Healthy Eating in Cardiff: Welsh Cakes, Cawl, Chippy Lane and the Numbers

What does Cardiff actually eat, and does it fit a training plan?

Cardiff eats like a Welsh capital with a port city’s appetite. There is the Welsh larder: cawl, the lamb and leek stew widely treated as the national dish, Welsh cakes cooked on a bakestone, rarebit, and the laverbread and cockles that turn up beside bacon at breakfast. There is the Victorian Cardiff Market on St Mary Street, opened in May 1891, where 61 independent businesses trade under one roof. And there is Caroline Street, the 200-metre lane between St Mary Street and The Hayes that locals call Chippy Lane.

Most of it fits a training week once you know the numbers. The figures on this page come from McCance and Widdowson’s Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset (CoFID) 2021, the UK government’s food composition tables, and from chains’ own published nutrition. Where CoFID gives values per 100 g, we say so, because portion sizes at a market stall or a chip shop vary.

How many calories are in Welsh cakes, rarebit, cawl and laverbread?

Welsh dishes in Cardiff split neatly in two: the seaside foods are light and high in protein, the baked and cheesy ones are dense. These are CoFID’s values per 100 g.

Cawl: build it from the parts

CoFID has no single entry for cawl, because no two families make it the same way. The usual recipe is lamb or beef with leeks, potatoes, swede and carrots. The lamb is where the protein is: 150 g of lean roast leg carries 46 g of protein for 315 kcal. The vegetable broth is light, much like CoFID’s potato and leek soup at 56 kcal per 100 g. A bowl with a generous portion of lean lamb is one of the most training-friendly meals in Welsh cooking. Fatty cuts, a thick slice of buttered bread and a lump of cheese on the side change that quickly.

Welsh cakes: an energy-dense treat

Welsh cakes, picau ar y maen, are made with flour, butter or lard, sugar, egg and currants and cooked on a griddle. At 432 kcal per 100 g they are closer to a biscuit than a scone, with only 5.5 g of protein. They are small, typically 6 to 8 cm across, so one with a cup of tea is fine. A paper bag of them from a market stall, eaten on the walk home, can be a third of a day’s food for someone cutting.

Rarebit: the protein comes with the fat

Welsh rarebit is a cheese sauce grilled on toast, and CoFID puts the homemade version at 398 kcal and 13.9 g of protein per 100 g, with 28.4 g of fat. A 150 g serving is about 597 kcal and 21 g of protein. Have it on a training day, with a salad, rather than as a snack on top of a full dinner.

What is a healthy Welsh breakfast in Cardiff?

The traditional South Wales breakfast of cockles, laverbread and bacon is one of the better high-protein starts in Britain, once you keep the frying pan in check. Here is a plate built from CoFID values, the kind you could cook from a trip to the fishmonger at Cardiff Market’s Trinity Street entrance.

That is 63 g of protein for under 600 kcal. The trap is the method, not the food. CoFID’s dry-fried back bacon is 295 kcal per 100 g against 214 for fat-trimmed and grilled. Laverbread fried in the bacon pan soaks up that fat too. Grill the bacon, warm the laverbread gently in a dry pan, and the plate stays lean.

Caroline Street after a match: how many calories in chips, fish and a kebab?

Caroline Street, Cardiff’s Chippy Lane, is where the city centre eats after a match at the Principality Stadium or a night on St Mary Street. In 2019 it had three fish and chip shops, including Dorothy’s, which dates its start to 1953, plus three kebab shops. CoFID tested food from fish and chip shops, so these figures are close to what you are handed over the counter.

Chips are the big number because portions are big. If your portion weighs 300 g, that is 642 kcal and only 10.5 g of protein. A 200 g piece of haddock in batter adds 464 kcal and 34 g of protein. So the order that works for training is the fish, with chips shared between two. With a kebab, the pitta and salad version gives you less fat per bite than a tray of meat alone: 248 kcal per 100 g against 377.

• Choose the fish over the extras. Haddock in batter gives 17.1 g of protein per 100 g in CoFID’s chip-shop sample, five times the protein in the same weight of chips.
• Share the chips or order a small. Halving a 300 g portion saves 321 kcal.
• Take the kebab in pitta with salad. It is the lower-fat way to eat the same meat.
• Mind the pints first. The NHS says a pint of 5% beer can carry up to 222 kcal, so four pints before the chippy is up to 888 kcal before you’ve eaten.

What should you buy for lunch on Queen Street?

Cardiff city-centre lunches lean on bakeries, meal deals and the market. Greggs publishes its nutrition for each product: its sausage roll, at 103 g, is 347 kcal with 9.1 g of protein and 24 g of fat. That is a filling 350 kcal but a poor protein return. Pair it with a high-protein option, or swap it for a chicken salad on training days.

Cardiff Market is the other lunch option. Its 61 businesses include the Market Deli, on the same stall since 1928, and Ashton’s fishmonger at the Trinity Street entrance. Buy cooked cockles or a piece of fish for the next day’s lunch and you have 12 g of protein per 100 g of cockles for 53 kcal.

What does a fat-loss day of Cardiff food look like?

This day keeps Welsh food in and still lands near 1,500 kcal with over 120 g of protein, a sensible target for many people cutting while training three times a week. Your needs depend on your size and activity, so treat it as a template.

What does a muscle-gain day of Cardiff food look like?

For a lean bulk, the Welsh breakfast and a Friday chippy both earn their place. This day reaches about 2,500 kcal and 181 g of protein.

How does MakeMyFitness help Cardiff clients eat around training?

MakeMyFitness is live online personal training. Your coach joins on video, watches every rep and corrects your form in real time, at home in Canton, in a Cathays student house or at your own gym. Our lead coach, Kumar Abhishek, is a Human Performance Nutritionist as well as holding a Diploma in Personal Training, both from K11 School of Fitness Sciences. Our coaches are based in India, and Cardiff sessions run from 6 AM to 2:30 PM UK time in winter.

A Cardiff trainer at Fresha’s average costs about £45 a session; a 4-week plan of 12 live sessions with us is £167 for Personal Gym Training or £191 for Personal Home Training. If you want to compare prices properly, read what a personal trainer costs in Cardiff. For running routes and how the rain shapes the year, read how to stay fit in Cardiff. Our Cardiff page has session times, and the UK page lists the other cities we coach.