the mouth (and then onto the floor shortly after). He enjoyed his artisan bread, and he also really liked the red pepper salsa and the tapenade. I know that children’s menus are often very plain to cater for simple tastes, but we seem to have a baby who has loved strong flavours and spices from the very start so he just had a little bit of everything from our plates. Despite being a very small cafe, it’s very child-friendly. Highchairs, baby changing facilities, and even kids books and toys were provided.

The staff were all exceptionally friendly and very welcoming. We will definitely be back!