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Controversial food critic Jay Rayner has hit out again at the Cardiff culinary scene by suggesting the best place for lunch is Central Station and catching a train to Bristol.

Rayner said that Cardiff's restaurant offerings are “meagre”, that he would always rather be in Bristol and criticised the media coverage his previous visits have received.

The food columnist sparked furore last summer when he said the food choices were limited for a capital city and even stated he wouldn’t review in Cardiff again for a long time.

(Image: Andrew James)

Writing on The Observer on Sunday, Rayner said: “A spare day in Cardiff deserving of lunch, and I know exactly where to go: the Central Station.

“Because from there I can get on a train to Bristol.

“Where else would I go for lunch when in the Welsh capital?

“Some might see this as unnecessarily provocative; I see it as necessarily so.”

Rayner added that for a city with a considerable population “the pickings are meagre” and referred to the criticism he faced in August following his previous comments.

(Image: Bella West)

He writes: “Weirdly, this made Welsh newspaper headlines. It was even on the TV news.

“And now across to our reporter in central Cardiff who’s been looking at the response to the food critic’s assessment…” Or something like that.

“Perhaps it was a slow news day. For what it’s worth, a bunch of people agreed with me.

“But on social media there were others, notably food bloggers, who got very cross indeed. This is understandable.

“In a couple of blunt sentences I had suggested their patch, the thing to which they have dedicated so much time, wasn’t exactly restaurant heaven.

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“A couple of days of virulent online abuse later, I decided to put them out of my misery.

“I simply wouldn’t review in Cardiff again. Why do so, if you risk being showered with spittle-flecked invective by a bunch of keyboard warriors?

“I’m sure the Welsh capital will get along fine without me.

“Anyway, I’d always much rather be in Bristol.”

Ending his review of the Wilsons restaurant in Bristol, Rayner said: “It’s a restaurant that makes the business of feeding people well so very simple.

“And all this just 48 minutes by train from Cardiff.”

Rayner gave a glowing review of the The Classroom/Y Dosbarth last August – but didn’t have much praise for the rest of the city.

He wrote at the time: “I could claim [The Classroom]’s a useful addition to Cardiff’s burgeoning culinary scene but this would be a lie because, while the city has many good things to recommend it, the eating opportunities are not among them. So no, it’s not just a useful addition. It’s more than that.”

(Image: HANDOUT)

His comments were met with widespread anger from food bloggers and resulted in Rayner having to take to Twitter to defend his comments.

Returning back to Cardiff in March on a book tour to coincide with the release of My Dining Hell: Twenty Ways to Have a Lousy Night Out, Rayner stuck by his resolution to not review in the city again for a while.

On the reaction to The Classroom review, he said: “It was a really, really angry response. It’s not worth it.

He even hinted previously about skipping Cardiff and heading to Bristol.

Rayner said: “If I go to a city and come up with an opinion and then get it in the neck from multiple sources, the reality is it’s my choice to not have to deal with that, particularly when it’s only 45 minutes into Bristol [from Cardiff].

“It wasn’t a desperate few. The hilarious thing was I do actually think of all the London-based journalists, I’ve reviewed in Cardiff more than any of them and I’ve been positive more than any of them.

“I will be leaving it for a while.”