Golden Rickshaw

Another Chinese that competes for the grand Chinese takeaway, coming second fiddle to the Swallow. They offer a 10% discount for students and that might just make it a better bet for students than the Swallow. I’d rate this takeaway as average on the food aspect, but if your cheeky they may throw in prawn crackers for free. As prices go they average £4−6 per dish, which is typical of Chinese takeaway. I’d prefer to have a sit in meal but for delivery is available though not on a rickshaw, which is a shame cause that would be cool and worth the money to see. Also delivery by rocket for a speedy delivery could work for me.

A good old fashioned Chinese takeaway, nothing more, nothing less. Hence why you should try, you know exactly what you are getting! No complaints.

It’s a shame that the Golden Rickshaw is placed where it is. As Rachel notes, it is only a few doors away from The Swallow, and that’s not a good situation to place yourself in if you want to be considered one of the great Chinese takeaways in the city. It’s kind of like watching Fern Briton in a footrace against Usain Bolt; there’s nothing wrong with Fern, necessarily, but she isn’t coming out ahead.
And that’s certainly the case here; there’s nothing exactly bad about the food in the Golden Rickshaw. I’m sure, in other circumstances, I would’ve found it to be quite enjoyable, but when you’re being compared to The Swallow, you’re going to need to make your food out of fireworks and happiness in order to stand a chance. Sadly, the Rickshaw tends to use more mundane ingredients and so doesn’t quite compete.
All in all though, it is a serviceable takeaway, and it has better opening hours than The Swallow, so you may find cause to patronise the place every now and then. As long as you don’t drive down eagerly anticipating the flavours of The Swallow, you’ll be fine. Your hopes won’t be too dashed and you may find the Golden Rickshaw to be a decent experience. But I’d recommend hitting up The Swallow if you can.

The Golden Rickshaw is only a few doors down from my favourite Chinese take away in Roath, the Swallow Chinese Take Away. That’s not to say that I don’t rate the Golden Rickshaw, I do! In my estimation the Golden Rickshaw is a very close second, and as it opens every day of the week and has longer opening hours than the Swallow Chinese Take Away, I’ve had cause to discover this on more than one occasion.
The menu here is more comprehensive than at the Swallow Chinese Take Away, but in many ways they are similar. The prices don’t vary too much either. There’s only twenty pence difference in the cost of boiled rice for instance, with The Golden Rickshaw being the slightly more expensive of the two.
They are just as friendly here at The Golden Rickshaw, and have been around for nearly as long. Well not quite… but sixteen years is a long time on City Road!!!

Someone else ordered food from here for me so I had never seen it until I was walking down City Road taking all my photos for that week and I saw it, and put two and two together. The outside of it looks a little bit dingy really, doesn’t it? But the food that I had from there was so utterly delicious that it really doesn’t matter. Sometimes when you have rice from a chinese restaurant it can be a little bit clumpy, all overcooked and stuck together. However, any chinese place worth its salt will never serve this to you. My egg fried rice was light and beautiful. It was also still piping hot when I ate it. I hate having to reheat rice. I always get so worried about it! The main dish I had was just vegetables. However, it was lovely.

Chinese meals to takeaway at the Golden Rickshaw. They’ve been on City Rd in Cardiff for eons (considering most places on that road seem to come and go at an alarming pace). They offer 10% student discount and with orders over £15 you get a free bag of prawn crackers!
Again, it’s OK, not fantabulous. The menu’s quite standard for a Chinese Takeaway, but is you’re wanting one, there’s no good reason not to give them a bell. Personally, I prefer the Little Lanterns on Whitchurch Road, but the GR isn’t half bad.