Support quality, independent, local journalism…that matters

From just £1 a month you can help fund our work – and use our website without adverts. Become a member today

The Plaza Cafe in Blackwood has been named one of the best in the UK.

The establishment, based at Blackwood bus station, has won a Good Food Award.

Run by husband and wife Karl and Emma Burgess, the cafe reopened in 2018 – only for the pandemic to strike two years later.

Karl said: “Everybody struggled through Covid, so this award is something positive for the area.
“We had to adapt, so we started delivering and when we could reopen we had to change everything because of social distancing.

“For us to get a Good Food Award, to me, it’s amazing. It is recognition of the effort everybody’s put in.
“I just want to say a massive thank you to everybody who has supported us.”

Blackwood Town Mayor George Edwards presented the staff with their award recently and congratulated them.

Karl added: “Thank you must also go to George with everything he has done to improve the bus station here. Every time we have asked for help he has been there.”

Also celebrating a 2023 Good Food Award is Maesycwmmer’s Fish Kitchen 1854.

A relatively new business, set up four years ago by headteacher of Pencoedtre High, Lee Humphreys and wife, Samantha, Fish Kitchen 1854 takes its name from the year the Maesycwmmer Viaduct was built.

The business is also in the running to be named Takeaway of the Year in the National Fish and Chips Awards 2023.

It has made the top 20 shortlist and is competing against another Caerphilly County Borough chip shop – Ship Deck in Trethomas.

Partners Ryan and Kimberly Hughes opened Ship Deck three years ago after working in various chip shops in Rhondda Cynon Taf.

The National Federation of Fish Friers (NFFF), will announce the top ten towards the end of 2022 before the winner is announced in Park Plaza, London, on February 28, 2023.

Andrew Crook, President at the NFFF, said: “The top 20 really demonstrate a strong commitment to the fish and chip industry and to the British public.”