The Claude

Lively pub cheap food live bands

Now if you want a pub that will allow you to ricochet around like one of balls I desperately try to pot in pool, then head to The Claude Hotel. This spacious venue is the ultimate antithesis to an intimidating locals’ pub, where everyone turns to look at you upon entry. Instead, you can just stroll in unnoticed which, sometimes, is just what you want.
There is a well thought out selection of draught ales, and a baffling selection of spirits. Thankfully, last time we went we were lucky enough to befriend a shot buddy (see Sam E.‘s insightful discussion of Claude as Daily Mailer’s hot-​spot) who recommended all the fascinating Absolut shots, from the tame banana to the slightly more menacing chilli.
It’s certainly not the most friendly of pubs but, with a number of pool tables and sport screenings galore, there is plenty here to occupy you and your group.
URBAN CHALLENGE: Allow the person standing next to you at the bar to choose which flavour shot you have.

This spacious pub is split into two distinct areas: an ‘old man’ style traditional bar dominated by regulars supping pints and watching the football, and a more modern, lively, student-​oriented bar with pool tables and regular live music (often covers bands).
This place is rarely ‘dead’ as it pulls in the punters with cheap drinks and pub grub, aso it can take ages to get served and can get quite rowdy — but personally I don’t find it a particularly alluring spot.
The best night in my mind is Wednesday’s ‘open mic’ night, however, when the house band warm everyone up then hand over to other musicians and vocalists. If you get there early-​ish, however, you’ll have to listen to them doing their sound checks while you drink, which can be a bit much.
There’s a huge beer garden, which keeps the smokers happy, and offers plenty of space for outdoor summer drinking.

The Claude is a ginourmous pub outside of the city centre of Cardiff. There are 2 main bars here, on the one side you will find a typical bar where most of the regulars would be found. This side doesn’t particularly attract me, it’s more the sort of bar your dad would go to than my kind of place and I have found it to be quite clicky in that side. On the main side however, you will find a large, opened up bar where they regularly have bands performing on the weekends. This bar is really, really, really big. You will find a diverse mix of individuals here; there are a lot of locals as well as out of town visitors and students that may have ventured to this part of town simply to visit The Claude. I found the prices to be fair and the staff seem nice enough. This is the kind of pub I would probably go to a lot more if I lived in the area. As it is, I have only ever patronised the establishment for the purpose of seeing a live band. The thing I like about this venue is that the crowds, who visit and hang around the area where the bands perform, are a really good crowd. They want to hear the music and when you see a band playing to a crowd that are appreciative, I find myself enjoying the performance all the more.

I’m not a big fan of the Claude but my brother is so I end up here every now and then. I don’t like it because the bar is a big cavernous space, but the lounge is tiny by comparison and when you come in everyone can see you. They do serve good food though which is a plus.
The last time I was in the Claude was a couple of weeks ago in the dreaded bar. But the good news was I had a fine time as they have an open mic night on Wednesdays. They have an excellent house band who do some songs then people get up to do a turn with them. There were some good vocalists singing all kinds of stuff. It seemed as relaxed and chilled as it could be and a good place to start if you want to get some experience of performing.
The audience all across the pub were respectful of the acts and kept the noise to a minimum when people got up to perform.

This Greene King brewery owned pub is, well, huge! Massive in fact. It has the look of a proper old style local boozer from outside, but inside — in the bar anyway — it is modern and sporty looking. If you make it past the two bars in the main bar then there are pool tables at the back.
Now the term ‘Locals Pub’ can mean two things: ‘friendly, intimate little pub with cute old men and lovely real ales’, or ‘steer clear, if you’re not a local you’ll not be welcome,’ and unfortunately the latter seems to be the most apt here.
I certainly wouldn’t go for a pint of bitter here — they seem to be a token gesture and I’m not sure they know how to deal with them. I would also, avoid the ‘Lounge’ (which to my mind is actually the bar) as I have been informed that the locals are particularly ‘local’ in here.
The Claude, is, however, known for good fun and raucous live music. Mainly covers bands, but possibly worth a look. And if you like watching sports they also have HD and 3D screens (apparently — according the manager anyway).
Probably a great pup if you like this sort of thing, but not really my cup of tea.

When I first made my way to The Claude, I lasted a whole five seconds before swivelling on my heel and promptly leaving again. I should have got a clue from the bouncer on the door on what to have expected inside. It was a scene to get Daily Mail readers frothing about «Broken Britain». Bottles of luridly coloured booze being drained rather than drunk, swaying bodies staggering and hollering and chart R’n’B pummelling away at your head.
On a Tuesday afternoon.
No I’m kidding it was a Friday night and fair play if that’s your bag but it’s not the kind of place to go to chill. Unless you do actually go on a weekday afternoon, when the music bubbles away, only interrupted by the clacking of balls on one of the three pool tables and the whirring on the Fairtrade coffee machine and where an older clientele are attracted by the cheap menu and the comfy surroundings. There are plenty of sofas dotted around this cave of a pub and the semi-​hidden backroom is a treasure, with an ornate fireplace and no music making it the perfect place to do the crossword.
As a Greene King pub you get burgers for £4, steaks for a few quid more and not a healthy alternative in sight. It’s pub grub and makes no bones about it. The beer is cheap, with only Abbot Ale on cask on the times when I’ve visited, with deals and festivals occurring regularly. They’ve got two Sky boxes for the football and at least four fruit machines.
The Claude is a jack of all trades and consequently attracts a wide range of customers, but with the sheer size of the place it can accommodate them all comfortably.

