Ivor Davies

only if you like drunk scotsman and football fans on the positive its open from 7an till 12 midnight bar staff rude and arrogant and dont like to give out the disabled toilet key because everybody there is in receipt of the higher rate of drink mobility

Great Pub
Great Staff
Value for money
Fantastic drinks range
Nuff Said

It’s easy to get snobby about Wetherspoon’s, but in the context of Cowbridge Road, The Ivor Davies is way down the pecking order of pubs where you would rather stay sober than dare entering. Granted, you probably wouldn’t head there for a family meal, unless your dad happens to be one of the older boozers who frequent the ground floor in significant numbers at all hours. But the best bet is to head upstairs to a fairly decently turned out seated area where you can eat all the terrifyingly cheap pub grub your guts can handle (although you do have to vie with those grizzled drinkers downstairs to order as the only bar is located there). You get an extra hour of drinking in the evenings compared to many pubs and bars in the area, which makes it ideal for squeezing one last pint in before heading into town or, even, to bed lightly sozzled. And there are outdoor drinking and/​or smoking areas available both front and back, although the latter option comfortably outstrips the former’s on-​street seating, barely separated from the busy pavement.

Well, there’s not much I can say that hasn’t already been said here, but I did find out a few new fascinating things when I stopped by the other day:
* Kids are allowed here! This may be fantastic or horrific news, depending on who you’re speaking to, but yes, you can bring your rug rats, but only if you eat from the main menu and have one or two alcoholic drinks after the meal. And you can only stay 30 mins after they’ve cleared your plates. And you always have to always accompany them to the bathroom. These policies only have to be followed until 8 pm, when you and said rug rats are no longer welcome here.
* If you stop by between 7 and 9 am, a small coffee or tea is only 49p. You can down three in a row at that price!
* Starting today, Ivor Davies offers a Kids’ Crafts Morning every Wednesday at 10 am. The cost is only £2 per child, and includes all of the craft supplies, a juice for the kiddies, and a coffee or tea for Mum or Dad.

There is nothing remotely inspiring about the Ivor Davies, a dull Wetherspoon pub in Canton, but it’s not THAT bad, either.
It pushes its cheap drinks and meals quite aggressively, with big banners up showing the latest promotions, and as a result it always seems to be fairly busy, mainly with older blokes.
They’re open for coffee and breakfast deals in the morning, which are served until noon, when lunch takes over, then evening meals.
Its outdoor seating area is located on a broad area of pavement on Cowbridge Road East, which while always full of activity is also a bit too noisy, and busy with traffic (being on a key bus route). Generally the tables are quickly secured on a sunny day by men who get there early for their first pint, and seem to remain stationed there for pretty much the remainder of the day.
I haven’t, however, ever seen any real trouble or fights at this pub, or outside it — and I used to walk past a few times a day when I lived in this area of town. Maybe I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt, but I’m just not sure it’s as rough as some reviews here would suggest.

Ah, The Ivor Davies! Mmmm… she says pensively… where do you start a review about this place? It’s difficult to know! Perhaps across the road at The Goscombe is a good a place as any?
Ah, The Goscombe!!! Another difficult one to sum up in a nutshell!
The fact that these two places have somehow been juxtaposed is more curious than fiction… they are essentially the same place with the same kind of clientele, but one opts to splash its exterior walls with meal deals, printed up on large full colour canvases, and the other, The Goscombe, has their meal deals presented in a much more subdued manner on sandwich boards made to look like blackboards… some could say its pretentious, and others would say it’s more upmarket… I would say, no matter how you dress up this business, we can still see what it looks like naked!
The Ivor Davies is a Wetherspoon’s, and is a large pub by anybody’s standards, but it is nowhere near as big as The Goscombe, with its posh paint job that appeals to people with certain aspirations. The Ivor, attracts people who are a tad more comfortable inside their own skin, who prefer to be able to buy their drinks a fair bit cheaper and sup them on the terrace with a fag. The Goscombe is cast in shadow at home-​time and doesn’t have any outdoor seating.
For all their foibles, these are two of the better pubs on this street, and in the area in general. Things improve the further towards Pontcanna you go, but the prices get more steep.

Oh dear, poor Ivor Davies.
This is a Wetherspoon pub in the Canton area of Cardiff, and is sadly the worst in the chain that I, and apparently some other people, have ever been to. And this isn’t really the pub’s fault either.
Cheap drinks and handy location attract an unfortunate brand of clientele. People sit outside like pimples on the face of the pub’s reputation, and are generally loud and unpleasant. This is certainly a pub to avoid when there’s a match on. Due to its proximity to Cardiff Football Grounds, this is a place that can really become packed.
With such a wide choice of local pubs around in the area, this is one to avoid at all costs.

The beer in this quite large pub is very cheap. That’s the best thing going for it. That cheap beer, however, draws all manner of frightening people. If you like fighting or being attacked this is the place for you.

its full of old men and it smells, now i’m not saying it smells of old men, i dont actually know what the smell is, really stale. have you noticed how some pubs stink now they dont have cigarette smoke to scent the building?
however if you can stay in there long enough to get used to the smell Wetherspoons do a mean mixed grill (avoid the sausage).
Good pub for a pre match pint as all good bluebirds will tell you.

Took my car to be motted at Kwik-​Fit this morning, pretty early, and toddled down the road in search of coffee whilst I waited. Then I saw the Ivor Davies: the pavement outside had been colonised by the pub, with a little enclosed seating area, which was packed with heavies drinking pints of lager and smoking fags at 10.00am on a Sunday morning. I ventured inside and it was thronging with dedicated drinkers — mostly with pints — going at it as if there was no tomorrow. It was too late to turn back, so I headed for the bar and was immediately approached by an attentive bartender. I simply couldn’t ask for a coffee with all this macho stuff going on, but I couldn’t face a pint at that time of the day, so I asked for a dry white wine; to my amazement, I was offered a choice of Pinot Grigio, Chablis or Sauvignon Blanc: £2.85 for a 250ml glass — they had a Wine Festival going on. It turns out the pub is a Wetherspoons — and I remember the site used to be a furniture shop years ago. Well, what can you say? A place that caters for all types of thirsts from 9.00am every day of the week. Very civilised, you’d say, but it was far from that in reality. I crept back to Kwik-​Fit thanking my lucky stars that none of the heavies had spotted me drinking a glass of wine.