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Why is it that many Chinese restaurants have such a strong reputation for lunch? Dunno, I hear you say, you're supposed to be telling us. Well, I have long held that Sunday lunch is due for a comeback but probably in a different form, and that form could learn much from the Chinese pattern.

First, all sense of the passage of time must be banished. If your guests turn up an hour late, forget it, no problem. You want a large meal, it's all there; you want to emulate tapas, fine - go for the dim sum and have a prolonged nibble-fest. As with the food so with the drink, let them be long and languorous, undemanding but satisfying.

Large numbers of the Chinese population of Cardiff seem to feel exactly the same and you will find them at the well-named Happy Gathering every Sunday, and on other days of course, but possessed then with less of a sense of that well-loved Jamaican saying 'come soon'.

Every inch an Italian café with some pretensions to being a restaurant, mainly in the form of traditional dishes of the country such as vegetable antipasata, mozzarella ciabatta. Their pizzas are renowned and this must be one of the best places for coffee in Cardiff. The garden is a place for lost afternoons and an everlasting supply of the grappa, though the same could be said for the café on less balmy days when people-watching can be a mildly enervating occupation. If the people are boring there's always the pictures, large numbers of which, many in an idiom which some would be hard put to comprehend, adorn the walls.

Pleasant comfortable interiors and friendly service make Yang's your typical neighbourhood Chinese restaurant. Located in Thompson Street, it's conveniently located for a quick lunchtime meal or relaxed dinner with family and friends. A takeaway menu is also available.

A meal here offers a wide variety of Chinese cuisine favourites including dimsums, chicken wantons, sesame prawn toasts, Peking spare ribs, chicken satay, vegetable spring rolls, deep fried prawns and crispy seaweed. Main course options include crispy aromatic duck with pancakes and spring onions, cucumber and hoisin sauce, kung po chicken, sweet and sour prawns, and beef in green pepper and black bean sauce with stir fried vegetables. An array of rice and noodle dishes including egg fried rice, chicken fried rice, Singapore noodles and beef fried noodles adds more substance to the meal. Choice of Chinese beer or and other spirits and wines completes the selection.

Pitcher and Piano first started in Fulham in 1986, since when it has evolved into one of the UK's favourite bar groups, offering premium drinks, mingled with food that carries its own distinction against a background of different themes, many deriving from the locality, and from what is the whole being of contemporary life in modern bars.

Start with a cocktail, say a bourbon cookie, cosmopolitan or a parson green apple before tackling some food that will vary from pub to pub. There are bar meals, try lime and coriander chicken in Didsbury, or a more formal approach in restaurant style, what about 21 day hung, 10 oz British sirloin steak in Mayfair, with homemade chocolate brownie, vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce in Birmingham. In general the menus are very similar, with plenty of choices all round.

There are now over twenty five branches of Pitcher and Piano where you can be assured of the same decent levels of food and drinks, service and quality. Surely that's better than the lucky dip approach?

As sure as night follows day so up-market restaurants follow politicians. Look therefore behind the Welsh National Assembly, beneath a set of law offices, to find Cutting Edge, an exercise in the modern, minimalist approach, where politicians of all parties forget their differences as they enjoy a cuisine that follows the classical tradition, with minimal frills.

So such homely dishes as sausage mash and onion gravy compete with grilled seas bass (a great favourite). A number of the words used in this piece imply expense, so it will come as no surprise to you to find that prices are anything but cheap. Never mind, it really is one of those places that are worth a special effort, even if only to sample the New Front of Cardiff Bay.

Delegation of political will from the House of Commons to Cardiff does not, happily for the former, include the wine cellars, so Cutting Edge has filled the breach with a fine selection of bins which certainly do have an international pedigree. House wine is £12.50.

A unique and contemporary style defines each of Cosmo's restaurants, be it in Wednesfield, Swindon, Romford, Coventry, Hastings, Chatham, Tunbridge Wells or Cardiff. At Swansea, it's no different. Located on the ground floor of the 'Pavilion' at the heart of historic Clifton, Cosmo here boasts six live cooking stations, including a teppanyaki hotplate, yakatori barbecue grill, dim sum bar, noodle bar and a freshly prepared sushi counter.

At Cosmos, pan-Asian cuisine is on offer and traditional recipes from China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Mongolia, Singapore, Vietnam and even India are put to good use. Teppanyaki, Japanese sushi, barbeque and desserts are the speciality here. The likes of beef and mushrooms in oyster sauce, Thai green curry chicken and king prawn in garlic butter sauce are some dishes that also make an appearance. There's also a tandoori and curry bar that serves chicken masala and aloo gobi with a variety of Indian breads.

Close with some healthy options that include mixed fresh fruit salad and cantaloupe melon, grape and orange.