The Claude is a pub that is a little way out of the student area, so you will find it has a mix of locals and students. The place itself is pretty dark, maybe one of the darkest pubs I have come across, which feels a little weird when the sun is beaming and you feel like you’re sat in a large cave. To remedy this, you can always sit outside if you choose to dine with the flies.
The food is good value and one of my favourite dishes is the roast beef wrapped up in yorkshire pudding with chips. However, one time my food nearly beat me back to the table, showing this is microwaving at its finest.
Not only does this pub house the locals looking to eat, drink and play pool, but it also puts on regular weekly gigs. I seem to hit this pub at day times, so am unaware if it takes on more life after dark, I’m sure one day I will find out.

A pub of two halves in every respect, which door you use to enter sizeable Albany Road establishment The Claude will very much dictate what follows, particular on a Friday/​Saturday night. Choose left and you’re straight into a comparatively intimate old man boozer where a quiet unwind or a pint over the football are order of the day. Go right, however, and live bands, rugby boys, students and né’er-do-wells are all variously in the vicinity, transforming from local boozer to raucous nightspot between weekdays and weekends. Among only a handful of places in Cardiff to show Sky Sports 3D and offering cheap pub grub (including full Sunday lunch carvery), it’s ideal for a tear-​up with all your mates, but rather less inviting if hunting in packs isn’t your thing.

The Claude is a massive pub on Albany Road in Roath that is popular with students, locals and visitors to the area… there’s always an interesting mix of people in attendance. I quite like this cavernous pub, and am willing to forgive it it’s Sky Sport and plasma screens, (although I do avoid it when there’s a match of any description on, as I value my hearing), but the opposite is true for the live music, which usually takes precedence over the sport anyway. This, of course, is likely to get louder than the rugby or footie crowds ever will, but I have learned a really invaluable alternate use for toilet paper, a little bit of which goes a long way to avoiding perforated eardrums… (I’m never organised enough to carry earplugs around). I’ve witnessed plenty of live music in my time as I used to put on music nights in Bristol, and have been an avid gig-​goer all my life. Stuffing something in your ears, that can easily be retrieved later, is advantageous for several reasons. Not only will you preserve your hearing to continue enjoying live music at a later date, but it also improves the quality of the sound by cutting out the interference, and the snare drum trill of badly maintained reverberating speakers etc… this is very useful to know if you go to small venues, where the PA is often not as good as it could be!
The sound at The Claude is okay, but can sometimes be a tad noisy if you get to close to the speakers… you’ve been told… I don’t need to labour the toilet roll thing! They reckon they’re the best live music venue in South Wales, which is probably not entirely true, but they do put on a good night, and very regularly. They also claim to do great food, have a massive beer garden, internet room and all kinds of other stuff, including open fires in the winter. Again, everything has its foundation on truth, but the Sunday lunch is a carvery, and not my bag at all… if it’s yours, you won’t be disappointed. It’s £5.95 a head!

The Clause is a huge diverse pub in Cathays. Built in 1890 the pub has been recently refurbished in 2005.
Consisting of three areas, the Oak room a registered listed feature, the public bar for all the students and a pool area. A huge pool area I may add, it’s great as you don’t have to wait 5 days for the 3 people hogging the machines the entire time.
Drink is cheap. Sub £3. The demographic here is as wide of range as I’ve ever seen in the pub. Locals, oldies, students, oiks, youngen’s. You name it, it comes and drinks from the lake here.

A decent pub serving a good mixture of beer, wines and spirits.
Always a nice mix of people from locals to students/​young and old all getting on well!
Free live music, plenty of pool tables and a decent outdoor space for smokers!

I’ve only been in the Claude once and I was a little bit scared! They seem to have bands on some evenings — the one that was playing that night was warming up for around an hour — testing all the instruments etc etc which was really annoying!
Very big pub, incredibly busy — I was queuing for ages at the bar but it was really cheap!
I was in awe of the beer garden, it’s massive and has a whole undercover section which has carpeting and flat screen tv’s so all the hardened smokers will be really happy!
My male friends were pretty bemused by the man ‘assisting’ in the mens toilets — spraying aftershave and offering hand towels. He also had some pretty lewd pearls of wisdomincluding: no splash, no. (fill in word that rhymes with splash and begins with a g) — yuk!!!

The Claude is very popular with students as there are lots of drinks promotions on offer, great atmosphere, very friendly. Pool Table avaialble

The Claud is popular with students and locals, so it’s good that it’s MASSIVE inside. It does get very busy though and you may have a wait at the bar. There are lots of TVs, including one outside in the undercover seating area, and lots of pool tables, each with different colour felt, but there aren’t enough pool cues to go round and some of the ones they do dish out are on the verge of uselessness, with broken shafts and tips. They have live music regularly, a weekly quiz and sometimes in the summer they have a hog roast in the outdoor garden. The food is standard pub fare, with burgers being the most popular menu choice. It’s an OK pub, but not a great one.