If only they'd stuck to being Lebanese- and we'd stuck to the mezzes

The dining minefield that is Roath requires careful navigation: a district so rich in culinary variety necessarily has both good and bad surprises. From the outside Mina looks like it could go either way: the full-on acrylic signage reminiscent of the cheap end of the Edgware Road jostles with the charmingly understated interior visible through the plate glass.

Inside we were welcomed almost- but not quite- too smilingly and handed a menu rich in authentic grammatical errors. Starting with the national drink, Arak, (a longer and more drinkable version of Pernod) and fresh pitta (with a rather mild houmous) we were given as much time as we needed to peruse the menu- such a simple way to make a place feel like home- why doesn't everywhere do it?

The menu though is something of a compromise between true Lebanese cuisine and what the British appetite perhaps demands. Alongside the expected staples such as warak enab and fattoush were less obviously Middle Eastern dishes like prawn cocktail and garlic mushrooms.

Sticking to the real Lebanese stuff, each of the hot and cold mezzes was beautifully crafted and zingingly fresh. There was a mysterious rubbery flavour (answers on a postcard) to the meat of the sujuk but the sauce was very good. Delicious warak enab, refreshing tabboule, piquant meat balls. Accompanied by a not at all bad house red and a dashed good Lebanese beer- like Indian but fruitier and smokier.

But then the main courses arrived- and writ large the cuisine didn't quite work so well. My chicken could have been served by any half-decent gastro-pub chef with a working grill and no fear of garlic- and the sauce, although tasty, seemed to have been made weeks before and kept in the fridge- and certainly didn't have the same pezazz that the sauces in the mezzes had displayed. A reasonable but not exactly mind-blowing lamb dish- and everywhere a slightly underwhelming rice accompaniment.

If you lived just around the corner, this is the sort of place that could become a home from home- as seemed to be the case for some of our fellow diners- and doubtless then you'd become an expert at picking the right dishes. As a visitor, there's a certain amount of guesswork involved.