February half term and Chinese New Year at The Red Dragon Centre, Cardiff Bay

Paid collaboration with The Red Dragon Centre 

We had a great start to half term with a trip to The Red Dragon Centre today, for their Chinese New Year celebrations.

We met a friendly Chinese dragon who was parading around the atrium throughout the day, took part in traditional crafts including paper cutting, and calligraphy, marvelled at Doctor Bob’s stunning balloon installations and listened to a performance on the pipa, a four-stringed Chinese musical instrument. It was a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the Chinse year of the dragon, Chinese culture, and to meet members of Cardiff’s Confucius Society, who were hosting the activities.

Next up was lunch at Everytime, the newest restaurant to open at the Cardiff Bay entertainment complex.

Everytime is a new venture from the people behind the popular Noble House in Canton. The ‘fast-casual’ restaurant offers Pan-Asian dining, ordered via fast food style menu screen stations, and available to eat in or take away. My children loved being able to scroll through the screens and place their orders this way.

We had a yummy feast including gyoza, spring rolls and chicken satays to start, followed by mains including Japanese katsu tofu curry, mushroom and aubergine teriyaki for the vegans/veggies in the household (there was loads of choice!), plus crispy sticky shredded beef and popcorn chicken and chips for the meat-eaters.

The food came quickly, was so flavoursome and didn’t feel too greasy or heavy. The takeaway-style containers made it easy to share dishes between us and to try what other people were eating, with each of us having a mix and match plate of delicious cuisine. We’ll definitely be back!

Everytime is open Tuesday to Friday 5pm-10pm, Saturday 12pm-10pm and Sundays 12pm-9pm (closed on Mondays),

We also headed to the arcade at Hollywood Bowl – £3 per child and we were in their for almost an hour as they played the 2p machines, games machines, and tried to win as many tokens as possible.

There’s lots going on at The Red Dragon Centre over half term, with more free events and offers on bowling and the cinema.

The centre is continuing its Chinese new year celebrations with free family activities later this week.

Between 12pm and 4pm on Wednesday 14 February, you can make a Lunar New Year dreamcatcher, and on Thursday 15 February, between 11am and 4pm there’s a Dragon Quest where you can embark on a quest to free the dragon in a colour-by-numbers challenge.

St John’s Ambulance Cymru will be taking over the atrium between 11am and 4pm on Saturday 17 February, offering free CPR and defibrillator demonstrations to the public, as part of the charity’s Defibruary campaign.

If you fancy a half term cinema trip, then head to Odeon where all films are currently £5 per person all day when booked online (see website for full terms and conditions).

The big release at the moment is Migration (U), from Minion makers Illumination, about a family of ducks who decide to leave the safety of a New England pond for an adventurous trip to Jamaica – but get lost and end up in New York City. Other films showing include Peppa’s Cinema Party (U), Mean Girls the musical (12A), and Wonka (PG) plus early birds can catch Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie (U) which is showing at 10.10 daily until Thursday.

Hollywood Bowl is also offering 50% off if you bowl before 11am and book online with the code FEBFUN50.

As well as Everytime as mentioned above, you can also dine at Five Guys, Volcano Japanese, EasyThali, SpiceRoute and Costa.

And don’t forget, you can park for free for up to six hours, subject to minimum spend and validation, full T&Cs on the website. 

The Red Dragon Centre, Atlantic Wharf, Cardiff Bay, CF10 4JY. Visit The Red Dragon Centre website here.