The Three Elms

The 3 Elms situated at the bottom of Merthyr Road in Whitchurch used to belong to the Beefeater Group. In March 2004 this changed and The 3 Elms became 'The Elms' run by the Hungry Horse chain. under the parent company Greene King.

The Hungry Horse concept in Cardiff was new, shortly after a further restaurant in Barry opened.

The Elms, as it is now called, is situated just of a busy main road (Merthyr Road), it has ...
...have to either park in the road behind or across the road. You could also park in Whitchurch and walk down if you felt so inclined but this, in general is not needed.

You can either enter through the bar entrance, which has no step and is adequately sized for wheelchair users and pushchairs to get through, although then you enter the bar, not always great for children, but this is a minor inconvience. There is a further entrance which ... more

The 3 Elms situated at the bottom of Merthyr Road in Whitchurch used to belong to the Beefeater Group. In March 2004 this changed and The 3 Elms became 'The Elms' run by the Hungry Horse chain. under the parent company Greene King.

The Hungry Horse concept in Cardiff was new, shortly after a further restaurant in Barry opened.

The Elms, as it is now called, is situated just of a busy main road (Merthyr Road), it has 2 car parks, one either side of the building and it right beside a bus stop, handy for those who don't have their own transport to get to. Car parking, as you would expect, is free but limited, at peak periods you may have to either park in the road behind or across the road. You could also park in Whitchurch and walk down if you felt so inclined but this, in general is not needed.

You can either enter through the bar entrance, which has no step and is adequately sized for wheelchair users and pushchairs to get through, although then you enter the bar, not always great for children, but this is a minor inconvience. There is a further entrance which leads to the bar but is meant for the restaurant, yolu just need to ensure you take two steps to the right if you want a meal or two steps to the left is you want a pint!

There is a seating area to the right of the bar for the restaurant but there is also seating in the bar area where you can also have meals as well. The seating is divided up into areas, there raise area has about 13 tables, generally these are the larger tables for seating 7-12 people, you then have 2 sections both accessed by steps which have more tables, including tables for 2, 4 and larger groups. The style is open plan, although broken up by decorative feature banister rails. There are high chair available in all areas for those bringing the children.

The restaurant is a 'choose and pay at the bar' set up, your menu's are on your table, which is numbered. You need to ensure you have your table number when ordering food at the bar.

The menu's are extenstive but remain traditional as well. Your starters include the normal Garlic Bread at £1.69 right up to a Combo Sharer at £8.99, they do have traditional starters like onion rings and prawn cocktails too. Starters are generally very quick from order to table, although you do have to say if you prder your Garlic Bread as a starter as I have quite often had it served with my main meal as an accompaniment, which is slightly annoying. In particular the Garlic Bread is served in a plastic basket a la 1973, retro cool or tacky, not sure but it tastes good and that's all I care about!

For main courses, the menu is huge but the speciality of the chain is cheap steak, for example, currently one can buy a 10oz rump steak for £5.99, this is served on the famous 17.5 inch width plates, with chips, tomato, onion rings, peas and a mushroom. If you don't wish to indluge in the chips, a selection of jacket potato, new potatoes or salad is available, you just need to ask when you order. You can also get burgers from £4.99, sevred with the same accompaniments and a 'Double Up' option for £1.50. There is no vegetarian special on the burgers however. Pasta, Chinese, Fish & Indian dishes are all available along with salads. The menu is huge and it will take you a good 5 minutes to browse if you have not visited before.
Deserts a fair, the speciality here is a Candymania, a '2Share' dessert of ice creams, brownies, cadburys chocolates, creams sauce...basically an over indlugence of all the naughties, this is priced at £4.99 but is made for sharing and would be good at as treat for children (& parents)!.
The is a children's menu available as well, meals are £2.99 with a childrens sunday lunch coming in at £3.49.
The restaurant as a chain also offers sunday roasts, again served on the enormous plates, priced at £6.49 and you get a choice of beef, chicken or pork with all the usual trimmings.

You pay and order your food at the restaurant end of the bar, make sure you have with you your table number and how people like their steaks cooked as that is all processed through the til. The also offer you a £1 specials, which means you can add extras like fried eggs to your meal, if you really feel the need to.

Service is OK in The Elms. As a whole it is good but it can be let down by long waits to place an order for food and couple that with a sometimeshaving a seperate queue for drinks(depending on the day/time you go, it seems), and you could feel the service could have been better. A waitress/waiter brings your meals out from the kitchen but you do have to make sure you've got your knives and forks and condiments from the table near the bar as the waitress will not bring them to the table for you. The other slight whinge I have is that the waiting staff move away so fast from your table, if something is a miss, you often have to re-join the food order queue at the bar to inform them, whilt your lovely food is going cold. There is quite often no-one around you can grab to remedy your problem staright away

I come to a 2nd small grip then too, because of the waiting staff vanishiing back to the kitchen, the restaurant can end up slightly cluttered with dirty plates and leftovers, especially at off peak times, I have been surprised by going on a quiet night and find it difficult to find a clean uncluutered table. In genral though, the waiting staff are good and do try to help you if they're about.

Drinks for meals are obtained from the bar, which serves all the usual ales, lagers, wines, soft drinks and nuts. In the bar itself, there is sports TV and all big matches and sporting events are shown here too, so it would be easy enough to go for a meal and retire to the bar afterwards to watch sport. Agaian the only thing slightly spoiling the bar is the service, with only usually 1 bar server on, doing both drinks for bar customers and restaurant customers but it is normally quick and there choice of soft drinks is plentiful, which is great for anyone who is driving home. Also there are a few gmaes machines dotted around the bar for enjoyment.

The Elms also does quiz nights and Kareoke and offers meals, slightly different to the menu for Christmas, easter & Valentines Day. There is also a speail OAP Mon-Thurs lunch menu with 2 courses for £4.99, you would need to check with The Elms for what the details of this actually are.

Toilets are located in the bar and are usually clean and tidy.

All in all, a great value family friendly, disabled friendly restuarant, which is what it primarily is now, I cannot complain on the prices or the quality of the food, which is very good nearly all of the time. It just lacks a little in the service and cleanliness at times. The menu may seem exciting at first but you have to bear in mind there is no specials board in The Elms, so the menu, after a few visits can seem a little uninspiring.Nevertheless, this is a great little place to take people to or juist to enjoy a family treat as it is so affordable & i would recommend anyone to pop in and try. 

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