Urban Pop Up, Newport

If you’re out and about in Newport in the very near future, and are a big fan of good beer (yeah!) and locally sourced pizza (hell yeah!) then you need to get down to Newport Market as soon as possible.

For one month only (yes – I am fully aware that I’m super late and we’re nearly at the end of the May) the fab guys from Urban Taphouse, Cardiff have made their way down to open up a little sister Pop Up in Newport.

Urban Pop House is situated at the front of Newport Market, and it’s looking pretty epic. Featuring the same Taphouse vibes, it’s all bare brick walls, Tiny Rebel graffiti and empty kegs for stools. Unfussy, unpretentious and a great place to just kick back and chill for a while. Ceiling to floor glass windows and a little terrace makes it a pretty good sun trap, perfect for the bank holiday weekend we’ve got forecast.

With the booze coming from their Newport Tiny Rebel brewery, and the pizza ingredients all sourced from the adjoining market, it’s a thoroughly local affair and one that we should all be completely supportive of. Frankly I think it’s a bloody brilliant idea.

All pizzas are £10, and the menu changes daily with what they find in the market. With the same brains that are behind pizza fries and beer battered gherkins, you can’t go wrong. We had the garlic sausage and mint version, and it was more than enough for two to share.

 
Stringy cheesey perfection!

So, get down to Urban Taphouse Newport before it’s all gone on 31^st May. Mine’s a Boho (just saying).

Pizza Hunt...Zero Degrees, Cardiff

Ever since that epic gooey pizza heaven moment at The Stable, Newquay, I've had a serious obsession with finding the best pizza I can a bit closer to home. Cardiff has an epic food scene at the moment, and every time I go, there's somewhere new I need to try.

Recommended to us during the week was Zero Degrees on Westgate St, opposite the Millennium Stadium, so we decided to give this a try.

We managed to get a table easily, as the restaurant was quite empty even for late on a Saturday afternoon. I ordered a pint of the speciality beer on tap, which was a mango beer, and the husband ordered the black lager.

The mango beer was surprisingly lovely. Light and fruity, but still retaining the thickness of a beer. Not as sweet as you'd imagine, I much preferred this to any other fruit beer I've tasted so far.

The black lager tasted like a light Guinness, with a big hit of cappuccino. Lovely to start with, but it got a little heavy on top of the pizza.

Zero Degrees hosts an exciting looking menu, with the emphasis clearly on the pizzas and the pastas. There were many items that caught my eye, but I came with a challenge in mind! The pizza menu has around twenty different toppings, all on top of a wood fired base.

In the end, I chose the old faithful Parma (Parma ham, rocket and parmesan shavings) and he chose the Spicy Mexican (Mexican sausage, roasted mixed peppers, red onions, sweetcorn, jalapeños, smoked cheese), at £10.75 each.

The pizzas were huge, and I ended up giving a slice or to away to the other side of the table, where he was more than happy to oblige, after polishing his off!

The base was well cooked, thin and crispy on the outside, and still soft and malleable in the middle (I do like to roll my pizza...)! The parma combo is an age old one, so you can't really go wrong, unless I'm being really picky. The tomato base could have done with a little more flavour and seasoning however, especially with the rocket being such a tangy leaf.

Both pizzas were really good value for a shopping lunch break, and more than filled us up happily. However, with the Cardiff food scene being as good as it is right now, I'd have preferred the menu to have included a few specialities, maybe showcasing a little more fresh local produce.

I'd definitely give this a try when I'm after a quick lunch away from the St Marys/Hayes hustle and bustle, and another pint of that lovely mango beer would be just the thirst quencher on a sunny day.